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In October, a week after its chancellor agreed to explore leaving the Big 12, the University of Missouri produced a 45-page document, outlining the pros and cons of going to the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

In the report, which the Associated Press said it had obtained, Missouri said it could earn as much as $12 million more per year from an new TV deal in the SEC compared to the deal it had in the Big 12.

The Big 12 asked to see the report, and asked Missouri to show them who did the study and how they came up with the number. Missouri wouldn’t.

 » Read More

F. Carter Smith | Bloomberg | Getty Images Aubrey McClendon, chairman and CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp.

As the Oklahoma City Thunder gets ready to take on the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals tonight, there’s an off-the-court distraction that could impact the team’s business.

Chesapeake Energy

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[CHK  Loading...      ()   ] CEO Aubrey McClendon, who owns 19.2 percent of the Thunder, has been under fire in recent weeks for admitting to his participation in a program that enabled him to buy a personal stake in every well the company drilled.

This, along with pushing the company’s debt up to a reported $15.6 billion and running a hedge fund on the side, resulted in the company agreeing to terminate the program and forcing McClendon to relinquish his chairman title.

So why does this have any impact on Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden?  » Read More

Source: 1-3-dimethylamylamine.com Ten days after the FDA sent warning letters to manufacturers of supplements with DMAA in it, the nation’s largest supplement retailers still have the product on the shelves.

Ten days after the FDA sent warning letters to manufacturers of supplements with DMAA in it, the nation’s largest supplement retailers still have the product on the shelves.

Both GNC

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[GNC  Loading...      ()   ] and Vitamin Shoppe

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[VSI  Loading...      ()   ] continued to sell the popular pre-workout like OxyElite Pro and Jack3d in its online and physical stores as of Tuesday morning.

Vitamin Shoppe CEO Tony Truesdale told analysts on a conference call that he didn’t see the category as an area that could have a material impact on the company’s business. Truesdale pointed out that the company has 8,000 different product offerings and believes it’s diversified to make it through a possible government shutdown of the ingredient.  » Read More

I’ll Have Another wasn’t exactly a huge longshot, but he certainly was getting treated like one. But there was the horse, in Friday’s New York Times, predicted to come in dead last.

“Santa Anita winner has overachieved,” wrote the well-respected Times horse racing reporter Joe Drape,” but there won’t be any magic here.”

Drape was one of the few who boldly predicted how the entire field would finish and decided to put 12 horses with longer odds ahead of I’ll Have Another, who of course went on to win the Derby.

“I did hear about that particular prediction,” said J. Paul Reddam, the horse’s owner. “At first when you read what the pundits say it can kind of be a little bit unnerving because it will be different from your own opinion and you wonder how much bias you have. But if you go and you look, you’ll see that that particular writer had him last, but somebody else had him first.”

That actually would be quite hard to find.

 » Read More

At the 2010 Keeneland Yearling Sale, bargain hunter Bob Zollars had his eye #1475.

Unable to spend big for a horse by a top sire, Zollars followed the family history of the horse’s mother, Follow Your Bliss, whose was fathered by Thunder Gulch, best known for his win in the 1995 Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes.

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Sports fans have long ditched the fancy hats for caps, except for Derby weekend in Kentucky.

Photo by Karen Stern for CNBC.com

Last year, a hat called the fascinator was all the rage.

The tiny hat owed its rise in popularity to the royal wedding, which took place just weeks before.

Hat maker Christine Moore says the fascinator is still hot, with about 35 percent of her customers still asking for it.

The hot trend this year?  » Read More

The makers of a deer antler velvet product are suing Major League Baseball for libel.

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Nutronics Labs alleges that, last summer, the league told its players to stop taking what became one of the latest performance enhancers so as not to risk testing positive for methyltestosterone, even though it wasn’t listed as an ingredient. As a result of what the company calls “false, misleading and malicious” statements by MLB, Nutronics says its business was significantly damaged and as much as $50 million in business could have been lost.

“We were getting calls left and right,” said Dr. Ricardo Lentini, CEO of Nutronics Labs. “People wanted refunds. We kept telling them that what baseball [league] was saying wasn’t the truth. But we’re the little guy, they wouldn’t believe us.”

Major League Baseball spokesman Matt Bourne told CNBC that the league hasn’t seen the lawsuit and therefore cannot comment on it.

Deer antler velvet is harvested from the antlers of young deer that produces a substance called IGF-1, which deer antler velvet sellers say stimulates muscular development and, in athletes, helps to aid recovery.

