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REPORT: RUTGERS TAPS ASSISTANT

 
Published Jan. 31, 2012

College football

Rutgers has turned to assistant Kyle Flood to replace Greg Schiano as head football coach, hours after Florida International's Mario Cristobal passed on a chance at the job.

The Associated Press reported Monday that Flood had accepted an offer and is expected to be introduced today at a news conference on the campus in Piscataway, N.J.

Cristobal, a former Rutgers assistant who has been with FIU for five seasons (he earns nearly $500,000 in base salary), appeared to be the first choice. When he decided to stay in Miami - he didn't want to cobble together a Rutgers recruiting class, and said FIU will have its best class - Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti quickly went to Flood.

Schiano left Rutgers last week to become the Buccaneers' head coach, leaving the school scrambling for a replacement.

Flood, 41, was promoted to interim coach and interviewed for the job over the weekend. He has been a member of Schiano's staff since 2005, coaching tight ends and offensive linemen while working his way up to assistant head coach in 2008.

Before Schiano's departure, Rutgers was working on a highly rated recruiting class. With Flood taking over, chances are good Rutgers can hold on to many of its top recruits.

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NCAA president still likes four-team playoff

NCAA president Mark Emmert reiterated his support for a two-round, four-team BCS championship playoff and his concern about the discord conference expansion creates.

Emmert said there are ongoing discussions about what he described as a Final Four model, a scenario that would have matched LSU against Stanford and Alabama vs. Oklahoma State this season with the winners advancing to the title game. Alabama defeated LSU 21-0 to avenge its lone loss and win the championship.

"I wish it had been a better game," said Emmert, who spoke at a Tallahassee civic organization's luncheon. He was the chancellor at LSU when Nick Saban was hired as the Tigers' coach.

Not everyone supported the rematch between the SEC schools.

"If I had to guess we'll see some movement in the format," Emmert said of how the BCS championship is decided. "Where it's going to wind up, I don't know."

The NCAA chief is opposed to a broader playoff in football that he believes would add stress on athletes and universities.

"It is hard to imagine a model if you continue with a 12 game schedule ... and then lay on top of that a 16 or 24-team playoff," Emmert said. "You wind up putting young men through an awful lot."

Emmert said he's concerned about "a lot of bad blood," resulting from much of the recent conference realignment. The latest round of moves that impacted virtually all of the major conferences was far more turbulent.

"There weren't a lot of winners coming out of that," Emmert said. "You wind up with the lawsuits, you wind up with a lot of bad blood, a lot of bad publicity."

soccer

U.S. men want exhibition vs. Scotland

The U.S. men's team is negotiating to play Scotland in an exhibition game May 26 or 27. The Americans also are negotiating to play Brazil on May 30 or 31, at Landover, Md., or Foxborough, Mass. The game against Scotland, the first for the United States since 2005, would be in the eastern or central part of the United States.

The Americans open qualifying for the 2014 World Cup on June 8 at home against Antigua and Barbuda.

south korean star retires: South Korea's 2002 World Cup hero Ahn Jung-hwan, 36,has retired. He became famous for scoring the golden goal that eliminated Italy in the second round of the World Cup hosted jointly by Japan and South Korea. South Korea went on to the semifinals, the best performance from an Asian team at a World Cup.

et cetera

Cycling: Greenville, S.C., was chosen as the host city for the 2014 paracycling world championships. The five-day competition will bring more than 450 athletes from more than 45 countries. It is the first time the United States has hosted the event since 1998, when it was held in Colorado Springs. Paracycling comprises four groups: blind and visually impaired riders, people with cerebral palsy, locomotor disabilities and handcycling.

Times wires