LSU’s Dorsey wins Nagurski

A day after their teams landed in the national championship game, Louisiana State defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey and Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis spent Monday night playfully talking trash in a hotel ballroom in Charlotte, N.C.

They left with Dorsey holding the upper hand -- for now.

Behind his 64 tackles and six sacks, Dorsey beat out Laurinaitis to win the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, awarded to the nation’s top defensive player by the Charlotte Touchdown Club.

“We’ve got to go at it,” explained Dorsey, who has 11 1/2 tackles for a loss despite being hampered by a sore knee late in the season. “We met over the summertime at the Playboy All-America thing. We got to know each other then.

“It’s going to be interesting. It’s going to be fun.”

Dorsey unseated Laurinaitis, who last year became the first sophomore to win the Nagurski. Laurinaitis has put up gaudy numbers again this season, with 103 tackles and five sacks while anchoring the nation’s top defense.

The other three finalists were Virginia defensive end Chris Long, who has 14 sacks; South Florida defensive end George Selvie, who has 14 1/2 sacks; and Kansas cornerback Aqib Talib, who has four interceptions.

More bowl-bound Division I programs are meeting the NCAA’s minimum acceptable academic standards than last year, according to a study.

The report by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida found that of the 64 teams headed for bowls, 73% earned recent Academic Progress Rate scores of above 925, which means they would not be subject to NCAA penalties.

In 2006, only 63% met the cutoff.