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COLLECTIVE FOOTBALL
NEW YORK (AP) – College football playoffs are set and it’s historic: Cincinnati will face Alabama in the Cotton Bowl and Michigan will face Georgia in the Orange Bowl on New Years Eve.
Fourth-seeded Cincinnati become the first team to break the glass ceiling of the CFP and place in the bottom four in college football at a non-Power Five conference. The Bearcats have won the American Athletic Conference and are heading to the playoffs as the only undefeated team in the country. Their reward will be a clash with the reigning national champions.
The Crimson Tide is in the playoffs for the seventh time in its eight-year history.
ATLANTA (AP) – Bryce Young threw three touchdowns and ran another as fourth-place Alabama beat Georgia 41-24 in the Southeastern Conference Championship game on Saturday, a result which probably sends the two powerful programs to the four teams. College football playoff.
Young set SEC championship records with 421 passing yards and 461 total violation yards.
Georgia (12-1, No. 1 CFP) have sailed throughout the regular season, barely challenged and a unanimous choice as the nation’s No. 1 team for the past two months. The Bulldogs boasted a formidable defensive unit that had allowed just 6.9 points per game.
Alabama (12-1, No.3 CFP) scored six offensive goals – five covering at least 75 yards, the other 62 – and finished with 536 yards against a team that was giving up just under 231 yards per game. .
GAINEVILLE, Fla. (AP) – New Florida coach Billy Napier agreed to a seven-year, $ 51.8 million contract, making him the fifth highest-paid coach in the Southern Conference -Is, said a person familiar with the negotiations.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Saturday night as neither Florida nor Napier have released details of the contract.
Napier will earn $ 7.1 million in his first season and get a raise of $ 100,000 a year before each of the remaining six years, the person said. Only Nick Saban of Alabama ($ 9.75 million), Jimbo Fisher of Texas A&M ($ 9 million), new LSU coach Brian Kelly ($ 8.6 million) and Kirby Smart of Georgia (7 , $ 13 million) are expected to earn more in the SEC next season.
– By AP Sports writer Mark Long.
NORMAN, Oklahoma (AP) – Oklahoma hired Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables as head coach to replace Lincoln Riley on Sunday night, bringing back a former Sooners assistant with a long track record of success.
Venables will be presented on Monday, the school said.
Venables, 50, was on the Oklahoma staff under Bob Stoops as defensive co-coordinator from 1999 to 2003 and defensive coordinator from 2004 to 2011. He was defensive co-coordinator when the Sooners won the 2000 national title. He left Oklahoma for Clemson in 2012 and won the Broyles Award in 2016 as the nation’s best assistant. He was on the staff of teams that won three national titles and appeared in eight national championship games.
OXFORD, Mississippi (AP) – Mississippi and Lane Kiffin have agreed to a new contract after the program’s first 10-game regular season.
Intercollegiate Athletics Vice Chancellor Keith Carter announced on Saturday what the school described as a new deal. The school did not disclose any details of the contract.
Kiffin led the No.8 Ole Miss to a 10-2 regular season, including a 7-0 record at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in her sophomore year. The rebels are heading for a New Year’s bowl.
AKRON (AP) – Akron hired Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead as head coach on Saturday, bringing in a former Zips assistant to resume a struggling program.
Moorhead has been a head coach at Mississippi State (14-12 in two seasons) and FCS Fordham (38-13 in four seasons) and has led the Ducks’ offense for the past two seasons.
Moorhead spent two seasons as Penn State’s offensive coordinator between his head coaching positions at his alma mater, Fordham and Mississippi State.
NHL
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) – The Vancouver Canucks have appointed veteran Bruce Boudreau to coach following a leadership purge late Sunday night in which three executives and head coach Travis Green were fired.
The Canucks, in a statement, said general manager Jim Benning was fired and assistant manager Jim Weisbrod, Green and assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner were also relieved of their duties.
The Canucks said the search for new leadership in hockey operations “has begun.”
66-year-old Boudreau, former coach of the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild, is the 20th head coach in Canucks history. Scott Walker has been appointed assistant coach of Boudreau.
BASEBALL TEMPLE OF FAME
NEW YORK (AP) – Buck O’Neil, a champion of black baseball players with a monumental eight-decade career on and off the pitch, has joined Minnie Miñoso, Gil Hodges and three others to be elected to the Temple of baseball fame on Sunday.
