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There is no surer bet in television than the National Football League. Well, actually, there is a surer bet than that: an NFL playoff game. Until now. SEC commissioner Mike Slive declared the College Football Playoff a success and now the market has spoken, agreeing with him. Thursday’s Florida State-Oregon and Alabama-Ohio State games have beaten Saturday’s Cardinals-Falcons and Steelers-Ravens NFL Wild Card games.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie has landed himself in hot water after he was caught enthusiastically celebrating a victory for the Dallas Cowboys. Christie was filmed hugging Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones and his son Stephen in a garish orange sweater after Dallas defeated Detroit Lions in a match yesterday. A native of New Jersey, Christie follows the Cowboys despite his team having a long-standing rivalry with the New York Giants in his own state as they play in the same NFL conference every year. He also cheers for the Cowboys ahead of his state's other NFL team, the New York...

With less than two minutes left in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday night, Ohio State, ahead by 7 points and having just recovered an onside kick by Alabama, tried a deep pass along the left sideline — Ohio State’s sideline. Standing near the bench, Jim Delany, the commissioner of the Big Ten Conference for 26 years, sprinted a few steps toward the field to catch a glimpse of the ball as it hurtled through the air. The pass fell incomplete, but his actions were a sign of the investment that not only Buckeyes fans, but fans of all Big Ten...

Florida State Seminoles players returned from the Rose Bowl to find their cars keyed and their tires slashed. The Florida State Seminoles carried a 29-game win streak into the Rose Bowl match up against the No. 2 Oregon Ducks on Thursday. The game serving as a semi-final match up for the first ever College Football Playoff. The defending national champion Seminoles felt disprespected to be seeded despite and undefeated 2014 regular season. That ranking looked fair after Oregon handily defeated the Seminoles in the Rose Bowl, 59-20. It was an embarrassing loss for the Seminoles, but an impressive victory for...

The so-called mighty SEC West was embarrassed this bowl season. The state of Mississippi has not taken this type of beating since Grant's Vicksburg Campaign. Both Wisconsin and THE Ohio State University ran the ball down the state of Alabama's throat. The SEC as a whole plays horrible non-conference schedules and the apologists claim that is because the SEC is too tough. Sorry but that is BS. The Top 4 SEC West teams as a whole only played perhaps 4 quality non-conference games: West Virginia, Kansas State, Boise State, Wisconsin. Whatever you thing of FSU they alone played four legitimate...

Post your thoughts on today's games and the upcoming games as they happen.

While Gopher fans focus on Thursday’s bowl game, Governor Mark Dayton is thinking ahead to next season. The governor doesn’t want the Gophers starting any more home games before noon. In fact, he’d like to see a law in Minnesota making those early starts illegal.

As Americans trimmed the tree last week and hung their stockings with care, many viewers turned away from TV screens. During a week of mostly reruns, total prime-time viewership of the Big Four networks dipped by 25 percent from the week before. Even so, CBS retained its customary lead position, claiming 12 of the top 20 programs, according to the Nielsen Co. Only football scored big, with NBC’s faceoff between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, the week's most watched program, seen by nearly 21 million viewers, and ESPN’s coverage of the Denver vs. Cincinnati clash drawing 16 million viewers to take third...

The team TCU played today beat the best in the SEC?? Gained over 400 yards against the best scoring defense in SEC? Allowed only 3 points even after coughing up 4 turnovers? What a joke the SEC is. TCU lost as a visitor in overtime to the #5 ranked team in the country. Looks like politics is taking over in the sporting world as there is no way TCU should not be in the championship hunt.

’m a New York Giants fan. So besides erecting a makeshift shrine to Odell Beckham Jr. and soaking in schadenfreude at the expense of Philadelphia Eagles fans, I haven’t found the last couple of weeks of the NFL regular season super interesting. And yet, many teams that were eliminated from the playoffs appeared to pack stadiums – despite frigid temperatures and the promise of mediocre football. That prompted an argument over this question: Who goes to the meaningless NFL games at the end of the season and why?

