Thursday's sports briefs

Utah's road to the BCS just became a lot less complicated.

As the newest member of the Pacific-10, the Utes will be playing for a guaranteed spot in one of college football's elite bowl games rather than hoping to sneak in with an at-large berth -- as they've done twice before.

Utah officially joined the Pac-10 on Thursday, leaving the Mountain West Conference.

"Today is an absolutely great day to be a Ute," athletic director Chris Hill said before he was interrupted by applause during a news conference.

The Pac-10 invited Utah to join the league on Wednesday and university President Michael Young officially signed on in front of a crowd of elated boosters a day later.

Utah will join the conference in 2011.

Knight Commission calls for changes

The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics is recommending that athletic departments share the wealth with other parts of campus and that the NCAA issue reports on how much schools are spending on their teams.

"There must be a bright line between college and professional sports," said Len Elmore, a commission member and former pro basketball player.

John MacLean to coach Devils A perennial candidate to lead the team he played for and coached as an assistant, John MacLean was named head coach of the New Jersey Devils, replacing the retired Jacques Lemaire. MacLean was considered for the head coaching position with the Devils on three other occasions. He spent last season coaching the Devils' American Hockey League affiliate in Lowell, Mass.

Blues make change in goal

The St. Louis Blues acquired goaltender Jaroslav Halak from the Montreal Canadiens for former first-round pick Lars Eller and another prospect. The move was met with shock in both Montreal and St. Louis. Halak had appeared to earn the No. 1 job with the Canadiens, and the Blues, meanwhile, were in negotiations to re-sign Chris Mason.

76ers trade Dalembert to Kings The Philadelphia 76ers traded center Samuel Dalembert to the Sacramento Kings for forward Andres Nocioni and center Spencer Hawes. Dalembert asked for a trade last year because he was unhappy with his role. Dalembert was Philadelphia's longest-tenured player, but he never developed into a dominant force after being drafted in the first round in 2001.

Parker to miss rest of the season Candace Parker, the leading scorer and rebounder for the Los Angeles Sparks, will miss the rest of the season because of a dislocated left shoulder that will require surgery. Parker was injured Sunday in a home victory over the Lynx. She was averaging 20.6 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game.

Cycling: Robert Gesink of the Netherlands won the 132 1/2-mile sixth stage of the Tour of Switzerland and claimed the race leader's jersey, while Lance Armstrong finished fifth to move up to seventh place overall. Organizers said British cyclist Mark Cavendish was a no-show Thursday. Cavendish drew the ire of fellow riders for causing a mass crash on Tuesday.

Tennis: French Open finalist Samantha Stosur of Australia beat Britain's Elena Baltacha 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the Eastbourne grass-court tournament to reach her fifth semifinal of the year. Kim Clijsters lost 7-6 (6), 6-4 to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

College softball: Gayle Blevins, the second-winningest softball coach in NCAA Division I history, is retiring after 31 seasons, the last 23 at Iowa.