Former Minnesota Twins teammates Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat were also chosen along with Bud Fowler by two veteran committees.
Longtime slugger Dick Allen, who died last December, fell to an election vote.
The six newcomers will be enshrined in Cooperstown, New York, next July, with all new members elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
David Ortiz, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez are on this ballot.
GOLF
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) – Viktor Hovland rode back-to-back eagles and finished with back-to-back bogeys while overcoming a six-stroke deficit to win the Hero World Challenge on Sunday and stop Collin Morikawa from reaching world number 1.
This final round of the year was so crazy for the golfing elite that Morikawa, who started the day with a five-stroke lead, wasn’t even a factor in the last hour at Albany Golf Club, finishing with a 76 and finishing tied for fifth.
Hovland closed with a 6-under-66 in his debut in a holiday event filled with sheer chaos involving eagles and triple bogeys, none more bizarre than Jordan Spieth hitting his drive on the ninth hole of what was a new 17th tee for the final round.
TENNIS
MADRID (AP) – Russia’s 15-year wait for a Davis Cup title has come to an end after another clutch performance from Daniil Medvedev.
Medvedev defeated Marin Cilic 7-6 (7), 6-2 in the second singles match to give Russia an insurmountable 2-0 lead over Croatia in the final on Sunday.
This is Russia’s third Davis Cup title, and the first since 2006.
Andrey Rublev beat Borna Gojo in straight sets to put the Russians ahead at Madrid Arena. Russia’s other Davis Cup title dates back to 2002. Croatia were also looking for their third title after triumphs in 2005 and 2018.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Iga Swiatek, the 2020 Roland Garros champion, announced on Saturday that she is parting ways with coach Piotr Sierzputowski after nearly six years of collaboration.
“This change is really a challenge for me and it was not an easy decision either,” Swiatek wrote in an Instagram post accompanied by a photo of the pair touching their index fingers during a break in a match. .
Swiatek, from Poland, hired Sierzputowski as a coach in January 2016, when she was 15 and still playing in junior tournaments.
Now 20, she won a Grand Slam championship and reached a career high of No.4 in the WTA rankings.
CAR RACE
DJEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Lewis Hamilton won his third consecutive Grand Prix to even score the points with Max Verstappen.
This means that the race for the Formula 1 championship will now be decided in the season finale.
Hamilton won the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday to tie Verstappen in the standings ahead of next week’s closer match in Abu Dhabi.
The race was chaotic from start to finish with three starts in the standings, two red flags and several red flags.
Hamilton passed Verstappen with six laps to go to take control of the race and win for the eighth time this season.
SPEED SKATING
KEARNS, Utah (AP) – The United States set a world record winning the men’s team pursuit and the Netherlands swept the men’s 1,000-meters for the third consecutive Speed ​​Skating World Cup on Sunday.
The United States team of Joey Mantia, Emery Lehman and Casey Dawson won in 3 minutes, 34.47 seconds on the high altitude ice of the Utah Olympic Oval, topping the old mark of 3: 34.68 established by the Netherlands in February 2020 on the same ice at the world single distance championships.
The US team also lowered Sunday the US record of 3: 37.22 by Shani Davis, Brian Hansen and Jonathan Kuck set in November 2013 on the Utah Oval.
OBITUARY
ATLANTA (AP) – Professional Football Hall of Fame member Claude Humphrey, one of the NFL’s most formidable passer in the 1970s with the Atlanta Falcons but long ignored by mostly losing teams, is died at the age of 77.
Humphrey, who also reached the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles, died suddenly Friday night in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, according to the Hall of Fame, who was informed of his death by his daughter. No cause was given.
Humphrey was the Tennessee State Falcons’ third overall pick in 1968 and played for 11 years with the team, winning the last of six Pro Bowl appearances as a member of the famous “Grits Blitz” defense in 1977. He joined the Eagles in 1979 and served as a designated passer on the 1980 squad that reached the Super Bowl.
Humphrey retired after the 1981 season, before sacks became an official statistic, but was credited with 130 sacks in 13 seasons (he missed the entire 1975 season to recover from a knee injury).
Humphrey was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 2014.
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