Decision Day for Notre Dame

There’s more at stake than 111 years of football independence today when Notre Dame’s trustees decide whether to go ahead with negotiations to join the Big Ten Conference.

The decision involves millions of dollars in bowl and TV revenues, recruiting and academics, among other things. Notre Dame’s status as the national Catholic university could be forever altered.

“Notre Dame’s identity nationally is so linked to football that people worry if the football program were restricted from a national schedule to a regional schedule, that would have an impact on the identity,” Notre Dame professor Gregory Sterling said. “This is touching the nerve center of the university.”

As an independent, Notre Dame keeps its share of gate receipts, all proceeds from bowl games, and makes an estimated $7 million a year on its exclusive TV contract with NBC, which is expected to jump to $8 million a year for the 2000-2005 seasons.

But as a member of the Big Ten, the school would be in a revenue-sharing program that splits up a portion of each school’s gate receipts from football and basketball, bowl revenues, TV contracts and proceeds from the NCAA basketball tournaments, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said.

Should the trustees, meeting in London to dedicate a new Notre Dame facility there, decide to proceed with talks to join the conference, school and Big Ten officials still will have several issues to decide. Delany said he anticipates no problems with those “competitive and financial issues.”

“It’ll be disappointing if they’re not interested in taking the next step,” Delany said. “It’s somewhat implicit that when we decided to contact Notre Dame as the first institution to talk to, that we felt they would be the best fit for us.”

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Washington will declare ineligible four football players who received illegal visits from assistants to Coach Rick Neuheisel--cornerback Chris Massey of Moreno Valley, cornerback Domynic Shaw of Oakland, kicker John Anderson of Boyton Beach, Fla., and safety Clayton Hawthorne of Victoria, Texas. Then the school will ask the NCAA to restore the players’ eligibility. The Pacific 10 Conference is also looking into rules violations.

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Mike Sanford, who coached Keyshawn Johnson, Johnnie Morton and Curtis Conway at USC, was hired as wide receivers coach of the San Diego Chargers. . . . Florida and Miami plan to renew their heated college football rivalry after a 15-year hiatus with a home-and-home series in 2002-03.

Tennis

In her first match since losing in the semifinals of the Australian Open, top-ranked Lindsay Davenport began defense of her Pan Pacific title with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Mary Fernandez at Tokyo.

Next for Davenport is today’s quarterfinal match against seventh-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, who defeated Els Callens of Belgium, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5.

Also reaching the quarterfinals was fifth-seeded Steffi Graf of Germany, who defeated Elena Lithovtseva of Russia, 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2. Graf next plays Australian Open winner Martina Hingis of Switzerland.

Australian Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia was upset by Dominik Hrbaty in the Marseille Open in France.

The Slovak beat a tired-looking Kafelnikov, 6-7 (7-4), 6-4, 6-2, in a second-round match.

World junior champion Roger Federer of Switzerland added to his growing reputation, beating Jerome Golmard of France, 6-7 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5), and advancing to the quarterfinals.

Federer beat top-seeded Carlos Moya in the first round.

Baseball

The Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays quietly rekindled trade talks within the last week aimed at moving five-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens to his hometown of Houston, Newsday reported. . . . Detroit Tiger closer Todd Jones, who had one year left on his old contract, agreed to a three-year deal worth $10.125 million. . . . Mike Trombley, a stalwart of Minnesota’s bullpen the last two seasons, agreed to a one-year contract worth $1.475 million. . . . Mike Fetters and the Baltimore Orioles agreed to a minor league contract and the reliever will go to spring training with the major league team. . . . Charges stemming from an altercation between Cleveland Indian outfielder Wilfredo Cordero and his wife’s former husband were dropped after the men reached an agreement, lawyers at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, said.

Miscellany

Vladimir Smirnov of Kazakhstan, former Olympic and world champion cross-country skier, retired after being beaten by teammate Andrey Nevzorov in the men’s 30-kilometer race in the Asian Winter Games at Yongpyong, South Korea.

The Cincinnati Bengals gave permission to receiver Carl Pickens to try to negotiate a trade, his agent said. Pickens’ agent, Stephen Zucker, said the Bengals have told him they will use their franchise designation on Pickens, which means that any team signing him after he becomes a free agent Feb. 12 would have to surrender two first-round picks.

Bet Me Best, a 3-year-old gelding who has won all six of his starts, will be sidelined for several months because of a knee injury.

The president of this summer’s women’s World Cup soccer tournament in the United States said that her organizing committee has received projections for television viewership that would make it the most-viewed women’s sporting event ever. Marla Messing, speaking at a luncheon at the Amateur Athletic Foundation celebrating the 13th National Girls and Women in Sports Day, said the 16-team tournament June 20-July 4 will be seen by “1 billion viewers on TV, more than the Super Bowl.”