COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The recruiting saga for Olney (Md.) Good Counsel wide receiver Stefon Diggs is finally over as he announced his decision on Friday evening in front of media and a raucous crowd at a local pub in College Park on the campus of the University of Maryland.
Now that the dust has settled from Signing Day, the winners of the 2012 recruiting cycle have emerged. And the top classes are deeper than just the big names. Here's a look at which teams fared best, on a position-by-position basis, on offense.
Kansas-Missouri, the so-called "Border War," has been one of the truly special rivalries in college basketball. That's why the Tigers' 74-71 victory on Saturday night felt so bittersweet. Beginning next season, Missouri will compete in the SEC, meaning that Saturday's game was the last scheduled meeting to take place in Columbia. They will play again in Lawrence on Feb. 25, and possibly a third time in the Big 12 tournament. Beyond that, however, the future is uncertain.
IRVINGTON, N.J. -- The Canarias Basketball Academy, a prep school team from Spain's Gran Canaria Island, had many curiosities on display during its tour of the United States this week. A 7-foot-3 center from Slovakia; lesser giants from across the European Union and Great Britain; an Israeli point guard who just committed to Seton Hall; a few Americans studying hoops abroad; and a former U.S. college coach of Peruvian heritage whose shouting on the sideline alternated between English and Spanish. But when the tour stopped at Irvington's Chris Gatling Recreation Center on Tuesday for a game against the postgraduate Robinson School that was attended by six current college assistants, the most curious presence was a member of Canarias' entourage.
INDIANAPOLIS -- There are at least two questions that come to mind when beholding the out-of-nowhere monster season turned in by salsa-dancing second-year Giants receiver Victor Cruz:
Rivals.com offers a quick glance at the BCS leagues as of late afternoon Wednesday. Check back at Rivals.com on Thursday for an in-depth look at each league.
Greg Schiano almost single-handedly lifted Rutgers from the basement of the college football world to a respected program in his 11-year tenure as head coach. His departure to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday -- less than a week from National Signing Day -- could have a devastating impact on the program that he built.
Since I don't watch anything besides Chuggington, it took nearly a month of the NBA season before I caught a SportsCenter highlight that showed the words WORLD PEACE emblazoned on the back of the former Ron Artest's jersey. One thought immediately came to mind.
During a visit to Clemson in August 2008, I asked then-coach Tommy Bowden why basketball coaches got so much more offended when recruits broke commitments than football coaches did. Bowden laughed, and he explained that most college football coaches understand that a verbal commitment is essentially meaningless until the player signs the National Letter of Intent that forbids other schools from recruiting him.
A year ago this time, with the SEC coming off its fifth straight national championship, my colleague Andy Staples compiled some interesting data that confirmed one of the primary reasons behind the league's recent dominance: The wealth of elite defensive prospects in its backyard. Andy noted that a staggering 43 percent of NFL defensive linemen hailed from a cluster of 10 Southeastern states representing just 22 percent of the general population.
Friends, family and football players pay their respects to former Penn State Coach Joe Paterno.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The next chapter in the Peyton Manning saga could take a decidedly defensive turn.
The funeral procession carrying the remains of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno traveled Wednesday past Beaver Stadium, where he paced the sidelines for more than five decades.
Tom Coughlin, the crusty, often vilified, old coach of the New York Giants, is the team's secret weapon -- a coach with a remarkable ability to win unwinnable games against superior foes, and often on the road.
Penn State students, alumni, players and supporters filed past the casket of Joe Paterno on Tuesday, paying their respects to the school's late legendary football coach.
For so long, even as his hair turned from black to salt and pepper, even as several of his limbs were broken and battered when he stepped in the path of fully-geared gladiators nearly seven decades his junior, Joe Paterno seemed indestructible, more icon than man, as immutable as the Nittany Mountains near State College where he made his home for the better part of six decades. But when the end came, it came with such breathtaking suddenness that even non-believers must pause for moment to wonder if it wasn't part of some cosmic script. For the bare bones of Paterno's obituary read thusly:
CNN's Susan Candiotti reports on the sad farewell to a heralded football coach with a tarnished legacy.
Joe Paterno, whose tenure as the most successful coach in major college football history ended abruptly in November amid allegations that he failed to respond forcefully enough to a sex abuse scandal involving a former assistant, died Sunday, his family said. He was 85.
Current and former members of the Penn State football program were among those offering condolences Sunday following the death of legendary ex-head coach Joe Paterno.
The Penn State child sex abuse scandal, centering on allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, includes alleged abuse dating as far back as the 1990s. Sandusky and his attorneys insist he is innocent.
The pace picked up on Wednesday, the final day of practice in pads at the East-West Shrine Game. More of the game plan was implemented for Saturday's contest, as the college players on hand in St Petersburg were put through the rigors of an NFL-type practice regiment. After Tuesday's practice produced some standouts, here are nine more players who put scouts on notice with outstanding performances.
From late November through early January, while most of the college football world was busy debating/analyzing/ruing the LSU-Alabama national title game, 25 FBS schools that came nowhere near contending for that or any other championship last season went about hiring new coaches.
