After last weeks chaotic and unexpected results, the top?College Football Playoff contenders mostly held serve on Saturday. (No. 5 Louisville was another matter on Thursday night.)Heading into the final week of the regular season, we have a pretty good idea how most of the Power 5 conference races are going to shake out. Three of them look a lot like they did last season.No. 1 Alabama will play No. 23 Florida in the SEC championship game for the second straight season and the ninth time overall. No. 4 Clemson will be the favorite in the ACC championship game and will play Virginia Tech -- as long as the Hokies defeat rival Virginia in next weeks regular-season finale. No. 9 Oklahoma continues to sweep through the Big 12 -- the Sooners demolished No. 14 West Virginia 56-28 on the road -- and will win a second straight Big 12 title with a victory over No. 11 Oklahoma State in the Dec. 3 Bedlam game.The Big Ten might yet prove to be a wild card. All eyes have turned to No. 2 Ohio State versus No. 3 Michigan next week, but its not a foregone conclusion that the Buckeyes and Wolverines are playing for a place in Indianapolis. If Ohio State beats Michigan and No. 8 Penn State beats Michigan State at home, the Nittany Lions will win the Big Ten East.?Theres plenty of intrigue out West, where the Pac-12 is set up for a dramatic final weekend.Its winner take all in the North, where No. 6 Washington and No. 22 Washington State will play for a place in the championship game in Fridays Apple Cup. The Huskies bounced back after last weeks loss to USC with a comfortable win over Arizona State and remain in the CFP hunt. The Cougars had their eight-game winning streak snapped in a loss at Colorado, but theyve looked the part of a Pac-12 contender during league play.The Pac-12 South will be contested by one of the hottest teams in the country, No. 13 USC, and this seasons feel-good story, No. 10 Colorado. The Trojans were left for dead after a 1-3 start but have reeled off seven straight wins after beating UCLA 36-14. They end the regular season against Notre Dame and can only hope Colorado loses to Utah next Saturday. USC owns the tiebreaker over Colorado, so the Trojans would win the South if the Utes beat the Buffaloes.?It means the world to go out there and win, keep our hopes alive, Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau said. Its more fun than anything. Weve been in close games for a long time now.Time might be up for Charlie Strong, Ed OrgeronAccording to industry sources, there isnt expected to be a tremendous amount of turnover among FBS coaches this offseason. But two very big dominoes -- LSU and Texas -- are much closer to falling after Saturdays results.?Texas coach Charlie Strong is probably finished, after the Longhorns were stunned 24-21 in overtime at Kansas. When asked during an uncomfortable postgame news conference how the loss to the Jayhawks would affect his future, Strong said, I have no idea.Truth be told, its probably the best outcome for both sides. Even if Strong had led the Longhorns to a winning record and a bowl game, he would have entered next season under the same pressure he faced the past two seasons. Thats no way to try to build a winning program. The Longhorns are expected to target Houston coach Tom Herman. What isnt known is whether the Longhorns will swing big again to try to lure a top candidate to Austin, namely Alabamas Nick Saban or Florida States Jimbo Fisher, before they settle on hiring Herman.Fisher and Herman also figure to be top candidates at LSU, where the Tigers have probably reached the point where they cant retain interim coach Ed Orgeron next season. LSU won three straight games under Orgeron after former coach Les Miles was fired on Sept. 25. But now the Tigers have dropped two of their past three games, including an ugly 16-10 loss to No. 23 Florida at home on Saturday, when the Tigers committed several of the same mistakes that led to Miles demise.?Were not going to lie, Orgeron said. We thought we were going to win the football game. We didnt execute right, and they got to take it away from us; it would have been a great victory for all of them.Fisher is believed to be LSUs No. 1 target, but its unclear whether he would be willing to leave the Seminoles, who might be built to be a playoff contender the next few seasons. If Fisher isnt interested, Herman, Colorados Mike MacIntyre and North Carolinas Larry Fedora might be considered at LSU.Speaking of Miles, he has emerged as a potential candidate at Baylor, which lost its fourth consecutive game under interim coach Jim Grobe on Saturday -- a 42-21 final against Kansas State at home. Fedora, SMUs Chad Morris and ex-San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary, a former Baylor All-America linebacker, are also being considered, according to sources close to the search.Elsewhere, Oregons Mark Helfrich guided the Ducks to a 30-28 upset at