Sports in Brief: O'Hair qualifies for the Masters

Sean O'Hair of West Chester and Ricky Fowler are the only Americans among 13 players who have qualified for the Masters through the world ranking.

There are no tournaments the rest of the year, so the final 2010 ranking became available Monday.

The Masters invites players who are in the top 50 at the end of the year. The criteria is mainly for international players who are not PGA Tour members and have fewer avenues to qualify, such as winning a tour event or getting into the FedEx Cup finale.

O'Hair started the year No. 15 and did not win a tournament or reach the Tour Championship. He ended the year at No. 43. Fowler finished his first full year as a pro at No. 28 on the strength of two runner-up finishes.

The Masters will be played April 7-10, with Phil Mickelson the defending champion and Tiger Woods trying to end his longest drought without a major or a green jacket.

BOXING: Jean Pascal says that if it were up to him, his next bout would be a rematch with Bernard Hopkins.

Pascal retained his WBC light-heavyweight title with a majority draw against the Philadelphia native on Saturday in Quebec City. But next up for Pascal will be Chad Dawson.

Pascal held a news conference in his hometown of Montreal. He says he learned a lot from the wild bout in which he knocked Hopkins down twice before hanging on.

Pascal's trainer, Marc Ramsay, said contract obligations stipulate that Pascal's next opponent must be Dawson. Pascal beat him in August.

Pascal says he intends to resume training about the second week of January.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Ralph Friedgen has been fired as Maryland's football coach, effective after the Military Bowl on Dec. 29.

The announcement was made by athletic director Kevin Anderson, who said Friedgen would receive $2 million to cover the final year of his contract.

Anderson said he made plans to replace Friedgen after Terps offensive coordinator James Franklin accepted the head coaching job at Vanderbilt on Friday.

Darrell Hazell is the new Kent State coach after developing receivers Santonio Holmes and Ted Ginn Jr. into first-round draft picks during seven seasons as an Ohio State assistant.

Boston College has extended the contract of football coach Frank Spaziani by two years through the 2015 season. His team recovered from a 2-5 start to finish 7-5 and qualify for a bowl game for the 12th consecutive season.

Athletic director Gene DeFilippo said in a statement that Spaziani is a man of "uncompromised integrity and principle" who has the program headed in the right direction.

A trio of Delaware Valley College players were named to the D3football.com All-America team as senior offensive tackle Mike Long (Roman Catholic) was a first-team choice while senior linebacker Kyle Gesswein (Williamstown, N.J.) and junior defensive end Mike Jaskowski (Moorestown, N.J.) earned second-team and honorable-mention accolades, respectively.

Rowan defensive end Matt Hoffman (Burlington Township High School) was named to the Associated Press Little All-America first team and D3football.com All-America second team.

OLYMPICS: The lights were turned on for the first time at London's 2012 Olympic Stadium.

With one year, seven months and seven days remaining until the Games begin, British Prime Minister David Cameron pushed a button that switched on the towering floodlights over the snow-covered stadium in east London.

- Associated Press