Derek Carr’s MVP buzz growing as Raiders continue to impress
OAKLAND — Michael Crabtree stood on the sideline, looked up at the scoreboard above the north end zone and took a deep breath. More
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Chelsea win feisty clash at Man City; Tottenham and Arsenal hit five
Chelsea made it eight consecutive wins in the Premier League as they came from behind to keep their place at the top of the table with a 3-1 victory over More
Suns’ Earl Watson: Support for marijuana can be ‘slippery slope’
OAKLAND, Calif. — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr’s willingness to speak out in favor of sports leagues permitting medicinal marijuana usage to help cope with pain hasn’t completely resonated with everyone.
Phoenix Suns head coach Earl Watson said he understands where Kerr is coming from, but he’s concerned Kerr’s message of embracing marijuana might be taken the wrong way by youngsters.
“I think our rhetoric on it has to be very careful, because you have a lot of kids where I’m from that’s reading this, and they think [marijuana use is] cool,” Watson told ESPN on Saturday evening. “It’s not cool. Where I’m from, you don’t get six fouls to foul out; you get three strikes. One strike leads to another. I’m just being honest with you, so you have to be very careful with your rhetoric.”
Born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, Watson grew up surrounded by poverty, violent crimes, drug addicts and gangs. He sadly has a long list of childhood friends who are either incarcerated or dead. From his personal experience over the years, he said he witnessed many close to him who smoked marijuana, which he believes served as a gateway to hardcore drugs.
Watson said he doesn’t feel the coaching profession is the appropriate line of work for publicly advocating the benefits of consuming marijuana as a pain reliever.
“I think it would have to come from a physician, not a coach,” Watson…
What we learned from Championship Weekend in college football
Here’s a look at what NFL.com analysts learned about prospects in Week 14 of the college football season. More
Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma LIVE score and stats (12/03/16), College football, Big 12
| OKST | 1st Qtr | 5:16 | Ben Grogan 19 yd FG |
| OKLA | 2nd Qtr | 14:46 | Dede Westbrook 69 yd pass from Baker Mayfield (Austin Seibert kick) |
| OKLA | 2nd Qtr | 11:36 | Austin Seibert 34 yd FG |
| OKST | 2nd Qtr | 5:05 | Chris Carson 6 yd run (Ben Grogan kick) |
| OKST | 2nd Qtr | 1:28 | Mason Rudolph 6 yd run (Ben Grogan kick) |
| OKLA | 2nd Qtr | 0:27 | Geno Lewis 10 yd pass from Baker Mayfield (Austin Seibert kick) |
| OKLA | 3rd Qtr | 11:56 | Samaje Perine 1 yd run (Austin Seibert kick) |
| OKLA | 3rd Qtr | 4:21 | Joe Mixon 12 yd pass from Baker Mayfield (Austin Seibert kick) |
| OKST | 3rd Qtr | 1:00 | Ben Grogan 30 yd FG |
| OKLA | 4th Qtr | 9:35 | Joe Mixon 79 yd run (Austin Seibert kick) |
Saturday, the Oklahoma State Cowboys led by Mike Gundy travel to Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma to take on the Bob Stoops and the Oklahoma Sooners.
For the second straight year, No. 11 Oklahoma State heads into its regular-season finale against its in-state rival, No. 7 Oklahoma, with a chance to claim the Big 12 title.
Check the scoreboard above for the score and click on the stats link for game stats.
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Last year, Oklahoma State was missing several key starters because of injuries, with quarterback Mason Rudolph hardly playing, and wound up losing 58-23 on its home field. Oklahoma claimed the Big 12 championship and advanced to the College Football Playoff.
This time, coming off their most complete performance of the season, a 31-6 win over TCU on Nov. 19, followed by a bye week, the Cowboys (9-2, 7-1 Big 12, No. 10 CFP) are well-rested and determined to finish the job Saturday at Oklahoma (9-2,…
Selecting the College Football Playoff field not as simple as it seems
Between Tuesday night and Friday afternoon, the prediction of a scenario involving the results that actually played out Friday and Saturday would have drawn a yawn. More
Photos: Alabama crushes Florida in SEC Championship Game
HYOSUB SHIN / AJC/hshin@ajc.com December 3, 2016 Atlanta – Alabama head coach Nick Saban…
Penn State’s rousing run will test CFP committee’s credibility
INDIANAPOLIS — When the top four teams won this weekend, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee won a reprieve. The 12 representatives who will bask in the glow of their computer screens on Selection Day don’t have to choose among equals.
One can argue that No. 4 Washington’s 41-10 rout of No. 8 Colorado, coupled with No. 3 Clemson’s 42-35 defeat of No. 23 Virginia Tech, means that the Huskies and Tigers should switch. But it’s hard to argue against rewarding the only four Power 5 teams that finished the season with one loss or fewer.