The NFL Draft early-entry list featured one big surprise (Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas) and a big group of juniors who entered the 2011 season as near-locks to leave (Andrew Luck, Justin Blackmon, Trent Richardson). For the next three months, Mel Kiper, Todd McShay and Mike Mayock will examine their every conceivable strength and shortcoming -- right down to what a player's Starbucks order says about his ability to read NFL defenses.
Penn State University President Rodney Erickson tried to distance the school from the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the campus as he spoke to angry alumni Thursday night.
Penn State is paying long-time coach Joe Paterno as if he retired at the end of the season, even though the university relieved him of his coaching duties on November 9, officials announced Thursday.
Like most of you who live and breathe college football, I woke up Tuesday morning feeling sleep-deprived and a little bit depressed. As I wrote Monday night, Alabama's title-game performance was incredibly impressive, but the end-result made for an utterly unsatisfying season. Meanwhile, TV ratings were down for four of the five BCS bowls. Attendance was down across the board. And worst of all, after covering eight quarters and an overtime of Alabama-LSU field-goals, I was stuck in a crowded Superdome tunnel waiting to get on to the field when Trent Richardson finally scored a touchdown.
Now that Alabama and LSU have officially put an end to the college football season, all attention will start turning toward the prospects who are leaving school behind for a chance to play in the NFL and how the draft's first round might go.
As a remarkable number of at-large candidates continue to have "None" as their best win of the season, the big bubble question of the week is ... where have all the good wins gone?
Player whose girlfriend was ripped from his arms and killed during Tuscaloosa tornado, takes the field in BCS Championship.
Alabama exacted revenge and clinched the Bowl Championship Series title on Monday night, besting Louisiana State University 21-0.
The film study is about to begin. The instructor, an SEC assistant coach with a graduate degree in Alabama and LSU football, is sitting at a desk in the back of a dark, windowless room in his school's football offices, his eyes locked onto a projection screen that stretches from floor to ceiling. Holding a laser pointer in one hand and a remote control in the other, he pushes the play button and suddenly it appears: the coach's spliced video from the LSU-Alabama game on Nov. 5, a matchup that will be reprised on Monday night at the Superdome in New Orleans in the BCS national title game.
The new coach of Penn State's embattled football program acknowledged criticism from alumni over his hiring, vowing to work to earn their trust and saluting the team's iconic former head coach Joe Paterno.
Penn State has hired a new permanent coach to head its embattled football program, with the team's quarterback saying that he and other players are "excited" for a "fresh start."
Brent Musburger continues to get high-profile gigs at an age when most of his contemporaries have long since ridden off into the sports broadcasting sunset. At 72, in the middle of his sixth American act (take that, F. Scott Fitzgerald), Musburger will call top-ranked LSU against No. 2 Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game on Monday night (ESPN, 8:30 p.m. ET). As he enters his fifth decade on the air, Musburger remains a polarizing figure, revered by supporters and jeered by others. But he has never shunned questions about his work or style. SI.com caught up with him this week:
When Monday night finally arrives -- assuming it ever does -- 44 interminable days will have elapsed since Alabama last played a football game. Which begs the question: Has there ever been a more prickly period for fans of a team about to play for the BCS national championship?
How high can they go? That's one of the most frequently asked early bracket questions this year about Murray State and Harvard, both of which are poised to post gaudy records for consideration.
Sports scandals age poorly. What seems everlastingly egregious is quickly forgotten as time applies its rosy hue. Victories and spectacular plays endure, while disturbing events get pushed to a distant corner of memory's basement.
NEW ORLEANS -- Maize and blue confetti littered the Superdome floor Tuesday night when Michigan receiver Junior Hemingway verbalized the prevailing thought within college football's winningest program. "We're back!" Hemingway said. "Michigan's back!"
PASADENA, Calif. -- In the highest-scoring game in Rose Bowl history, in a whiplash-inducing thriller in which momentum seemed to shift by the minute and touchdown drives sometimes lasted a few seconds, we needed someone to tell us the game had actually ended.
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- In his corner on the far right side of the Stanford sideline, kicker Jordan Williamson ran through the routine at least a half-dozen times in the moments before he took the field.
Six bowls take place Monday, headlined by the Fiesta Bowl, featuring Andrew Luck and the Cardinal and Justin Blackmon's Oklahoma State. But there are NFL prospects in each of the day's games. Below, a breakdown of the players to watch, as well as a projection as to where they'll be drafted. (*denotes underclassmen)
Below, a breakdown of the players to watch Monday, as well as a projection as to where they'll be drafted. (*denotes underclassmen)
Penn State likely will be playing before more empty seats than full ones when it takes the field for its bowl game on Monday -- just one sign of tougher financial times ahead for one of the nation's richest teams.
LOS ANGELES -- It's a fabled venue where stars like O.J. Simpson, Charles White, Ron Dayne and Vince Young delivered the defining performances of their college careers. On Monday, in the 98th Rose Bowl Game, a pair of accomplished running backs, Wisconsin's Montee Ball and Oregon's LaMichael James, will look to do the same.
One of Jerry Sandusky's attorneys offers a hypothetical answer to why an adult would need to shower with a child.
