ame a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Michigan.

Look! Up in the sky. Its a bird. Its a plane.No, its a drone, able to zoom at breakneck speeds through a complex three-dimensional obstacle course. And its coming to your living room.In its latest foray into non-athletic sports -- does the name Chris Moneymaker ring a bell? -- ESPN has reached an agreement to broadcast the Drone Racing League (DRL) season. An introduction to drone racing will air Thursday night on ESPN2 and competition begins Oct. 23.Its must-watch TV, Matt Volk, director, programming and acquisitions at ESPN, said Wednesday. Were always exploring ways to deliver quality and exciting content. We see this as being an emerging sport with an emerging audience. Were excited to see how it does, but we feel good about its growth potential.Sky, which broadcasts to the United Kingdom and Ireland, and 7Sports, a sports business cluster in Germany, also will air 10 one-hour episodes of the five-race 2016 DRL season, including a winner-take-all world championship Nov. 20.Drone racing is simply the latest so-called extreme sport in this digital age, and ESPN and the DRL are banking on the rising popularity of the craft worldwide.We dont come with a built-in audience. Theres no hiding that, Drone Racing League CEO Nick Horbaczewski said. They see a long-term opportunity here. They know how engaging the content is. Its very attractive for a younger audience. The reaction is something very visceral for people.Theres a huge emergence going on right now of people who fly drones. This sport is all about that.Horbaczewski, who founded the DSL a little over a year ago, said drone racing has all the elements of auto racing and likens it to a real-life video game with a real scientific element to it.The tiny craft used by the DSL will be unlike the more than one million consumer drones out there buzzing around. They will be custom built by the DRL so that all are identical with the same power output. That means all pilots will be racing on a fair playing field, and they will be doing the actual flying -- not some pre-programmed GPS system.We want it to be a test of pilot skill rather than drone design, Horbaczewski said.Among those behind the controls once the season starts likely wont be that hot-shot kid next door who buzzes the treetops in the neighborhood. The DSL will select just 12 elite pilots from around the world. The winner of the championship will receive a contract to be a full-time professional pilot in the league next year with a salary.We find incredibly talented pilots, people who are very, very good at flying drones, Horbaczewski said. But sometimes they just cant manage their nerves. Theyre not a performance athlete. People who are emerging are real performance athletes who can perform under pressure.Each event will include a series of races around complicated aerobatic race courses over two days in a bracket-style elimination format. Heats will be one to two minutes long, and fans who tune in likely will enjoy them. Horbaczewski says about half the drones crash every heat, and onboard cameras will offer a birds-eye view of the action.You get a real rush, he said. Its a weird mix of the NFL and Formula One. You get that motor racing appeal.Without the human trauma.The amount of the carnage that goes on when youre slamming into walls at 80 mph when you miss a turn -- its exciting, Horbaczewski said. But theres no moral hazard like there is when theres a crash in an auto race.So far, drone racings Jeff Gordon has not surfaced. Whoever emerges as this years champion promises to be someone of that mold, though.This sport is exhausting for the pilots, Horbaczewski said. We only run a certain number of races because we cant push them beyond a certain point. It is physically and brain-powerwise a very intense sport. It takes unbelievable concentration and physical discipline. Its not totally non-athletic.Motor sports in America have been struggling to attract younger fans. The DSL is hoping to buck that trend.Our audience we know is younger, Horbaczewski said. I love Formula One, but watching the Monaco Grand Prix came down to one pit stop and one pass.Still, drone racing on TV?No way! Ive been trying to get them to broadcast what we do for 30 years. Theyre not interested, said 67-year-old Gene Soucy, a champion aerobatic pilot. I know why its going to work and why what we do doesnt. The average guy can go out and buy a drone and anybody can fly one.---Follow Kekis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Greek1947 Fake Nike Air Max 90 . -- Jimmie Johnson held off a teammate, passed a pair of Hall of Famers, and dominated once more at Dover. Clearance Nike Air Max 90 . On Saturday night, the normally free throw-challenged centre did just that. Howard scored 18 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including 13 of 19 free throws in a 2 1/2-minute stretch, and the Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 122-111. https://www.cheapnikeairmax90china.us/ . Brad Jacobs and his Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., team took control of the game early. Nike Air Max 90 Outlet .875,000, avoiding arbitration. Clippards deal Monday means all eight Nationals players who filed for arbitration wound up settling before a hearing. Nike Air Max 90 Sale . Thats not a comment on the suspension that banished the Portland Winterhawks general manager and coach from his Western Hockey League teams bench for most of the 2012-13 season. Western Michigan athletic director Kathy Beauregard says coach P.J. Fleck has not spoken with other schools about coaching jobs and will not until after the MAC title game.?Beauregard made her statement in a text message to The Associated Press on Saturday.Fleck, 35, has led the Broncos to a 12-0 record and a No. 21 ranking this season, and his breakout success has made him a popular target for rumors -- including as the next coach for Purdue.Beauregard said Fleck was committed to the WMU Broncos and preparing for the MAC championship game. Western Michigan will face Ohio on Friday at Ford Field in Detroit for the MAC championship.Fleck led the program to a 1-11 record his first year in 2013, then 8-5 finishes the nextt two years.ddddddddddddMeanwhile, after a 26-24 loss to Indiana on Saturday, Purdue interim coach Gerad Parker sounded as if he doesnt expect to return to West Lafayette in 2017.We aimed big, we moved fast and we got better, Parker said after losing for the sixth straight week since replacing the fired Darrell Hazell. The ultimate stat of getting better is winning and I know that. Nobody knows that more than me. But Ill tell you this, this football team got better in the last six weeks. I believe that with every fiber of my body.Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. ' ' '