Major League Baseball sent out its letter a few weeks after St. Louis Rams linebacker David Vobora was awarded $5.4 million in a lawsuit against a company with the brand name Sports With Alternatives to Steroids (SWATS). Vobora tested positive for methyltestosterone after he said he used the company’s deer antler spray. His attorney, R. Dan Fleck, said an independent lab confirmed that fact.

But Lentini, who made the product for S.W.A.T.S., says no deer antler velvet has ever tested positive for methyltestosterone or any steroid contaminant, including a sample Lentini includes in the lawsuit tested by an independent lab. Vobora won a default judgment, as S.W.A.T.S. didn’t show up in court. Soon after, the company filed for bankruptcy.

Although IGF-1 is not banned by Major League Baseball, Lentini said the note had the effect of a ban. Colleges, including Harvard, told their athletes not to take deer antler velvet based on the stories they had seen concerning baseball’s note to its players. Professional athletes stopped ordering the product. The lawsuit includes a letter from two companies who tell Lentini they have to cease business with his company because of Major League Baseball’s opinion.

In August, seeing that his business was slowing down, Lentini sent a letter to commissioner Bud Selig saying that his products did not, in fact, contain methyltestosterone.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Lentini said. “They never even said, let us test one your bottles. Let’s put it this way, if my product had methyltestosterone in it, the FDA would be busting down my doors and I’d be going to jail.”

While the NFL stopped players and even a coach (the Raiders’ Hue Jackson) from endorsing deer velvet companies, they didn’t go as far as Major League Baseball did by making any sort of statement about the legitimacy of it being a clean product.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story should have referred to Dr. Lentini as Dr. Ricardo Lentini.

Questions?  Comments? 

This morning, the Brooklyn Nets unveiled their new logos on CNBC.

Here is the first look with CNBC's Darren Rovell and Nets CEO Brett Yormark.

Slideshow: The NBA's Best Selling Jerseys - 2012

Questions?  Comments? 

Jonathan Newton | The Washington Post | Getty Images NFL Draft prospect QB Andrew Luck addresses the media.

Stanford's phenom quarterback Andrew Luck is set to be the first pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. He will be asked to replace the legendary Peyton Manning under center for the Indianapolis Colts this fall.

Many NFL scouts and analysts believe that Luck is the closest thing to a "can't miss" quarterback on the field since (ironically) the man he is being asked to succeed.

But, what are the prospects for Luck in the world of endorsements?

So far, Luck has snagged only two endorsement deals. One is with Pepsi to promote the Gatorade and Quaker Oats brand. The second deal is with Nike.

The main man in the draft spotlight spoke with Darren Rovell about whether he can achieve the same type of marketing success as Manning did off the field.

"I want to earn it on the field as a player before I guess you reap all the benefits," said Luck.

The new Colts quarterback is represented by his uncle, Will Wilson, an agent with the Wasserman Media Group.  » Read More

From the outside, The Ainsworth will look like every other bar in New York City tonight. Some TVs will be showing Game 7 of the Rangers/Senators series, while others will be tuned into the NFL Draft.

But patrons on the inside will be able to see that bar is taking it a step further.  » Read More

With the last game of the regular season tonight, the NBA released its traditional jersey sales rankings on Thursday morning, based on sales at its online store and its temporary store in Manhattan. And while Bulls guard Derrick Rose takes the No. 1 spot for the first time in his career, the bigger story is former undrafted D-Leaguer Jeremy Lin cracking the list at No. 2, beating out the likes of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and his teammate, Carmelo Anthony.

Getty Images Jeremy Lin

That's taking into account the fact that Lin jerseys didn't even hit the market until mid-February and the sales ranking started in April 2011. But when Lin did start lighting it up for the New York Knicks, boy did the masses buy his gear. Not only did New Yorkers embrace "Linsanity" but people around the world inspired by the Harvard graduate's rise to fame also bought his jersey. And one can't discount his Asian heritage helping things along, driving international sales to NBAStore.com and other retailers.  » Read More

Ask any fan of the Mets or the Nationals what the best part about coming to the ballpark is and you’re bound to get fans to put Shake Shack at the top.

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The burger, frozen custard joint of famed restaurateur Danny Meyer is known to be so packed that fans at Citi Field

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[C  Loading...      ()   ] get in line before the game and are willing to miss several innings to enjoy the grub.

In fact, business has been so good to Meyer that he told CNBC that he is actively looking to put his brands, including Shake Shack, El Verano, Blue Smoke and Box Frites, into more stadiums and arenas around the country. Aside from Citi Field and Nationals Park, the only other Shake Shack at a sporting venue is at Saratoga Race Track.  » Read More