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After overcoming tough games against unranked opponents, the top four teams in the College Football Playoff rankings remained the same Tuesday night, while LSU stayed one spot ahead of USC at No. 5.

Georgia led off the CFP selection committee’s rankings for the third straight week, followed by Ohio State at No. 2, Michigan at No. 3 and TCU at No. 4. The Buckeyes and Wolverines, who play this coming Saturday in Columbus, both trailed in the second half last week before keeping their undefeated records intact. Michigan and TCU both needed go-ahead field goals in the final minute to hold off Illinois and Baylor, respectively.

USC’s dramatic road win over crosstown rival UCLA wasn’t enough to leapfrog two-loss LSU, which beat UAB 41-10 at Tiger Stadium. Lincoln Riley’s team appeared at No. 5 in both the AP and coaches’ polls Sunday, USC’s first AP top-five ranking since September 2017. The Trojans’ only loss came by one point on the road against Utah, which fell to No. 14 after its loss at Oregon.

“That was a dominant conversation for the last couple of days, to make sure we were looking at it the right way,” CFP committee chair Boo Corrigan, the athletic director at NC State, said on ESPN’s rankings release show with regard to the choice at No. 5. “There’s reasons for USC to be at No. 5, there’s reasons for LSU to be at No. 5.”

Tennessee, which occupied the No. 5 spot last week, fell to No. 10 after its 63-38 road loss to South Carolina.

LSU finishes the regular season at Texas A&M before facing Georgia in the SEC championship game. USC this week hosts Notre Dame, which moved up three spots to No. 15 in the selection committee’s rankings. The Trojans’ Pac-12 championship opponent will be determined this coming weekend. Oregon, which moved up three spots to No. 9 after the Utah win, can clinch a spot in Las Vegas by beating No. 21 Oregon State on the road.

An Oregon loss this week would open the door for No. 13 Washington and Utah to reach the Pac-12 championship.

Alabama and Clemson both moved up a spot in the rankings to No. 7 and No. 8. Clemson will host an unranked South Carolina team Saturday but has wins over Florida State, which moved up three spots to No. 16, and Louisville, which entered the rankings at No. 25. Clemson is set for an ACC championship matchup with North Carolina, which fell only four spots to No. 17 after losing to a 4-6 Georgia Tech team at home this past Saturday.

“You’re looking for football judgement, and that game against Notre Dame … that continues to be part of the discussion,” Corrigan said of the Tigers’ 35-14 loss to the Irish. “Overall, we saw at Alabama at seven, and Clemson at eight.”

TCU, which hosts Iowa State on Saturday, will face either No. 12 Kansas State or No. 23 Texas in next week’s Big 12 championship game. Kansas State, which moved up three spots in the Tuesday rankings, can clinch a spot by beating Kansas. If Kansas State falls, Texas would go if it beats Baylor.

“We go through the same thing every week,” Corrigan said. “TCU has done a really good job in finding ways to win games.”

Tulane is once again the highest-ranked Group of 5 team at No. 19, following its home win over SMU and UCF’s home loss to Navy. The Green Wave on Friday visit No. 24 Cincinnati, and the winner will host the American Athletic Conference title game next week. The Tulane-Cincinnati winner could face a rematch in the championship, but No. 22 UCF and Houston also could reach the game.

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Wisconsin fires offensive coordinator after 2 years

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Wisconsin fires offensive coordinator after 2 years

Wisconsin fired offensive coordinator Phil Longo on Sunday, a day after the Badgers’ 16-13 home loss to No. 1 Oregon.

In a statement, Badgers coach Luke Fickell thanked Longo for his two seasons with the program, while adding, “We are not where we need to be and believe this decision is in the best interest of the team.”

Wisconsin ranks 97th nationally in scoring and 102nd in passing while operating an Air Raid-style offense that Longo brought with him from North Carolina and other stops.

The Badgers, who lost starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke to a season-ending injury Sept. 14, had only three points and 88 yards in the second half against Oregon, which rallied from a 13-6 deficit entering the fourth quarter.

Wisconsin ranked 101st nationally in scoring in Longo’s 23 games as coordinator and failed to eclipse 13 points on its current three-game losing streak. Quarterback Braedyn Locke had only 96 passing yards against the Ducks.

Fickell did not immediately announce an interim coordinator for Wisconsin’s final regular-season games against Nebraska and Minnesota.

