Sports Illustrated is going after Lance Armstrong. The cyclist doesn’t sound worried.

“I’ve perused it. There’s nothing there,” he told AFP when asked about the report that links him to EPO use.

According to the story, Armstrong got a bit testy when pestered further.

“Dude, are you that stupid? Which part of ‘I’m not commenting’ is not clear to you?” he said.

This can be taken one of two ways. Read more

Looking to rebound after losing the Bowl Championship Series, Fox Sports and the Pac-10 Conference have reached a one-year agreement for Fox to broadcast the inaugural Pac-12 Football Championship Game.

The game is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, December 3, 2011 at the home stadium of the team with the best conference record, with kickoff planned at 3:30 p.m. ET. Read more

Oh look, a major announcement about another event was poorly timed.

On Friday night, Rio de Janerio’s Olympic Committee unveiled the logo for the 2016 Olympics. The only problem? No one was paying attention. You know, because it was New Years Eve and all.

There were one million people on the Copacabana beach who watched on a television screen, but if you weren’t there, there’s little chance you knew about the debut. Even if you were there, what are the chance you were paying attention?

Still, the logo is a success, according to at least one person (who has a decidedly vested interest). Read more

The Winter Classic – the most-watched regular season hockey game in 36 years – sure was fun, wasn’t it? Jeff Z. Klein, who was there, thinks so. But he also has some suggestions for improving what’s rapidly becoming the best part of the NHL calendar.

And go: “Rangers at Leafs, Rogers Centre, roof open, CN Tower looming overhead, day or night. The biggest city in the United States vs. the biggest city in Canada, staged at the biggest site in what is the de facto world capital of hockey.”

There are a couple problems with this suggestion, some which Klien addresses and some which he doesn’t. The biggest issue that goes unresolved is the issue of television ratings. The author notes that NBC is scared a Canadian-based game would harm American television ratings. He explains this away by writing, “But Americans skittish about words like “Ottawa” and “Edmonton” are used to Toronto after years of watching the baseball Blue Jays and basketball Raptors. It is the one Canadian city Americans know and may not feel flustered by.”

Which is fine, but it’s not the issue. Read more

The final numbers are in and the first NFL Tuesday game since 1946 was a smash hit.

23.7 million viewers tuned in to see the Minnesota Vikings upset the Philadelphia Eagles, a 25 percent increase over last year’s Week 16 game (Dallas-Washington) and the fifth most-watched Sunday Night Football game this season and the sixth most-watched ever.

Of the 16 SNF games so far in 2010, 11 have surpassed 20 million viewers, the most in NBC’s five-year history. To put that number in comparison, SNF surpassed 20 million viewers a combined 13 times from 2006-2009.