HOUSTON -- The Big 12 has narrowed the field of candidates for possible expansion to 11 schools, with Memphis and Temple among the latest to be cut from consideration, a person with direct knowledge of the situation tells The Associated Press.The person spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because the Big 12 will not be making public any of its dealings with schools interested in joining the 10-team conference.Big 12 officials are planning to start holding meetings in the Dallas area next week with BYU, Air Force, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Colorado State, Houston, Rice, SMU, South Florida and Tulane. The next meeting of Big 12 presidents and chancellors is in mid-October.ESPN was first to report the field had been cut, with Memphis and Temple out of consideration.Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby declined comment in a text message to AP.Memphis released a statement from university president M. David Rudd stating he would not comment on the Big 12 process and referred to a portion of the nondisclosure agreement the school had with the conference. Temple officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.BYU is a football independent with most of its other sports competing in the West Coast Conference. Air Force and Colorado State are currently in the Mountain West. Rice, located in Houston, competes in Conference USA. The rest of the schools are in the American Athletic Conference.The Big 12 has not committed to expanding, but Bowlsby and Oklahoma President David Boren said in July that it would consider adding two or four schools. Adding members for football only is also a possibility.Earlier in this week officials from East Carolina, New Mexico, UNLV, Boise State and San Diego State all publicly stated that their schools were no longer being considered as candidates for the Big 12.The one surprise among the early cuts is Memphis. The school located in southwest Tennessee is within driving distance of many Big 12 schools and the conference has an agreement with the Liberty Bowl to send a team to the postseason game each season. Memphis alum and FedEx president Fred Smith had pledged his companys sponsorship for Big 12 events if the school was invited to join the conference.Academics seem to have been an issue for Memphis. All the schools remaining under consideration by the Big 12 are among the top 200 universities and colleges in the United States ranked by U.S. News and World Report. Memphis is not ranked.Jaromir Jagr Stars Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. Mike Modano Jersey . Terms of the deal were not immediately available. The 26-year-old finished last season with Clevelands Triple-A affiliate in Columbus after signing with the Indians in August. http://www.thedallasstarshockey.com/alexander-radulov-hockey-jersey/ . Already owning gold from competition in Vancouver in 2010, Loch posted a combined four-run time of 3:27.526. That included a track-record third run of 51. Martin Hanzal Stars Jersey .Gather a group of friends, or find a league to join online, draft your team, set your lineup and compete in a number of different formats. Mike Modano Jersey . Only three players drafted by NHL clubs were included on the Czech selection camp roster on Wednesday. Those players were Dallas Stars 2012 first-rounder Radek Faksa, Winnipeg Jets 2013 fourth-rounder Jan Kostalek and Phoenix Coyotes 2012 seventh-rounder Marek Langhamer.SEATTLE -- For years, former Minnesota Twins general manager Terry Ryan hasnt been able to live down releasing David Ortiz after the 2002 season.Somehow, though, the Seattle Mariners have largely escaped ridicule for trading Big Papi.It was one of the worst trades ever made, said Mike Goff, who managed Ortiz for the Mariners Single-A affiliate in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1996. But it was something they wanted to do.Back then, the Mariners had a loaded big league roster, led by Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson and 20-year-old Alex Rodriguez. They were trying to win a close wild-card race and believed they needed an upgrade over third baseman Russ Davis. On Aug. 29, 1996, they agreed to send a minor leaguer to the Twins after the season in exchange for veteran Dave Hollins.I got a call with about a month or so to go in the season, maybe a little bit longer, and the phone call was, Who are the untradeables on your club? Goff recalled. Ill never forget that phone call as long as I live. I said, Well, Ive got two.Goff advised the Mariners to hold on to Greg Wooten, a 6-foot-7 right-hander from Eugene, Oregon, who had been drafted in the third round in 1995 and was in the middle of going 15-5 with a 3.19 ERA in 27 starts over two Single-A levels.But Goff also hailed David Arias, a 20-year-old first baseman who wouldnt stop using his mothers maiden name until a year later, when he began going by David Ortiz.Ill never forget them asking me, You wouldnt trade Arias for anybody? Goff said. I go, No, I wouldnt trade him for anybody. That conversation ends, and we make the trade for Dave Hollins. We didnt know who the player to be named later was.Ortiz finished the 1996 season batting .322 with 18 home runs and a .901 OPS. He led Wisconsin to the Midwest League playoffs, losing in the championship series to West Michigan.If I would have played one more year in the minor league system for them, I wouldve been the No. 1 prospect in the organization, Ortiz said. I killed [in 96]. But I dont know. They traded me.Goff found out that Ortiz was headed to the Twins after the final game of the season. Ortiz, who hadnt been traded before or since, admitted he had no clue what was happening when Goff informed him.We come off the field, and my phone is riinging.dddddddddddd I look at my pitching coach, and I think we both had the same bad gut feeling at that time, Goff said. I pick the phone up, and Im not going to mention who was on the other end, but the phone call was, Dont let Arias leave the club. Im like, Dont tell me he was the played to be named later, and they said, Yes, he was. And I lost it. Im going to be honest with you, I lost it.I had to call Davey in and tell him hes been traded. It was like telling my son that he got traded. He didnt want to go because he had built such a special bond with the kids on that team and had the biggest year of his life and the fear of the unknown. Next day, of course, everybody went their separate ways. He flew back to the Dominican, and the next thing I know, hes in a Twins uniform, which was hard to accept. But thats the reality of the business.Indeed, Ortiz flew through the Twins farm system in 1997, playing at three levels before getting called up to the big leagues late in the season. He spent parts of six seasons in Minnesota before eventually winding up with the Boston Red Sox, morphing into one of the all-time greatest sluggers and a member of the 500-homer club.The Mariners, who will honor Ortiz with a pregame ceremony Wednesday night at Safeco Field to mark his final regular-season trip to Seattle, missed the playoffs in 1996, though it was hardly Hollins fault. He batted .351 with 3 home runs and 25 RBIs in 30 games before leaving Seattle as a free agent and signing with the Anaheim Angels.Looking back, Goff suspects the Twins got a good recommendation on Ortiz from Dan Rohn, who managed their Midwest League team in Fort Wayne in 1996. Regardless, he can only imagine how the Mariners history might be different if they had kept Ortiz.At that time, we had a loaded major league club. Im sure thats what they were looking at, Goff said. They thought this kid was four, five years away, which in reality, I thought he was two years away. And you saw that with the way he came through the Twins system. But that was the story of how Davey ended up in a Twins uniform.A story that has gone largely forgotten over the years. ' ' '