SPORTS N STUFF

Mike Bellotti is stepping down as Oregon’s football coach to become the school’s athletic director, and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly will be promoted to head coach.

Bellotti, who has coached the Ducks for the last 14 seasons, takes over his new position July 1, replacing athletic director Pat Kilkenny. Kelly becomes coach on March 30, the opening day of spring practice, the school announced Friday.

The moves first were announced in December, but no timetable was set for the transition.

Bellotti will serve in the interim as senior counselor to Kilkenny, who will step down June 30.

Oregon’s athletic department scheduled a news conference Saturday to discuss the transition. Bellotti would not comment until then.

Bellotti, 58, has gone 116-55 as coach of the Ducks. This past season Oregon went 10-3 with a 42-31 win over Oklahoma State in the Holiday Bowl. The Ducks finished the season ranked No. 10.

The announcement Friday came as a surprise. Many assumed Bellotti would coach for at least one more season. As recently as the national letter-of-intent day for recruits, he said he had not made a decision but hinted it could come this month.

Bellotti said he had to sit down with Kilkenny and Oregon president Dave Frohnmayer to discuss what the position entailed.

“I have an understanding to a degree but I really don’t know some of the inner workings,” Bellotti said at the time.

Frohnmayer is retiring at the end of June after 15 years at Oregon. On Friday the university announced that University of Kansas provost Richard Lariviere will succeed him.

Bellotti informed the team of his decision Friday morning.

Under Bellotti, the Ducks have gone to 12 bowl games. In 2001 Oregon won 11 games, including a 38-16 victory over Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl to finish ranked No. 2.

Bellotti joined the Ducks as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Rich Brooks in 1989.

Kelly, who has been at Oregon the past two seasons and designed the team’s spread-option offense, becomes the Ducks’ 30th coach, and the third in the last 33 years.

Kelly, 45, made an immediate impact when he arrived at Oregon, helping turn quarterback Dennis Dixon into a Heisman Trophy contender.

“I feel like I’ve been put in a great situation. Basically a lot of this was at my suggestion, because of Chip’s popularity and the job he’s done for us,” Bellotti said back in December.

This past season, Kelly adjusted the offense through a series of quarterback injuries. Oregon lost its projected starter, Nate Costa, shortly before the start of the season. Backup Justin Roper took over, but injuries forced the team to turn to junior college transfer Jeremiah Masoli and true freshmen Chris Harper and Darron Thomas.

Masoli eventually landed the starter’s job, finishing with 1,744 passing yards for 13 touchdowns. He ran for 718 yards, breaking the Oregon’s quarterback record of 644 yards set by Reggie Ogburn in 1979.

The Ducks last season were ranked second in the nation in rushing, averaging 280.1 yards a game, and seventh in both total offense (484.9 yards per game) and scoring (41.9 point per game).

Kilkenny was named AD in February 2007 and said at the time he planned to serve in that position for two years.

A prominent booster, Kilkenny has spearhead plans to build a new basketball arena to replace venerable McArthur Court.

The Fiesta, Orange, Rose and Sugar bowls extended their agreements with the Bowl Championship Series, deals that will keep the national championship game at the sites of those games through the 2013 college football season.

The BCS was not expected to change its bowl partners, so the new four-year deals come as no surprise.

The current contracts with those four games run out after the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., hosts the BCS national championship game in 2010.

The new deal starts with the January 2011 bowl games, and the championship game rotation will start in Glendale, Ariz., with the Fiesta Bowl hosting two games about a week apart.

New Orleans will host the Sugar Bowl and BCS national championship game in 2012. Miami will be the site of the 2013 title game, a week after the Orange Bowl. The championship game returns to the Rose Bowl in 2014.

The deals between the BCS and its bowl partners run concurrent to its TV deal.

The BCS is in its final season of a four-year deal with Fox. Its new four-year deal with ESPN, worth $125 million per year, begins with the 2011 bowl games.

A Mississippi football signee with a history of legal trouble faces an uncertain future after he was arrested on charges he assaulted a man at a McDonald’s drive-through with brass knuckles.

Starkville police arrested Jamar Hornsby on March 1 and charged him with felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor petit larceny after he and two other men allegedly assaulted the man.

