Big Ten Conference

The Michigan baseball program appears on the way to Big Ten probation and sanctions, the first time any athletic program at the school has been cited, because of alleged illegal payments to former players, sources said. Former Coach Bud Middaugh is suspected of paying up to $70,000 over a period of years and allowing improper scholarship aid, sources said.

The Big Ten Conference has given Indiana the option of either suspending Coach Bob Knight for a game or paying a $10,000 fine, according to media reports Wednesday. The Herald-Times of Bloomington, Indianapolis television stations and ESPN college basketball commentator Dick Vitale all reported the details, citing unnamed sources.

Illinois guard Dee Brown was named Big Ten Conference player of the year Tuesday by the league's coaches and media, and the media selected Illini Coach Bruce Weber as the conference's coach of the year. Brown also was named defensive player of the year by the coaches and joins fellow guards Luther Head and Deron Williams as first-team All-Big Ten selections.

Chad Henne threw two touchdown passes and Jerome Jackson's one-yard dive in overtime lifted Michigan to a 23-20 victory over Iowa on Saturday, giving Coach Lloyd Carr his 100th victory and ending the Hawkeyes' 22-game home winning streak. The victory also gave the Wolverines (5-3, 3-2 Big Ten Conference) back-to-back wins for the first time this season -- the longest it has taken Michigan to win two straight in any season since 1967 -- and kept their Big Ten title hopes alive.

The Big Ten Conference runner-up has an automatic postseason bid for the next four years to play in either the Holiday Bowl or Citrus Bowl. Under the agreement announced Saturday by the Big Ten and the two bowls, the conference's second-place finisher will play the Western Athletic Conference champion in this year's Holiday Bowl and then play in the Citrus Bowl in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

James E. Delany, named Wednesday as commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, called for fresh ideas to keep sports from overpowering the academic life of student-athletes. "At this unique time in college athletics, all is not well," said Delany, a 41-year-old lawyer completing his 10th year as commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference. "I think it's important to find a better balance. There's got to be a way to make sure education is first.

Penn State was officially voted into the Big Ten today by the presidents of the universities that make up the conference. The Council of Ten, as the presidents group is known, extended an informal invitation to the school last December, but today's vote made it final. Illinois President Stan Ikenberry, council chairman, said at least seven of the presidents voted in favor of adding Penn State. He would not give an exact breakdown of the vote, which took place at the University of Iowa.

Minnesota's home game against Illinois, scheduled for Oct. 23, will be played a day early if the Minnesota Twins advance to the World Series, the Big Ten Conference announced Wednesday. The Twins, who share the Metrodome with the Golden Gophers and the NFL's Vikings, would play host to the World Series opener on Oct. 23 if they advance that far, something the team hasn't done since 1991. If the Twins do advance to the Series, the Gophers would play the Fighting Illini on the night of Oct.

Tulane 98, No. 24 Memphis 51--Janell Burse came off the bench to score 18 points as the Green Wave destroyed the Tigers at New Orleans. Tulane (11-2, 3-1 Conference USA), stretched its home-court winning streak to five, outshooting the Tigers (10-3, 2-2), 52% to 32%. No. 14 Virginia Tech 80, Duquesne 69--Amy Wetzel scored 22 points and had six rebounds as the Hokies (14-0, 4-0 Atlantic 10) stayed unbeaten by defeating Duquesne (8-6, 1-3) at Pittsburgh. No.

John Pont, 80, a football coach who guided Indiana University to its only Rose Bowl appearance 40 years ago and also coached at Northwestern, Yale and Miami of Ohio, died Tuesday at his home in Oxford, Ohio. He had been fighting cancer. Pont coached the Hoosiers from 1965 to 1972. In the 1967 season, Indiana was 9-2 before representing the Big Ten Conference in the Rose Bowl in 1968. The Hoosiers lost, 14-3, to USC's national championship team that featured running back O.J. Simpson.