College

Michigan State has hired former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald to lead its football program. The announcement on Monday comes a day after the Spartans fired Jonathan Smith two seasons into his seven-year contract. “Pat Fitzgerald is widely recognized as an exceptional football coach, whose teams play with extreme toughness and...

The ACC and SEC are southern-footprint neighbors best known for different long-running strengths: the ACC with rich men’s basketball tradition, the SEC in football. These days, the SEC has veered into the ACC’s lane. As the third ACC/SEC Challenge begins Tuesday, the SEC is coming off a year with a...

Michigan jumped to No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 men’s basketball poll Monday as rival Michigan State and Iowa State both climbed into the top 10. No. 1 Purdue and No. 2 Arizona remained atop the rankings. The Boilermakers received 40 first-place votes from a 61-person media panel,...

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky has fired the Southeastern Conference’s longest-tenured coach, ending Mark Stoops’ tenure in his 13th season with the Wildcats after back-to-back losing records. Athletic director Mitch Barnhart said in a statement Monday morning that he informed Stoops they decided to go in a new direction and started...

Lane Kiffin left his one-loss Ole Miss team to become the coach at LSU on Sunday, taking over a program that has won national titles under three of its previous four coaches while saying he would have stayed to coach the Rebels in the postseason had he been allowed. The...

Michigan State has fired football coach Jonathan Smith less than two years after he was hired. The move was made Sunday by athletic director J Batt, who has been on campus since June, according to a person familiar with the situation speaking only on condition of anonymity because the move...

The final regular season week of college football has set the stage for conference championships. All eyes were on the ACC on Saturday, as a crowded race to the conference title game began to take shape. Virginia and SMU had simple paths and could have clinched a championship game appearance...

YPSILANTI, Mich. — Sean Dugan is barely into his 30s, but the Springdale grad is starting to feel old already. While hosting a football recruit at Eastern Michigan recently, Dugan, the Eagles’ alpha linebackers coach, was pointing out a wall in Incarnati Athletic Center that honored former EMU players who...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — J’Mari Taylor became the first ACC running back since 2021 to run for a touchdown and throw for a score in the same game as No. 17 Virginia beat Virginia Tech, 27-7, on Saturday night to clinch a spot in the conference championship game. Taylor ran for...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Julian Sayin threw three touchdown passes, including a 35-yarder to Jeremiah Smith on a fourth down in the second quarter, and No. 1 Ohio State beat No. 15 Michigan, 27-9, in a dominant performance Saturday. The defending national champion Buckeyes (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten, No. 1...

Former LSU coach Brian Kelly received a letter from LSU on Wednesday confirming that he was fired without cause and is owed “liquidated damages as required” under his contract of about $54 million. The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, clears the way for Kelly to withdraw a Nov. 10...

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham issued an apology to BYU and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Monday for derogatory chants by fans at Nippert Stadium during the Bearcats’ game against the Cougars. “The use of offensive or religiously derogatory language by a group of...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A University of Alabama at Birmingham football player is facing charges of attempted murder and assault, accused of stabbing two teammates hours before a UAB home game last weekend, court documents showed Monday. Daniel Mincey, a 20-year-old offensive lineman, is charged with attempted murder and assault, according...

UConn passed its first test of the season to remain No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll on Monday. The Huskies received 30 of the 32 first-place votes from a national media panel after beating No. 6 Michigan, 72-69, last Friday in the Naismith Hall of...

Purdue remained at No. 1 in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll, while Arizona jumped to No. 2 to continue its opening-month rise after another impressive win against a ranked opponent. The Boilermakers (6-0) earned 46 of 61 first-place votes in Monday’s poll to remain at the top after...

INDIANAPOLIS — Defending national champion North Dakota State will lead a record-tying six teams from the Missouri Valley Football Conference into the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. The MVFC champion Bison (12-0) on Sunday were named the No. 1 seed in the 24-team playoffs and will be making their 16th consecutive...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — It didn’t take long for Ryan Day and Sherrone Moore to turn their focus to The Game. With top-ranked Ohio State and No. 15 Michigan well ahead in their games during the fourth quarter, both coaches and their teams were already locked on preparations for Saturday’s matchup...

Quaker Valley extended its proficiency in sports all the way to New England this season to the small town of Middlebury, Vt., site of Middlebury College. Quaker Valley graduate Molly MacDonald finished her freshman season on the Middlebury women’s volleyball team ranked among the team leaders in kills (third) and...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A University of Alabama at Birmingham football player stabbed two teammates Saturday morning hours before the team’s game against the University of South Florida, the university said in a statement. The two wounded players were in stable condition, interim head coach Alex Mortensen said at the postgame...

Robert Morris football coach Bernard Clark has no idea if the gameday staff plans to post or announce out-of-town NEC scores at Joe Walton Stadium during his team’s game versus cross-town rival Duquesne on Saturday. “We have a jumbotron. We have the ability to do it,” Clark said. “I’ve never...

Georgia nabbed the fourth and final projected first-round bye in the College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday, while undefeated Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M held onto the top three positions. The Bulldogs rose one spot thanks to Alabama’s loss to Oklahoma over the weekend — a result that dropped...