Big 12 officials vote to add TCU

After more than a year of watching their league be picked apart, leaders of Big 12 Conference schools finally made a proactive move Thursday by voting to add Texas Christian as early as next year.

It was the first aggressive act by a league desperate to secure its membership amid dramatic shifts in conference affiliation. And if the Horned Frogs join the Big 12, it would be another sharp blow to the Big East, which was expecting to welcome TCU next year.

TCU Chancellor Victor Boschini Jr. suggested TCU is all but ready to join the Big 12.

“These discussions with the Big 12 have huge implications for TCU,” Boschini said. “It will allow us to return to old rivalries, something our fans and others have been advocating for years.”

TCU, which is leaving the Mountain West Conference, has a rising football program that won the Rose Bowl last season and will play in a sparkling new stadium next year.

Missouri is hoping to join the Southeastern Conference but would have preferred an offer from the Big Ten that never came, a university official said.

Missouri hoped to join the Big Ten last year, but the league instead chose Nebraska. The university official said the Big Ten remains Missouri’s top choice, but that conference “has no interest.”

ETC.

U.S.’ Merritt cleared to run in London

Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt was cleared to defend his 400-meter title in London next year after the American won his appeal against an IOC rule banning doping offenders from the Games.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport annulled the International Olympic Committee rule that bars any athlete who has received a doping suspension of more than six months from competing in the next summer or winter Games.

Lakers star Pau Gasol practiced for the first time with Barcelona, his team until the NBA lockout ends.

Gasol said Spain would be the “best option” if he had to look for another league.

He said it would be a “catastrophe” if the NBA lockout led to the season being canceled.

Prosecutors have dropped a marijuana possession charge against NBA veteran Marcus Camby after his arrest during a traffic stop in suburban Houston.

Camby was arrested last month after police in Pearland, Texas, said they found less than two ounces of the drug inside a Porsche he was driving. Also arrested was Camby’s cousin Kendal Johnson, who was in the vehicle.

Brazoria County Dist. Atty. Jeri Yenne said Camby’s charge was dropped this week after Johnson said the marijuana was his.

Defending champion Y.E. Yang shot a four-under-par 67 in the Korea Open at Seoul for a share of the first-round lead with Rickie Fowler.

U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy was a stroke back at Woo Jeong Hills along with Hong Soon-sang and Lee Soo-min.

A Minnesota judge threw out a felony charge against the brother of hockey enforcer Derek Boogaard for supplying a painkiller that contributed to the player’s overdose death this year.

Aaron Boogaard, 24, told police he gave his brother an oxycodone pill at the start of a night of partying that led to Boogaard’s death May 13 at age 28. Aaron Boogaard was charged with unlawful distribution of a controlled substance.

In dismissing the charge, Hennepin County District Judge William Howard said the facts of the case didn’t support the charge. Howard wrote that Derek Boogaard had acquired the drugs and asked his brother to hold them, and that Aaron Boogaard’s act of giving him the pill was merely returning his property to him.

Chuck Blazer is resigning as the No. 2 official of CONCACAF in December, five months after going public with bribery accusations against his then-boss.

The 66-year-old American has been secretary-general of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football since 1990.

Blazer said he will retain his post on the FIFA executive committee. He was elected to football’s most powerful body in 1997, and his current term runs through mid-2013.