Playoffs - Wild-Card Weekend SAT, JAN 3 Arizona at Carolina 4:20 PM Bank of America Stadium Baltimore at Pittsburgh 8:15 PM NBC Heinz Field SUN, JAN 4 Cincinnati at Indianapolis 1:05 PM CBS Lucas Oil Stadium Detroit at Dallas 4:40 PM FOX AT&T Stadium

On the plane back to Michigan -- a journey that took a few hours or almost three decades, depending on your perspective -- Jim Harbaugh looked at his kids. “They had some stocking caps from my kids from the ‘M Den,’” he told SI.com. “My daughter Addie was wearing a scarf. We had a gift bag of some hats and things. When I saw my kids in the maize and blue, it was a terrific feeling. It took me back to a place … “I remember going to Moe’s Sporting Goods, and I’m looking at my kids with their stuff,...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Texas A&M student assistant coach Michael Richardson was sent home early from the Aggies' appearance in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl after hitting West Virginia players in the first half of Texas A&M's 45-37 win on Monday at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. Cameras showed Richardson striking West Virginia players who ventured out of bounds during the first half on two separate occasions. He used his elbow to strike Mountaineer cornerback Daryl Worley in the back of the head and shoved running back Andrew Buie in another incident.

Dan is on the line, in all his florid Southern glory. "Growing up, I loved two things," he drawls in a deep voice. "My grandma's apple pie and Paul Bear Bryant." Dan is part of the flood of callers to Birmingham radio station WJOX's "JOX Roundtable" show two weeks back. Show hosts Ryan Brown, Lance Taylor and Jim Dunaway say they talk college football every single show, all year, and almost all of that centers on Alabama and Auburn. On this day, they are honoring my request for insight into why college football is better in the state of Alabama...

Ndamukong Suh will pay a steep price for his fancy footwork in Sunday's loss to the Green Bay Packers. The NFL has suspended the Lions' defensive tackle for one game for stepping on the leg of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the league announced Monday. Suh will not be available for Sunday's NFC wild card game against the Dallas Cowboys. "You did not respond in the manner of someone who had lost his balance and

4:35 PM Saturday Jan 3 2015 ESPN - (5) Arizona at (4) Carolina 8:15 PM Saturday Jan 3 2015 NBC - (6) Baltimore at (3) Pittsburgh 1:05 PM Sunday Jan 4 2015 CBS - (5) Cincinnati at (4) Indianapolis 4:40 PM Sunday Jan 4 2015 Fox - (6) Detroit at (3) Dallas

San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh has reportedly accepted Michigan's offer to return to his alma mater and become the Wolverines' next head coach, according to CSNBayArea.com, which reports that Harbaugh will be announced at a press conference in Ann Arbor on Tuesday morning. Jason Cole of Bleacher Report and writer John U. Bacon, author of several books about Michigan football, also reported on Saturday that Harbaugh was expected to accept the Michigan job.

NEW YORK – Penn State waited two years to play in a bowl game, working through unprecedented NCAA sanctions stemming from the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal, and the team’s finale didn’t lack dramatics. The Nittany Lions went back and forth with Boston College this evening at Yankee Stadium in the Pinstripe Bowl, trading big hits and explosive runs until the game required extra possessions. Penn State’s senior class, one that experienced five different head coaches during their collegiate careers, NCAA sanctions and a bowl ban that was lifted early in September, capped their careers with the class’ first...

Week 17 Sunday, Dec. 28 Carolina Panthers vs. Atlanta Falcons, 1 p.m. Cleveland Browns vs. Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. Detroit Lions vs. Green Bay Packers, 1 p.m. Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Houston Texans, 1 p.m. San Diego Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs, 1 p.m. New York Jets vs. Miami Dolphins, 1 p.m. Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings, 1 p.m. Buffalo Bills vs. New England Patriots, 1 p.m. Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Giants, 1 p.m. Cincinnati Bengals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, 1 p.m. New Orleans Saints vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 p.m. Indianapolis Colts vs. Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m. Dallas Cowboys vs....

There’s so much to like about Winston—his strength, playmaking and toughness—but his off-field behavior is so distressing. Should he declare for the NFL draft, the FSU quarterback will be subjected to a predraft background check that will make last year’s scrutiny of Johnny Manziel look like a casual glance Don Brown had just spent an hour inside the Boston College defensive film room, dissecting the performance of Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston in their Nov. 22 game in Tallahassee. Brown, 59, has been a college defensive coordinator or a head coach since 1984. He’s been in charge of defenses in...