Sports briefs

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Wannstedt resigns at Pitt

Dave Wannstedt is out as Pitt football coach following a disappointing season in which the Panthers were big favorites to win a weak Big East Conference, only to finish 7-5 and qualify for a minor bowl. Wannstedt resigned under pressure Tuesday, three days after Pitt (7-5) salvaged its regular season by beating Cincinnati, 28-10. The former Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins coach, highly respected by Pitt's administration, will remain at the school as a special assistant to athletic director Steve Pederson. Pitt apparently chose to change coaches now, rather than after the Jan. 8 Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., because most top candidates would have been hired by then. Also, the national letter-of-intent signing day would be less than a month away.

BSU president goes off on BCS error

Boise State University president Bob Kustra is using an error in the final Bowl Championship Series rankings to fire off a new round of criticism of the system that determines postseason bowl pairings. Kustra sent an e-mail to university presidents and conference commissioners blasting the BCS system for its lack of transparency in the method used to rank college football teams. The final BCS standings had to be corrected after a mistake was found that changed the rankings of Boise State and LSU, but did not affect any bowl matchups. Boise State moved to 10th and LSU moved down to 11th. SOCCERInter loses top spot to Spurs

Champions League titleholder Inter Milan missed out on the top spot in its group by losing 3-0 at Werder Bremen. Tottenham, after a 3-3 draw at FC Twente, beat out Inter for first place in Group A, having scored 18 goals in six games.

FC Copenhagen became the first Danish team to reach the Champions League knockout stage. Copenhagen beat Panathinaikos, 3-1, to clinch second place in Group D behind Barcelona, which ended the group stage unbeaten after a second-string team defeated Rubin Kazan, 2-0. Manchester United drew, 1-1, with Valencia, but still secured the top spot in Group C at the expense of the Spanish side. Schalke won Group B with a 2-1 victory at Benfica as second-place Lyon was held to a 2-2 draw by Hapoel Tel Aviv. - AP