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Ohio State, LSU, Clemson and Georgia occupied the four playoff spots a week ago and are expected to do so this week, after recording dominant wins in Rivalry Week. The Buckeyes ended the regular season with a perfect 12-0 record after thrashing Michigan 56-27, while LSU slaughtered Texas A&M 50-7. Clemson finished unbeaten in the regular season for the consecutive year after a 38-3 win over South Carolina, while Georgia buried Georgia Tech 52-7....

Is that too many bowl games? Given the outbreak of COVID-19 could threaten the season, we’re going to say absolutely not. The bowl season concludes with the College Football Playoff championship game on Jan. 11 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. This year’s semifinals are on Jan. 1 at the Rose Bowl Game and Sugar Bowl. Sporting News’ Playoff picks are a reflection of the top-heavy state of college football: Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio State have combined for 17 of 24 total appearances....

The 2020 season, of course, has a much different feel with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 54 FBS schools will not play, but several of those schools are still ranked in both the AP Poll and the Amway Coaches Preseason Top 25, which was released Aug. 6. MORE: Breaking down AP’s Preseason No. 1 vs. the eventual champion since 2000 The Coaches Poll was released before the Big Ten, MAC, Mountain West and Pac-12 opted to cancel their fall football seasons....

That said, there’s still a lot to find out about several top-25 college football teams this week, some of which started their season with a loss (like Michigan and Washington) or narrowly avoided defeat (like Penn State and Michigan State). MORE: SN Power Rankings The Week 2 slate of games includes a top-25 matchup between USC and Stanford, a pivotal SEC East matchup between Georgia and South Carolina and a cross-conference reunion between Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher....

Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Penn State and Oklahoma all had byes, leaving Georgia, Florida, Oregon and Utah as the only top-10 teams in action against Power 5 opponents (Clemson, meanwhile, played Wofford). The Bulldogs knocked the Gators from contention, while Oregon and Utah stayed alive in the Pac-12 with wins over USC and Washington. SN RANKINGS: Stage set for massive Playoff-impacting weekend The slow weekend, however, ensures the big games this week (headlined by NAlabama-LSU and Penn State-Minnesota) maintain their importance to the College Football Playoff race....

Illinois proved to be the biggest dog to get the win last week. In 54 games, there were 16 upsets, including three of 20-point spreads or more. In addition to Illinois, Rice was a 24-point dog to UAB and won, and New Mexico pulled off a win against Wyoming as a 20-point underdog. Here at the Underdog Challenge, we are charged with the difficult task of spotting those upsets before they happen....

Bright Sheng is an accomplished composer and professor at the university’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance in Ann Arbor, Michigan but has now stepped down from teaching the course in question following significant criticism. The composition course was to focus on the works of William Shakespeare and on September 10 Sheng showed a film version of the classic play Othello. The eponymous main character is described as a “Moor” and has frequently been depicted as a Black man....

Of note, the top five teams in the CollegeBaseballInsider.com Preseason Composite Poll — an average of the five national polls — each found their way to Omaha: Vanderbilt, Virginia, TCU, LSU and Florida (Miami was 13, Cal State Fullerton was 18 and Arkansas was unranked). The past three years, only six top-five preseason teams combined advanced to the College World Series. MORE CWS: TV schedule | Odds and predictions | LSU ’the most complete team'?...

After all, there was a game to play. "Right now I'm focusing on trying to learn the plays, learning the coverages and the game plan and the assignments. So I didn't have time to really think about history," Collins said at a crowded press conference less than an hour before his Brooklyn Nets faced the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night. Collins signed a 10-day contract with the Nets earlier Sunday and played 10 scoreless minutes with two rebounds and five fouls in the Nets' 108-102 victory....

The two sides go head-to-head at the Estadio Olimpico Pedro Ludovico, with a win potentially taking Los Cafeteros to the top of the Zona Norte table. Colombia will be looking to bounce back from their disappointing 0-0 draw against Venezuela. Reinaldo Rueda’s side are currently second in the table, two points behind Brazil. Peru, on the other hand, lost their opening game 4-0 to Brazil and are currently at the bottom of the table....

Todd Sheldon, 36, was caught by a homeowner trying to break into a car in south Jefferson County earlier this month, CBS Denver reported. The homeowner alerted the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, but Sheldon had escaped before deputies arrived on the scene, the sheriff’s office wrote in a post on Facebook. “The homeowner then called us, but the man escaped before we arrived,” the sheriff’s office said. “Don’t worry we found him… just down the street… trying to break into another vehicle....

Mason Stansfield, 28, from Ouray, Colorado, died after he fell into a crevasse near the Eldridge Glacier on Monday. Denali National Park and Preserve mountaineering rangers were alerted at around 3.30 p.m. to reports a ski mountaineer had fallen into the icy chasm. A spokesperson for the National Park Service (NPS) said in a statement: “The reporting partner could not see or communicate with the fallen skier and was requesting NPS assistance....

Law enforcement authorities have credited two of the club’s patrons that night with subduing the shooter until police arrived at the scene. Their actions “saved lives,” according to a post on the city’s website. Those two individuals’ “exact actions are part of the investigation, so we can’t discuss the specifics out of respect for the judicial process, but with their permission, we want to acknowledge their heroic actions,” the department said....

The Rams were down 26-24 to the Aggies when they received the ball at their 15-yard line with 44 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Colorado State quarterback Todd Centeio (18 of 29, 282 yards, one touchdown, one interception) completed three quick passes to get into Utah State territory before eventually facing third-and-10 at the Aggies’ 39-yard line. He then hit receiver Ty McCullouch for a 15-yard completion to the Utah State 24 with 11 seconds remaining....

The Indianapolis Colts quarterback, who missed all of 2017 and has been dealing with a rotator cuff issue since 2015, said any future surgery was not an option. “I feel awesome,” Luck told Sports Illustrated. “I am in a great place. It’s been a long journey to this point and it’ll still be a long journey until we get what we need to get done in Indianapolis. “The rehab has been hard at times....

Assuming the team parts ways with coach Chuck Pagano, the Colts are expected to make coaching offers to Alabama coach Nick Saban and Saints coach Sean Payton before moving on to other candidates, NFL.com reported Sunday. The report did not specify which coach management prefers. MORE: NFL coaches dreading Black Monday | How Colts can make playoffs Colts owner Jim Irsay will have the final say over who gets the job, though it seems unlikely that Saban or Payton would be willing to leave their current situations for Indianapolis....

After a 1-2 start to the season, New England (3-2) has won two consecutive games by double digits to get over .500. They took down the Colts 38-24 on Thursday in Foxborough, Mass. Tom Brady passed for 341 yards and three touchdowns, with the third touchdown being his 500th career scoring pass. He spread the ball around to eight different receivers, including Julian Edelman, who caught seven passes for 57 yards in his return from a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs....

The Colts (1-3) got their first win by knocking off the Dolphins, while the Ravens (3-1) beat the Broncos, staying hot since losing to the Raiders in overtime on Monday night in Week 1. The Colts can still win the weak AFC South, while the Ravens need to keep winning to keep pace in the strong AFC North. Will Carson Wentz continue to get better for Indianapolis? Will Lamar Jackson be further unleashed in the downfield passing game for Baltimore?...

The 25-year-old Ghanaian joins from Stromsgodset IF as “special discovery player”, meaning his transfer costs are spread out across the lifetime of the contract. Official terms of the deal were not disclosed. Forget Liverpool: Pulisic makes right call in signing new Borussia Dortmund deal “Mohammed is a talented, technical player that we believe will fit well into our system and style of play,” Crew head coach and technical director Gregg Berhalter said in a press release....