ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports that the Patriots offensive coordinator has agreed to become the next head coach at Penn State.

O'Brien, who was in Pennsylvania to meet with university officials about the vacancy on Thursday, is expected to be announced as the school's new head coach on Saturday, according to Mortensen.

The 42-year-old coordinator has spent most of his coaching career in the college ranks. The Brown alum has spent time as an assistant at his alma mater, as well as Georgia Tech, Maryland and Duke. He joined the Patriots in 2007 and was named offensive coordinator prior to this season.

O'Brien will have his work cut out for him in Happy Valley. The Nittany Lions are in disarray following the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal. That scandal led to the firing of longtime coach Joe Paterno who was replaced by Tom Bradley on an interim basis on Nov. 9.

Former New York Jets and Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini is drawing interest from the university in its search to replace Joe Paterno as head coach, FOX-29 in Philadelphia reports. Paterno, the longtime head coach, was fired this fall amid the ongoing Jerry Sandusky scandal.

“I know they are very interested [in Mangini,] the former NFL coach who has been fired twice in the NFL,” FOX-29 contributor Mike Missanelli said.

“He’s the latest flavor of the month. They will not be able to get a big name given to sustain what is going on.”

Mangini last held a head-coaching position in Cleveland with the Browns in 2010. He was fired two years into a four-year contract after leading the Browns to just a 10-22 record in two seasons. He previously coached three seasons with the Jets from 2005 to 2008, where he had a 23-25 record with one playoff appearance.

The 40-year-old has been doing work for ESPN recently as a studio analyst.

Tom Bradley, who served as the interim coach upon Paterno’s dismissal on Nov. 9, is also a candidate for the job.

That sounds like it may have changed.

SportsByBrooks reports that the former Penn State head coach, who was fired amid the ongoing Jerry Sandusky scandal, has seemingly took a turn for the worst.

Brooks cited a “Penn State athletic department official” who told him that Paterno, 84, is seeing a rapid decline in his health.

“Joe is a lot closer to dying soon than the public is aware. It is very bad,” a Penn State source told Brooks.

Also, according to a source, Paterno’s family is fearful that this will be the legendary head coach’s last Christmas.

The reported news comes on the same day that Sandusky was arrested again on new sex abuse charges.

The contract, which will begin with the 2012-13 season, will be worth about $250 million per year, guaranteeing each of the 12 schools in the conference about $21 million, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been announced.

The contract is expected to be formally announced at a news conference in Phoenix on Wednesday.

The Pac-10 made less than $60 million in media rights this past season but became the latest conference to take advantage of the escalating market for college sports on television.

The ACC recently signed a deal for $155 million a year and the Big 12 reached a deal with Fox that made its total annual package worth about $130 million. The Pac-10, which will be renamed the Pac-12 in July with the additions of Utah and Colorado, topped those deals, as well as the $205 million the SEC gets and the $220 million paid to the Big Ten.

Rights to some football and men’s basketball games were not sold to Fox and ESPN, preserving some premium property the conference can use for a Pac-12 network to go along with Olympic and other non-revenue sports, a person close to the deal said.

Unlike the Big Ten Network, which Fox has a 49 percent ownership share in, the Pac-12 will own its entire network. That could add difficulties in terms of getting wide distributions on cable and satellite systems but allows the conference to have complete control of its content and keep all the profits if the network is as successful as the Big Ten.

The conference will also launch a digital network to show games online that aren’t on ESPN or Fox.

The deal with Fox and ESPN was first reported by Sports Business Daily, while The New York Times first reported details about the network.

This deal accomplishes all three goals Commissioner Larry Scott set out heading into negotiations: increasing revenue, getting more exposure and starting a Pac-12 network to provide an outlet to broadcast non-revenue sports and to help brand the conference.

Under this deal, Fox and ESPN will split the rights to college football games. ESPN will air its games on cable as well as ABC and Fox will show its games on its broadcast network, basic cable network FX and on the Fox Sports Net regional networks.