No. 12 Utah, scoring the winning touchdown on Justin Herberts 17-yard pass to Darren Carrington II with two seconds left.Is it too little too late for Helfrich? Even if the Ducks win at Oregon State in next weeks Civil War, they will finish only 5-7 and miss the postseason for the first time since 2004. Or does the upset of the Utes give Oregon decision-makers enough hope that Helfrich can turn things around? He would be owed an $11.7 million buyout if hes fired.Thats the nature of the beast, Helfrich told reporters. Ten percent love you regardless, 10 percent hate you regardless and 80 percent swing vote.Playoff teams after Week 121. Alabama: The Crimson Tide rolled to a 31-3 victory over FCS foe Chattanooga, but coach Nick Saban said he was embarrassed by his teams performance in the first half. Freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts completed 15 of 21 passes for 136 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 68 yards.2. Michigan: The Wolverines trailed Indiana in the third quarter but scored the final 14 points in a 20-10 win at the snow-covered Big House. Michigan was playing without injured quarterback Wilton Speight for the first time and relied heavily on tailback DeVeon Smith, who ran 23 times for 158 yards and two scores. Michigan can win the Big Ten East by knocking off rival Ohio State on the road next week.3. Clemson: After suffering their first defeat of the season last week, the Tigers bounced back with an impressive 35-13 win over Wake Forest to claim the ACC Atlantic Division title. Tailback Wayne Gallman ran 22 times for 161 yards and one touchdown. The Tigers host rival South Carolina in next weeks regular-season finale.4. Ohio State: It wasnt pretty, but the Buckeyes survived at Michigan State, 17-16. The Spartans had derailed Ohio States national championship hopes in two of the past three seasons, beating the Buckeyes in the 2013 Big Ten title game and then late in the 2015 regular season. The Buckeyes can remain in the CFP hunt by beating Michigan at the Horseshoe next week, but they still need Penn State to lose in order to win the Big Ten East.Next four in contention1. Washington: The Huskies rebounded from their ugly loss against USC last week by routing Arizona State 44-18. Quarterback Jake Browning passed for 338 yards and two touchdowns, while tailback Myles Gaskin ran for 127 yards and a score. The winner of next weeks Apple Cup at Washington State will claim the Pac-12 North.2. Wisconsin: The Badgers beat Purdue 49-20 on the road, securing their fourth consecutive nine-win season for the second time in school history. Wisconsin can win the Big Ten West by beating Minnesota next week -- or if Nebraska loses at Iowa. The Cornhuskers will win the division if they beat the Hawkeyes and the Badgers lose to the Gophers.3. Penn State: After a very slow start, the Nittany Lions scored 30 points in the second half to shut out Rutgers 39-0 on the road. Penn State outgained the Scarlet Knights 549 yards to 87 in total offense. The Nittany Lions will win the Big Ten East if they defeat Michigan State at home and Ohio State beats Michigan next week.4. Oklahoma: Left for dead after two early-season losses, the Sooners are trying to find a backdoor way into the playoff again. Oklahoma blasted West Virginia 56-28 on the road in the snow. Tailbacks Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon combined for 307 rushing yards and three touchdowns. The Sooners host No. 11 Oklahoma State on Dec. 3 with the Big 12 title at stake.Heisman candidates1. Lamar Jackson, QB, Louisville: Jackson might have cracked the door for other contenders after the No. 5 Cardinals dismal performance in a 36-10 loss at Houston on Thursday night. Jackson was sacked 11 times and completed 20 of 43 passes for 211 yards and one touchdown. He ran 25 times for 33 yards, but he would have finished with 116 yards if not for the sacks.2. Dede Westbrook, WR, Oklahoma: Oklahoma didnt throw the ball much in the snow at West Virginia, but Westbrook scored a touchdown for the eighth straight game on a 75-yard catch. He had two catches for 100 yards, the seventh time in eight games that he reached 100.3. DOnta Foreman, RB, Texas: Foreman carried a school-record 51 times for 250 yards and two touchdowns, but he also lost two costly fumbles in the Longhorns 24-21 defeat at Kansas. It was Foremans 12th consecutive 100-yard rushing game, breaking Earl Campbells school record of 11.4. Deshaun Watson, QB, Clemson: Watson bounced back from a so-so performance in the loss to Pittsburgh by completing 23 of 33 passes for 202 yards and a touchdown against Wake Forest. He also ran seven times for 47 yards and two scores. Watson is now 28-3 as a starter, posting the best winning percentage by a Clemson quarterback.Best momentsTweets of the nightBest playsWorst playsQuotes of the night1. All week long Id said that, hey, if we get close at the end of the