College category, Page 30
SEC, Big Ten powers lead way on signing day
The arrival of the early signing period Wednesday offered a stark reminder for college football fans. If recruiting rankings offer any accurate gauge in the era of the transfer portal, those teams competing for College Football Playoff berths now should keep contending for years to come. Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon...
Miami in trouble, Alabama rises in College Football Playoff rankings
Miami’s playoff hopes took an all-but-final nosedive while Alabama’s got a boost Tuesday night in the last rankings before the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket is set next weekend. The Hurricanes (10-2) moved down six spots to No. 12 — the first team out of the projected bracket — after...
Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, set to face Penn State, reminiscent of another Hawaiian-born QBVideo
Dillon Gabriel was faced with a quandary when he arrived at Oregon this year. Gabriel had worn No. 8 at Oklahoma before transferring for his sixth season of eligibility. But in Eugene, that number had special significance because it had been worn by Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota. There were...
San Jose State will play South Florida in the Hawaii Bowl
HONOLULU — San Jose State is headed back to the Hawaii Bowl for a second straight season to face South Florida. Bowl officials on Tuesday announced the matchup for the game set to be played on Dec. 24 on the campus of the University of Hawaii. The Spartans went 7-5...
High school recruiting isn’t the only way to build a winner in the era of the transfer portal
Texas A&M signed the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class three years ago believing it had built a potential national title contender. Plenty of players from that heralded 2022 class could indeed be participating in the first 12-team College Football Playoff this month. They just won’t be doing it for the Aggies,...
ACC fines N.C. State, North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech for rivalry week scufflesVideo
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Atlantic Coast Conference fined four of its schools on Monday for scuffles that broke out during rivalry week in college football, which had a rash of fights between players who attempted to plant flags and other team symbols on their rivals’ fields. North Carolina and N.C....
Big Ten fines Michigan, Ohio State $100,000 each for postgame meleeVideo
ROSEMONT, Ill. — The Big Ten Conference announced it fined Michigan and Ohio State $100,000 each for violating the conference’s sportsmanship policy for the on-field melee at the end of the Wolverines’ win in Columbus on Saturday. “Not only did the actions of both teams violate fundamental elements of sportsmanship...
Oregon reaches Big Ten title game by refusing to focus on the ‘fiction’ of the future
EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon hasn’t gotten this far by wish-casting about outcomes in its first Big Ten season. As quarterback Dillon Gabriel says, the Ducks have no use for tomorrow’s fiction. That mentality has served the Ducks well. They finished the regular season 12-0 (9-0 Big Ten) and atop the...
Purdue fires coach Ryan Walters after going 5-19 in his 2 seasons
Purdue hired Ryan Walters to keep a promising program near the top of the Big Ten Conference. Two years later, the Boilermakers have sunk to unprecedented depths — and Walters is out of a job. Athletic director Mike Bobinski fired the first-time head coach on Sunday, following a brutal 1-11...
What are the matchups in college football’s conference championship games?
After a chaotic end to the regular season in college football, the matchups are set for championship week. Here’s a look at the showdowns coming up in the Power Four and Group of Five, with AP Top 25 rankings. All championship games are Saturday, Dec. 7, except in the American...
Lou Carnesecca, Hall of Fame coach who led St. John’s for 24 seasons, dies at 99
NEW YORK — In the long and storied history of New York City basketball, nobody wore it quite like Lou Carnesecca. The excitable St. John’s coach whose outlandish sweaters became an emblem of his team’s rousing Final Four run in 1985, died at 99 on Saturday, just a few weeks...
Oregon keeps top spot in AP football poll; Penn State is No. 3
Ohio State, Miami and Clemson plunged in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll Sunday following their losses during a wild weekend, eight of the top 10 teams moved up one spot and Oregon was No. 1 for the seventh straight week. The shakeup creates two top-five matchups in...
Syracuse knocks No. 6 Miami out of ACC title game and possibly the playoff with 42-38 winVideo
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Kyle McCord and Syracuse knocked No. 6 Miami out of ACC title contention — and possibly ended the Hurricanes’ College Football Playoff hopes — by rallying from a 21-0 deficit for a 42-38 win Saturday. McCord threw for 380 yards and three touchdowns for the Orange (9-3,...
