North Carolina State diving coach John Candler resigned after an investigation turned up his 1966 conviction on a sex charge involving a 12-year-old girl.
Candler will remain with the athletic department in an administrative capacity until he retires March 31.
GOING BOWLING: The Florida Gators accepted an invitation to the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day in Tampa. Their opponent, likely Purdue or Iowa, will be determined this weekend.
Meanwhile, Mississippi agreed to play in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2 in Dallas. Their Big 12 opponent will be decided Sunday.
DOPING: USA Track & Field’s board of directors voted unanimously to ban for life athletes who test positive for steroids. … Retests of all samples from swimming’s world championships found no evidence of the recently detected steroid THG.
MERCURY WIN LOTTERY: Phoenix (8-26) will get the first pick in the April draft that includes Connecticut’s Diana Taurasi, Duke’s Alana Beard and Stanford’s Nicole Powell.
VOLUNTEER SERVICE: Tennessee will retire Tamika Catchings’ No. 24 jersey during a game against Louisiana Tech on Sunday. Catchings, who played part of her prep career for Stevenson, was an Illinois Miss Basketball and is the sister of Tauja, who played for Illinois.
SPIKE HYPE: Illinois’ Don Hardin has been selected Big Ten volleyball coach of the year by a vote of the conference’s coaches after leading the Illini to a 24-6 record and a berth in the NCAA tournament.
BOX SET: Vitali Klitschko and Kirk Johnson will fight 12 rounds at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
The winner becomes a mandatory opponent for WBC champ Lennox Lewis–if Lewis fights again.
TAKING IT SLOW: Former NASCAR champion Bill Elliott will race a part-time schedule in 2004, according to an auto racing source.
MORE RACING: A buyout offer to keep CART going has apparently been put on hold, and officials of the troubled racing series are considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
WORLD SOCCER: The format for 2006 World Cup qualifying that gives the United States a first-round bye was approved Wednesday by soccer’s governing body meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. The U.S. will start qualifying on June 12 or 1.
