College Football | Heisman winner Sam Bradford intends to have season-ending surgery, enter NFL draft

ST. LOUIS — Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford will have season-ending shoulder surgery and said he expects to enter the NFL draft in April.

The Oklahoma quarterback, a junior, injured his right shoulder twice this season, most recently against Texas on Oct. 10. He throws right-handed.

School officials announced Sunday that Dr. James Andrews will perform the operation Wednesday in Birmingham, Ala. Bradford is expected to address reporters after the Sooners' practice Monday night in Norman, Okla.

"I dreamed about coming to Oklahoma my whole life," Bradford said Sunday in a statement. "That's the reason I came back for this season. And I came back to play, not sit on the bench. That's the reason I tried to play after the injury. I'm very disappointed that it didn't work out differently.

"Under these circumstances, and after talking to several people, this is the right thing for me to do at this point."

Bradford passed up the chance to be a first-round NFL draft pick this year — he was projected as high as No. 1 — to play another season with the Sooners. After he was hurt against the Longhorns, Bradford said he was going to wait until the end of the season to make a decision about his future.

He accompanied Oklahoma to its 35-13 road victory at Kansas on Saturday.

According to his statement, Bradford expects his recovery time to be from four to six months. As of Sunday, the April 22 draft was about six months away.

"I'll be up to the challenge," Bradford said.

Notes

• Boise State got bumped and Texas Christian is in position to be this season's Bowl Championship Series buster.

The Horned Frogs passed Boise State in the BCS standings, with TCU jumping two spots to sixth and Boise State falling three places to seventh. Both improved to 7-0 Saturday, as TCU won 38-7 at Mountain West Conference rival Brigham Young and the Broncos romped 54-9 at Western Athletic Conference rival Hawaii.

The top five BCS teams are, in order, Florida, Alabama, Texas, Iowa and USC. Jerry Palm, an independent BCS analyst, indicated TCU's lead over Boise State is far from safe. "If those two teams keep winning, it's going to go down to the wire," Palm said.

Neither the WAC nor Mountain West has an automatic BCS bid for its champion, but in each of the last three seasons a team from one of those conferences has earned automatic entry by finishing in the top 12 of the final BCS standings. No more than one team from an non-automatic-qualifying conference can earn an automatic bid.

• Florida regained the top spot in the Associated Press media poll from Alabama, which was ranked No. 1 for a week.

Alabama needed a blocked field goal on the last play to beat Tennessee 12-10 Saturday and Florida beat Mississippi State 29-19. The Gators got 30 first-place votes, compared with 23 for Alabama.

• Connecticut players will travel on a charter flight to Miami for the funeral of cornerback Jasper Howard, 20, who died after being stabbed on the Storrs, Conn., campus Oct. 18.