The 22-year-old Hornsby is on probation after taking a plea deal in a misdemeanor credit card fraud case that occurred while he was on the University of Florida football team. Hornsby signed a national letter of intent with the Rebels in February, but his future with the team is now uncertain.

“We are looking into the matter and trying to gather all the facts,” Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt said Monday. “Once all the facts are in, I will make a decision.”

Hornsby, a safety, was expected to compete immediately for a starting job with the Rebels, who had depth issues in the secondary last season. But an early morning fender-bender could change all of that.

Starkville police Det. Maurice Johnson said Hornsby, Darrell Simmons and Robert Jordan were arrested around 2:15 a.m. March 1 after an unidentified man rear-ended his vehicle as both waited for service.

Johnson said the drivers of each car spoke briefly. One of the three men then took something from the victim, and Hornsby attacked the victim shortly after.

The victim, whose name is being withheld for his own protection, went to the hospital with unspecified injuries.

Johnson said that the victim and Hornsby did not know each other, and that the attack was related to the accident.

Hornsby is free after posting $15,500 bond and faces up to 20 years in prison on the aggravated assault charge alone. He also likely violated his probation by possessing brass knuckles, which are illegal. He faces up to four years in prison if he fails to complete probation.

An attorney for Hornsby did not return a phone message left Monday.

Florida state attorney Bill Cervone said Hornsby could be headed to prison if it’s determined that he violated probation there.

Police arrested Hornsby in May 2007 on felony charges of improper use of a credit card after he made nearly 70 fraudulent charges on the gas card of a Florida student who died in a motorcycle accident six months earlier. The state attorney’s office later reduced the charges to misdemeanors, but not before Hornsby was dismissed from the football team.

He accepted a plea deal in December on four misdemeanor charges and avoided jail time. He was ordered to pay nearly $9,000 in restitution and court costs. The judge also ordered him to tour the Florida State Prison in Raiford and write an essay about his experiences.

At the time of the plea deal, Cervone said: “I hope the defendant understands the harm he’s created that goes far beyond just using somebody’s credit card under these circumstances.”

He said Monday in a phone interview with The Associated Press from his Gainesville office that it is “always disappointing” when a person given a second chance through a plea deal is arrested again.

Hornsby was expected to join the Rebels after graduating from East Mississippi Community College later this year. The school is located in Scooba, which is near Starkville.

Hornsby played one season with the Gators before being dismissed. He played in eight games and had five tackles, but was suspended for five games for selling his complimentary tickets, a violation of NCAA rules.

He had 111 tackles and two interceptions this season for EMCC and was named the MVP of the Mississippi junior college northern region.

Meanwhile, Nutt has indefinitely suspended walk-on running back Andre Sterling, a 2008 signee who instead played at Hargrave Military Academy last fall after failing to qualify.

The Clarion-Ledger newspaper of Jackson reported that Sterling was arrested Feb. 28 for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol after allegedly going the wrong way down a one-way street.

The Oxford police chief was unavailable Monday to confirm the report. It is unclear whether Sterling will be allowed to participate in spring practice.

When Florida quarterback Tim Tebow leaves for the Philippines next week, he won’t have to worry about the mission trip affecting his NCAA eligibility.

A day after Gators coach Urban Meyer told lawmakers in Tallahassee that Tebow returned for his senior season partly because he was granted a waiver from the NCAA to raise money for the orphanage his father helps out with in the Philippines, the NCAA clarified its position on the matter.

Tebow was not given special permission to raise money for Uncle Dick’s Home, said Erik Christianson, director of public and media relations for the NCAA. Tebow always has been allowed to promote the orphanage as long as he abides by guidelines set forth in NCAA bylaw 12.5.1.1, Christianson said in an e-mail Friday.

“There is no waiver involved here,” Christianson wrote. “We have worked cooperatively with the University of Florida, the Southeastern Conference and the Tebow family for a few months now to help interpret and apply our bylaws related to extra benefits and promotional activities.”

Christianson pointed out that the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association is a charitable organization that is separate from Uncle Dick’s Home. All donations to Uncle Dick’s Home go directly to the orphanage and not to Bob Tebow’s association or the Tebow family, and no member of the Tebow family serves on the orphanage’s board of directors or staff.

So donations to the orphanage from the University of Florida or any of the school’s boosters would be allowed under NCAA rules, Christianson said.