No. 7 Penn State can make a compelling case, given that it won the Big Ten by a score of 38-31 over No. 6 Wisconsin on Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium and defeated No. 2 Ohio State during the regular season. But the Buckeyes won’t be the first team to lose and advance beyond a team that beat them.
Florida State won the 1993 wire-service national championship over Notre Dame, a result that will send former Irish head coach Lou Holtz’s blood pressure off the chart to this day. Seven years later, the Seminoles lost to Miami yet finished ahead of the Hurricanes in the BCS standings. It didn’t help the young BCS’ credibility when Oklahoma pounded Florida State in the national championship game.
Now, in Year 3, the credibility of the College Football Playoff will be tested on Selection Day. Those of us who like sports because there are clear-cut winners and losers hoped for no upsets and hoped the committee wouldn’t have to make an impossible decision. After Penn State won Saturday night, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany refused the opportunity to pick among his constituents.
“I don’t know what it means,” Delany said. “Is the Clemson game over?”
The Tigers had won.
“All the votes are in,” Delany said. “I’ll be watching like everybody else.”
If No. 5 Michigan is mad about playing in the Capital One Orange Bowl, then the Wolverines should have done better than 2-2 on the road.
Penn State could, like No. 10 USC, make a case that it is one of the four best teams in the country on Dec. 3. Picture a world, if you will, in which the roles this weekend were reversed. Penn State would be No. 2 and Wisconsin No. 5, and No. 6…
Clemson needs to shape up, or it will get knocked out
ORLANDO, Fla. — Clemson entered Saturday’s ACC Championship Game against Virginia Tech in the enviable position of having its College Football Playoff fate in its hands.
Unlike Penn State and Wisconsin, the Tigers didn’t need to convince the committee to have a last-second change of heart at the expense of another deserving team. Clemson also had no fear whatsoever that its rightful place in the top four could be usurped in the event of an especially persuasive performance the Badgers or the Nittany Lions — something that couldn’t be said, definitively, for Ohio State, or Washington. And unlike Michigan, the third-ranked Tigers didn’t have to pray for a miracle.
The only thing Dabo Swinney’s team had to do to assure it would play on New Year’s Eve was beat the Hokies — and beat the Hokies it did. But while the Tigers’ 42-35 victory at Camping World Stadium was everything it needed to be with respect to getting into the playoff field, it also revealed a host of flaws that could prove disastrous regardless of who they face in the national semifinal.
“There’s no question this team right here is incredibly deserving of where they are,” Swinney said of his players after the game. “They’ve earned everything they’ve gotten. It’s never been easy.”
In front of a Clemson-leaning crowd of 50,628, the Tigers (12-1) were unquestionably the superior team from the start, and there were several times throughout the game, which they led by as many as 21, when they appeared poised to blow it wide open — and in those moments, they looked every bit the part of a national champion.
But Clemson, for all its trying, could never pull away, and repeatedly allowed Virginia Tech (9-4) back in the contest long after the Hokies should have been put out of their misery. And it wasn’t until Cordrea Tankersley intercepted a Jerod Evans pass at the Clemson 11 with 1:11 to play that the Tigers faithful could finally breathe a sigh of relief, their team’s future finally secure.
“We needed a turnover,” Tankersley said. “The only way we knew we could win the game was if we won the turnover margin. Credit to our defensive line for getting pressure, (forcing) the quarterback to get the ball out quick.”
Overall, Clemson’s top-10 defense “held” Virginia Tech to 386 yards — 67 under the Hokies’ season average — and did win the…
Matches to Make After ‘The Ultimate Fighter 24’ Finale
Demetrious Johnson refused to play Georges St. Pierre to Tim Elliott’s Matt Serra.
“Mighty Mouse” stayed calm in the face of early adversity to retain the Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight crown with a unanimous decision over Elliott in “The Ultimate Fighter 24” Finale main event on Saturday at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Johnson was awarded 49-46, 49-46 and 49-45 marks from the judges, as he made his ninth consecutive successful title defense — one shy of former middleweight boss Anderson Silva’s all-time UFC record.
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Elliott did all he could to unseat the incumbent champion. He caught Johnson in a tight guillotine in the first round and transitioned to a brabo choke, squeezing until his arms could squeeze no more. The AMC Pankration ace extricated himself, worked back to his feet and restored order. Johnson spent much of the next 20 minutes assuming top position — either through takedowns or scrambles — and compromising the Elliott guard with a series of passes.
Johnson has now sat atop the flyweight division for 1,534 days and has not lost a fight since his unanimous decision defeat to reigning bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz on Oct. 1, 2011.
In wake of “The Ultimate Fighter 24” Finale, here are five matches that ought to be made:
Demetrious Johnson vs. Joseph Benavidez: While a rematch with the aforementioned Cruz remains a part of any future…