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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It’s been at least two decades, and arguably three, since the Third Saturday in October was engulfed by this much anticipation.

Alabama and Tennessee, two of the SEC’s most storied rivals who traditionally meet this weekend of the season, square off Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET in Neyland Stadium in a top-10 matchup that marks the first time since 1989 that both teams have been unbeaten going into the game. For perspective, at that time Nick Saban was still an assistant coach in the NFL … with the Houston Oilers.

It hasn’t been much of a rivalry on the field lately, certainly not since Saban arrived at Alabama in 2007. The Crimson Tide have won 15 in a row, by an average margin of 25.9 points, and the Vols have been at least a two-touchdown underdog in every game going back to 2008, when Alabama was a 5-point favorite and left Neyland Stadium with a 29-9 win.

But this year, there’s genuine hope on Rocky Top that the Vols, fueled by one of the country’s most explosive offenses, may finally be the ones passing out victory cigars in a smoke-filled locker room, another tradition of a rivalry that was first contested in 1901.

Let’s take a look back at 10 of the most memorable (and defining) games in the rivalry as well as five worthy of honorable mention.


1. Tennessee 35, Alabama 28
Oct. 16, 1982, at Knoxville

The smile on former Tennessee coach John Majors’ face says it all in the iconic image of him being carried off the field by his players and leaning down to shake Bear Bryant’s hand. It was Bryant’s final game in the rivalry and one of the biggest upsets. The unranked Vols, who lost to Duke and Vanderbilt that season, snapped an 11-game losing streak against the No. 2 Tide. Chuck Coleman’s 34-yard touchdown run was the big blow offensively for Tennessee, and the Vols’ Mike Terry intercepted a pass in the end zone with 17 seconds remaining to preserve the win. It was bedlam at Neyland Stadium, as fans stormed the field and ripped down the goalposts within minutes.


2. Alabama 17, Tennessee 17
Oct. 16, 1993, at Birmingham

In the days before there was overtime in college football, No. 2 Alabama and No. 10 Tennessee played to a memorable 17-17 tie at Legion Field in Birmingham, snapping the Crimson Tide’s 28-game winning streak. The game felt more like a loss for the Vols, who turned the ball over five times, including a James Stewart fumble at the 1 when it looked like he was going in for a touchdown. With no timeouts, Alabama drove 83 yards in the final minutes and pulled within 17-15 on quarterback Jay Barker’s 1-yard plunge. David Palmer aka “Deuce” moved from receiver to quarterback on the 2-point conversion try and sprinted around the right end of the line and into the end zone to tie the game with 21 seconds remaining. The game was later forfeited to Tennessee because of NCAA sanctions levied against Alabama.


3. Alabama 25, Tennessee 0
Oct. 19, 1935, at Knoxville

Before he was a record-setting coach at Alabama, Bryant was a tough, hard-nosed left end for the Crimson Tide and played one of the best games of his career against the Vols. Both teams were down that year, but the Bryant legend was kindled in that game when he played despite having a cracked fibula that he suffered the week before. That same mental and physical toughness would go on to define his teams at Alabama. After the game, Bryant famously said, “It was one little bone.”


4. Tennessee 41, Alabama 14
Oct. 15, 1995, at Birmingham

Peyton Manning beat Alabama three times during his career, but none of those wins was more soothing for Tennessee fans than the 1995 blowout of the Tide. The Vols had gone nine straight years without beating Alabama. And on the first play from scrimmage, Manning hit Joey Kent on an 80-yard touchdown pass — “Play No. 1,” as legendary Voice of the Vols John Ward described it — and Tennessee never looked back. It was the Vols’ most lopsided win over Alabama since 1969, and Manning, who threw three touchdown passes, directed the Tennessee band after the game.


5. Alabama 9, Tennessee 6
Oct. 20, 1990, at Knoxville

The No. 3 Vols were riding high and a prohibitive favorite at home against an Alabama team that limped in at 2-3 in Gene Stallings’ first season as coach. Tennessee fans were eager for a celebration after four straight losses in the series. But Alabama’s defense had other ideas and shut down a Tennessee offense loaded with talent. The finish to the game was bonkers. With the game tied at 6-6, Tennessee lined up to try a 50-yard field goal with 1:35 to play, but it was blocked by Stacy Harrison, who came knifing up the middle. The ball ricocheted back 23 yards, all the way to the Tennessee 37, where Alabama recovered. A few plays later, Phillip Doyle drilled a 48-yard field goal to win it for the Tide.


