Venus Williams knocked off in Toronto

The Big East announced a four-year agreement that will give the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla., the choice of any conference team not headed to a Bowl Championship Series game. But under the deal, the conference runner-up may have to step aside in favor of Notre Dame once during those four years. The Big East’s No. 2 had gone to the Gator Bowl or Sun Bowl under an arrangement that also involved Notre Dame as well as the Big 12. That agreement ends after this season. The new deal allows the Champs Sports Bowl to pick Notre Dame over a Big East team once, if the Fighting Irish’s record is at least 7-5 and within two wins of the Big East’s No. 2 school. That means a 9-3 Big East team could lose its spot in the bowl to a 7-5 Notre Dame squad. The Big East’s opponent in the bowl has not been determined, but bowl officials remain in talks with the Atlantic Coast Conference, which previously played a Big 10 opponent in the game . . . Former Duke point guard Greg Paulus is the starting quarterback at Syracuse. He won the job after transferring and getting an NCAA waiver to play football as a graduate student. Senior Cam Dantley, last year’s starter, and two underclassmen were also in the running. Syracuse also announced it will play three home games at the new Meadowlands stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., against Southern Cal (2012) and Notre Dame (2014 and 2016) . . . Connecticut and Michigan have agreed to a home-and-home football series. The first game will be in Ann Arbor Sept. 4, 2010. The teams will meet at Rentschler Field in East Hartford Sept. 21, 2013. UConn had been scheduled to play Northeastern Sept. 2, 2010. That game will be moved to Oct. 9 . . . The University of Massachusetts men’s basketball team will face Rutgers in the semifinal round of the Legends Classic in Atlantic City Nov. 27 . . . Boston University women’s hockey coach Brian Durocher received a three-year contract extension.

The Red Wings signed Todd Bertuzzi to a one-year, $1.5 million contract in the hopes that the veteran forward can help make up for some of Detroit’s significant losses. After falling one win short of repeating as Stanley Cup champions in June, the Red Wings watched as forwards Marian Hossa, Jiri Hudler, Mikael Samuelsson, and Tomas Kopecky signed with other teams. The 34-year-old Bertuzzi scored 15 goals and had 44 points last season, ranking sixth in both categories for the Flames. While playing for Vancouver in 2004, Bertuzzi sucker-punched Colorado’s Steve Moore in the head in one of hockey’s ugliest episodes. He served a 17-month suspension after hitting Moore and driving him face-first into the ice and breaking three vertebrae in his neck.

US Ski Team member Caroline Lalive, a two-time Olympian who amassed five World Cup podiums, is retiring from Cup competition after 13 years. Lalive, 30, suffered 19 injuries in her career, including 12 to her knees that required surgery . . . Chris John’s rematch with Rocky Juarez for the World Boxing Association featherweight title will highlight the undercard for the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Juan Manuel Marquez bout Sept. 19 in Las Vegas. Former welterweight champion Zab Judah will meet Antonio Diaz in a 144-pound fight, and lightweight Australian brawler Michael Katsidis will take on former US Olympian Vicente Escobedo . . . In the WNBA, Diana Taurasi scored 27 points and led the Phoenix Mercury to a 106-99 victory over the host Chicago Sky . . . Lauren Jackson scored 36 points to lead the Seattle Storm past the host Detroit Shock, 79-75 . . . Lisa Leslie scored 20 points and Candace Parker added 15 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists as the Sparks beat the Washington Mystics, 72-69, in Los Angeles . . . Knicks guard Nate Robinson was arrested in New York for driving with a suspended license . . . Raynham was eliminated from the Cal Ripken 12-year-old World Series in Winchester after a 1-0 loss to Rainbow City/Southside, Ala.