Yahoo Sports AM: The two worlds of college football
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🚨 Headlines
🏈 NFL fines Tepper: The NFL has fined Panthers owner David Tepper $300,000 "for his unacceptable conduct" after he was seen on video Sunday throwing a drink at a Jaguars fans from his luxury box.
🏈 Kimmel vs. Rodgers: Late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel threatened legal action against Aaron Rodgers on Tuesday after the Jets QB insinuated that Kimmel would be on the list of names in the soon-to-be unsealed documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
🏒 900 points club: Connor McDavid needed just 602 games to reach 900 career NHL points. The only four players to get there faster: Wayne Gretzky (385 games), Mario Lemieux (463), Mike Bossy (582) and Peter Šťastný (599).
⚽️ Rooney sacked: Wayne Rooney has been fired by Birmingham City after just 15 matches as the club's manager. The team won just twice under Rooney, falling from sixth to 20th in the EFL Championship (one tier below the Premier League).
🏈 Two worlds: The playoff and the bowls
The final year of the four-team College Football Playoff delivered two thrilling semifinals, with both games going down to the wire.
Michigan 27, Alabama 20 (OT): The Wolverines' come-from-behind victory at the Rose Bowl averaged 27.2 million viewers, making it the most-watched CFP semifinal since 2014 and the most-watched non-NFL sporting event since 2018.
Washington 37, Texas 31: The Huskies nearly suffered one of the most devastating collapses in college football history but escaped with the win in New Orleans to keep Pac-12 football alive for another week.
Elsewhere: The rest of Bowl Season was marred by opt-outs, as a long list of players — bound for either the NFL or the transfer portal — decided against participating in their games.
"People need to look at what happened tonight, and they need to fix this," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said after his team's 63-3 win over a depleted Florida State team. "There's still going to be bowl games outside of [the playoff]. People need to decide what they want."
With the CFP expanding to 12 teams next year, there's concern that the other 35 bowl games will feel like even more of a sideshow than they already do, leading to more opt-outs and threatening the entire bowl system.
One potential solution: Nick Carparelli, the executive director of Bowl Season, believes athletes should be compensated for participating in (and potentially promoting) bowl games. Here's what he told Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger:
"The notion that players should be compensated for [participation] is a very real discussion that needs to be had. I'd love to discuss with the NCAA the notion of student-athletes being compensated to promote the event itself. I'm still not sure what's wrong with that."
"What is legal is they can promote the title sponsor of the game, destination of the game — the convention and visitor's bureau of that area. There's a lot of ways that can be done now under the current rules, but I'd like to think that there could be more direct ways to do it."
🏈 NFL power rankings: The final push
It's the Ravens, the 49ers and everybody else in our penultimate NFL power rankings, courtesy of Yahoo Sports' Frank Schwab, Jeff writes.
Top 10: Nine of our top 10 teams have clinched playoff spots. The only team that hasn't is the Bills, who have the third-best Super Bowl odds (+800 at BetMGM) even though they could still miss the postseason entirely with a loss to the Dolphins on Sunday.
Ravens: 13-1 (–)
49ers: 12-4 (–)
Bills: 10-6 (–)
Cowboys: 11-5 (up 1)
Lions: 11-5 (up 2)
Dolphins: 11-5 (down 2)
Chiefs: 10-6 (up 1)
Browns: 11-5 (up 1)
Rams: 9-7 (up 1)
Eagles: 11-5 (down 4)
Elsewhere: The Texans jumped three spots to No. 12 after routing the Titans, the Packers jumped four spots to No. 16 after crushing the Vikings, and the Steelers jumped four spots to No. 15 after outlasting the Seahawks, who fell six spots to No. 18.
🇺🇸 Photos across America
Iowa City — Caitlin Clark added another highlight to her ever-expanding reel on Tuesday, scoring 40 points and hitting a buzzer-beater from the logo to lift Iowa past Michigan State, 76-73. It was Clark's fourth straight game with at least 35 points.
