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Coach Jeff Fisher has one word to describe the theory that the Titans sued Southern California because the NFL team is in the same state as Lane Kiffin's last employer. Absurd. The Titans accuse USC and Kiffin of breaching the contract of running backs coach Kennedy Pola a week before training camp.
Former Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli has accepted an invitation from Mississippi coach Houston Nutt to visit the school this weekend, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Friday. Masoli made the decision early Friday morning to visit the Oxford campus. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because Masoli has not yet enrolled in school.
Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips said Friday that the NCAA had been on the Tigers' campus this week to talk with two members of the football team. Phillips issued a statement Friday about the visit, but did not say what the inquiry was about. Phillips also did not identify the athletes, but said Clemson is cooperating fully.
Florida State and the NCAA are paying $325,000 in legal fees to compensate the attorneys of news media companies that sued to force the release of documents in the Seminoles' academic cheating scandal. The records were part of an NCAA investigation that eventually implicated 61 athletes and stripped the school of victories in 10 men's and women's sports.
Bowl Championship Series executive director Bill Hancock says the defections of Nebraska and Colorado from the Big 12 will not influence the BCS. Hancock spoke Friday at the Mid-American Conference's media day at Ford Field in Detroit. Nebraska announced recently that it will leave the conference for the Big Ten, while Colorado plans to join the Pac-10, along with Utah.
Even without their star quarterback, the Oregon Ducks ended Southern California's seven-year reign as the Pac-10's preseason favorite. A year after breaking USC's seven-year stranglehold on the Pac-10, coach Chip Kelly's defending champions were picked to win it again in the preseason media poll Thursday.