Athletic Events

The one night that looked like easy money, the streets fat with customers and cash, Benny Castellon stood empty-handed. Everyone knew that women's figure skating would be the big event of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Castellon certainly knew it. But the morning of the final, he says, a shop that was supposed to feed him black-market tickets was shut down by police. "Big night if you can touch tickets," he said. "If you can't touch 'em, it's pointless."

Tour de France team champion Discovery Channel and Team CSC, the world's top-ranked cycling team, will be among those competing in the inaugural Amgen Tour of California, a 600-mile road race starting Feb. 19 in San Francisco and ending Feb. 26 in Redondo Beach.

Only weeks after state authorities sanctioned mixed martial arts fights in California, the sport's leading U.S. brand on Monday announced plans for an April 15 card at the Arrowhead Pond. The Ultimate Fighting Championship program marks the first of a series of big-ticket events in California, UFC president Dana White said. "This is very important for us," White said. "The hotbed of MMA has always been California." Rules sanctioning MMA events in California took effect Dec. 28.

The California State University system is banning alcohol from basketball games and other intercollegiate athletic events. The policy, which was announced Thursday but took effect last month, prohibits the 23 CSU campuses from selling alcoholic beverages at any intercollegiate athletic events in university owned or operated facilities. Some campuses have existing contracts with vendors allowing alcohol sales, but once those expire they will not be renewed.

1. USC x 3 * To try to put this 34-0 run by the Trojans in some kind of context, the last school to win three national football championships in a row was Minnesota in 1934-36. USC is one Rose Bowl victory away from equaling that feat. In today's environment -- more travel, more media, underclassmen leaving early for the NFL -- the Trojans' three-year ride might be the most impressive in college football history. 2.

The Super Bowl, championship European soccer and Formula One's Canadian Grand Prix each drew more than 50 million viewers in 2005, proving that top sports programs are among the few remaining in a fragmenting TV landscape to deliver large global audiences for advertisers.

Music screamed, colored lights flashed overhead and nearly 12,000 people howled as Rich Franklin, a math whiz from Cincinnati, shattered Nate Quarry's nose with a left hand. Franklin, the middleweight champion, moved in. Quarry, a 33-year-old challenger from Oregon, circled warily. His nose flopped to one side, but he was still standing, still competing. Franklin delivered another left, snapping Quarry's head back.

The rules of engagement, handwritten on a page of an elementary school math book, were spelled out clearly enough: "Due to the explosive nature of this dangerous break in shallow water only 75 yards off the beach, the win will go to the surfer who can ride the deepest in the tube for the longest period of time, reappear and then complete the wave without falling off his surfboard." And so the brainchild of Fred Hemmings, the Hawaiian Masters, became a reality on Dec.