
A guide to LSU-Georgia, Kansas State-TCU and the rest of the conference title games
More Videos
Published
2 years agoon
By
admin-
ESPN staff
The college football regular season may be over, but don’t fret, the sport has saved some of the best matchups for conference championship week.
Beginning on Friday night in Las Vegas, teams will battle for not only conference bragging rights but spots in the College Football Playoff field as well.
USC is just one win away from a likely berth in the playoff but will have to get through Utah in the Pac-12 title game Friday night. The Utes handed the Trojans their only loss of the season back on Oct. 15, so revenge and a spot in the top four leave Lincoln Riley’s squad with plenty to play for in Las Vegas.
Speaking of plenty to play for, the surprising TCU Horned Frogs are one win away from a spot in the CFP after closing out the regular season 12-0. If the Frogs are able to beat Kansas State in the title game, they will become the first Big 12 team to break into the playoff field since the 2019 season.
Georgia is already in the playoff, and LSU is out after last week’s loss, regardless of what happens in the SEC title, but the teams will meet in Atlanta for the conference title. Georgia lost in last year’s SEC championship game before going on to win the national title.
In the night window, Michigan, in pursuit of its second straight Big Ten title, faces Purdue while Clemson and North Carolina meet for the ACC crown.
The Tulane Green Wave and UCF Knights also meet in a conference championship game on Saturday for who likely gets to represent the American Athletic Conference and the Group of 5 in a New Year’s Six bowl.
This is our last week of action before bowl season, so get all the top storylines from the best matchups below.
Pac-12 championship: No. 11 Utah (9-3) vs. No. 4 USC (11-1)
(Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Friday, 8 p.m. ET, Fox)
Caleb Williams may be on the brink of winning the Heisman Trophy, but the last time these two teams met, Williams and his five touchdowns during the game somehow didn’t make him the most unstoppable player on the field. For at least one night in Salt Lake City, that honor belonged to Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid.
Over the course of 60 minutes, Kincaid pulled off his best Rob Gronkowski performance and dominated the USC defense to the tune of 243 receiving yards on 16 catches and one touchdown. The Utes’ offensive game plan became simple: When in trouble, target Kincaid.
“Anytime someone has their career game against you, there’s a level of embarrassment about it,” defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said this week. “If he makes big-time catches and we don’t tackle him … I know exactly what’s gonna happen on Friday. It’s gonna be the same damn thing.”
A lot has happened for both teams since that game. USC’s defense has continued to cover any weaknesses with its takeaways and red zone stops, while USC’s offense has skyrocketed as Williams has. Utah, on the other hand, is banged up. Cam Rising is dealing with an unspecified injury, while Kincaid himself missed the game against Arizona with a shoulder injury and was banged up again in last week’s win over Colorado.
Head coach Kyle Whittingham said he expects Kincaid to play on Friday night, but the Utes will likely have to rely more on the run game, just as they have in recent weeks. Until last week, the Trojans’ defense had struggled to limit teams on the ground, but last week’s game against Notre Dame was a different story — the Irish had only 90 rushing yards.
“Everybody doing their job and communicating and being on the same page, when we do that, we’re a hard defense to go up against,” linebacker Shane Lee said.
Lee is among several players who have pointed to that loss at Utah as a pivotal point in USC’s season. The way the loss landed but didn’t linger appeared to give everyone in the locker room the motivation to ensure they didn’t lose again.
“The vibe inside the room was completely different from times when I’ve lost before in college so far,” Williams said. “There were a lot more smiles.”
It is difficult, at this point in the season, to imagine Williams having an off game. And so, USC’s chances — to make it to the playoff and have a chance to win there — will likely come down to how effective, how “on the same page” and how consistent their defense is in these tougher, tighter games. After all, Utah was the one team all season that did something nobody else could: outscore USC.
