s athletic directors address at their meetings in December

CONCORD, N.C. -- Greg Biffle and Roush Fenway Racing have parted ways after 19 seasons, the last 14 in the Sprint Cup Series.Biffle, who had driven the No. 16 Ford since 2002, called it a mutual agreement we started working on many months ago.Weve had an incredible run and I am so appreciative for the opportunity to be a part of Roush Fenway, Biffle said Monday. For a kid that grew up Washington, Im extremely proud of everything we have been able to accomplish over the last 19 years -- both on and off the track. Ive enjoyed every minute. Im excited about the next chapter of my life, and I look forward to exploring other opportunities -- particularly in radio and television -- both inside and outside of NASCAR.Biffle won 19 races in NASCARs top series and twice contended for the Cup championship late in the season. He also won championships in the Xfinity Series and the Camping World Truck Series. But hes had little success of late, last winning in 2013 and finishing 20th (2015) and 23rd (2016) the last two seasons.Biffle made the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship eight times and is one of only 17 drivers to make 500 consecutive Cup starts.I dont have the words to say what Greg has meant to this organization, team owner Jack Roush said. He is a true racer who has always exhibited a will to win and an intense passion for speed. For almost two decades Greg has given us an opportunity to run up front and compete for wins.Greg exemplifies what every owner hopes for in a driver and Im extremely thankful for having him as part of our organization. I know that Greg and I will maintain a strong friendship and I look forward to leaning on him on occasion as we continue to work on improving our performance.RFR did not say whether it plans to field the No. 16 car next season.---More AP auto racing: www.racing.ap.org Joe Allen Wales Jersey . First off, the fans ripped the Cubbies introduction of a fuzzy new kid-friendly mascot named "Clark". Joe Ledley Jersey .C. -- After a listless first half, the Washington Wizards used a big third quarter run to beat the Charlotte Bobcats Bradley Beal scored 21 points and the Wizards used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to take control of what had been a close game and beat the Bobcats 97-83 on Tuesday night. http://www.soccerwalesstore.com/customized/ . Philadelphia is 2-0 against the Senators this season and scored five goals in each victory. The Flyers recorded a 5-0 win in Ottawa on Nov. 12 and then earned a 5-2 home decision on Nov. 19. The Flyers have claimed three straight and four of the last five encounters with the Sens overall and Philly has won two in a row and three of its past four tests in Canadas capital city. Aaron Ramsey Jersey . Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek defeated Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoljac 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on the indoor hard-court at Belgrade Arena. The victory improved the Czech pairs impressive cup doubles record to 14-1. Ashley Williams Jersey .C. -- Glenn Howard needed an extra end to move into the Masters Grand Slam of Curling final. BATON ROUGE, La. -- From Ed Orgerons perspective, Thursdays LSU-Florida decision was nearly as perfect as he could have hoped.LSUs interim coach and his team will now host Florida on Nov. 19 instead of playing the Gators on the road, as the Tigers would have done Saturday had Hurricane Matthew not postponed the game.?LSU (3-2, 2-1 SEC) also maintains its open date on Oct. 29 ahead of a Nov. 5 showdown with No. 1 Alabama, which was a key negotiating point to Tigers athletic director Joe Alleva as the schools worked to find a makeup date.I think its great, especially having the open date before Alabama and getting to play Florida at home, Orgeron said after Thursdays practice. I believe its a win, and I want to thank our administration, Joe Alleva. I know he worked very hard at keeping that open date and to have that home game here, so he did a tremendous job.LSU still must play three SEC games in a span of 13 days, first visiting Arkansas on Nov. 12 and then hosting Florida on Nov. 19 before closing the season with a Thanksgiving night visit to Texas A&M on Nov. 24. That will be no easy situation to manage for Orgeron and his coaching staff.Were not going to make it an issue, Orgeron said. Its the task we have at hand, and were going to face that task when we get there, one day at a time, and thats far away. Theres a lot of things that can happen between then, and weve got a couple good teams to play before them.Orgeron learned of the LSU-Florida resolution just before taking the field for practice Thursday but opted against his first impulse to tell his team that the issue had been settled. He is preparing for just his second game as Tigers coach and wanted to make sure that the teams focus was on Saturday against Southern Miss and not on a game that will be played a month from now.I thought it was the wrong time to tell them: 48 hours before game time, [while in] preparation for Southern Miss, and all I preach is one game at a time, Orgeron said.LSU, Florida and SEC officials have engaged in contentious conversations over how to handle the makeup date since they announced the postponement last Thursday. Alleva on Monday insisted that LSU would not give up a home game to travel to Florida on Nov. 19 and reiterated that he did not want to surrender an open date before the Alabama game.Finally, the SEC announced that the schools would buy out nonconference games on Nov. 19 -- Florida against Presbyterian and LSU against South Alabama -- so the Gators could visit Tiger Stadium that day. The conference also announced LSU will play at Florida in each of the next two seasons.LSU will pay $1.5 million to buy out South Alabama, and Florida will pay $500,000 to buy out Presbyterian.The 18th-ranked Gators (4-1, 2-1 SEC) will lose two home games -- about $7.8 million in projected revenue from ticket sales alone -- but likely will recoup some of that through insurance.That was a painful, but necessary, way to solve the ordeal, according to Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, who spoke at a news conference Thursday.ddddddddddddt was obvious that they were committed to that position and that it was going to be difficult to change that position, and therefore that we felt the only way to escape an even more difficult situation was to make the decision that we did, Foley said. I think it would have been a huge mistake in my opinion, my staffs position and opinion, [Florida president] Dr. [Kent] Fuchs position, for the University of Florida to draw a line in the sand, and then what would happen? And nothing good would have come out of that. At the end of the day, its time to step up and do what you think is right and go play a football game.The SEC statement also predicted that the conferences presidents and chancellors would agree to alter league bylaws to give its commissioner wider authority to solve further disputes such as the one that occurred between LSU and Florida.?Current bylaws state that only the teams that play all eight conference games are eligible for the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta.It was important for us to come to a resolution, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. Each university had its own set of concerns throughout the process; however, existing SEC regulations did not provide an avenue to resolve conflicting issues in a more timely manner. As I have repeatedly said, this game needed to be played. In the end, I want to give credit to the University of Florida for making concessions to move this years game to Baton Rouge.Foley said Sankeys authority to act was unclear in this situation and that it will surely be an issue that the leagues athletic directors address at their meetings in December. The ADs have plans to make the necessary changes at the leagues spring meetings next year in Destin, Florida.Obviously, LSU and Florida did not see eye-to-eye on this situation, but also understand the fact that theyre dealing with situations too. Its hard for me to say that right now, but I do understand that, Foley said. And so trying to move schedules around in a short period of time is extremely difficult, and I assure you that Commissioner Sankey looked at a lot of different options trying to make this work. Changing the schedule in midstream is extremely hard.I do think, obviously, unfortunately now that this situation has happened, therell be a lot of conversation on how to prevent it from happening again. I think the lines of authority will be much clearer.LSU is no stranger to having games rescheduled and moved because of natural disasters. In 2005, LSU moved a home game with Arizona State because of Hurricane Katrina and delayed a home game against Tennessee by two days in response to disruptions caused by Hurricane Rita. Last season, LSU hosted a game originally scheduled at South Carolina because of flooding in the Columbia, South Carolina, area. ' ' '