Fickell had long targeted Longo for a coordinator role, going back to his time as Cincinnati’s coach. Longo, 56, oversaw productive offenses at Ole Miss, North Carolina, Sam Houston State and other spots but never consistently got traction at a Wisconsin program that had operated dramatically differently on offense before his arrival.

“This team still has a lot in front of us and I am committed to doing everything we can to close out this season with success,” Fickell said in his statement.

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4-star QB Jones, former FSU commit, picks Florida

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4-star QB Jones, former FSU commit, picks Florida

Four-star quarterback Tramell Jones Jr. has committed to Florida, he told ESPN on Sunday, joining the Gators’ 2025 class four days after pulling his pledge from Florida State.

Jones, a four-year starter at Florida’s Mandarin High School, is ESPN’s No. 9 dual-threat passer in the Class of 2025. After multiple trips to Florida throughout his recruitment, Jones returned to campus Saturday, taking an official visit with the Gators during the program’s 27-16 win over LSU. A day later, Jones stands as the lone quarterback pledge in a 2025 Florida class that includes five pledges from the ESPN 300.

“I pretty much saw everything I needed to see when I visited last spring — I just love everything around the campus,” Jones told ESPN. “And then hanging out with the guys yesterday, seeing the camaraderie with each other, that really just sealed it for me.”

Jones was the longest-tenured member of Mike Norvell’s 2025 class at Florida State before his decommitment from the Seminoles on Thursday morning.

Jones’ exit came days after Norvell announced the firings of three assistant coaches on Nov. 10, including offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Alex Atkins. Jones was the first Florida State commit to pull his pledge in the wake of the staff shakeup but marked the Seminoles sixth decommitment since the start of the regular season, joining five ESPN 300 recruits who have left Norvell’s recruiting class across the program’s 1-9 start.

Jones’ commitment follows a key late-season victory for Billy Napier on Saturday and marks the Gators’ first recruiting win since athletic director Scott Strickland announced on Nov. 7 that Florida would stick with the third-year coach beyond the 2024 season.

Uncertainty over Napier’s future had weighed down Florida’s recruiting efforts in the 2025 class as the Gators began November with the No. 39 class in ESPN’s latest team rankings for the cycle. But Jones’ pledge comes as a boost for Florida one day after the Gators hosted a handful of high-profile flip targets, including five-star offensive tackle Solomon Thomas (Florida State pledge) and four-star wide receiver Jaime Ffrench (Texas pledge).

When Jones signs with Florida, he’ll arrive on campus flanked by fellow in-state offensive talents in four-star wide receivers Vernell Brown III (No. 44 in the ESPN 300) and Naeshaun Montgomery (No. 115), as well as four-star running back Waltez Clark (No. 223). Florida is also set to sign a pair of in-state defenders from the 2025 ESPN 300 between four-star defensive end Jalen Wiggins (No. 68) and four-star cornerback Ben Hanks Jr. (No. 121).

With Jones’ commitment, Florida has another jolt to its momentum on the recruiting trail as the Gators seek to chart a strong finish in the 2025 cycle next month. More imminently, Florida will host No. 11 Ole Miss on Saturday.

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Ted Williams’ 1946 MVP award sells for over $500K

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Ted Williams' 1946 MVP award sells for over 0K

A rare souvenir postcard picturing Hank Aaron as a rookie with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Leagues sold for nearly $200,000 at a baseball memorabilia auction that also included Ted Williams’ 1946 AL MVP award, which went for $528,750.

The Aaron postcard from the scrapbook of scout Ed Scott, who discovered Aaron, went for $199,750 following a bidding war that soared past the pre-sale estimate of $5,000-$10,000, Hunt Auctions said.

The auction included 280 items from Williams’ personal collection that had been held by his daughter, Claudia, who died last year. Among the other items were a silver bat awarded for his 1958 batting title, which sold for more than $270,000, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom presented to him by fellow naval aviator George H.W. Bush, which went for $141,000.

The sale also included items from the collection of Rutherford Hayes Jones, the business manager of the Washington Giants, one of the earliest Black baseball teams. The trove was discovered in 2001 in a suitcase, where it had been unseen for 40 years.

A first batch of items from Claudia Williams’ collection went up for auction in 2012 at Fenway Park and garnered more than $5 million.

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