Michigan upsets No. 2 Ohio State 13-10 for Wolverines’ 4th straight win in the bitter rivalry
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Dominic Zvada kicked a 21-yard field goal with 45 seconds left and Michigan stunned No. 2 Ohio State 13-10 on Saturday, likely ending the Buckeyes ’ hopes of returning to the Big Ten title game. Kalel Mullings broke away for a 27-yard run, setting up the Wolverines...
No. 6 Georgia wins in 8th OT to fight off Georgia Tech upset bid
ATHENS, Ga. — Nate Frazier ran for a 2-point conversion in the eighth overtime of a marathon for the ages after No. 6 Georgia pulled off an improbable fourth-quarter comeback, giving the Bulldogs a 44-42 victory over Georgia Tech on Friday night. After falling behind 17-0 at halftime and being...
For Deion, Hunter and CU, a solid season, some fingers crossed and thoughts of what might have beenVideo
BOULDER, Colo. — In the days before the playoffs became the goal in college football and before people started choosing sides on whether Deion Sanders is good or bad for the sport, there wouldn’t much to pick apart about Colorado football this year. Its 2024 season has been a very...
College sports reform could advance in GOP-controlled Congress, with Sen. Ted Cruz as NCAA ally
WASHINGTON — The NCAA’s yearslong efforts to get lawmakers to address myriad problems in college sports could finally pay off in the new, Republican-controlled Congress. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who is set to take over as chair of the powerful Commerce Committee, said recently that a college sports...
Expanded Big Ten could put 4 teams in the playoff — thanks to Indiana’s unexpected riseVideo
The expanded Big Ten is poised to be a major player in this season’s College Football Playoff. The 18-team conference had three of the top four teams in the AP poll this week — No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 4 Penn State. A one-loss Indiana team...
SEC losses are big gains for SMU and Indiana in latest College Football Playoff rankingsVideo
The SEC’s losses were almost everyone else’s gain in the College Football Playoff rankings, with SMU nudging its way into the top 12 and Indiana staying in the mix at No. 10 despite a lopsided loss of its own. The 12-team bracket released Tuesday placed undefeated Oregon on top for...
Cam Ward, Kyle McCord key QB showdown between Miami, Syracuse
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — It is Miami vs. Syracuse this weekend. It is not Cam Ward vs. Kyle McCord. That said, there’s no quarterback showdown in the country this week better than this one. McCord — in his first year at Syracuse — leads the nation in passing yards, 300-yard...
North Carolina football coach Mack Brown won’t return for 2025 seasonVideo
Mack Brown sounded firm in his intent to return for another season as North Carolina’s coach. A day later, the school announced it was time for a change instead. The school said Tuesday that the 73-year-old Brown won’t return for the 2025 season, putting an endpoint on the second tenure...
Expanded College Football Playoff puts twist on reaching conference title gamesVideo
Indiana should be able to breathe easy this week. It has very little chance of making it into the Big Ten championship game. On the other hand, Georgia’s spot in the SEC title game is so risky that if the Bulldogs lose, they might have been better off sitting it...
Kansas stays at No. 1 ahead of showdown vs. No. 11 Duke; Ole Miss, Mississippi State back in AP Top 25
Kansas remained solidly entrenched at No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll Monday ahead of its showdown with No. 11 Duke in Las Vegas, while a pair of schools from the Magnolia State elbowed their way back into the rankings. Ole Miss returned to the poll...
Latrobe grad Sofia DeCerb helps James Madison women’s soccer make program history with timely saves in goal
Texas State had all the momentum. After falling behind James Madison, 2-0, in the Sun Belt women’s soccer championship match, TSU rallied to tie the score 2-2 in the 55th minute. And in the 70th minute, the Bobcats had a breakaway. All that stood in the way of the go-ahead...
No. 5 UCLA women’s basketball team ends No. 1 South Carolina’s 43-game winning streakVideo
LOS ANGELES — Top-ranked South Carolina felt something it hasn’t known in over 2 1/2 years. The sting of defeat after being thoroughly dominated in a 77-62 women’s basketball loss to No. 5 UCLA on Sunday. Gone was the overall 43-game winning streak. Done was the run of 33 consecutive...