ESPN will air four prime-time games on both Thursday and Friday nights, as well as a late-night Saturday window for football. There will also be at least five Saturday night prime-time games on ABC or Fox.

Men’s basketball games will be split mostly between ESPN and Fox Sports Net, with ESPN showing games on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, as the conference becomes more flexible with scheduling. ESPN will also have the rights to the Pac-12 women’s basketball championship.

The two entities will alternate showing the Pac-12 football championship game and the men’s basketball tournament. Fox, which will air the inaugural football title game this season, will have the first football championship under this contract in 2012, with ESPN getting the men’s basketball tournament later that season, a person familiar with the deal said.

ESPN also gets the rights to some Olympic and other non-revenue sports.

Finalizing a media rights deal is the latest step in the transformation of the conference under Scott, who took over from Tom Hansen in July 2009.

Scott spearheaded last year’s expansion effort and then got the schools to agree to an equal revenue sharing plan and aggregate all of their media rights at the conference level.

That set the stage for the television negotiations, which began in earnest April 1. While Comcast/NBC was an aggressive bidder and Turner Sports also was interested, incumbents Fox and ESPN won out.

This deal means full revenue sharing will kick in as soon as this contract begins. As part of an agreement to give up their historically larger share of television revenues, Southern California and UCLA were each to receive a $2 million premium any year that the media rights did not reach $170 million.

The Boston Globe is reporting that Harvard head basketball coach Tommy Amaker is in talks with the University of Miami in regards to the open head-coaching job.

The report cites sources at both schools that say Amaker mulling over what he considers a “serious offer” to leave the Crimson to accept a job with the Hurricanes. Officials from Miami were reportedly in Boston on Monday to discuss the open job with Amaker.

The Miami job opened up last week when Frank Haith left Miami for the University of Missouri.

If Amaker were to leave Harvard for Miami, it would be the fourth stop in his coaching career. He spent time at Seton Hall and Michigan before coming to Harvard. He’s helped turn around a struggling Harvard program that came within one shot of winning an Ivy League title this season. The Crimson went 23-7 this season before bowing out in the NIT.

Walker, who led UConn to its third national championship, is projected as a first-round pick, and coach Jim Calhoun said he has advised Walker to forgo his senior season. But with a lockout looming, Walker has so far left his options open.

“It would be a lot of fun if I came back,” he said last week. “These guys are my brothers and I love them. So, if I have an opportunity to come back, it would be special.”

Walker averaged almost 24 points and five assists per game in leading UConn to a 32-9 record, including an 11-0 run through the postseason. He accounted for 45 percent of his team’s points.

Where will Kemba Walker be selected in the NBA draft?Market Research

The 68-year-old went on ESPN Chicago on Tuesday afternoon and addressed his future as the coach of the Huskies.

"I fully plan on coaching basketball next year," he said, according to SportsRadioInterviews.com. "You know, once again, we'll have time in the next couple of months as I settle down, as we kind of look over everything, and I fully expect that I would."

Calhoun touched on the subject earlier in the week at a news conference prior to his team's 53-41 national championship win over Butler.

"I told my wife I would retire when I was 50,'' Calhoun told reporters. "I lied. But I was on a plane roughly 10 years ago with [former North Carolina coach] Dean Smith, and he said, 'Don't ever make a decision on your basketball future right after a season, no matter how great it was and don't ever make it after a disappointing season. Give yourself some time, space and distance and then make a decision.'

"I've done that every spring for probably the last five or six years."

Winning another national championship will probably make some aspects of that decision easier, while it may complicate others. Calhoun coached a young team this year, and while it's unlikely that star guard Kemba Walker returns to Storrs for next season, Calhoun does some have some good young talent at his disposal.

"I've always been in love with basketball, I've never fallen out of love with basketball, but this team reaffirms me that kind of what we're doing is worthwhile because the kids you have," he said in his interview on Monday.

