Tuesday's Sports in Brief
OLYMPICS
LONDON (AP) With just over two weeks until the opening ceremony, Russia still doesn't know whether its athletes - all or even some - will be competing in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. It may all come down to the lawyers.
While the IOC decided to ban from the Rio Games all Russian Sports Ministry officials and other administrators implicated in allegations of a state-run doping program, it delayed a ruling on whether to take the unprecedented step of barring the entire Russian Olympic team.
The International Olympic Committee said it ''will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the rights to individual justice.''
The IOC has also said it could let individual international sports federations decide on whether to ban Russians from their events in Rio, just as the IAAF has done by ruling track and field athletes from the games. The 28 international federations that govern the individual sports at the summer games have made clear that they do not support a blanket ban.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
The Big 12 presidents have directed Commissioner Bob Bowlsby to evaluate schools that are interested in joining the conference, stopping just short of announcing it planned to expand.
After a meeting of the Big 12 university presidents and chancellors, Oklahoma President David Boren says the conference is still considering whether to add two or four teams to its 10 members.
The Big 12 has been a 10-team conference, the smallest of the Power Five leagues, since 2012. The conference has already announced it would bring back its football championship game in 2017 and likely break into divisions.
Numerous schools have been pitching the Big 12 behind the scenes for months, including much of the American Athletic Conference along with BYU, Colorado State and others.
MMA
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The UFC says heavyweight Brock Lesnar failed a second doping test in a sample taken on the night of his victory over Mark Hunt at UFC 200.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency notified Lesnar last week about his first potential violation of the UFC's policy from an out-of-competition test last month.
The UFC says Lesnar tested positive for the same unnamed substance in both tests.
The 39-year-old Lesnar declined to comment on the UFC's disclosure of his second positive test.
Lesnar is among the most popular athletes in both mixed martial arts and professional wrestling. He beat Hunt by decision on July 9, handily winning his first MMA fight in 4 1/2 years.
He made a UFC-record $2.5 million guaranteed purse at UFC 200, likely along with undisclosed millions in bonuses.
GOLF
Tiger Woods withdrew from the PGA Championship, the first time he will go an entire year without playing a major.
The decision, while not a surprise, also means he will go an entire PGA Tour season without playing.
His agent, Mark Steinberg of Excel Sports Management, said in a text to The Associated Press that Woods will not play the remainder of the tour season as he continues to rehab following back surgeries. That would have amounted to only three more tournaments before the start of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Steinberg said Woods will continue to work hard and assess when he can play the following season, which starts in October.
CYCLING
BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Mark Cavendish has withdrawn from the Tour de France after winning four stages.
Team Dimension Data made the announcement on the race's second and final rest day, with five stages remaining.
Cavendish is preparing to race on the track at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where he will be competing in the omnium event.
The British sprinter says that ''after an extremely enjoyable and successful couple of weeks ... it is with great sadness that I took the decision today to leave the race.''
Cavendish would have been a contender to win the final stage Sunday on the Champs-Elysees.
He wore the race leader's yellow jersey for the first time after winning the opening stage at Utah Beach, Normandy.
WRESTLING
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - More than 50 ex-wrestlers say in a Connecticut lawsuit that World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. is responsible for their long-term neurological damage and failed to care for their injuries.
Jimmy ''Superfly'' Snuka, Joseph ''Road Warrior Animal'' Laurinaitis and Paul ''Mr. Wonderful'' Orndorff are among the plaintiffs who filed suit in federal court in Connecticut against Stamford-based WWE.
WWE denies the allegations. It says that an attorney for the ex-wrestlers previously has made false claims against the company and filed lawsuits that ended up being dismissed.
The plaintiffs say they suffered concussions and other head trauma that resulted in long-term brain damage.
Snuka is charged in the 1983 death of his girlfriend near Allentown, Pennsylvania. He has been ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial, and his defense partly blames head trauma suffered in the ring.
COLLEGE SPORTS
The Atlantic Coast Conference's television network will launch in August 2019, a person familiar with the situation said.
The person also said ESPN and the ACC also will start a digital channel next month that will be available online. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the network has not been formally announced by ESPN or the ACC.
The launch of the network will be discussed this week when the ACC holds its preseason football media days beginning Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina. Commissioner John Swofford's regularly scheduled news conference will be Thursday.
The ACC will become the fourth major conference with its own network, joining the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference. The SEC also has ESPN as its partner.