■ Northeastern University is ending its football program after 74 seasons because the investment required to make it competitive was too high.
The school announced the decision yesterday after president Joseph Aoun and the board of trustees endorsed on Friday the recommendation by athletics director Peter Roby after a two-year review of the Boston school's sports programs.
Roby said that an investment of "tens of millions of dollars" to replace or upgrade spartan Parsons Field would be required to help make the football program competitive with others in the Colonial Athletic Association.
"I think everybody in higher education is faced with the dilemma of competing priorities and investments," Roby said. "So this wasn't about what we were already spending. This was about what we were going to really need to spend going forward if we were really going to be fair about allowing people to compete equally.
"The status quo was not an option."
The school spends more than $4 million annually on the football program while an average of 1,500 to 2,000 people attend home games, Roby said, but the size of the crowds was not a factor in the decision.
■ Mike Kent, who was Appalachian State's director of strength and conditioning from 1990 through 1998, will return. He will replace Jeff Dillman, who became director of athletic performance at IMG Academies in Bradenton, Fla., in August.
Kent, who has been the strength and conditioning coordinator at Kansas State since 2007, will begin work at ASU on Dec. 1. Kent also was the strength and conditioning coach at Pittsburgh from 2004 through 2006, Louisville from 2000 through 2003 and Eastern Kentucky in 1999.
■ Georgia cornerback Brandon Boykin says that the hip injury which forced him out of last week's game against Kentucky should not keep him from playing against Georgia Tech this week.
Meanwhile, Coach Mark Richt says he hopes receiver A.J. Green and safety Bacarri Rambo also can return from injuries for Saturday night's game at No. 7 Georgia Tech.
Green, Georgia's top receiver, and Rambo missed the Kentucky game with shoulder and head injuries, respectively.
Boykin also is Georgia's top kickoff return specialist.
■ The Mountain West Conference has reprimanded defensive end Jan Jorgensen of BYU and assistant coach Barry Lamb for comments they made about Air Force.
Jorgensen called the Falcons "legal, but dirty" and Lamb criticized Air Force for low cut blocks in a story that appeared in the Provo Daily Herald last week.
The No. 18 Cougars beat the Falcons 38-21 on Saturday.
The Mountain West issued a public reprimand for Jorgensen and Lamb yesterday, saying they violated the league's sportsmanship rules.
■ Prosecutors have dropped attempted aggravated robbery charges against Tennessee freshman safety Janzen Jackson.
The Knox County District Attorney's office said yesterday that charges would be dropped. Charges were also dropped against Marie Montmarquet, 22, who had been accused of driving the getaway car.
The district attorney's office said that neither person knew the robbery was going to happen.
Charges are still pending against Jackson's former teammates, Nu'Keese Richardson and Mike Edwards, who are accused of holding up two men at a convenience store.
■ Youngstown State Coach Jon Heacock says he's stepping down after nine seasons that included one trip to the Football Championship Subdivision semifinals.
Heacock's announcement Sunday comes a day after the team's win against North Dakota State in the season finale. The Penguins finished 6-5 overall and 4-4 in the Missouri Valley Conference.
The Penguins went 60-44 and won two conference titles under Heacock, twice selected the conference coach of the year. He served as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator at Youngstown State before taking over as head coach in 2001.
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