Texas A&M may leave Big 12 for Southeastern Conference

The Texas A&M System board of regents has called a special meeting Monday that includes an agenda item about conference alignment. The session comes amid speculation that Texas A&M is leaving the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference.

Texas A&M considered switching to the SEC last year before staying in the Big 12. The university hasn’t confirmed it is again discussing a jump to the SEC, but talk has been intensifying that the Aggies are looking to leave.

The news of the meeting comes on the heels of the Texas House Committee on Higher Education calling a Tuesday hearing, to which Big 12, SEC and Texas A&M officials have been invited, to discuss possible realignment of college conferences in the state.

Florida State is another school that has been mentioned as a potential new addition to the SEC. But university President Eric Barron said he hasn’t had any talks about his school leaving the Atlantic Coast Conference for the SEC. Still, he didn’t say it would never happen.

Aggie Internet message boards and blogs were lighting up with chatter about such a move and several posts on Friday said that students chanted: “SEC! SEC!” as university President R. Bowen Loftin walked to the podium at Texas A&M commencement ceremonies.

Such a move could jeopardize the future of the Big 12 and has state legislators concerned. The Higher Education committee said Commissioners Dan Beebe of the Big 12 and Mike Slive of the SEC have been invited to testify, as have Loftin and A&M system board of regents Chairman Richard A. Box.

Ohio State’s hearing before the NCAA Friday in Indianapolis took only four hours. Now it must wait up to 12 weeks to find out how it will be penalized for rules broken by its football program.

A memorabilia-for-cash scandal that resulted in player suspensions, coach Jim Tressel’s forced resignation and the departure of star quarterback Terrelle Pryor also led to Ohio State’s hearing before the NCAA’s committee on infractions on Friday.

No one from the public or media was allowed into the guarded meeting room in the ballroom of a downtown hotel.

Apparently Ohio State officials felt the penalties they had self-imposed earlier — Tressel’s departure, vacating the 2010 season including a victory in the Sugar Bowl and a two-year NCAA probation — were not enough to mollify the NCAA’s version of judge and jury. Athletic Director Gene Smith said that in addition to those previous sanctions, Ohio State will forfeit its $338,811 share of the Big Ten’s payment for having played in the bowl game.

Smith also said he looked forward to hearing Ohio State’s final penalties in 8 to 12 weeks — much longer than the 6-to-8 week window he had mentioned previously.

Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino confirmed Friday that running back Knile Davis is expected to miss the season because of a left ankle injury. Davis led all Southeastern Conference running backs with 1,322 yards rushing last season, averaging 147 yards per game over the final seven games of the season.

The injury is a major blow to the preseason expectations for the Razorbacks, who were 10-3 and reached their first BCS bowl game last season. Davis suffered the injury early in the scrimmage portion of practice on Thursday.

Top seeded Novak Djokovic crushed Gael Monfils, 6-2, 6-1, to line up a second match in five weeks with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semifinal of the Rogers Cup in Montreal.

Sixth-seeded Mardy Fish reached the semis as the American muscled his way past Stanislas Wawrinka, 6-3, 6-7 (10), 6-0.

Fish will next play Serb Janko Tipsarevic, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over seventh seed Tomas Berdych.

In Toronto, Samantha Stosur defeated Roberta Vinci, 6-4, 6-1 to reach the Rogers Cup semifinals. Stosur will take on Agnieszka Radwanska, who beat Andrea Petkovic, 6-4, 6-3.

Defending champion Danielle Kang beat Demi Frances Runas, 4 and 3, to advance to the semifinals in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington.

Kang, 18, of Westlake Village, plays at Pepperdine. Runas is from Torrance. Kang will face Alabama’s Brooke Pancake on Saturday. Pancake, from Chattanooga, Tenn., beat Erynne Lee of Silverdale, Wash., in 21 holes.

An 18-year-old skier was dismissed from the U.S. Ski Team’s development squad after he was accused of getting drunk and then urinating on a 12-year-old girl aboard a JetBlue flight. Robert “Sandy” Vietze, of Warren, Vt., was detained by police at New York’s Kennedy Airport on Wednesday morning after arriving on a red-eye flight from Portland, Ore.

Don Chandler, a kicker and punter who was part of four championship teams with the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants, died Thursday in Tulsa, Okla. He was 76.

Chandler played 12 NFL seasons, nine with the Giants and three with the Packers. He won an NFL championship with the Giants as a rookie in 1956.

Former world heavyweight boxing contender Scott LeDoux died at age 62 after battling Lou Gehrig’s disease. His longtime friend and attorney Bob Dolan said LeDoux died Thursday at his Coon Rapids, Minn., home after a nearly three-year battle with the disease.