By The Associated Press

Published: Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Updated: Thursday, February 4, 2010 11:41 AM CST

Here's a look at Wednesday's sports in brief around the world.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

NEW YORK (AP) — Florida landed the top-rated recruiting class in the country, the first and by far the busiest day of the national letter of intent signing period for high school football players.

As usual, national signing day was mostly about the rich getting richer.

While Florida took the mythical recruiting national championship — most of the notable ranking services had the Gators on top — Alabama and Texas, the teams that played for the BCS title last month, also loaded up for future runs.

Southern California and Tennessee withstood late coaching changes to land highly regarded classes. And Auburn showed it’s not about to concede the state of Alabama to Nick Saban and the Tide.

BASEBALL

Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers have agreed to an $80 million, five-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced. The person said the contract could be completed as soon as Thursday.

Verlander won a career-high 19 games with a career-best 3.45 ERA last season. He is 65-43 with a 3.92 ERA in four full seasons with the Tigers.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jeff Weaver has agreed to return to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a minor league deal that includes an invitation to spring training.

Weaver went 6-4 with a 3.65 ERA in 28 games for the Dodgers last year. The 33-year-old right-hander is 99-118 with a 4.67 ERA in 312 career games over 10 seasons.

The Dodgers would give Weaver an $800,000, one-year contract if he’s added to the 40-man roster under the terms of Tuesday’s deal, and he would be able to earn $100,000 in performance bonuses.

SEATTLE (AP) — Casey Kotchman and the Mariners agreed to a one-year contract worth $3,517,500, settling Seattle’s last salary arbitration case this year.

The Mariners announced the deal for the 26-year-old first baseman less than a month after they acquired him from Boston for outfielder Bill Hall.

CONCUSSIONS

MIAMI (AP) — A national organization is pushing for legislation in all 50 states aimed at reducing sports-related concussions in young athletes.

The Zackery Lystedt Brain Project also promotes public awareness and education about head injuries.

The legislation the group is proposing is modeled after a Washington state law.

The state statute requires athletes under the age of 18 who are suspected of having a concussion to get written consent from a licensed medical provider before returning to play.

GOLF

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Phil Mickelson says he won’t be using the Ping Eye2 wedge that led a fellow player to accuse him of “cheating,” saying he has made his point about a rules problem he wants to see fixed.

Mickelson said he accepted an apology from Scott McCarron, who last week said it was “cheating” for Mickelson or any other player to use a club with square grooves that only is allowed under a legal settlement from 20 years ago.

Mickelson said he hopes players continue using the Ping wedge to keep focus on what he called a ridiculous rule. Meanwhile, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem says he is working with Ping officials on a solution.

NBA

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans point guard Chris Paul will have knee surgery and likely miss the All-Star game.

Hornets coach Jeff Bower said Paul will have surgery Thursday to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee.

The NBA announced Paul was replaced on the Western Conference roster by Denver’s Chauncey Billups for the All-Star game.

Paul hurt the knee Jan. 27 against Golden State, then aggravated the injury when he collided with a camera while chasing an errant pass in the final seconds of regulation against the Chicago Bulls on Friday.

NHL

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The struggling Columbus Blue Jackets have fired defensive-minded Ken Hitchcock, a year after the club made the postseason for the first time in history.

Assistant coach Claude Noel was elevated to lead the team on an interim basis.

Columbus stands 14th of 15 teams in the Western Conference with a 22-27-9 record and 53 points.

TENNIS

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Defending champion Marin Cilic beat Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2 in a first-round match at the Zagreb Indoors.

The top-seeded Cilic, who reached the Australian Open semifinals last week, broke four times. The Croat will play Daniel Koellerer of Austria on Thursday.

Second-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia defeated Arnaud Clement of France 7-6 (4), 6-3 and will meet Lukas Lacko of Slovakia.

Third-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria and fourth-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia won second-round matches to advance to the quarterfinals.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Top-seeded Fernando Gonzalez reached the quarterfinals of his hometown Movistar Open for the eighth consecutive year when he beat Spanish qualifier Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-4, 6-3.

Next up for Gonzalez will be another Spaniard, Marcel Granollers, who won 6-4, 6-2 against Lukasz Kubot of Poland, coming off a fourth-round effort at the Australian Open.

HORSE RACING

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Undefeated Zenyatta could return to racing in the $250,000 Santa Margarita Handicap on March 13 at Santa Anita.

Zenyatta was runner-up to filly Rachel Alexandra for Horse of the Year honors last month. Her retirement was announced after Zenyatta beat the boys in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, but owners Jerry and Ann Moss changed their minds in mid-January and said she would compete this year.