game, were going for two, and were going to take an aggressive approach and play to win the football game rather than to tie. They had us covered up on that particular play, so good job by them. -- Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio, on his teams failed two-point try with 4:41 left in a 17-16 loss to Ohio State.2. Oh man! Big-time players make big-time plays, and it was definitely time to make a big-time play, so I just had to come through in the clutch for my boys. I just turned and saw the ball in the air and went and got it. I had no idea the ball was coming until it was up in the air. -- Oregon receiver Darren Carrington II, on his winning touchdown catch to beat No. 12 Utah.3. Im at a loss for words, really, as to what to tell them. -- Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, after the Fighting Irish blew a 17-point lead in a 34-31 loss to Virginia Tech. The Irish are 4-7.4. The mood of the team is we just have to rally together. Right now, the easiest thing to do is to abandon ship, play the blame game, point fingers. Right now, we have two regular-season games and we have a bowl game that we need to prepare for. -- Baylor defensive back Travon Blanchard, after the Bears lost their fourth straight game, 42-21 to Kansas State, to fall to 6-4.Stats that matter4,166: Florida States Dalvin Cook ran for 225 yards with four touchdowns in a 45-14 rout at Syracuse, passing Warrick Dunn to become the schools all-time leading rusher with 4,166 yards. Cook is the sixth ACC player to run for 4,000 yards and the first to do it in three seasons.4?: Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett had 4? sacks in a 23-10 victory over Texas-San Antonio, giving him 8? this season. Garrett now has 32? sacks in his career, making him the eighth player in SEC history to have at least 30.400: Tennessee allowed 420 rushing yards yet still beat Missouri 63-37. The Volunteers have allowed 400 rushing yards in back-to-back games and have won both of them. They beat Kentucky last week while allowing 443 rushing yards.?1,046: Detroit native Mike Weber ran for 111 yards in Ohio States 17-16 win at Michigan State, giving him 1,046 in 11 games this season. Weber joins Robert Smith (1990) and Maurice Clarett (2002) as the only freshmen in Ohio State history to run for at least 1,000 yards in a season. Wholesale NCAA Jerseys . PETERSBURG, Fla. NCAA Jerseys Outlet .S District Court against Major League Baseball, the Office of the Commissioner and his own union, the MLBPA. https://www.chinajerseysncaa.us/ . Wall made the comment in a speech to a Regina business crowd that included Lesnar. The U.S. wrestler and retired mixed martial artist says he was visiting his brothers farm in Saskatchewan and decided he wanted to hear what the premier had to say. NCAA Jerseys China . Now tied for second in the league in shootout goals, the 24-year-old likes to see what the opposing goaltender has in store before he ultimately lands on a move. Cheap Football NCAA Jerseys . "Trying to breathe," he said with a grin. Bernier stopped 42 of 43 shots on Monday night, including all 22 in a hectic middle frame, his heroic performance propelling the Leafs toward an undue point in their final game before the Christmas break. TROON, Scotland -- Phil Mickelson wore a black rain suit that he didnt need until he approached the far end of Royal Troon and already had stretched his lead. Henrik Stenson opened the curtains at his house expecting to see rain coming down sideways and was pleasantly surprised by the calm.Good golf and the good end of the draw is tough to beat in the British Open.Mickelson hit a wedge that spun back toward the cup until it stopped about two postage stamps away on the par-3 eighth hole, the signature shot in his 2-under 69 that allowed him to back up his record-tying start and take the 36-hole lead in a major for the first time in three years.I thought it was a good round to back up the low round yesterday, Mickelson said. I played kind of stress-free golf again. I made one or two bad swings that led to bogeys. But for the most part, kept the ball in play.He just couldnt shake Stenson, who timed his birdies perfectly.The Swede made three straight birdies before the wind showed up and the clouds began to spit rain. He added two more during lulls in the increasingly bad weather. And he wound up with a Friday-best 65 that enabled him to close within one shot of Mickelson.I was five back of Phil from yesterday, so of course I was hoping to gain a little, Stenson said. And the way it turned out, I gained quite a lot. Its still early in the tournament, though. Were only halfway through. But so far, so good. Im happy with the way I played the course. Its not easy out there.Try telling that to the players who had to endure an afternoon of gusts that topped 30 mph and rain so heavy at times it was hard to see.Some draws go your way, Rory McIlroy said, and