College Football | Joe Paterno insists he has no clue when he might retire

CHICAGO — Joe Paterno, seemingly always having to answer when he might retire, had a little fun during Big Ten media days Thursday.

What would it take for the 81-year-old Paterno to step down?

"I'm having fun, and I'm enjoying it," Paterno said. "We could lose 10 games by 15 points, and I could say, 'Hey, we're close. We're one play away.' I'll know. If I don't feel I'm doing a good job, I'll know."

When a reporter from a Philadelphia newspaper continued to press Paterno on the subject, the coach replied, "I don't know! I don't know! Do you want me to spell it? I-d-o-n-t-k-n-o-w. How many times can I say it?"

Paterno jokingly said he hasn't sought counsel from Purdue coach Joe Tiller, who will retire after the 2008 season, his 12th year with the Boilermakers.

"He knows what he wants to do," Paterno said. "He said he wants to fish. I said, 'Fish? For crying out loud!' You catch three and look at one and they all look the same. ... You think I'm going to go to some guy who sits on his rear and fishes for advice? Joe will do it his way, and I'll do it my way."

Notes

• Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez stepped to the podium for his first appearance at the Big Ten preseason media event and promised to clear up what he called "a little bit of drama going on in the last seven months."

That's putting it mildly. Rodriguez's departure from his alma mater West Virginia was messy and acrimonious and ended up in court.

"It was like I was afraid to open up a paper to see what's next and what do I have to refute. There were some tough lessons learned," Rodriguez said.

"I always tell my coaches that you give your life and soul to the place you're working at, and I probably did that. It certainly didn't end the way we wanted it to. But there were a lot of great people there, a lot of great young men on the football team, a lot of great fans in the state of West Virginia, and I know they're going to have great success in the future."

A lot of those fans were livid when Rodriguez left for Michigan and the way it unfolded. He'd helped shape West Virginia into a perennial national contender, and they figured he was staying put.

Rodriguez and Michigan agreed earlier this month to pay a $4 million buyout to the West Virginia with $1.5 million of that coming from Rodriguez in three annual payments beginning in 2010.

• The mother of an alleged sexual assault victim has released a letter she sent to University of Iowa officials, accusing them of ignoring her daughter as she faced harassment after reporting the attack.

In a copyright story, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported Thursday that the mother provided the newspaper with a copy of the letter dated May 16. It's the second letter written by the mother to the university and then sent to the newspaper.

The Iowa Board of Regents on Tuesday ordered that an investigation into the university's response to the alleged attack be reopened because regents didn't know of the letters.

Former Iowa football players Cedric Everson and Abe Satterfield have been charged in the Oct. 14, 2007, assault at a residence hall and will go on trial Nov. 3.

• Lawyers for a former Alabama football booster said they staked out the Southeastern Conference football media event and served Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer with a subpoena to testify about a lawsuit against the NCAA. Fulmer initially denied seeing a subpoena, but later said he was given a piece of paper and didn't realize what it was. The scene was much like the one he tried to avoid four years ago when he refused to come to the event in suburban Birmingham and took part by phone, incurring a $10,000 fine from the league.