COLLEGE FOOTBALL ROUNDUP \ News and notes

Louisville: Coach Bobby Petrino said Tuesday he plans to stay with the Cardinals, taking himself off the market for teams with coaching vacancies. "I want to make it clear that I'm not interested in any other coaching jobs, and am happy at the University of Louisville," Petrino said in a statement issued by the school. The statement came after the Mississippi athletic director Pete Boone said that Petrino's agent had contacted him about that school's coaching vacancy. Boone said the agent later called back to say the coach was no longer interested. Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said Tuesday night he was worried he wouldn't be able to convince Petrino to stay. "If I was an athletic director at any of these high-profile universities, he'd be the first guy on my list," Jurich said. "He's put together a magnificent product." Petrino guided the Cardinals to a 10-1 record, a Conference USA championship this season and a No. 7 ranking, the highest in the school's football history. His two-year mark at Louisville is 19-5. The Cardinals were led this season by a high-powered offense. Louisville became the first team in NCAA history to score at least 55 points in five straight games after beating Tulane 55-7 last Saturday. The Cardinals will play Boise State in the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 31. Petrino said he was excited about Louisville's move to the Big East Conference next season, which gives the Cardinals an automatic bid to the BCS.
Boise State: Coach Dan Hawkins signed a five-year, $2.6 million contract extension on Tuesday that could keep him with the Broncos through the 2009 season. The contract will pay Hawkins a base salary of $525,000 per year. The deal appears to take another highly desirable coach off the market. Hawkins' name has come up as a possible coaching candidate at places such as Washington, Mississippi and Stanford. Since Hawkins took over at Boise State four seasons ago, the Broncos led the country in scoring twice and are second this year.
Western Michigan: Stanford offensive coordinator Bill Cubit was hired Tuesday as head coach. Cubit replaces Gary Darnell. Cubit was the Broncos' offensive coordinator from 1997-99. He has 29 years of coaching experience, including 19 years at the collegiate level.
Graduation study: Twenty-seven of the 56 schools with bowl-bound football teams graduated less than half their players, according to a study released Tuesday. The annual study by the Institute of Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida also showed that 39 of the schools graduated less than half of their black players. Among the bowl teams, 51 of 55 graduated at least 40 percent of their white players, according to the study, while just 30 schools graduated at least 40 percent of their black players. Only six schools graduated a higher percentage of black players than white players. There are 56 teams playing in this year's bowl games, but only 55 teams were examined because Navy doesn't release graduation rates. Last year, 32 bowl-bound teams graduated less than half of their football players. The schools with the worst graduation rates, both overall and for black players, were Pittsburgh and Texas. Pittsburgh had an overall graduation rate of 31 percent and 20 percent for black players. Texas had an overall graduation rate of 34 percent, 33 percent for its black players. Syracuse (78 percent overall, 69 for black players), Notre Dame (78 and 74) and Boston College (77 and 76) had the best graduation rates overall and for black players.
East Carolina: Donnie Thompson was named assistant head coach and defensive line coach. Thompson spent the past four seasons as defensive line coach at Illinois, and also was an assistant coach at North Carolina under Mack Brown and Carl Torbush. He had also worked two seasons as defensive coordinator for the Pirates in the late 1980s. Thompson helped lead Illinois to a 10-2 record and a Sugar Bowl appearance in 2001. He spent the previous 12 seasons with the Tar Heels, going to seven bowl games from 1989-2000.
Associated Press