This and that

• UPDATE: Miami University has announced that Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Haywood will replace Shane Montgomery as the school's new head coach. MU's hiring of Haywood brings the number of African-American head football coaches in the Bowl Championship Subdivision to six of 119 programs; he's the third black head coach in the MAC (joining Turner Gill at Buffalo and Ron English at Eastern Michigan).

Haywood has no direct ties to Miami, but previously coached at two MAC schools - Ohio and Ball State - in addition to Texas, LSU, Army and Minnesota. This is his first head coaching job.

• UPDATE: The Bengals announced late this afternoon that ticket prices for the 2009 season remain unchanged from the 2008 schedule.

• PilotOnline.com says Virginia Tech may be without three starters for the Orange Bowl: left guard Nick Marshman (academics), linebacker Brett Warren (knee) and defensive end Jason Worilds (shoulder).

• It'll be interesting to see whether Xavier can handle Butler just a couple of days after the bad loss to Duke. It won't be easy - Butler is ranked No. 4 in the RPI and the Bulldogs' only loss this season was to Ohio State (by three points). Sean Miller had a great quote in the Enquirer about what a miserable 10 days it will be for his players if they get beat by Butler.

Here's the preview of the game on IndyStar.com, where David Woods points out that a win for Butler could get the Bulldogs more attention than going undefeated in their league.

• Hot Stove: Pittsburgh's post-gazette.com says the Pirates are pursuing Rocco Baldelli, increasing the number of teams rumored to be interested in the outfielder since it was revealed he was misdiagnosed with mitochondrial disorder and really only has channelopathy (which is treatable). Article lists the Reds, Phillies, Red Sox and Yankees as the other teams who have expressed interest.

The Boston Globe says Baldelli is leaning toward the Red Sox.

• Rumor has it former Bengal Shaun Smith punched Browns QB Brady Quinn after a heated exchange last week. Word of the altercation first broke during the Browns' 14-0 loss to the Bengals. Smith was inactive for the game.

• ProFootballTalk.com's Mike Florio points out that Stacy Andrews' knee injury is really going to hurt him when he enters the free-agent market.

• Non-local link of interest is also from ProFootballTalk.com, which reports that Shaun Ellis has been fined $10K for lifting a big snowball into the stands at Qwest Field on Sunday and offers the video if you haven't already seen it.