some draws dont.Just look at the leaderboard.Mickelson was at 10-under 132, the best 36-hole total ever to lead at Royal Troon. Stenson, a runner-up to Mickelson at Muirfield in 2013, was one shot behind. Soren Kjeldsen and Keegan Bradley each shot 68 and were three shots behind.The top 14 players going into the weekend all played Friday morning. Of the 26 players still under par, only four of them played in the afternoon.The nature of links golf, and this championship, is getting the good side of the tee times. Mickelson was soaked when he walked off the course, though he managed to get in eight holes before the rain arrived. On the ninth hole, he had his caddie hold the umbrella over his ball on a 10-foot par putt, walking away at the last minute to watch his boss roll in into the cup, like hes been doing all week.Jordann Spieth? He was lucky to still be playing.ddddddddddddpieth battled through the worst of the elements to play the final six holes in even par for a 75 to finish at 4-over 146. Two hours before he finished, that looked as if it would earn him a trip back to Texas. Instead, he made the cut on the number.Its tough when we all realize before we go out that youre kind of what would be the bad end of the draw before you even play your second round, Spieth said.Then again, he wasnt sure it mattered the way he was playing.But at 4-over par, my game is not major championship-winning caliber those first two rounds, he said. It just made it pretty interesting and actually somewhat nervous on the last five, six holes because Id really like to play the weekend.McIlroy got within five shots of the lead until the weather and a few bad shots gobbled him up, and the four-time major champion dropped four shots in five holes. He had to settle for an even-par 71 and was eight shots behind, along with U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson (69).Jason Day, the worlds No. 1 player, had a 70 and was among three players who broke par in the afternoon.I felt like I shot a low-career round out there today with just how tough the conditions were, Day said.Mickelsons made his first bogey when he pulled an iron off the tee into the rough, missing a gorse bush by about two paces. He dropped another shot on the 15th when he pulled his drive into the rough and couldnt reach the green. Those were the mistakes, offset by a 25-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole when he played his tee shot off the back side of a bunker and let it feed toward the hole.He looked like a links specialist the way he used the grouFormer Sydney FC winger Chris Naumoff has alleged the A-League club may have known about a heart condition that forced him into retirement at the age of 21.After three seasons with the Sky Blues, Naumoff - a former Young Socceroos and Olyroos representative - penned a dream three-year deal in June with Spanish second division side Numancia.However, the move was scrapped after a routine medical examination revealed he suffers from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic disease which can trigger death when the heart is put under extreme stress.It is the leading cause of death in young athletes.Naumoff wants to know why it took a trip to Spain to find out and whether Sydney FC were already aware.The question was asked and in terms of getting an answer from whoever needs to answer these questions, (it) is still up in the air, Naumoff told SBS.Cardiac screening and electrocardiogram (ECG) tests are recommended by Football Federation Australia but were not made compulsory until the A-Leagues latest collective bargaining agreement was introduced last year.Under the new rules, players are supposed to be barred from training until their club conducts a specific set of health check-ups, including an ECG.Naumoff says the only ECG he ever had at Sydney was in February - more than halfway through the season - and he heard nothing back.So as you would guess, I thought everything was fine, Naumoff said.The results (in Spain) did show that there was something wrong with my heart and that I did need further testing. I wasnt made aware of this.Why thats the case? Im not sure. But this is definitely a thing thats on the results and something that should have been taken further at the time.Naumoff played six more games for Sydney between his ECG and his move to Spain.The club told SBS it was saddened by Naumoffs retirement and it had offered him a new 12-month contract but said medical records of players were confidential.AAP has contacted Sydney FC for further comment. Air Max 90 White Outlet . Instead of dwelling on the negative, Oates focused on what was good about the clubs recent play. It worked. Wholesale Air Max 90 .com) - The Chicago Blackhawks aim for their third three-game winning streak of the season when they host the struggling Edmonton Oilers in Sundays battle at the United Center. http://www.outletairmax90cheap.com/ . -- Arizona knocked off some quality opponents, rolled over a few overmatched ones and grinded out victories even when things didnt go so well. Cheap Air Max 90 . Ronaldo produced a spectacular individual performance on Tuesday, scoring all three goals and guiding Portugal into the next years World Cup in Brazil with a 3-2 victory in Sweden. The Real Madrid forward has scored 66 goals in 2013, but the last three may be the boost he needs to upstage Messi after FIFA unexpectedly extended the voting period for the Ballon dOr to Nov. Wholesale Air Max 90 White . He just needed to be his best twisting, turning acrobatic self. "I didnt need to be anybody else, I just needed to be myself and be aggressive," said Burks, who scored a career-high 34 points to spark the Utah Jazz to a 118-103 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night. CHICAGO -- As we learned again Sunday night at Wrigley Field, it isnt hard to understand how the Dodgers win when the guy they send to the mound is named?Clayton Edward Kershaw.But heres the part of the Dodgers winning formula that America might find a little tougher to understand: How the heck did they win those other 74 games this year? How is it possible that the Dodgers had a better record this season after Kershaw got hurt (50-35) than they had before (41-36)?We ask these things because, now that Kershaw has finished evening up the National League Championship Series at one win apiece -- by becoming the first pitcher to beat the Cubs in a 1-0 postseason game since Babe Ruth -- its time for the Dodgers to go back to doing what they do best until Kershaws turn comes around again.And by that we mean ... um, dont worry, theyll figure out something.There has never been a first-place team in the history of baseball quite like the 2016 Dodgers. You understand that, right? I posed that question to their trusty president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman, on Sunday night. Even he didnt attempt to spin it to make it seem as if this teams championship saga was nothing out of the ordinary.I would say the answer is definitely not, Friedman said succinctly, because we set a record for disabled-list placements. So therefore, the answer is definitely not.Yes, the Dodgers placed 28 different players on the disabled list this season. That would be more than any team in the past 30 seasons. And since records for this sort of thing werent kept before then, that puts them in uncharted territory -- at least for that period of history in which territory was charted.And because pretty much everyone except Sandy Koufax and Vin Scully wound up on that disabled list somewhere along the line, the Dodgers also found themselves doing stuff that we can guarantee no other first-place team has ever done. For instance:Never once, at any point over the past 3? months of the season, did the same five starting pitchers go around their rotation twice in the same order. Not once. Over their last 90 games. How is that possible?Well, its possible because this team ripped through 15 different starting pitchers over the course of the season -- after using 16 in 2015. Just so you understand what that means, before last year, only one other team in the history of division play (the 1989 Giants) had made the playoffs in a season in which they had to use at least 15 starters. Now the Dodgers have done it two seasons in a row. Because, well, of course they have.And because they were constantly in some sort of scramble mode, Dave Roberts became the first manager in history to have to remove two different starting pitchers, in the eighth inning or later, even though they were working on no-hitters at the time. Then again, if youre busy reinventing the whole concept of what constitutes a starting rotation, that fits right in, doesnt it?And since all those starters were doing so much coming and going -- especially the going part -- Roberts set another record, making an unprecedented 606 pitching changes. Meaning this guy logged more mileage, just going back and forth to the mound, than your average Uber driver.But it wasnt just the pitchers who were coming and/or going. This team used 55 different players, tying the franchise record for most in a season. It also made 216 roster moves. I know because I counted them all up myself. That comes to more than eight a week. And we remind you, they did that in a season in which they won the NL West. Amazing.You know, we talked about it all during the offseason and spring training, about our feeling that our hallmark of this team was going to be our depth, Friedman said. We just didnt really want to showcase it as much as we did.It was always their assumption, Friedman said, that over the course of any season, things happen. But even they never could have anticipated all THIS would happen. Nevertheless, it was always part of Friedmans team-building philosophy to be ready when those things did happen. And