$400G spent for spin at OSU

Ohio State spent more than $400,000 on PR advice and outside expertise dealing with NCAA investigations in the wake of its football program's memorabilia-for-cash scandal, according to records released yesterday.

The $429,000 in expenses is a little more than half of the $800,000 the university's athletics department says it has spent on the scandal to date.

One set of records shows that Ohio State paid New York-based PR firm Kekst and Co. $267,000 for help with public relations between March and mid-July. The invoices, released as part of a public records request, don't give details of the work Kekst did.

The university also paid The Compliance Group, of Lenexa, Kan., $162,000 for help dealing with the compliance problems uncovered by the scandal.

The university announced in December that several football players had sold memorabilia such as jerseys and Big Ten championship rings for cash or traded them for discounted tattoos.

The scandal cost head coach Jim Tressel his job after the university learned he'd known about the trading for months but didn't notify the university or the NCAA.

It also led to quarterback Terrelle Pryor's departure and caused the university to vacate the entire 2010 season and return its $338,811 share of the Big Ten's payment for having played in the Sugar Bowl.

In other college news:

 * Former Notre Dame football defensive coordinator Corwin Brown was hospitalized in fair condition with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his side after a 7-hour standoff with police at his home in Indiana. Reports said the incident began when police were called to the house for a domestic dispute.

* Florida State president Eric Barron downplayed rumors that the Seminoles are moving from the Atlantic Coast Conference to the Southeastern Conference.

* Brent Loveland, a contractor in Stillwater, Okla., is suing Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy after allegedly being berated for wearing a gray "Oklahoma Baseball" T-shirt while doing work at Gundy's house.

* Former Long Island University basketball star Sherman White, who served jail time for his role in a 1950s point-shaving scandal, died at 82 of congestive heart failure.

* NCAA president Mark Emmert declined to compromise on a court-imposed settlement that will require the University of North Dakota to change its school nickname from the Fighting Sioux by Monday.

* Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino confirmed running back Knile Davis is expected to miss the season because of a left ankle injury.

Dominic Cheek scored 34 points and Mouphtaou Yarou had 22 points and 12 rebounds as Villanova downed Israel's national team, 94-92, in a game played at Almere in the Netherlands. Two free throws by Yarou and one by freshman JayVaughn Pinkston in the game's final seconds proved to be the tying and winning points.

Aaron Garcia threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jeron Harvey on the final play to give the Jacksonville Sharks their first Arena Football League title, 73-70, over the Arizona Rattlers.

* Former heavyweight contender Scott LeDoux died at 62 of Lou Gehrig's disease in his Minnesota home.

* Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, closing in on 6,000 wins, and champion fillies Open Mind, Safely Kept and Sky Beauty were inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.