The optimistic approach after the Utah loss proved to be fortuitous for the Trojans. They knew what they needed to do to bounce back, and so far, they have aced every test since. As they stand just 60 minutes from a conference title and a playoff berth, the question is: Can they keep it going? — Paolo Uggetti
Big 12 championship: No. 10 Kansas State (9-3) vs. No. 3 TCU (12-0)
(AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, Saturday, noon ET, ABC/ESPN app)
Kansas State entered the season as a sleeper pick to win the Big 12. TCU was picked seventh in the conference. After one of the most unlikely seasons in recent history, this game could now be a referendum on TCU’s chances to make the College Football Playoff.
The No. 3 Horned Frogs are one of three undefeated teams in the FBS and, before a blowout win over Iowa State last week, survived a streak of seven straight wins by 10 points or fewer, which tied 1975 UNLV for the longest such string in the AP Poll era dating back to 1936.
So the Horned Frogs know how to win. And none of their five second-half comebacks were bigger than against Kansas State in Week 8, a 38-28 TCU win in Fort Worth after the Wildcats jumped out to a 28-10 lead in the second quarter. The 18-point comeback was TCU’s largest this season.
“We can say all we want about ‘We didn’t do this or didn’t do that,'” K-State coach Chris Klieman said this week. “Give TCU credit. They came back from being down and stayed the course and stayed in the fight. … The biggest thing I think that disappointed us is we couldn’t get off the field on defense. Thus our offense just never had the ball much in that second half.”
This is the eleventh time that the Big 12 title game features a rematch of a regular-season game. Of the 10 previous instances, the winner of the first game won six of them.
TCU coach Sonny Dykes said on Tuesday that he considers this similar to a different season, saying last year’s results don’t affect this season.
“There will be lot of cat and mouse stuff, probably a little more than you normally have, because of the familiarity,” Dykes said.
He said the K-State offense has “taken off” in the past four or five weeks as Will Howard has become more comfortable after coming in for an injured Adrian Martinez (including in the TCU loss), and he’s impressed with how offensive coordinator Collin Klein has utilized the many talents of running back Deuce Vaughn.
Vaughn currently has 1,295 rushing yards and 348 receiving yards this season after 1,404 rushing and 816 receiving yards last year. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, in the past 15 seasons, only one Power 5 running back, Christian McCaffrey, has had multiple seasons of 1,300 rushing yards and 300 receiving yards.
The Wildcats have a chance to play spoiler on Saturday. In the eight years of the CFP, there have been six times when a top-four team was going into the final week and didn’t make the final field. Five of those lost in conference championship games. The other was 2014 TCU, which was notably jumped by Ohio State when the Big 12 did not have a title game.
Dykes knows he won’t have home-field advantage this time, and said he’s always been impressed with Klieman’s team.
“They’re just a good football team. And physical,” he said. “That was a very physical football game. I think that’s a trademark of their program, and it has been for a number of years going back to Coach [Bill] Snyder, and Coach Klieman has kind of kept that tradition alive.”
They’ll need to be physical against TCU running back Kendre Miller, who ranks third in the Big 12 with 650 rush yards after contact this season. He had a season-high 113 against Kansas State earlier this season.
But Klieman knows they’ll have to watch for an explosive TCU team.
“Offensively, defensively, special teams … Collectively, they’re the fastest team we’ve played,” he said. “It’s going to come down to can we win some of these one-on-one matchups because we didn’t win enough one-on-one matchups [in] October, especially in the second half.” — Dave Wilson
0:47
Heather Dinich breaks down TCU’s chances to reach the College Football Playoff even if it loses to Kansas State.
SEC championship: No. 14 LSU (9-3) vs. No. 1 Georgia (12-0)
(Mercedes-Benz Dome, Atlanta, Saturday, 4 p.m. ET, CBS)
Harold Perkins Jr. has been a revelation for LSU this season. His 7.5 sacks rank third in the SEC, despite rushing the passer only 105 times. For comparison, the league leader, Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr., has 10 sacks on 310 pass-rush attempts.