6. Alabama 11, Tennessee 10
Oct. 15, 1966, at Knoxville

The “Snake” was a key part of some of Bryant’s best teams at Alabama before he went on to stardom with the NFL’s Oakland Raiders. Of course, the “Snake” was none other than Ken Stabler, who did a little bit of everything in leading a fourth-quarter rally in the rain to keep Alabama unbeaten. He scored the Tide’s only touchdown on a 1-yard run, then hit Wayne Cook with a 2-point conversion pass to pull Alabama within 10-8. Stabler then moved the Tide into field goal position in the final minutes. The holder on kicks, Stabler, was able to get a low snap in place on the muddy field, and Steve Davis knocked home a 17-yarder to put Alabama ahead. The Vols drove right back down the field. Gary Wright’s 19-yard field goal attempt from a tough angle appeared to sail over the top of the right goalpost, but his kick was ruled no good.


7. Alabama 12, Tennessee 10
Oct. 24, 2009, at Tuscaloosa

The biggest player on the field made the biggest play. Alabama nose guard Terrence Cody charged through the line to block Daniel Lincoln’s 44-yard field goal attempt as time expired, preserving the Tide’s win. Lane Kiffin was in his only season as Tennessee’s coach, and the Vols were huge underdogs. But they went toe-to-toe with the Tide, who went on to win Saban’s first national championship at Alabama. At their postgame handshake, Kiffin told Saban, “We’ll get you next year.” As it turned out, the next time Kiffin walked on the Alabama field, he did so as a Crimson Tide assistant coach.


8. Tennessee 16, Alabama 14
Oct. 19, 1985, at Birmingham

The “Sugar Vols” are one of the most beloved teams in Tennessee history. They went from unranked to start the season to winning the SEC championship and routing No. 2 Miami in the Sugar Bowl. The Vols didn’t lose again after upsetting No. 15 Alabama. Linebacker Dale Jones, now the defensive coordinator at Appalachian State, made a play that Tennessee fans will remember forever. With Alabama driving, Jones batted Mike Shula’s pass not far from the line of scrimmage and cradled the ball just before it hit the ground. Alabama still had one last shot, but Van Tiffin’s 61-yard field goal attempt was short.


9. Alabama 17, Tennessee 10
Oct. 21, 1972, at Knoxville

After No. 3 Alabama pulled within a point of No. 10 Tennessee on a Wilbur Jackson 2-yard touchdown run with 1:48 to play, Bryant was thinking about going for two points, but assistants Ken Donahue and Mal Moore (from the booth) and Pat Dye (from the sideline) convinced him to kick the extra point and tie the game. On the Vols’ ensuing possession, Mike DuBose, the Tide’s future head coach, forced a Condredge Holloway fumble that was recovered by John Mitchell. Alabama quarterback Terry Davis then raced 22 yards out of the wishbone for the winning touchdown. Alabama had integrated its football team the previous year, and Jackson and Mitchell were the Tide’s first Black players.


10. Tennessee 51, Alabama 43 (5 OT)
Oct. 25, 2003, at Tuscaloosa

The longest game in the series didn’t end until Tennessee defensive back Jason Allen tipped away Brodie Croyle’s fourth-down pass in the end zone in the fifth overtime. Tennessee had taken the lead on its possession in the fifth OT when quarterback Casey Clausen stretched out his left arm to reach the pylon for a 1-yard touchdown run. The Vols became the first visiting team to win three straight times at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Amazingly, it was a 6-3 game at halftime with Alabama leading, but things got wild after that in a back-and-forth marathon that took well over four hours to play.


Five more that just missed the cut

Tennessee 21, Alabama 0
Oct. 21, 1939, at Knoxville

Johnny Butler’s zigzagging 56-yard touchdown run against the Tide is still considered one of the greatest runs in Tennessee football history.

Alabama 34, Tennessee 3
Oct. 21, 1961, at Birmingham

This was Bryant’s first win over Tennessee as Alabama’s coach and the Tide’s first win over the Vols since 1954. Alabama went on to win Bryant’s first national championship that season.

Tennessee 20, Alabama 13
Oct. 26, 1996, at Knoxville

The No. 6 Vols rallied from a 13-0 halftime deficit to beat the No. 7 Tide. Jay Graham’s 79-yard touchdown run in the final minutes against the SEC’s top-ranked defense was the difference.

Alabama 41, Tennessee 17
Oct. 20, 2007, at Tuscaloosa

Saban set the tone for his dominance of Tennessee by kicking onside to start the game. The Tide recovered to set up a field goal and have never looked back. It’s the last time the Vols (a 1-point favorite) have been favored in this game.

Tennessee 24, Alabama 13
Oct. 21, 1967, at Birmingham

With Alabama driving and looking to take the lead, Tennessee’s Albert Dorsey intercepted a pass and returned it 31 yards for the clinching touchdown in this battle of top-10 teams. Dorsey was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated the following week, and the Vols went on to win the SEC title.

