Friday, May 27, 2005

The coaches' college football poll will no longer be a secret: Balloting in the final regular season poll will be made public for the first time.

"Our coaches were under no obligation to do this," Grant Teaff , executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, said yesterday. "The good news is that somebody out there thinks that transparency is good for the system and our coaches said, 'Okay, we hear you and we're going to join in and do our part.' "

Teaff said most coaches did not want to release the votes because of the scrutiny it would bring, but decided to vote for the change to quell any "uncalled-for controversy." He said there are no circumstances where the group would allow their in-season voting to be made public.

"The in-season polls are just a barometer," Teaff said. "The final poll that determines the two teams that play in the national championship seems to be the one every wants to know about."

Sixty-two coaches vote in the USA Today/ESPN poll.

· PRO HOCKEY: Progress was reported for the second straight week in labor talks between the NHL and the players' association.

Both sides issued brief statements, but didn't reveal many details of what was discussed.

Players' association senior director Ted Saskin said he expected NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and union executive director Bob Goodenow to schedule new meetings soon. NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly said the sides planned to meet again next week.

· OLYMPICS: Michelle Kwan said she wants to compete at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy.

"I said after the 2002 Olympics I was going to play it by ear, go with the flow, and it worked for me," said Kwan, 24, in New York with other Olympians for the Visa Gold Medal Athlete Summit. "After spending some time with these athletes and coming here to New York, I said, 'This will be a great experience, try it one more time.' "

· STEROIDS: Legislation that would set minimum steroid-testing rules and penalties for the four major U.S. professional sports was rubber-stamped by a House committee. The Government Reform Committee made no changes before giving its approval to the Clean Sports Act, sponsored by the committee's chairman, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.).

It's one of two similar bills on the subject; the Drug Free Sports Act is going through the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The two panels will now consult, and they could combine the bills.

· PRO BASKETBALL: NBA Hall of Famer Dave Cowens , 57, was hired to coach and be the general manager of Chicago's expansion WNBA team, which will begin play in May 2006.

· OBITUARY: Alfonso "Chico" Carrasquel , the first player from Latin America to appear in Major League Baseball's all-star game, died of a heart attack in his native Venezuela. He was 77.

-- From News Services