NCAA rules prohibit an institution or boosters from providing benefits to a student-athlete or the student-athlete’s family that generally aren’t available to any student in the general student body.

But NCAA rules allow Tebow and fellow student-athletes to promote educational, charitable or nonprofit entities like the orphanage – but only if certain conditions are met.

Meyer said Thursday that Tebow’s return had a lot to do with getting clarification from the NCAA, but he didn’t say when and if Tebow’s mission work had been questioned.

“It has nothing to do with self-gratification,” Meyer said. “It has something to do with something that he believes in. If you get to know Tim, when he believes in something: watch out.”

Tebow said his role in influencing the lives of others was more important to him than trying to make it in the NFL right now.

“I think that’s something we all have to keep in mind,” Tebow said. “It’s not all about me. It’s all about who can I help.”

The Mountain West Conference wants to lead the fight for a major college football playoff.

The MWC presented the BCS with a proposal Wednesday to create an eight-team playoff system that would allow greater access to the national championship game to teams outside the six most powerful leagues.

Commissioner Craig Thompson and four university leaders from the MWC announced details on a conference call and the entire 2 1/2-page proposal was posted on the league’s Web site.

“I will put this as bluntly as a I can,” said Tom Buchanan, University of Wyoming president and chairman of the MWC board of directors. “We all believe that change is needed. The current system is not fair and somebody needs to stand up and say that and ask for dialogue amongst all the parties involved.

“Our goal is to find a system that is best for college football.”

The next BCS meeting is scheduled for April in Pasadena, Calif.

“I would strongly suggest this will be a conversation topic,” Thompson said.

Thompson would not speculate how the proposal will be received, but the chances of it being met with anything other than a resounding ‘No thank you’ from the rest of the BCS commissioners – at best.

“We have received the Mountain West proposal,” BCS coordinator and ACC commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. “Some of these ideas or similar ones have been addressed before in BCS meetings. We will make sure that the proposal has a full airing by the commissioners and presidents, and we will respond to the Mountain West at the conclusion of those discussions.”

The Bowl Championship Series last spring shot down a proposal brought by Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive that would have created a four-team playoff.

Meanwhile, fans and many members of the media grow more vocal in support of a playoff each time the current BCS format, which only gives two teams a chance to win a national title in the postseason, fails to produce totally satisfying results.

Now, the Mountain West is vowing to be an advocate for those frustrated by the BCS.

“This is not a gesture on our part,” San Diego State University president Stephen Weber said. “There is a fundamental unfairness here that I think the whole country is aware of and somebody’s got to stand up and confront that unfairness.”

The conferences with automatic access to the five BCS games are the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, ACC and Pac-10.

The call for change comes after a season in which MWC champion Utah was the only unbeaten major team but was never seriously in the running to play in the BCS title game. Florida beat Oklahoma for the championship, while the Utes finished No. 2 after beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

The MWC’s proposal has four parts. The first creates a new way to determine which conferences receive automatic bids to the big-money bowls.

The current criteria weighs the BCS rankings of teams in each league.

It’s a system that makes it difficult for the Mountain West, Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference and Sun Belt to earn an automatic bid because those teams usually don’t fair as well in the major polls, which make up two-thirds of the BCS standings formula.

Under the MWC’s proposal, a conference would qualify for an automatic bid if its teams have a winning percentage of at least .400 in games against the current automatic qualifying leagues over a two-year period.

Using that standard, the MWC would join the other six leagues as automatic qualifiers starting next season.

Part two of the proposal suggests doing away with the BCS standings and creating a 12-member committee to pick which teams receive at-large bids, and to select and seed the eight teams chosen for the playoff.

The BCS has previously discussed, and dismissed, the idea of using a selection committee.

Under the MWC’s proposal, the four current BCS games – the Sugar, Orange, Rose and Fiesta bowls – would host the four first-round playoff games. Another BCS bowl would be awarded to a current non-BCS game and would host the lowest ranked of the 10 teams selected in a game with no championship implications.

The semifinals would be played about a week later, with the current BCS bowls given the opportunity to host those games.

The championship game would be played a week after that, and again the current BCS bowls would be given the opportunity to host.