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Which current NHL players will make the Hockey Hall of Fame? Sorting the candidates into eight tiers

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Which current NHL players will make the Hockey Hall of Fame? Sorting the candidates into eight tiers

The Hockey Hall of Fame is going to swing open its doors to some impressive former NHL stars in the next few years. Legends such as Zdeno Chara, Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith and Patrice Bergeron. Eventually Jaromir Jagr will be inducted. Probably in his 80s, when he’s done playing.

The Hall can welcome up to four men’s players in every annual class. Given how many current NHL players have a legitimate case for immortality, the selection committee will not suffer for a lack of choices.

Here is a tiered ranking of active NHL players based on their current Hall of Fame cases. We’ve picked the brain of Hockey Hall of Fame expert Paul Pidutti of Adjusted Hockey to help figure out the locks, the maybes, “the Hall of Very Good” and which young stars are on the path to greatness.

Let’s begin with the two players who have defined this century of hockey, and another player whose legend has grown to the point where he’s a sure-thing Hall of Famer.

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Bottom 10: Lost weekend in Florida

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Bottom 10: Lost weekend in Florida

Inspirational thought of the week:

“Honestly, when we lose, I don’t even get in the shower until early this morning. I’ll just be mad. I just brush my teeth. It’s like, I don’t deserve soap.”
Syracuse head coach Fran Brown

Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, located behind the “sorry, not sorry” bouquet of water hemlocks sent to the Big 12 officiating office from Utah athletic director Mark Harlan, we know all too well the sting of losing football games. We see it every week in every game we watch.

Yeah, yeah, we know what you’re thinking. “Come on, dummy, someone loses every game that anyone watches.” That’s true. At least now it is. We are also old enough to remember when games ended in ties. That was way worse.

But here in the Bottom 10 Cinematic Universe, losses are worse because that’s all you experience. You’d think we’d get used to it, numb from the pain like when you keep accidentally biting that same spot on your tongue to the point that it just becomes sensory free. But instead, it’s like Bruce Banner explained about being the Hulk: “You see, I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed. Like a nerve. It’s a nightmare.”

However, as we learned in “Age of Ultron,” even after one of his worst losses, Bruce Banner does take a shower. So, Coach Brown, take it from us, in a world where every team has a helluva lot more losses than Syracuse … dude, wash up. Seriously. We can smell you from here. And we’re in Kent, Ohio.

With apologies to Mr. Clean, former Miami (Ohio) quarterback Mike Bath, former Southern Illinois running back Wash Henry and Steve Harvey, here are the post-Week 11 Bottom 10 rankings.


The Golden(plated) Flashes are still America’s last winless FBS team, losing their 18th straight game when they were edged by Ohio 41-0. Now they travel to My Hammy of Ohio, where they are given a 2.8% chance to win by the ESPN Analytics Ouija board, er, I mean Matchup Predictor. But honestly, that game will only be the appetizer ahead of the, yes, Week 13 main course that is the Wagon Wheel showdown with Akronmonious. And by appetizer we mean way-past-the-expiration-date freezer-burned mini-pizza bagels.


The New Owls not only used their talons to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at UTEP, losing in double overtime, they earned Bottom 10 Bonus Points for firing their head coach — and during their first year as an FBS team, no less. Though the AD issued a statement that Brian Bohannon had “stepped down,” Bohannon himself responded on social media: “Contrary to what’s been reported, I want to be clear that I did not step down.” But there is no confusion as to whether the Owls have stepped up or down in these rankings, where every move up is also a move down.


Brett Favre Funding U. lost to We Are Marshall 37-3, meaning all eight of their defeats this season have been by double digits. In related news, I also received double digit political texts on Election Day — and one of those was from Favre. No, for real. I wonder, did he cover the data charges himself or did he steal change from the donation jar at his grocery store checkout?


Sometimes in this life we are asked to do things that go against the fiber of our being. Like taking your daughter to the concert of an artist you’ve never heard of. Or me having to use Earth’s most annoying instrument, the leaf blower. This weekend this team of Minutemen will be asked to try to defeat Liberty.


5. The Sunshine State

The Coveted Fifth Spot has never been more crowded. The FBS, FCS and NFL teams of Florida posted a 1-11 record over the weekend, salvaged only by the Miami Dolphins’ win over the Los Angeles Rams on “Monday Night Football.” UC(not S)F, US(not C)F, FA(not I)U, Stetson, Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman all lost, led in misery by the Wildcats’ five-overtime loss to Southern. The Flori-duh Gate Doors celebrated the announced retaining of coach Billy Napier by losing to Texas in a squeaker 49-17. And My Hammy of Florida finally spotted an opponent a lead too large for a Cam Ward comeback and took its first loss of the season, falling to unranked Georgia Tech. If only someone else in the state could relate to that …


The Semi-No’s are continuing to work around the Coveted Fifth Spot by earning their Bottom 10 keep the old-fashioned way, not only losing to semi/sorta/kinda ACC member Notre Dame by a scant 52-3, but also earning a pile of their own Bottom 10 Bonus Points not by firing head coach Mike Norvell, but because Norvell fired both his offensive and defensive coordinators and a wide receivers coach. In related news, over the weekend a friend of mine steered his bass boat into a giant pile of sharp rocks and reacted by throwing his shirt and hat overboard.


