NCAA College football notebookNews: Tennessee declines game

Tennessee has turned down a chance to face Southern California and former Vols coach Lane Kiffin in the 2011 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.

Volunteers athletic director Mike Hamilton said it would be too much for the Vols' schedule, which already includes nonconference games against Cincinnati and North Carolina.

"We've got plenty to keep us busy in 2011 already," Hamilton said. "We're building our program back, and our schedule is tough enough as it is. The reality of it is, if it was Texas or UCLA in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game, we just couldn't do it in 2011."

Tennessee is scheduled to face North Carolina State in the 2012 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.

• Southern California athletic director Mike Garrett sent letters of apology to Florida, Alabama, Washington, Fresno State and Oregon for accusing those schools of breaking NCAA rules by contacting one of the Trojans' players without permission.

ESPN.com reported that USC filed a complaint with the Pacific-10 Conference in June about several schools tampering with freshman running back Dillon Baxter after the Trojans were hit with NCAA sanctions. In the letter, Garrett said that Baxter confirmed to him that the player "did not receive a call from your institution," and Garrett apologized for "any inconvenience or embarrassment" caused to the schools.