College Football -- NCAA Delays Ruling; Tcu's Davis To Sit

FORT WORTH, Texas - The NCAA decided yesterday to delay a ruling on the eligibility of TCU running back Andre Davis and the school said it would hold him out of today's game against Baylor.

Carrie Doyle, a spokeswoman for the NCAA in Overland Park, Kan., said a final decision on Davis' eligibility should come early next week.

School officials contend that Davis unknowingly violated NCAA rules by accepting monetary benefits from a former roommate.

As required by the NCAA, TCU has declared Davis ineligible because of the apparent violations. TCU says it "has reason to think that Davis was not aware that these actions were rules violations" and has requested that the NCAA restore his eligibility.

The NCAA has obtained documents showing that Houston lawyer Jeffrey Newport bought disability insurance for Davis, a former teammate and a Jackson State receiver last December.

A check for $5,940 was drawn Dec. 29, 1994, on Newport's account and made payable to Pro Financial Services of Schaumburg, Ill., the chief U.S. correspondent for Lloyd's of London.

A notation on the check indicates the policy was for Davis, Jackson State's Greg Spann and former TCU receiver Jimmy Oliver, according to reports.

EWU linebacker charged

CHENEY - Eastern Washington linebacker Tony Ledenko has been charged in a sexual assault at a campus dormitory and has been suspended from the team. Ledenko, 19, is charged with second-degree rape in the Oct. 14 attack. He was released from the Spokane County Jail on $50,000 bond, campus police said.

Ledenko, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound freshman linebacker from Cashmere, has been suspended from the team pending the outcome of the case.

Bar brawl spurs suspensions

GLASSBORO, N.J. - Two white Rowan College football players charged with beating up two African-American students during a bar brawl were suspended by the college, officials said.

The suspension came a day after police charged Thomas Daly of Mount Ephraim and Jason Reiser of Perrineville, both 21, with aggravated assault stemming from the Oct. 18 incident. Both were released on $10,000 bail.

Police concluded that the incident at a pub near the southern New Jersey campus was not a bias crime. About 10 percent of the 9,900 students at Rowan are black.

The incident sparked a furor at the campus. Earlier this week protesters demonstrated outside the Study Hall pub, where the alleged assault occurred.

Police said the investigation continues and additional charges are pending. The incident may have involved as many as a dozen students, mostly football players. The victims were not on the football team.

Northern Arizona player killed

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Nate Cast, a Northern Arizona freshman football player, has been killed in a traffic accident in California.

Cast, 18, died Wednesday night in a one-vehicle accident on Interstate 40 about 65 miles east of Barstow, Calif., the university reported yesterday. He was being redshirted this season, but Northern Arizona Coach Steve Axman said he would have competed for a starting position on the defensive line next season.