Harvard's Pizzotti gets top Ivy award

Harvard quarterback Chris Pizzotti was named the Ivy League Player of the Year yesterday. The Reading native passed for 2,490 yards and 17 touchdowns for the Crimson (9-1, 6-1), who were Ivy co-champions with Brown. Crimson defensive back Matthew Hanson was voted Rookie of the Year . . . Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph was voted Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year by the conference's head coaches . . . Oregon State freshman running back Jacquizz Rodgers is doubtful for Saturday's game against Oregon because of a shoulder injury. A Rose Bowl bid is on the line for the No. 17 Beavers (8-3, 7-1 Pacific-10) in the annual rivalry game against the Ducks (8-3, 6-2) . . . Cincinnati cornerback Mike Mickens had surgery Monday to repair torn cartilage in his left knee and will miss the last two regular-season games. The 16th-ranked Bearcats (9-2) hope Mickens will be back for their bowl game . . . Linebacker Mark Paschal, North Carolina's leading tackler, suffered a cervical spine injury last week against North Carolina State and school doctors have recommended he quit playing football. He is expected to make a full recovery . . . Duke has dismissed backup defensive back Eddie Morgan from the team for violating unspecified team standards . . . West Virginia freshman running back Mark Robert Sampson Jr. has been dismissed from the team after being charged with sexually assaulting a woman following a weekend party in Benwood, W.Va.

The NCAA placed Indiana on three years' probation for a telephone recruiting scandal that decimated the once-storied basketball program. The governing body also imposed restrictions through 2013 on former coach Kelvin Sampson should he return to college coaching. Sampson, who is an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks, made more than 100 impermissible phone calls to recruits while still on probation for a similar scandal at Oklahoma. Former Indiana assistant Rob Senderoff, now an assistant at Kent State, also faces three years of NCAA sanctions . . . The Atlantic 10 is moving its men's basketball tournament championship game from ESPN to CBS in 2010 and play first-round games at campus sites . . . Miami Heat forward Dorell Wright was expected to miss at least three weeks after having surgery to remove debris from his left knee.

In an interview nearly one year after releasing his controversial findings, former Senate Majority leader George Mitchell said he wouldn't change a word of his investigation report on drugs in baseball that tarnished the reputation of Roger Clemens and dozens of other players, and led to a toughened drug agreement with the players union. "Obviously as a human being, I regret and don't take pleasure in someone else's misfortune, whether I have any relationship to it or not," he said. "The impression I get is that it's had a significant impact of reducing usage, although that still remains very difficult to measure with any complete precision." . . . Phillies second baseman Chase Utley had arthroscopic hip surgery and is expected to need 4-6 months to recover. The three-time All-Star had surgery Monday to trim the labrum and a bony lesion in his right hip at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

Two weeks after bolting the general manager's post of the Ducks, Brian Burke appears close to joining the Maple Leafs as president and GM - a move that has been long-rumored. "It's certainly headed in the right direction, but it's not done yet," Burke told the Canadian sports network TSN. "I anticipate it will get done, but it's not done." . . . Former Bruins coach Mike Sullivan was hired as an associate on Tampa Bay Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet's staff. Sullivan was a Lightning associate coach under John Tortorella last season. Tocchet took over Nov. 14, when Barry Melrose was fired 16 games into his first season in Tampa Bay . . . The Avalanche placed forward Darcy Tucker on injured reserve with a knee injury and he is expected to miss four weeks.

Maria Sharapova's agent, Max Eisenbud, says the former No. 1 women's player is "on track" to defend her title at the Australian Open. Sharapova has been sidelined since July because of an injured right shoulder . . . Winky Wright's comeback from a 16-month layoff has been postponed after the former undisputed 154-pound champion injured his left hand during training in Los Angeles. Wright (51-4-1, 25 KOs) was scheduled to fight Michi Munoz in Snoqualmie, Wash., Dec. 4, in a 164-pound bout . . . Jenny Lang Ping, who guided the US women's volleyball team to the silver medal in the Beijing Olympics, is stepping down to spend more time with her family . . . The Thoroughbred Owners and Trainers Association upgraded the Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs to a Grade 3 stakes race.