Clarett Exaggerated in Report to the Police

Ohio State tailback Maurice Clarett has acknowledged exaggerating the value of items he reported stolen from a car he was driving and will be held out of preseason practice while the NCAA investigates.

In a statement released from the school Wednesday, Athletic Director Andy Geiger and Coach Jim Tressel said Clarett wouldn’t participate in camp until “all issues related to his eligibility regarding his amateur status have been resolved.”

The NCAA is investigating a police report filed by Clarett claiming cash and thousands of dollars of stereo equipment owned by him were stolen from the car.

The release from the school included an apology from Clarett and a statement from Clarett’s attorney, Scott Schiff, who said the car was borrowed and that many of the items belonged to the vehicle’s owner.

“I genuinely and sincerely apologize to my teammates and to the Ohio State University for any embarrassment this incident may have caused,” Clarett said in the statement.

Schiff said Clarett used the car to attend a workout on April 17, when the vehicle was broken into. Maurice filed a theft report with campus police.

“Maurice did exaggerate and inflate the values he placed upon the reported items,” Schiff said.

According to the police report, two built-in television monitors and stereo equipment worth $5,000, $800 in cash, $300 in clothing and 300 compact discs were stolen.

The property wasn’t found, and police have closed the case.

*

Louisville Athletic Director Tom Jurich said he has no timeline for a decision on whether the Cardinals will leave Conference USA and join the Big East.

Miami and Virginia Tech left the Big East to join the Atlantic Coast Conference on June 30, setting off speculation that Louisville was a leading candidate to join the depleted league.

The Big East needs to add at least two teams in order to maintain its conference status and retain its membership in the bowl championship series.

*

Oklahoma edged defending national champion Ohio State for No. 1 in the preseason USA Today-ESPN coaches college football poll. USC is ranked eighth.

The Sooners, who beat Washington State, 34-14, in the Rose Bowl to finish 12-2, received 29 first-place votes and 1,514 points.

Ohio State got 28 first-place votes and had 1,495 points. The Buckeyes beat Miami, 31-24, in double overtime in the Fiesta Bowl to complete a 14-0 season.

Miami was ranked third with five first-place votes and 1,448 points, followed by Texas and Kansas State.

Auburn received the only other first-place vote and was sixth, with Michigan, USC, Georgia and Virginia Tech rounding out the top 10.

(Complete poll on Day in Sports page.)

*

Tennis

Top-seeded Andre Agassi had an easy time moving closer to his sixth Legg Mason Classic title, beating Sargis Sargsian, 6-3, 6-2, to join Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals.

Agassi, 40-9 in his 15 tournament appearances in Washington, needed only one good return game in each set to beat the 13th-seeded Sargsian for the sixth consecutive time.

The second-seeded Roddick defeated Greg Rusedski, 6-3, 7-6 (4), in his third-round match.

The USTA announced that the U.S. Open women’s singles championship -- with a record $1 million awarded to the winner -- will be broadcast live in prime time on Sept. 6, at 5 p.m. PDT by CBS Sports.

The broadcast time is an hour earlier than the 2002 championship. The U.S. Open is the only Grand Slam tournament to present a prime-time final on network television.

*

Hockey

The Pittsburgh Penguins signed unrestricted free agents Kelly Buchberger and Mike Eastwood.

Buchberger, 36, is a 16-year NHL veteran who played on three Stanley Cup champions with the Edmonton Oilers, and also played for Atlanta, the Kings and Phoenix. He had 104 goals and 201 assists with 2,188 penalty minutes in 1,111 games.

Eastwood, also 36, has 83 goals and 134 assists with 314 penalty minutes in 12 seasons with Toronto, Winnipeg, Phoenix, the New York Rangers, St. Louis and Chicago.

As expected, Mario Lemieux, the sixth-leading scorer in NHL history, announced that he will play the upcoming season for the Penguins. Lemieux, who will be 38 in October, has hinted for weeks that he was coming back.

Center Jozef Stumpel, a restricted free agent, signed a one-year, $2.85-million contract with the Kings, who reacquired him in June after trading him to the Boston Bruins in 2001.

Stumpel, 30, had 14 goals and 37 assists last season.

The Kings also signed veteran defenseman Bryan Muir and forwards Kip Brennan and Jerred Smithson to one-year contracts.

Muir, 30, had two assists in 32 games with the Colorado Avalanche last season.

*

Miscellany

Funny Cide drew the No. 5 post position and was made the morning line favorite for Sunday’s $1-million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, his first start since failing to win the Triple Crown.

The New York-bred gelding will face six rivals in the 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds.

Funny Cide will carry high weight of 123 pounds, conceding from 2 to 8 pounds to the rest of the field.

Frankie Fredericks won the 100 and 200-meter races at the Gugl track and field meet in Linz, Austria, giving him a record five titles at the event.

Fredericks, 35, a four-time 200 Olympic silver medalist from Namibia, won the 100 in 10.14 and the 200 in 20.36.

*

Passings

Former American League umpire George Maloney died while traveling from his home in San Jacinto to observe umpires in the Class-A Pioneer League in Idaho, Utah and Montana. He was 75.

The National Assn. of Professional Baseball Leagues said Maloney died Tuesday in Barstow. No further details were made available.