Off the wire

LITTLE ROCK — FOOTBALL

McCarney in at North Texas

Dan McCarney, a Florida assistant and former Iowa State head coach, will be announced as the new coach of the Mean Greento day, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Monday. Todd Dodge was fired this season in the fourth year of a five-year deal. He was hired before the 2007 season after going 79-1and winning four state championships in his final five years at nearby Southlake Carroll High School, making North Texas the first upper-division school to elevate a head coach straight from high school since Notre Dame with Gerry Faust in 1981. Dodge finished with a record of 6-37, including a 1-6 start this year. Offensive coordinator Mike Canales was the interim head coach as the Mean Green ended the season 3-9 following Saturday’s loss to Kansas State. McCarney has coached the defense at Florida since 2008 after spending a year at South Florida following his departure from Iowa State.

BASKETBALL

Hospitalized player released

Purdue women’s basketball player Drey Mingo has been released from a hospital after five days of treatment for bacterial meningitis. Purdue says Mingo left the hospital Sunday and will continue receiving care from several sources, including the school’s athletics training and medical staff. She was admitted last week in critical condition with the inflammation of membranes around the brain and spine that can be fatal. Her illness prompted the Boilermakers to cancel a holiday tournament trip to Mexico. They are scheduled to play a home game against Maryland on Thursday. Mingo is a junior from Atlanta who is averaging 17.3 points and7.3 rebounds this season.

BASEBALL

Steroid suspects on ballot

Suspected steroid users Rafael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez are on baseball’s Hall of Fame ballot for the first time and join Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar, both having fallen just short in last year’s vote. Former MVPs Jeff Bagwell and Larry Walker, and former Rookies of the Year Benito Santiago and Raul Mondesi also will be on the 33-man ballot, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America said Monday. Mark Mc-Gwire, 10th on the career list with 583 homers, received 128 votes (23.7 percent) in totals announced last January following his fourth appearance of the ballot - well under the 75 percent needed for election. He admitted before last season to using steroids and human growth hormone during his playing days. Palmeiro is 12th on the career list with 569 home runs and had 3,020 hits, joining Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray as the only players in the 500-3,000 club. Gonzalez hit 434 home runs and was the American League MVP in 1996 and 1998 for Texas.

Pitcher Javier Vazquez and the Florida Marlins reached a preliminary agreement on a $7 million, one-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The deal is subject to Vazquez passing a physical, the person said Monday. The 34-year-old right-hander was 10-10 with a 5.32 ERA last season in his return to the New York Yankees, who acquired him from Atlanta. He was dropped from the rotation during the second half of the season and didn’t appear in the playoffs. Because the Yankees offered salary arbitration, New York will receive draft-pick compensation next June.

NBA

Boozer begins practice

Chicago Bulls forward Carlos Boozer reported no problems after practicing with the team Monday for the first time since breaking his right hand in an accident at his home Oct. 2. Despite the successful outing, Coach Tom Thibodeau wasn’t ready to make a decision on whether Boozer would play Wednesday against Orlando. “He looked fine,” Thibodeau said. “We’ll see how it goes tomorrow [in practice] and in the shoot around on Wednesday. For the first day, it was very good.” Thibodeau said that the final decision on Boozer’s availability will be made by the ninth-year forward, who joined the team over the summer after signing a five-year, $75 million contract as a free agent. “I’m going to see,” Boozer said. Boozer suffered the injury shortly before the start of the preseason schedule. He said that he fell over a bag that had been left on the floor when he rushed to answer the door of his apartment. Boozer missed the entire preseason and hasn’t played in any of Chicago’s 15 regular-season games to date. He averaged 19.5 points in 11.2 rebounds in 78 games last year for Utah.

FOOTBALL

TCU headed to Big East Conference

TCU is moving to the Big East Conference, where the Horned Frogs won’t have to worry about busting the BCS to play for a national championship.

TCU’s board of trustees unanimously approved an invitation Monday to join the Big East in football and all other sports. The move from the Mountain West Conference becomes official July 1, 2012.

The Big East will provide TCU automatic access to the BCS and its five big-money games. That league, currently with eight football teams, has one of six automatic BCS slots.

TCU Athletic Director Chris Del Conte said gaining automatic-qualifying status “was a big factor” in the move and gives the Horned Frogs “the greatest opportunity to compete for the national championship.”

The Big East has schools in nine of the nation’s 35 largest media markets and will soon add Dallas/Fort Worth, the fifth largest.

“Located in one of the top five media markets in the country, TCU also enables the Big East to extend its media footprint, which already encompasses more than a quarter of the country,” Big East Commissioner John Marinatto said.

The pending departure of TCU continues a big shuffle for the Mountain West, which next season is losing Utah to the expanded Pacific-12 and Brigham Young,which is going independent in football. Boise State, another big BCS buster, is moving from the Western Athletic Conference to the Mountain West along with Fresno State and Nevada.

Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson said there were “conversations already under way with potential future members.”

Del Conte said losing BYU and Utah was a “significant blow” to the Mountain West.

“It was not the same league that we joined,” he said. “It’s not the same home that we bought, it’s not same home we were invited to, and things changed, the landscape changed.”

The Horned Frogs (12-0) wrapped up their second consecutive undefeated regular season and Mountain West title with a 66-17 victory at New Mexico on Saturday.

TCU is third in the BCS standings, the highest for a nonautomatic qualifying team, and in line for a chance to play for the national championship if Auburn or Oregon loses next weekend. The Frogs likely will play in the Rose Bowl if Auburn and Oregon both win.

The only current Big East team ranked in The Associated Press poll is No. 23 West Virginia (8-3, 4-2 Big East), which is 24th in the BCS standings. Connecticut (7-4, 4-2) could get the league’s automatic BCS spot.