Charles Barkley acknowledged that he owed a $400,000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas Strip casino and promised yesterday to repay it after a prosecutor said the retired NBA star would face criminal charges.

"My mistake," Barkley said in an interview at a pro-am golf tournament in Hoover, Ala. "I'm not broke, and I'm going to take care of it."

Clark County District Attorney David Roger had said prosecutors would file a criminal complaint if he did not pay the debt, cited by the Wynn Las Vegas resort.

In a radio interview with sports station WJOX in Birmingham, Ala., Barkley blamed himself for letting the debt lapse, saying it stemmed from a wager on the Super Bowl.

Colleges

The El Paso County district attorney said his office would decline to prosecute Texas-El Paso junior Stefon Jackson, a basketball player who was accused of lying to authorities about the whereabouts of a cousin from Philadelphia wanted on a felony warrant.

Jackson, a graduate of Lutheran Christian, was arrested last month and charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution. His cousin was wanted on six federal counts, including two attempted-murder charges relating to a March shooting that wounded five in Pennsylvania.

Elsewhere: Indiana University reached a settlement with former interim basketball coach Dan Dakich, agreeing to pay him the $185,000 he was scheduled to earn in the next school year. . . . Slippery Rock named Kevin Reynolds, an assistant at Morehead State, as its new men's basketball coach. . . . Don Friday, a two-time conference coach of the year at Lycoming, was named men's basketball coach at St. Francis (Pa.).

Arena football

The Arena Football League's board of directors unanimously approved the use of instant replay for the 2008 playoffs. Each coach will have two challenges per game that can be used in any part of regulation time. An additional challenge will be granted for overtime.

Elsewhere: The Soul placed wide receiver Kenny Henderson on injured reserve with a broken collarbone and claimed wide receiver Brent Holmes off the practice roster of the Grand Rapids Rampage.

Olympics

Sprinter Oscar Pistorius, an amputee, will learn today whether he can race against able-bodied runners at the Beijing Olympics. Pistorius, 21, who runs on prosthetic blades, asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Geneva, Switzerland, to overturn a ruling by the IAAF banning him from competing against able-bodied runners.