And did we mention that Perkins is only a freshman? The former five-star linebacker from Texas was the jewel of coach Brian Kelly’s first recruiting class.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart remembers evaluating Perkins as a high school prospect.
“He was probably one of the most talented linebackers coming out that season on tape,” he said.
As the season’s gone on, Smart said, “He’s proven that.”
“He’s extremely explosive, athletic,” Smart added. “They do a very good job of utilizing his skill set.”
But, ahead of Georgia and LSU competing in the SEC championship game on Saturday, is it fair to look at Perkins’ production and wonder whether he’s the key to neutralizing the Tigers’ defense?
As LSU made a late-season push, Perkins was dominant. He had five tackles and a sack in a win over Ole Miss, and eight tackles and a sack in a win over Alabama. And during a slugfest at Arkansas in which the LSU offense struggled, Perkins single-handedly carried the team to victory with what might have been the game of the year, racking up eight tackles, four sacks and two forced fumbles.
Then you look at LSU’s losses, and there’s a common thread: Perkins didn’t fill up the stat sheet and didn’t affect the quarterback. In losses to Texas A&M, Tennessee and Florida State, he had no sacks and averaged two tackles per game.
But it wasn’t just Perkins who didn’t get after the quarterback in losses. The defense as a whole, which averaged 2.8 sacks and 11.7 quarterback hurries in nine wins, had no sacks and 15 total pressures in three losses.
The loss to the Aggies last week was especially embarrassing for LSU. Giving up 38 points to a lackluster offense was surprising. It was no secret what A&M wanted to do: hand the ball to Devon Achane. Still, Achane rushed for 215 yards and two touchdowns.
Kelly reflected on the loss and felt that the team had gotten away from what led it to a berth in the conference title game: marrying traits with talent.
Perkins, Kelly said, has to do the same thing.
“He’s very, very talented,” Kelly said. “But, like I said, I mean, it’s both: he’s got to bring his traits and talent together. If he brings both of those, he is an elite and special player.”
It will be an uphill battle on Saturday. Georgia, which is a heavy 17.5-point favorite, has given up the third-fewest sacks in the FBS this season (seven).
To have a chance of pulling off the upset, Perkins and LSU will have to find a way to get in the backfield and affect quarterback Stetson Bennett. — Alex Scarborough
ACC championship: No. 23 North Carolina (9-3) vs. No. 9 Clemson (10-2)
(Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN app)
Clemson has made its way back to the ACC championship game, but that is not exactly the major talking point headed into its matchup against North Carolina.
For the second straight year, the Tigers will be left out of the College Football Playoff, and questions about quarterback DJ Uiagalelei have begun to mount once again after he threw for 99 yards in a shocking 31-30 loss to South Carolina last week.
Though Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has once again defended Uiagalelei, saying he was “a long way from being the reason we lost the game,” it is fair to wonder which version of Uiagalelei we will see on Saturday. Especially since North Carolina has first-team All-ACC quarterback Drake Maye on the other side.
In addition, Swinney has also faced questions about whether running back Will Shipley has been given enough carries. Despite averaging 8.8 yards per rush against South Carolina, Shipley only had 15 carries — including just two on the final four drives of the game. Afterward, he candidly said, “As a competitor, hell yeah, I want the freaking rock with five minutes to go and the game on the line against our rival. That is me as a competitor, but that is not how it shakes out all the time.”
But beyond those questions, there are others about the overall program now that Clemson has missed the playoff for two straight seasons. Swinney told reporters Sunday that winning the national championship is not among its list of goals when the season begins.
“Our goals are win the opener, win the division, win the state, win the ACC and win the closer,” Swinney said. “Our goals are set up to allow us to compete at the highest level, but the reason that it doesn’t say win the national championship on there is because we don’t control that. We could win all of our games and somebody could say no, you don’t qualify. We do have an opportunity still to hit four out of five, and if we do that, we’re going to have another great year here and keep moving forward.”