It was three weekends ago that the Buttermakers lost to then-second-ranked Oregon 35-0. On Saturday, they lost to then-second-ranked Ohio State 45-0. Now they play sixth-ranked Penn State, and in two weeks end their season playing currently eighth-ranked Indiana. We have to assume that a team of professors from Purdue’s legendary mechanical engineering department is studying this experience as a way to assess the stress put on a school bus that is attempting to drive over a lava field covered in landmines.


The Minors have a weekend off to continue their post-Kennesaw victory party. And what’s the best way to snap yourself out of a two-week hangover? Hair of the dog? A cold bucket of water over the head? How about the hair of a coontick hound and a bucket of water from the river during a Week 13 trip to Neyland Stadium to play Tennessee?


Whatever is left of UTEP after Knoxville will then play whatever is left of the Other Aggies after their Week 12 trip to face the OG Aggies of Texas A&M. If there’s any justice in this world, then the loser and/or winner of that Aggie Bowl would go on to play …


The Other Other Aggies lost to the one-loss team the nation forgot about, Warshington State. But if you consider the week before that, we find a Bottom 10 conundrum. Utah State beat WhyOMGing? but the week before that lost to Whew Mexico by five points. Meanwhile, Wyoming, who lost to Utah State two weeks ago, spent last weekend beating New Mexico by five points. Perhaps we will be given some clarity when Wyoming ends the year at Washington State. Or perhaps we will have already given up. As so many here in the Bottom 10 seem to do.

Waiting list: Miss Sus Hippie State, Georgia State Not Southern, FA(not I)U, Akronmonious, Meh-dle Tennessee, WhyOMGing?, Temple of Doom, Living on Tulsa Time, You A Bee?, Standfird, people who put all those election signs up but now won’t take them down.

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Bans remain for Bad Bunny agency execs, agent

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Bans remain for Bad Bunny agency execs, agent

NEW YORK — An arbitrator upheld five-year suspensions of the chief executives of Bad Bunny’s sports representation firm for making improper inducements to players and cut the ban of the company’s only certified baseball agent to three years.

Ruth M. Moscovitch issued the ruling Oct. 30 in a case involving Noah Assad, Jonathan Miranda and William Arroyo of Rimas Sports. The ruling become public Tuesday when the Major League Baseball Players Association filed a petition to confirm the 80-page decision in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The union issued a notice of discipline on April 10 revoking Arroyo’s agent certification and denying certification to Assad and Miranda, citing a $200,000 interest-free loan and a $19,500 gift. It barred them from reapplying for five years and prohibited certified agents from associating with any of the three of their affiliated companies. Assad, Miranda and Arroyo then appealed the decision, and Moscovitch was jointly appointed as the arbitrator on June 17.

Moscovitch said the union presented unchallenged evidence of “use of non-certified personnel to talk with and recruit players; use of uncertified staff to negotiate terms of players’ employment; giving things of value – concert tickets, gifts, money – to non-client players; providing loans, money, or other things of value to non-clients as inducements; providing or facilitating loans without seeking prior approval or reporting the loans.”

“I find MLBPA has met its burden to prove the alleged violations of regulations with substantial evidence on the record as a whole,” she wrote. “There can be no doubt that these are serious violations, both in the number of violations and the range of misconduct. As MLBPA executive director Anthony Clark testified, he has never seen so many violations of so many different regulations over a significant period of time.”

María de Lourdes Martínez, a spokeswoman for Rimas Sports, said she was checking to see whether the company had any comment on the decision. Arroyo did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.

Moscovitch held four in-person hearings from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7 and three on video from Oct. 10-16.

“While these kinds of gifts are standard in the entertainment business, under the MLBPA regulations, agents and agencies simply are not permitted to give them to non-clients,” she said.

Arroyo’s clients included New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez and teammate Ronny Mauricio.

“While it is true, as MLBPA alleges, that Mr. Arroyo violated the rules by not supervising uncertified personnel as they recruited players, he was put in that position by his employers,” Moscovitch wrote. “The regulations hold him vicariously liable for the actions of uncertified personnel at the agency. The reality is that he was put in an impossible position: the regulations impose on him supervisory authority over all of the uncertified operatives at Rimas, but in reality, he was their underling, with no authority over anyone.”

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