Seattle — The Kraken blanked the reigning Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights, 3-0, on Monday in the 2024 Winter Classic, the NHL's annual New Year's Day outdoor game.
Albany, New York — The world's best bull riders were in upstate New York over the weekend for the latest stop on PBR's Unleash The Beast tour.
El Segundo, California — Monster waves from a powerful Pacific storm pounded California's coastline during the final days of 2023. Residents were warned to stay off the beaches. Not everyone listened.
🌎 Photos around the world
London — England's newest sports sensation is 16-year-old Luke Littler, who has stormed into the final of the World Darts Championship. If he wins today against Luke Humphries, he'll become the youngest champion by eight years.
Brisbane, Australia — Playing in his first competitive singles match in nearly 12 months, Rafael Nadal beat Dominic Thiem, 7-5, 6-1, on Tuesday at the Brisbane International. Also returning to action in Brisbane after a long time away: Naomi Osaka.
Liverpool — Liverpool beat Newcastle United, 4-2, on New Year's Day to take a three-point lead atop the Premier League standings. Mohamed Salah had two goals and an assist in his final match before he leaves for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Paris — Parisians rang in the New Year with an Olympic-themed celebration as the City of Light prepares to host the 2024 Games starting on July 26.
📆 Jan. 3, 1993: The Comeback
31 years ago today, backup QB Frank Reich* and the Bills erased a 32-point deficit to beat the Oilers, 41-38 (OT), in the wild card round and complete what was then the largest comeback in NFL history, Jeff writes.
The new record: Buffalo's record stood for nearly 30 years until Kirk Cousins and the Vikings broke it last season, overcoming a 33-point deficit to beat the Colts, 39-36 (OT). Buffalo's 32-point comeback remains the largest ever in a playoff game.
⚾️ 1973: George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees from CBS for $10 million. The team, still owned by the Steinbrenner family, is now worth $7.1 billion.
🏈 2007: Nick Saban left the Dolphins to become Alabama's head coach. He's gone 206-29 since then, winning six national championships in 17 years.
*Not his first rodeo: Nine years earlier, Reich led Maryland to a 31-point comeback victory over Miami, then the largest in FBS history.
📺 Watchlist: NBA doubleheader
Four iconic NBA franchises take the court tonight in a pair of matchups on either side of the country, Jeff writes.
Bulls at Knicks(8:30pm ET, ABC) … The new-look Knicks will look to improve to 2-0 since acquiring OG Anunoby from the Raptors.
Heat at Lakers(10pm, ESPN) … LeBron James has lost four straight games against his former team.
More to watch:
🏒 NHL: Devils at Capitals (7:30pm, TNT)
🏀 NCAAM: Seton Hall at No. 23 Providence (6:30pm, FS1); No. 16 Clemson at Miami (8pm, ESPN)
🏀 NCAAW: No. 23 TCU at No. 6 Baylor (8pm, ESPN+) … Two of the seven remaining* undefeated women's teams.
🏈 High School Football: Under Armour All-America Game (4pm, ESPN) … In Orlando.
*The other five: No. 1 South Carolina, No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 NC State, No. 24 West Virginia and Oregon State.
🏈 NFL trivia
Mike Tomlin secured his 17th consecutive non-losing season on Sunday when the Steelers beat the Seahawks to improve to 9-7.
Question: Who are the only two head coaches with longer streaks?
Hint: 1965-1985 and 2001-2019.
Answer at the bottom.
🏀 Biblical blowout
159-18. That was the final score of Tuesday's women's basketball game between Grambling State and the College of Biblical Studies, marking the largest margin of victory (141 points) in Division I women's basketball history.
Why was this game played? How is this even possible? Is the College of Biblical Studies a real place or do we have a Bishop Sycamore situation on our hands? I have so many questions.
Trivia answer: Tom Landry (21 seasons, 1965-1985) and Bill Belichick (19 seasons, 2001-2019)
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