Fanfare 12/2

College

Louisville and Marshall accepted bids Sunday to play in the GMAC Bowl at Mobile, Ala., on Dec. 18.

The game will feature two quarterbacks considered top Heisman trophy candidates in Louisville's Dave Ragone and Marshall's Byron Leftwich.

Louisville (7-5, 5-3 Conference USA) has appeared in five straight bowl games, but its first to the GMAC.

"We were expecting a bigger year," coach John L. Smith said. "But there a lot of teams in the country who'd like to say, 'Hey, I've been to five straight bowl games."'

Marshall (9-2, 7-1 Mid-American Conference) beat East Carolina 64-61 in double overtime in the GMAC last year.

Louisville beat Florida State in overtime this year, when the Seminoles were ranked No. 4 at the time. But Houston dashed the two-time defending C-USA champions' hopes of earning a share of the conference title this year on Saturday.

Marshall heads into the league championship game at home Saturday against Toledo (9-3, 7-1).

Golf

Mark O'Meara was the forgotten man in the Skins Game until he wound up with the most money Sunday.

O'Meara stole the show from Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, collecting three skins with a 2-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole, and securing his second Skins Game title by holing a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th.

O'Meara finished the two-day tournament with eight skins and $405,000, and his final skin on No. 17 left the others playing for second.

That honor went to Mickelson, who was in danger of being shut out on the final day until he captured $200,000 on the par-5 18th with a two-putt birdie. That was enough to move him from last place to runner-up with $300,000 and three skins.

Fred Couples, who played better than anyone Sunday but claimed only two skins, wound up with $170,000. Woods was last with $125,000, winning his only skin on the opening hole with an 18-foot eagle putt.

Ernie Els shot a course-record 9-under 63 for an eight-stroke victory over Colin Montgomerie in the $4.06 million Nedbank Challenge.

Els, playing in his home country, had nine birdies and finished at 21-under 267 total on the 7,743-yard Gary Player Country Club to claim the $2 million first prize, the richest in golf.

Hockey

The San Jose Sharks fired coach Darryl Sutter and assistants Lorne Molleken and Rich Preston on Sunday in a dramatic shakeup of a slumping team.

Doug Wilson, the Sharks' director of pro development, and scout Cap Raeder will coach the team until a new head coach is named.

With San Jose off to a terrible 8-12-2-2 start, general manager Dean Lombardi decided to replace Sutter, who had led the Sharks to five consecutive seasons of improved point totals while helping to transform them from a laughingstock into a Stanley Cup contender.

Skating

Ilia Klimkin of Russia upset defending champion Takeshi Honda of Japan on Sunday to win the NHK Trophy, the year's last Grand Prix event.

Klimkin broke blood vessels in his right leg this summer and had three operations before returning to the ice in October.

He received marks ranging fro 5.7 to 5.9 for technical merit and 5.6 to 5.9 for presentation to overtake Honda and win his first event of the year. Honda, the world bronze medalist, led after the short program.

Chengjiang Li of China finished third.

-- From wire reports

-- From wire reports