6 die in crash involving ex-'Bama star

A van driven by former University of Alabama football star Siran Stacy was struck by a pickup at an intersection near Dothan, Ala., and six people were killed, including Stacy's wife and four of his children, state troopers said yesterday. The driver of the pickup also was killed, police said. Stacy, 39, a star running back for Alabama from 1989-91, was listed in stable condition in surgical intensive care at a Dothan hospital. His 3-year-old daughter, Shelly, was taken to Children's Hospital in Birmingham, which did not release her condition. State Police Sergeant Tracy Nelson said the pickup was on the wrong side of the road when it struck Stacy's van on the passenger side late Monday at an intersection on US 84. Killed in the crash were Stacy's wife, Ellen, 36; children Lequisa, 18, Bronson, 10, Sidney, 8, and Ellie, 2, and pickup driver Adam W. Wayman, 29, of Dothan.

The Bowl Championship Series will expand the pool of teams eligible for at-large bids if it is faced with a shortage of qualified contenders when the season is over. BCS rules state a team must have at least nine victories and finish in the top 14 of the final standings to qualify for an at-large bid to one of the five marquee bowl games. But because no conference can have more than two teams in the BCS, officials were facing the possibility of not having enough eligible teams to fill the 10 spots this season. The BCS announced yesterday that if fewer than 10 of the top 14 teams in the standings are eligible for an at-large bid, the qualifying standard will extend to the top 18. If enough teams are still not available, the standard would be pushed back four spots until the pool is big enough to fill all the bowls . . . Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph was named the Patriot League's Offensive Player of the Year. The junior passed for 3,604 yards and 30 touchdowns with only eight interceptions while setting a school mark for total offense with 3,741 yards . . . Florida A&M fired football coach Rubin Carter after the Rattlers finished 3-8 this season, at the same time accepting the resignation of athletic director Nelson Townsend . . . Purdue wide receiver Selwyn Lymon was dismissed from the team after being charged with drunken driving for the second time this year . . . Guard Billy Humphrey was reinstated to the Georgia basketball team after missing one game because of a weapons charge when a small knife was found in his dorm room. The move comes a day after junior guard Mike Mercer was kicked off the squad for "being a disruption," coach Dennis Felton said.

Andy Roddick will lead the United States against defending champion Russia in the Davis Cup final. The sixth-ranked Roddick, who has never won a Davis Cup title, was selected along with No. 13 James Blake and the top-ranked doubles pair of Bob and Mike Bryan. The best-of-five series will be played Nov. 30-Dec. 2 on the indoor hard courts of the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Ore. The Russian team, which won its second Davis Cup title last year, will be led by No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko, Igor Andreev, Dmitry Tursunov, and Mikhail Youzhny, the International Tennis Federation announced.

The Anaheim Ducks signed Ryan Getzlaf to a five-year extension worth $26.625 million that runs through 2012-13. The 22-year-old center, who has 7 goals and 14 assists in 19 games this season, had 25 goals and 33 assists, both career highs, in 82 regular-season games last season. He led the Ducks in scoring during the playoffs with 7 goals and 10 assists . . . The Minnesota Wild will be without two of their top scorers, Pavol Demitra (groin) and Mikko Koivu (leg), for tonight's game against the Vancouver Canucks . . . Chicago Cubs president John McDonough resigned after a little more than a year on the job and became president of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Three starters from the Houston Dynamo's title-winning team will be available to San Jose Earthquakes manager Frank Yallop in the MLS expansion draft today. Goalkeeper Pat Onstad and defenders Ryan Cochrane and Craig Waibel were left unprotected by Houston. Each team was allowed to protect 11 players. The Earthquakes will choose 10 players, but no more than one from each team, meaning three clubs will get away without having to surrender a player . . . In a deal involving reserve players, the Los Angeles Lakers traded forward Brian Cook and swingman Maurice Evans to the Orlando Magic for forward Trevor Ariza . . . Grizzlies rookie guard Mike Conley has been sidelined indefinitely with an injured right shoulder . . . International Boxing Federation champion Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 knockouts) and World Boxing Organization titleholder Sultan Ibragimov (22-0-1, 17 knockouts) will fight Feb. 23 in Madison Square Garden to unify two of the four heavyweight world titles . . . Cyclist Floyd Landis filed his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, setting in motion his last chance to regain the 2006 Tour de France title that was stripped because of a positive doping test . . . The United States lost to Spain in four sets at the volleyball Men's World Cup in Matsumoto, Japan, where the top three teams qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Spain won, 21-25, 25-20, 27-25, 25-20, dropping the Americans to 1-2 . . . Frank Vana Jr. of Boylston was named the Massachusetts Golf Association's Player of the Year for the ninth time.