While bowl organizers from the Fiesta, Sugar and Orange bowl have said they would be open to a playoff format, the Rose Bowl – which has a long-standing and profitable relationship with the Big Ten and Pac-10 – has been resistant to such change.

The final part of the MWC’s proposal calls for each of the 11 major conferences and Notre Dame to have equal representation on the BCS presidential oversight committee and for revenues to be distributed equally among all leagues.

Currently, the five non-BCS conferences have one vote when the BCS makes decisions and those leagues receive millions less from year to year than the big six conferences.

The BCS agreed to a new, four-year TV deal with ESPN last year that will go into effect in 2010. That deal was negotiated using the current BCS format. While ESPN has said it would not stand in the way if the BCS wanted to change, the new deal allows the BCS to put off making any drastic changes until the 2014 season.

The MWC is the only conference that has not signed the new deal with ESPN and has until April 20, 2010, to do so. Thompson said he’s not sure how long the conference will hold out.

“Now is the time to have the conversation about change in the current system, because we have a contract in front of us that will extend the status quo for another four years and we want to have the conversation now, not four years from now,” Buchanan said.

On his way to the Heisman Trophy, Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford rarely was concerned about his well-being when he dropped back to pass.

With an experienced, mammoth front line in front of him, Bradford was hardly touched by opposing defenders as he threw for 4,720 yards and 50 touchdowns. In 14 games, the Sooners allowed only 13 sacks – one every 37 pass attempts.

It could take some time to forge a new unit that’s as capable of protecting Bradford as the Sooners try to make another run to the BCS championship game – and come away successful this time.

Sooners coach Bob Stoops called out his young offensive line Tuesday at the start of spring practice, using the kind of criticism he rarely aims at his own players.

“Whether it’s their work ethic, their attitude, those kinds of things need to improve,” Stoops said. “They haven’t had the winter everybody else has had. They right now are the weak link of the team and we’ll see if they can respond and have any kind of a spring and summer to help us be a team that can contend for a Big 12 championship.

“They’ll be a big part of whether we will or will not depending on their attitude, workout habits, those kinds of things if we’ll be able to do it. They’ve been very inconsistent that way in how they work and their toughness and discipline.”

All-American guard Duke Robinson, all-Big 12 tackle Phil Loadholt, all-conference center Jon Cooper and guard Brandon Walker are gone from the starting five, and top reserve Branndon Braxton’s career is also done after his senior year.

Tackle Trent Williams is the only starter back from the line that gave up fewer sacks than all teams other than run-heavy Navy and Air Force. Among those trying to fill the gaps – or create them for Oklahoma’s running backs – will be LSU transfer Jarvis Jones and Stephen Good, who was chosen to play in the U.S. Army All-American high-school All-Star game.

But Stoops called the O-line a major issue that the Sooners need to address leading up to the April 11 spring game.

“Just coming to work every day, having a tough attitude, having some discipline to do the things you’re supposed to do on the field and off. To this point, they haven’t done that,” Stoops said.

Several Sooners starters will be out for the spring sessions, including running back DeMarco Murray (hamstring), linebacker Ryan Reynolds (knee), defensive tackle Demarcus Granger (back) and defensive end Auston English (knee).

Stoops also doesn’t expect Bradford, tailback Chris Brown or tight end Jermaine Gresham to take any contact to reduce the possibility of getting them hurt, too.

Two Ohio State offensive linemen have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges of possessing drug paraphernalia.

Eighteen-year-old Mike Adams and 19-year-old J.B. Shugarts were cited Jan. 14. Court records did not specify what type of paraphernalia police found.

The players are scheduled for pretrial hearings in court this week and face up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine if convicted.

Both freshmen played last season and were injured. They were expected to be in competition for starting spots in the upcoming year.

An Ohio State spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment Sunday.

Oklahoma wide receiver Corey Wilson has been critically injured in a rollover collision on Interstate 35.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says the 20-year-old from Carrollton, Texas, was flown in critical condition with head and internal injuries to OU Medical Center after the crash about 1 p.m. Friday near Pauls Valley. A hospital spokesman says Wilson’s family asked that his condition not be released.

The patrol says Wilson was southbound on I-35 when his Chevrolet Trailblazer collided with a pickup, ran off the road and rolled twice, throwing him about 45 feet from the vehicle.

