"Sometimes, you just know it's time," said McCarney. As hard as it is to say that - especially because I know that this department is on the cusp of some special things - I realize it is time for different leadership. I have led the football program for 12 years. That is a long time in this day and age to lead any organization."

McCarney, the school's longest-tenured and winningest coach in school history, posted a 55-84 record over 12 seasons at the helm of the Cyclones, including five bowl appearances, the first two bowl wins in school history and a 6-6 record against state-rival Iowa.

According to a report in the Winston Salem Journal, the announcement could be made early next week.

UNC was seeking a replacement for John Bunting, who was fired on October 22, although he is still coaching the team until the end of the season.

The Longhorns are coming off one of their best campaigns ever in 2005-06, as they won a school-record 30 games, in addition to making it to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. However, with all five starters gone from that group, Texas has some serious rebuilding to do. Despite those losses, the Longhorns enter the season in the top-25 thanks to several rising stars and a talented group of newcomers. In terms of season-rs, the Longhorns boast an 81-19 all-time mark, including a 6-2 record under current head coach Rick Barnes.

As for ASU, it is coming off a disappointing 2005-06 season which saw the club stumble to an 8-20 finis...

Mobley, who shot 10-of-15 from the field, had seven rebounds and four steals for the Clippers, who have won four straight since dropping their season-r to Phoenix.

"We didn't play well in the first half, but we attacked them in the second half," Mobley said. "Our offense worked off our defense. We were able to make easy buckets. We stayed aggressive as much as possible."

According to San Jose Mercury News, Fremont must approve a large-scale development plan for the ballpark, as well as homes and shops, on a 143-acre parcel west of Interstate 880 in Pacific Commons. The ballpark, which would contain 32,000 to 35,000 seats, couldas soon as 2011.

Cisco has a 34-year lease on the property, and has an option to buy it in the next three years from the original developer.

(Sports Network) - Now that the dust has settled on the 2006 Major League Baseball season, the free agent frenzy is about to begin. There figures to be plenty of money thrown around this offseason, more so than in recent years anyway, despite the fact that the free agent class is marginal at best.

However, there is one big ticket item available and that player is Alfonso Soriano, who is coming off a sensational season with the Washington Nationals. A five-time All-Star, Soriano last season joined Jose Canseco (Oakland 1988), Barry Bonds (San Francisco 1996) and Alex Rodriguez (Seattle 1998) as the only players with 40 homers and 40 stolen bases in the same season. He finished his first campaign with the Nationals hitting .277 with 46 homers, 95 RBI and 41 stolen bases.

Nylander also had two assists while Henrik Lundqvist came up with 36 saves for the Rangers, who have won three of their last four. Lundqvist also stopped each shot he faced in the shootout, and is now a perfect 19-of-19 on the season in the shooter-friendly session.

Ruslan Salei scored his first goal as a Panther and Nathan Horton had a goal and an assist for Florida, which has dropped four of five. Ed Belfour made 27 saves in defeat.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored his 13th goal of the season to tie teammate Marian Hossa for the league-lead, while Hossa finished with three assists for the Thrashers, who won their fourth contest in a row.

Goaltender Kari Lehtonen took over for an ineffective Johan Hedberg, stopping all 19 shots he faced to pick up the win.

Altidore had a procedure to repair the Ulnar Collateral Ligament of his right thumb. Dr. Keith Raskin at the New York University Medical Center performed the surgery.

Meanwhile, Graham had his left patella tendon repaired in a procedure performed by team physician Dr. Edward Decter.

Frisco, TX (Sports Network) - Major League Soccer's FC Dallas announced Tuesday that it will not be renewing the contract of head coach Colin Clarke for next season.

The announcement comes after the Hoops suffered a heart-breaking loss in the Western Conference Semifinal Series to Colorado in penalty kicks a week ago Saturday.

According to Richard Childress Racing officials, Kevin Harvick was walking to the garage with his wife, DeLana, when Curione, the front tire carrier for Scott Riggs, shoved Harvick, sending him and his wife the ground.

The shove was a violation of Section 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racking; involved in an altercation with another competitor) in the 2006 NASCAR rule book.

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - The "Chase for the Nextel Cup" has essential become a two-man battle between "Mr. Consistency," Matt Kenseth, and Jimmie Johnson.

NASCAR

In a battle of former world No. 1s and former Championships titlists, the second-seeded Sharapova (2-0), of Russia, charged past sixth-seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters 6-4, 6-4. Clijsters (0-1) captured this event back-to-back in 2002 and 2003, while Sharapova was the big winner in 2004.

Sharapova broke Clijsters' serve three times and struck 11 more winners (24-13) than her Belgian counterpart. The big Russian capped her high-quality Day-2 outing with a big ace down the middle of the court.

Federer-Nalbandian will be followed on Sunday by another round-robin bout between fourth-seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic and fifth-seeded American Andy Roddick. On Monday, second-seeded Spaniard Rafael Nadal will face eighth- seeded American James Blake and third-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko will battle sixth-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo.

The Tennis Masters Cup is the last tournament on the ATP schedule and features only the top-eight players for the year. There are two four-man groups. The "Red Group" features the Wimbledon, U.S. and Australianchampion Federer, Ljubicic, the U.S. runner-up Roddick and the seventh-seeded Nalban...

Tiger Woods, the No. 1 player in the world, played competitively for the first time in weeks and showed some rust. He only managed an even-par 72 and is tied for 27th place.

"It was to be had out there," acknowledged Woods. "This is my first full 18 holes since the AmEx (WGC-American Express Championship in late September.) I made a few mistakes out there."

The event will be contested on the East and West Courses at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club from January 11-14, 2007. The tournament, which will be co-sanctioned by the European Tour and the Sunshine Tour, is the 51st event counting towards the 2007 Order of Merit.

"This is the first time that the International Schedule has included three separate Order of Merit tournaments in South Africa in the same season and the addition of the Joburgtakes to 51 the official number of counting events for 2007," said George O'Grady, executive director of the European Tour. "This is an extremely strong schedule and is in keeping with our aim of providing our members with as many playing opportunities as possible, while further underlining our strong relationship with the Sunshine Tour."

New York, NY (Sports Network) - The last time Wladimir Klitschko prepared to face an unbeaten and highly touted new trailblazer in the heavyweight division, the pre-fight vibe sounded a whole lot different.

Counting down to the Kazakhstan native's meeting with African knockout artist Samuel Peter in September 2005, the questions centered mainly on what round - and from what punch - the over-hyped 6-foot-6 giant would tumble.

Contractual issues between the fighters and the promoter Global Spectrum led to the cancellation.

"It is unfortunate for the boxing fans of Philadelphia that this significant event has been called off due to contractual issues for the fight," said Global Spectrum Chief Operating Officer John Page.

Bernardini lost to Invasor in last Saturday's $5 million Classic as the even- money favorite. The colt will stand for the price of $100,000.

Bernardini finished his only year of racing with six wins in eight starts and more than $3 million. Trained by Tom Albertrani, he won the Preakness, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Horses bred in the Commonwealth of Kentucky had captured 99 Breeders Cup races, far outdistancing the 18-victory total compiled by horses bred in Florida, a clear second in states that have been represented by state-bred horses in the World Championships.

Kentucky-bred horses have dominated the Classic with 14 victories. California and Maryland are the only other states to have been represented by more than one state-bred victory - although Tiznow was responsible for both of Californias Classic successes in 2000-2001. Cigar (1995) and Concern (1994) scored back-to-back for Maryland. California-bred Classic contenders Lava Man and Brother Derek each have the opportunity to break the tie with Maryland,...