Monday's sports briefs

Mike Ilitch, the Little Caesars pizza mogul who already owns the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings, said Monday that he wants to buy the Detroit Pistons in part to make sure another buyer doesn't move the NBA franchise out of town.

Pistons owner Karen Davidson has said she wants to sell the team by October.

"When I read in the paper there was the chance that this great sports town could lose one of its professional sports franchises, I just didn't see how we could let that happen," Ilitch said.

One owner for three of a city's professional teams has been done before. Media pioneer Ted Turner had baseball's Atlanta Braves, the NBA's Hawks and the NHL's Thrashers. The NFL prohibits such cross-ownership.

Senior major to let fans in free Admission will be free at this year's Senior Players Championship.

The PGA Tour announced that tickets are on the house for all spectators during the entire week at this year's final major on the Champions Tour. The Senior Players Championship will be held Oct. 7-10 at the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

The PGA Tour says the tournament will be the first modern major championship on any U.S. pro tour to offer free admission.

London lands regular-season games The NBA will play games that count in Europe for the first time next season. NBA Commissioner David Stern announced that the Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets will face each other March 4 and 5 at the O2 Arena, a London venue that has hosted preseason games over the past several years.

Stern has said he wants a meaningful game in London before the city hosts the Olympics in 2012.

"In Beijing [at the 2008 Olympics], basketball was the hottest ticket," Stern said. "I think that there's a good possibility that basketball will assume a role that folks in the United Kingdom might never have anticipated."

Nets give Sean May his next chance

The New Jersey Nets signed free-agent forward Sean May, who was the 13th overall pick in the 2005 draft. He hasn't lived up to that choice and played in a career-high 37 games last season with Sacramento, averaging 3.3 points.

Masoli met with reporters for the first time since joining the Rebels last week and made clear he understands his college career hangs on his ability to stay out of trouble. He was considered a Heisman Trophy contender at Oregon before two brushes with the law led to his dismissal.

Coach Houston Nutt has him on a zero-tolerance plan.

"Coach Nutt is the main reason I came here, first and foremost," Masoli said. "I could hear the genuineness in his voice."

Auto racing: NASCAR will open the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship at Chicagoland Speedway, shifting the start of its 10-race playoffs to the second-largest media market the series serves.

Olympics: The International Softball Federation rejected baseball's latest offer to join in a bid for Olympic reinstatement. The softball body said it wanted to continue trying independently to persuade the International Olympic Committee to include men's and women's fast-pitch competition at the 2020 Games.

College baseball: Chad Kreuter, a former major leaguer who had replaced a legend as USC coach, was fired by athletic director Pat Haden, Haden's first big move in a job he began last week. "We need to get back to our championship ways," Haden said. Kreuter went 111-117 in four years at USC.