COLLEGE FOOTBALL
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Big Ten Conference dropped its six-game minimum requirement for the league championship game, clearing the way for No. 3 Ohio State to take on No. 15 Northwestern in another chance for the Buckeyes to burnish their playoff credentials.
The Buckeyes (5-0) will try for their fifth straight conference title when they face the Wildcats (5-1) on Dec. 19 in Indianapolis. Ohio State finished the regular season with only five games after Michigan pulled out of Saturday’s showdown because of COVID-19 issues.
The rule change had to be approved by the Big Ten Conference Administrators Council, which includes athletic directors, senior women’s administrators and presidents from all 14 schools.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - LSU freshman tight end Arik Gilbert, who entered this week leading all active Tigers in receiving, has decided to opt out for the remainder of the season.
FRISCO, Texas (AP) - SMU will be staying close to home to play in the Frisco Bowl.
The Mustangs (7-3) accepted an invitation to the Dec. 19 game that will be played about a half-hour drive from their campus. Their opponent, likely from Conference USA, is still to be determined.
PRO FOOTBALL
A diversity report in the NFL assigned high grades for the league office but lagging scores at team levels for racial and gender hiring.
The report card from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at Central Florida assigned an overall B-minus grade for the league, with a B-plus for racial hiring and a C for gender hiring. The report examined a range of positions at the league headquarters and within franchises using data for the 2020 season.
The league headquarters received an A-plus in racial hiring and a B in gender hiring. Richard Lapchick, TIDES director and lead report author, also praised the NFL for steps such as expanding the Rooney Rule with a resolution calling for draft picks to reward organizations which develop minority coaches and front-office executives to fill leadership positions at other teams.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) - The NFL suspended Denver Broncos cornerback A.J. Bouye six games without pay for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.
Boyue’s suspension means the Broncos (4-8) have lost their top three cornerbacks in a week. Bryce Callahan went on IR last week with a foot injury and rookie Essang Bassey sustained a season-ending knee injury Sunday against the Chiefs.
Bouye will be able to participate in offseason and preseason practices and exhibition games next summer, but barring a successful appeal will still have to sit out the first two games of the 2021 regular season.
PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Pittsburgh Steelers’ struggling running game received a boost when James Conner was activated off the reserve/COVID-19 list.
Conner missed each of Pittsburgh’s last two games, including a 23-17 upset loss to Washington on Monday that ended the Steelers’ bid for an unbeaten season. Pittsburgh (11-1) managed 21 yards on 14 carries, the franchise’s lowest single-game rushing total since 1970.
Conner has run for a team-high 645 yards and five touchdowns. He is expected to start when Pittsburgh visits surging Buffalo (9-3) on Sunday night.
BASEBALL
NEW YORK (AP) - National League MVP Freddie Freeman was one of three Atlanta Braves selected to the All-MLB first team.
The slugging first baseman was joined by Braves designated hitter Marcell Ozuna and starting pitcher Max Fried. Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. was chosen for the second team, giving the NL East champions more honorees than any other club following a 2020 season reduced to 60 games because of the coronavirus pandemic.
San Diego had two players on the top team: shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. and third baseman Manny Machado.
Cy Young Award winners Trevor Bauer of the Cincinnati Reds and Shane Bieber of the Cleveland Indians also made the first team. Chicago Cubs right-hander Yu Darvish and New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom rounded out the five starters.
The rest of the first team featured Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez, New York Yankees second baseman DJ LeMahieu, and outfielders Mookie Betts from the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels and Juan Soto of the Washington Nationals. The relievers were Tampa Bay’s Nick Anderson and Oakland’s Liam Hendriks.
NEW YORK (AP) - Former ABC baseball commentator Al Michaels was voted the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcast excellence by baseball’s Hall of Fame. Michaels, 76, will be honored during the Hall of Fame induction weekend in July.
PRO BASKETBALL
NEW YORK (AP) - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar revealed he had prostate cancer in a magazine article he wrote about health risks faced by Blacks.
Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s career scoring leader, provided no other details about that illness in the piece he wrote for WebMD. A publicist for Abdul-Jabbar said this is the first time he has spoken about the prostate cancer.
Abdul-Jabbar, now 73, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in 2008.
HORSE RACING
ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) - Stewards at Santa Anita dismissed complaints filed by the California Horse Racing Board involving the post-race drug tests of Triple Crown winner Justify and another horse in 2018, both of whom were trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert.
The CHRB had sought the disqualifications of Justify from his victory in the 2018 Santa Anita Derby and Hoppertunity from his win in the Tokyo City Cup the following day. The complaints had also sought the redistribution of purse money from each race.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Vickie Johnson was hired as coach of the Dallas Wings in the WNBA - two years after she applied for the position and lost out to Brian Agler. Johnson had been an assistant for the Las Vegas Aces after serving as the team’s head coach for the franchise’s final season in San Antonio in 2017.
AUTO RACING
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya will return to the iconic event next year driving for Arrow McLaren SP.
Montoya last raced the Indy 500 in 2017. The Colombian won “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” as a rookie in 2000 and again 15 years later to give him a pair of victories in five career Indy 500 starts.
The announcement that he’ll drive a third entry for Arrow McLaren reunites Montoya with McLaren, the team for which he drove in Formula One in 2005 and 2006.
OLYMPICS
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) - Olympic gold medalists Tristan Gale Geisler, Steve Mesler and Vonetta Flowers are among a six-person class of enshrinees to the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Hall of Fame.
Olympic silver medalist Randy Jones, driving pioneer Jimmy Morgan and longtime NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine - who helped develop the sled that Steven Holcomb drove to gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics - are now Hall of Famers as well.
They are part of the eighth USABS Hall of Fame class; a celebration will be scheduled when the inductees can safely gather, the federation said.
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