College

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — No. 9 Notre Dame spent last week figuring out how to slow down Navy’s run-heavy offense. This week, the defense is switching gears against No. 23 Pitt. Yes, the Fighting Irish began this week with the usual emphasis — stopping the run — while fully understanding...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The NCAA put Michigan State’s football program on three years of probation and penalized the school $30,000 plus 1.5% of the team’s budget after agreeing former staff members under coach Mel Tucker broke rules regarding recruiting inducements and benefits, communication and unofficial visit expenses. Michigan State...

The top five teams remained unchanged, and Texas Tech leapt two spots to No. 6 in the second version of this year’s College Football Playoff rankings, which were announced Tuesday night. The three remaining FBS unbeaten teams are at the top of the rankings, with defending champion Ohio State No....

It’s official: ESPN’s “College GameDay” has arrived in the Steel City. Crew members from one of the sports network’s marquee shows flew into Pittsburgh Monday to lay the groundwork for this weekend’s televised football matchup between Pitt and Notre Dame, ESPN spokeswoman Amanda Brooks told TribLive. The crew quickly started...

The College Football Playoff format for 2025 is locked in. At least one ACC football team will make the 12-team CFP field. Should that be the case? The ACC watched Virginia and Louisville lose on Saturday as home favorites, while Duke lost to UConn. The conference is one big, cluttered...

This was the moment for No. 6 Oregon. Down 16-15 to No. 20 Iowa with 1:51 remaining, the Ducks drove 54 yards in 10 plays and made a 39-yard field goal with three seconds left to notch a must-have win against a ranked opponent. This is the result the College...

AUSTIN, Texas — A month ago, preseason No. 1 Texas had fallen to 3-2, was unranked and star quarterback Arch Manning was being mocked as a bust. Look at them now: A four-game winning streak, including two victories over opponents who were in the top 10 at the time, and...

Texas returned to the top 10 of The Associated Press college football poll on Sunday, the Atlantic Coast Conference has five teams ranked for the first time this season and two Group of Five conferences are now represented in the Top 25 a month before the playoff bracekt is set....

Merely three weeks into the season, UCLA’s DeShaun Foster and Virginia Tech’s Brent Pry were out of a job. Seven weeks later, a half-dozen more coaches were added to the list of midseason firings — and high-profile ones at that. A quarter of the SEC’s coaches who started the season...

Ohio State received top billing in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season Tuesday, followed by Indiana, Texas A&M and Alabama. The top three head into the final four weeks of the regular season undefeated. Another team with no losses, BYU of the Big 12, was ranked seventh....

The Big 12 had two teams in the top 10 of The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll for the first time in two years Sunday, Notre Dame was back in the top 10 after a two-month absence and Oklahoma and Texas made the biggest upward moves. The top...

LAWRENCE, Kan. — The faces of college basketball players change from year to year these days, as name, image and likeness inducements and the explosion of the transfer portal force coaches to rework their rosters almost every season. Even coaches seem to change more frequently, perhaps a byproduct of the...

No. 8 Mississippi’s 34-26 win against No. 11 Oklahoma is essentially a College Football Playoff clincher for the Rebels, who avoided a second loss in as many weeks and close with South Carolina, The Citadel, Florida and Mississippi State. While they’ll be expected to run the table in November, the...

Most college basketball coaches choose to focus only on the present, whether that’s the next practice or game. If you ask them in October about playing for a national championship come April, they will steer the conversation right back to the here and now. Matt Painter believes one of his...

Less than four years after being hired away from Notre Dame, Brian Kelly has been fired by LSU, according to multiple reports on Sunday. Kelly, who recorded a 34-14 record with the Tigers, was shown the door one day after his 20th-ranked Tigers turned an 18-14 halftime lead into a...

The top four seeds remain unchanged on the College Football Playoff bracket based on The Associated Press Top 25 released Sunday, but three of the four first-round matchups would change and Memphis returned as the Group of Five representative. Only slight alterations were required on the mock bracket because the...

As many of his fellow luminaries in college basketball coaching have retired in recent years — from Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams to Jay Wright and Tony Bennett — Tom Izzo remains on the sideline, preparing to lead Michigan State for the 31st season. That doesn’t mean he likes everything...

The NCAA approved a rule change on Wednesday that will allow athletes and athletic department staff members to bet on professional sports. Two weeks after the Division I cabinet approved the change, Division II and III management councils signed off on it, allowing the new rule to go into effect...

Purdue star point guard Braden Smith was a unanimous choice for the Associated Press preseason All-American team released Monday. Smith, a senior, received all 57 votes in the balloting. He is the only returning first-team All-American in the country. Texas Tech’s JT Toppin (52 votes) was second, while Michigan’s Yaxel...

Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt jumped into the top 10 of this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll, but Ohio State retained the top spot Sunday. Ohio State’s steady season was represented by the fact that the Buckeyes (7-0) were the only team whose spot was unchanged in the latest poll....

Another SEC loss should make this a crisis point for LSU and coach Brian Kelly’s underwhelming tenure. No. 17 Vanderbilt beat the No. 10 Tigers 31-24 by controlling the clock, owning the line of scrimmage, winning in the red zone on both ends and playing cleaner, crisper, more daring football....

Florida has fired football coach Billy Napier, the school announced Sunday. The move comes after an 23-21 win against Mississippi State improved the Gators to 3-4 on the season. Napier ends his tenure with the Gators with an overall record of 22-23 in his four seasons at the school. “As...

When he arrives on campus early in the morning, Franciscan women’s soccer coach Nick Miller often sees Bella Urso in the gym sharpening her basketball skills. Basketball practice officially started last week, so the Fox Chapel grad is trying to stay sharp until she can join the Barons women’s team...

Diego Pavia ran for two touchdowns and passed for one to help No. 17 Vanderbilt defeat No. 10 LSU, 31-24, on Saturday in SEC play at Nashville, Tenn. Pavia passed for 160 yards and rushed for 86, and the Commodores (6-1, 2-1 SEC) scored on five of their first six...