College football

Louisville’s interim president was authorized Oct. 2 to fire Rick Pitino because of a federal bribery investigation, a scandal that has shaken the university and brought down one of the most prominent coaches in college basketball.

The school’s Athletics Association, a separate body of officials that oversees Louisville’s sports programs, unanimously approved a resolution to fire Pitino after meeting for more than two hours on Monday.

Pitino was placed on unpaid administrative leave last week after law enforcement officials announced the probe and the school acknowledged its inclusion in the investigation. Though Pitino is not named in court complaints, Postel says the allegations violated his contract and provided just cause to be placed on unpaid leave.

Athletic director Tom Jurich was placed on paid administrative leave and Postel said he plans to announce an interim replacement Tuesday.

The Monday vote came exactly two years after the revelation of a sex scandal that led to NCAA penalties for Pitino and Louisville this summer. Pitino and the university are appealing those sanctions, which could end with the vacating of the school’s 2013 national championship.

During a trustee board meeting, Postel released Sept. 27 disciplinary letters to Pitino and Jurich in which he called the allegations “disturbing and unprecedented.”

David Padgett was named as Pitino’s interim replacement Friday. The letters were released Monday as Postel and university trustees discussed the scandal for the first time. Jurich is on paid leave pending review.

Youngstown State University has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit with a football player convicted of rape as a teen who sued after the Ohio school allowed him to join the team and then told him he couldn’t play this season.

An attorney for Steubenville resident Ma’lik Richmond says he’ll remain on the football team under the deal announced Oct. 2. The university will pay for legal costs. Other terms of the deal were not made immediately available.

Richmond made the team in January but was told in August that he couldn’t play after a student circulated a petition to keep him off the team. Richmond filed suit against his school Sept. 13. A judge issued a temporary order the next day allowing Richmond to play. Seventh-ranked Michigan will be without injured quarterback Wilton Speight for an undisclosed amount of time and John O’Korn will get the start Saturday night at home against Michigan State.

Coach Jim Harbaugh did not reveal details of the injury to Speight, who was hurt in the first quarter of a Sept. 23 victory at Purdue. He left the stadium for X-rays and Harbaugh later referred to it as a “soft tissue” injury.

O’Korn started one game last season in place of Speight against Indiana. The fifth-year senior began his career at Houston, where he started 16 games and threw 34 touchdowns over his freshman and sophomore seasons. He then transferred to Michigan and finished second to Speight in a competition to be the team’s No. 1 QB last season and again this year.

O’Korn was 18 of 26 for 270 yards with a touchdown in last month’s 28-10 win over the Boilermakers. A federal appeals court in New Orleans could rule as early as Tuesday on whether Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott must begin serving a six-game suspension because of domestic violence allegations.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Elliott in August after the league concluded a yearlong investigation that found Elliott had several physical confrontations with his then-girlfriend in Ohio.

Prosecutors didn’t pursue the case, citing conflicting evidence. Elliott has denied the allegations under oath.

Elliott has been allowed to play, however, because a federal district judge blocked the suspension pending appeals.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Monday.