If Calhoun does return next season, he'll be forced to serve a three-game suspension once Big East play begins after the NCAA found him guilty of "failing to create an atmosphere of compliance within his program" following recruiting violations.

The Paris, France native turned down several offers to go pro after his freshman season with the Warriors, but the NHL has come calling yet again, and this time Da Costa could be ready to make the jump. The talented forward has had more than 20 NHL teams with vested interest throughout his career at Merrimack, and several are still keeping tabs on the scorer, CBC.ca reports.

According to the report, Boston is among the long list of suitors, which also includes Ottawa, Minnesota, Anaheim, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Vancouver and Toronto.

The Bruins may be a long shot, however, considering cap restrictions and difficulty of breaking into the lineup. It's not easy to crack the Bruins forward lines, and Da Costa may be looking for a quicker route to landing on an NHL roster.

Also working against Boston's chances is the Wild's latest coup, as they recently scored a face-to-face meeting with Da Costa that will take place this week, according to a tweet by CBC's Elliotte Friedman. Minnesota is currently lacking in the young, talented forwards department, and that could mean a quick call-up for Da Costa if he signs with the Wild.

The market is still wide open for Da Costa, however, but he will likely make his NHL decision soon.

Da Costa has led the Warriors in scoring over the past two years, tallying 14 goals and 31 assists in 33 games played this season. In 2010-11, the talented centerman helped lead Merrimack to its first-ever Hockey East Championship and the program's first NCAA Tournament bid since joining Hockey East.

The school confirmed the move on Wednesday night.

Anderson leaves Missouri after five seasons to return to the school where he was an assistant to Nolan Richardson for 17 seasons.

Several Missouri players were seen entering Mizzou Arena for an emergency team meeting with Anderson on Wednesday night. The school scheduled a 9 p.m. news conference.

Anderson was 111-57 in five seasons at Missouri, including an appearance in the Elite Eight in 2009. The Tigers were 23-11 this season, losing to Cincinnati in the second round of the NCAA tournament. He was 89-41 in four seasons at Alabama-Birmingham before that.

According to hoopsworld.com's Alex Kennedy, the C's assistant has emerged as the front-runner to land the University of Tennessee of coaching job. That job opened up when the university fired former head coach Bruce Pearl on Monday. For the time being, Houston Fancher is serving as the program's interim head coach.

If Frank were to take the job, it would be a return to Knoxville for the 40-year-old. Frank was an assistant for the Volunteers for three years under former Vols and current USC head coach Kevin O'Neill. According to Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski, league sources have indicated that the Tennessee job is likely the only college job that he would consider leaving the NBA for.

Wojnarowski also indicated that there was "no way" that Frank would leave Boston before the end of the season, and that it would likely take a long-term contract to lure Frank to Knoxville given that NCAA sanctions are likely coming for the program.

The newspaper, citing three unidentified sources, reports Columbus attorney Christopher Cicero sent the e-mails. Cicero lettered in football at Ohio State in 1983, when Tressel was an assistant coach, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

In a statement released Wednesday, Cicero says he voluntarily cooperated when an Ohio State attorney asked him to meet with university representatives and the NCAA about e-mails he exchanged with Tressel.

The university on Tuesday suspended Tressel for the first two games of the 2011 season and fined him $250,000 for failing to notify the school about the players' involvement.

According to ESPN.com's Andy Katz, the longtime Huskies coach will not appeal his three-game suspension from the NCAA. Calhoun was suspended for the first three games of the 2011-12 Big East schedule after an investigation revealed that he had committed recruiting violations.

Calhoun's attorney, Scott Tompsett, told ESPN.com that Calhoun's sole objective right now is "moving forward and focusing on his team and the postseason."

UConn rolled to a 79-62 win in the second round of the Big East tournament on Wednesday, and the Huskies will take on the tournament's No. 1 seed, Pittsburgh, on Thursday in the quarterfinals.