the Dodgers wouldnt be here, still playing, without the forethought that went into that.On one hand, Friedman said, you can say, Oh, we had some injjuries.ddddddddddddWoe is us. Or you can have as much depth on hand, to be able to plug in with good, capable major league players.So those capable fill-ins just kept on coming. Unless they were going, that is. So after a while, the few veteran players who somehow managed to stay healthy pretty much got used to the idea that every time they looked up, the last two or three or four players on their roster werent going to be the same two or three or four players who were there last week. Or possibly 15 minutes ago.At least, said third baseman Justin Turner, we knew who everybody was. Probably the only guy who we hadnt really met before he got here was when [Andrew] Toles came up. But wed all heard about him.Then again, there are other teams out there that constantly rotate players through those last few roster spots for the sake of flexibility. But what made these Dodgers especially unique was the fact that, well, they didnt even really HAVE a starting rotation.Asked whether it would seem almost impossible to finish first with a team that never used the same rotation twice in a row over a 3?-month period, Turner couldnt help but laugh.It would, he said. But we did.A few feet away, in his own clubhouse, stood second baseman Chase Utley. Five years ago, he played on a first-place team in Philadelphia in which the same five dominating starters went around the rotation over and over and over again from April through September. And that was the way that team won. Then again, its the way teams have won in baseball for the past 100 years. So if Utley thought thats the way life would always work, who could blame him?Now, Utley plays on a team thats the exact opposite, in which the same five starters never went around the rotation. He couldnt help but see the irony.You wouldnt draw it up that way, he said. But whatever works.But even though it did, improbably, work, Friedman admits there were many days his group sat around the office wondering what pitcher was going to start tonight or tomorrow or next Thursday.We had meetings on it constantly, he said.Asked what he remembered about those meetings, Friedman smiled and reported: They were long. And often.Those meetings went on for months and months and months. As the Dodgers plugged one hole after another -- and somehow kept winning.And then, Friedman said, exhaling dramatically, Clayton came back.Did he ever. When Kershaw rejoined the rotation in early September, no one knew just what he would be capable of the rest of the way. But theyre now finding out. Boy, are they finding out.Kershaw has pitched in four games in this postseason. The Dodgers have won them all. Theyve had to play three games in which he didnt appear. And theyve lost them all.So that brings us to where they stand in this NLCS -- where, barring more emergency relief heroism, Kershaw wont be able to pitch again until Game 6, back in Chicago on Saturday. And you might think the Dodgers know exactly how the three games in between will go. But if thats what you think, we are forced to ask: Are you familiar with their work?Theyre pretty sure they know who is starting Game 3 on Tuesday. Unless, of course, Rich Hills blister has other ideas. And theyre fairly certain who is starting Game 4 on Wednesday. Unless, that is, Julio Urias has to fill in for Hill in Game 3, or has to stomp in to pitch some emergency relief at some point.And theyre absolutely positive that Kenta Maeda will start Game 5 on Thursday. They just cant be positive hell even make it into the fifth inning -- seeing as how he hasnt done that in almost a month.So that about sums up the current state of the Dodgers rotation: non-Kershawian division. But when youve won 91 games during the regular season -- and four more in the postseason -- doing it this way, this is no time to sit back and reflect on how ridiculous that is. Its a time to just keep finding a way to win. And survive. As always.It just goes to show, Utley said, that there are a lot of different ways to win a ballgame.Yep. No kidding. And the most different way ever to try to win a World Series. ' ' 'nd. Then again, his name is on the silver claret jug for a reason.And he wouldnt mind seeing it there again.I dont feel the pressure like probably a lot of players do to try to win the claret jug because Ive already won it, he said. The desire to capture that claret jug puts a lot of pressure on. The fact Ive done it relieves some of that. I would love to add to it, but having already done that was big.Only two other players have started a major with rounds of 63-69. One was Raymond Floyd, who went on to a wire-to-wire victory at Southern Hills in the 1982 PGA Championship. The other was Greg Norman, who shot 78 in the final round of the 1996 Masters and lost a six-shot lead. ' ' '