Even as early as last summer -- when several big name college programs were roiling under allegations of improper gifts, academic fraud and recruiting violations -- sports analysts had dubbed 2011 the year of college sports scandals.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Sometimes, if you press your ear to the press box window, you can almost hear thousands of fans across the country scream "Noooooooooooooooo!" as a ball flies through the air. One of those moments took place Thursday evening.
On January 4, 2002, Stephen Orr Spurrier stunned the college football world and left Florida for the NFL. "We didn't win anything," Spurrier told me not long after his stunning decision 10 years ago to take a $5 million-a-year deal to coach the Washington Redskins. "We had nothing to show for it."
Ten bowl games have been played since the last Mailbag, but there's only one I regret not commenting on until now: The Boise State-Arizona State Las Vegas Bowl.
Fresh and fly. Those words turn college football coaches downright giddy as they hit the recruiting trail. And to elicit those words, trendy new uniforms help do the trick.
On New Year's Eve, husband and wife Tripp and Jessica Johnson will be wearing orange and blue and cheering their team in the Chick-fil-A Bowl -- from opposite sides of the stadium.
Bubble Watch is back! And while it's awfully early to make concrete judgments about many individual teams, there are some definitive trends from nonconference play that will significantly shape the real bracket you see in March:
The National Collegiate Athletic Association on Tuesday imposed a postseason ban on The Ohio State University's football program, effective next year, citing the school for "failure to monitor, preferential treatment and extra benefit violations."
As soon as the news trickled out Tuesday that the NCAA's Committee on Infractions had dealt Ohio State a one-year postseason ban for its booster- and tattoo-related infractions, people began asking the obvious next question(s).
Former Penn State coach Joe Paterno has been released from a hospital, according to a source close to his family.
College football fans come in all shapes and sizes. This Christmas season, I've found a few football fanatics who reside fairly close to the North Pole.
'Tis the season to be jolly -- for this weekend's New Mexico Bowl!
Fans react to the announcement that ex-Penn State coach Joe Paterno has lung cancer . CNN's Susan Candiotti reports.
Joe Paterno was admitted to a hospital Sunday morning after fracturing his pelvis when he slipped and fell at his home the previous night, a source close to the Paterno family said.
NEW YORK -- Even after a record-breaking season full of last-second touchdowns and monumental upsets, even after a week of pre-ceremony coverage in which his victory became increasingly inevitable, it was not until Robert Griffin III heard his name called and walked to the stage of Best Buy Theater on Saturday night that the once-unfathomable become reality.
NEW YORK -- As they walked out of the press room in the Marriott Marquis to make their way across a bustling Times Square for the Heisman Trophy ceremony, Montee Ball grabbed onto Robert Griffin III's throwing arm with both of his hands.
Baylor University quarterback Robert Griffin III, who has amassed nearly 4,000 passing yards this season, won the 2011 Heisman Trophy on Saturday.
Every time there's been some sort of controversy over the final BCS outcome (read: most seasons), people have inevitably asked me: "Is THIS the nightmare that finally cracks the BCS?" And of course I always reply: "No. The thing's been a train wreck for 13 years. Why do you think this year would be any different?"
A New York district attorney said Wednesday that despite credible allegations of sexual misconduct with minors, he cannot bring charges against a former assistant basketball coach at Syracuse University because the statute of limitations has expired.
Howard Kurtz's exclusive interview with ESPN's V.P. and Director of News Vince Doria.
Federal investigators have searched the home and office of former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, looking for pornographic materials, airline tickets and other possible evidence of his alleged interactions with minors, according to unsealed court documents.
While the remarkable rise of Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos has dominated the headlines and captivated fans in the season's second half, there have been plenty other surprising examples of what we'll call the Danny Woodhead Effect, a lightly regarded player who emerges to overachieve beyond all reasonable expectations.
Sports loom large in the public's mind today. From the Penn State and Syracuse scandals to the upcoming BCS Bowl Series and the NFL playoffs, much attention is being paid to our athletes and coaches.
Paul Wertheimer, founder and president of Crowd Management Strategies, discusses crowd control at college football games.
Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Dec. 5. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer.
The 71-year-old gentleman was shown to his table in a trendy Italian restaurant in Birmingham, Ala., the other day and seemed to slip by everyone completely unnoticed. Other than the waiter who took his order, nobody else seemed aware that, perhaps, the most powerful man in collegiate sports was sitting nearby having a quiet lunch and enjoying 90 minutes away from the hustle and bustle of life in the fast lane.
Mike Lang, who accuses Bernie Fine of molesting him for a ten-year period beginning in 1982, speaks with CNN.
A second man who has publicly accused a former Syracuse University coach of molesting him told CNN's AC360 on Tuesday that he was speaking out so that no other children would be hurt.
He looked a little older. He sounded a little less brash. The questions were slightly different, because his reputation had changed. He wore a black suit and a red tie instead of a black suit and an orange tie.
Ohio State University has picked ex-Florida coach Urban Meyer as the new head of its scandal-tarred football program, the school announced Monday.
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- David Shaw did not even wait for the first question at Saturday night's postgame news conference before beginning his stump speech.
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