:: Sports News ::

• Swarbrick: Irish could lose independence (AP)

  

  Notre Dame wants to remain independent in football, but that might not matter if the Big Ten and Pac-10 decide to expand and create sweeping changes to major college sports. "Our preference is clear," Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Tuesday. "I believe we're at a point right now where changes could be relatively small or they could be seismic." Swarbrick...

  
  

• Pinstripe Bowl set for Yankee Stadium (AP)

  The first Pinstripe Bowl will be played at Yankee Stadium on Dec. 30 and will be televised by ESPN. The game will include the No. 3 team in the Big East and the No. 6 school in the Big 12, excluding Bowl Championship Series participants. "I think no matter what the sport, every kid who grows up wants to play at Yankee Stadium," Yankees president Randy Levine said Tuesday.

• Bradford not part of Sooners' pro day (AP)

  

  With all the first-round prospects coming out of Oklahoma for this year's NFL draft, St. Louis Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo could be getting to know the Norman campus quite well over the next month. Carrying the No. 1 pick with them, Spagnuolo and general manager Billy Devaney visited the Sooners' pro timing day Tuesday, getting another chance to see defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, offensive...

  
  

• Texas, Maryland get reprieve on new rule (AP)

  The NCAA has given Texas and Maryland a one-year reprieve from a new rule that limits off-campus football recruiting by a coach designated as the head coach-in-waiting. That will allow Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp and Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin to fully participate in the critical spring evaluation period in April and May.

• Stanford hires Hamilton as WRs coach (AP)

  Stanford has hired former Chicago Bears assistant Pep Hamilton as its new wide receivers coach. Coach Jim Harbaugh announced the move on Tuesday. Hamilton had spent the past three seasons as quarterbacks coach for the Bears. He also was an assistant in the NFL for San Francisco and the New York Jets. Hamilton began his coaching career at Howard University, where he starred as a college quarterback.

• Former coach Leach to be deposed Friday (AP)

  Mike Leach is expected to return to Lubbock later this week to answer questions under oath from attorneys for Texas Tech handling the former football coach's lawsuit against the school. Leach, who currently lives with his family in Key West, Fla., is set for oral and video depositions beginning Friday at the offices of his Lubbock attorney, Ted Liggett.