A sophomore, Wilson is the younger brother of former OU wide receiver standout Travis Wilson.

The OHP reports Wilson was not wearing his seat belt.

A couple years ago, sharing a bedroom in a small Kansas home, two talented football-playing brothers hatched a simple plan.

The older one would pick a college.

The other would follow a year later.

So when Arthur Brown decided to take his copious skills at linebacker to Miami a year ago, it was widely expected that standout running back Bryce Brown would follow as planned and start playing for the Hurricanes this coming fall.

It sounded easy. Of course, it wasn’t.

Bryce Brown committed to Miami a year ago but chose not to accept the school’s scholarship offer before it expired on Feb. 18, and the exasperated Hurricanes will not issue another. Meanwhile, Arthur Brown presses on, now spending Miami’s spring football season trying to win a job at middle linebacker – and not seeming distressed by his brother’s saga whatsoever.

“I’m going to support whatever decision he makes,” Arthur Brown said Saturday, as the Hurricanes wrapped up their first week of spring ball. “That’s my feeling on it.”

Arthur Brown doesn’t want to say much more than that when it comes to his brother’s fractured relationship with Miami. That might be for the best. Coaches are prohibited from commenting on unsigned recruits, but a person involved in wooing Bryce Brown to join his brother in Coral Gables told The Associated Press more than two weeks ago that the situation had gone too far.

The message that day was simple: It’s over for Bryce Brown at Miami.

Arthur Brown might just be getting started.

When he played last season, it was primarily on special teams, and he showed plenty of promise. But – just like his younger brother is the No. 1 overall recruit in 2009 – Arthur Brown was ranked as the nation’s No. 1 linebacker coming out of high school by some scouting services, so there was plenty of pressure to live up to right away.

“The guys that come in with all the ESPN ratings and all that, a lot of people look at them and say, ‘You’ve got to come out and start now,”‘ Miami coach Randy Shannon said. “I think that weighed on him a little bit. But he was a great special-teams player for us this past year. He helped us win some games. And now he’s taking the next step.”

He’s doing so while waiting to see what his brother’s next step is.

Bryce Brown’s adviser, Brian Butler, has said often in recent weeks that the running back is still committed to Miami. Bryce Brown will not sign his letter of intent until March 16, Butler said, because he and the family decided that an extended decision period, some more college visits, and a week of fasting and prayer were necessary before making the final decision.

So why commit a year ago but not sign along with nearly every other recruit on Feb. 4?

“There’s been a lot of change at Miami,” Butler said. “The offensive coordinator was fired, there’s a new defensive coordinator. Bryce needs to evaluate all that and wants to see what God’s plan is for him.”

True, Miami does have new coordinators on each side of the football this spring. But that didn’t keep any other committed players from signing letters of intent with the Hurricanes.

Bryce Brown rushed for nearly 1,900 yards in nine games this season at Wichita East High, and was offered scholarships by dozens of the nation’s major college programs.

“If Bryce is supposed to be at Miami, then we’ll see if there’s an offer for him on March 16,” Butler said.

Butler advised Arthur Brown as well during his recruiting process. Butler is almost looked at as an extended member of the Brown family in many regards, but several people who know both Arthur and Bryce say the two teens have considerably different personalities.

In other words, what Arthur’s thinking isn’t necessarily what Bryce thinks.

“It’s a challenge. There’s a lot of challenges when you’re going through this process,” Arthur Brown said.

Even if Bryce Brown isn’t at Miami next year, Arthur Brown insists that he won’t leave the Hurricanes.

“He’s fine. No problems. Happy to be here, excited, ready to go,” Shannon said.

One thing Bryce Brown will avoid by not coming to Miami is this: His brother can hit.

During a live-hitting drill Saturday morning, Arthur Brown was lining up at middle linebacker, the position the Hurricanes want to see if he can play. The ball was snapped and two linemen immediately got in his way as freshman running back Mike James – a strong 210-pounder – took a handoff and darted through the left side of the line of scrimmage, plenty of space in front of him.

In a flash, Brown slipped off the blockers, grabbed James with one arm and drove him to the turf with relative ease.

“I’m learning how to adapt and accept change,” Arthur Brown said. “It helped me out last year and I’m catching on faster this year.”