Though there may not be national implications, the game is an intriguing one considering not only the story lines but their recent history. In 2018, North Carolina nearly upset No. 1 Clemson but opted to go for a 2-point conversion and failed with 1:17 left, losing 21-20. When the teams previously met in the ACC championship game in 2015, a disputed offside call on an onside kick allowed No. 1 Clemson to hold off the Tar Heels and win 45-37.
While playing in the ACC championship game is old hat for Clemson, North Carolina has not won an ACC football title since 1980. Only NC State has a longer conference title drought among current ACC schools.
“We’re trying to take steps in our program,” North Carolina coach Mack Brown said. “Four years ago, we won five games in two years, so every step that we take is a step closer to North Carolina football being relevant again. I thank (our guys) for getting us to this point. There’s only 10 teams that will play in Power 5 championships this weekend, and they’re one of 10 out of 131. So that’s pretty cool.” — Andrea Adelson
Big Ten championship game: Purdue (8-4) vs. No. 2 Michigan (12-0)
(Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, Fox)
Purdue is 3-0 against AP top-5 teams under Jeff Brohm, which is an incredible mark.
Brohm and the Boilermakers have another opportunity to face a top-3 opponent on Saturday against No. 2-ranked Michigan in the Big Ten championship game. Purdue is the underdog in the game as the Wolverines are undefeated and coming off of a win against then-No. 2 Ohio State.
Brohm said there isn’t a secret formula to the success he and his teams have had against highly ranked opponents, but he knows it’s going to take a lot to take down Michigan.
“When you play those type of teams, you have a little luck on your side, you’ve got to play your very best,” Brohm said. “A lot of things got to go your way. You know, I do think that we will prepare hard, I do think that we will give it our best shot. I do think that as coaches, we got to put in a plan that has a couple of wrinkles here and there, that gives us an edge.”
Brohm has been watching the film and saw the Michigan team that came out and attacked Ohio State, outscoring the Buckeyes 28-3 in the second half of their game.
“Michigan’s played lights out this week. Very well coached, tremendous defense. I think their front four plus, basically, their front seven will be the most talented team we played to date,” Brohm said. “They’re big, they’re stout, they will rotate a lot of guys in, good in the secondary, just statistically one of the best defenses in the country. And on offense, the running game, the tight ends, the O-line, and now a really athletic, dynamic quarterback who can make plays outside the pocket.”
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said it finally sunk in that his team beat Ohio State and finished the season undefeated when he was traveling back home from the game. He said he tried to answer as many text messages as he could from supporters after the win, but he is focused on this game and what it means for the program.
A second Big Ten championship in a row, a berth in the College Football Playoff for the second year in a row and it seems like the Wolverines have been playing in must-win games like this for the past three weeks.
“The week before was the biggest game in the world, past game was the biggest game in the world to us,” Harbaugh said. “Now this game is the biggest game in the world to us and going about the preparation, the study of our opponent, the meetings, the practices and getting ready for this game. So, we can have the same feeling of winning and thrill of victory.”
Because Michigan has been in so many high-pressured situations, and because Purdue is the underdog, Brohm is looking at this game as one that Purdue doesn’t have to stress about. His team knows that no one picked them to play in this game and that there is a lot riding on it for the Wolverines.
“There’s going to be more pressure on Michigan, of course,” Brohm said. “They’ve got a chance to really do something special this year, they’re in a great position to do that. So, for us, this is a one-game shot to play in a championship game and roll the dice and see what we can do.” — Tom VanHaaren
American Athletic Conference championship: No. 22 UCF (9-3) vs. No. 18 Tulane (10-2)
(Yulman Stadium, New Orleans, Saturday, 4 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN app)
The first time Tulane hosted UCF this season, the Knights jumped out to a 24-7 lead and never relinquished it, winning 38-31.
However, Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt saw something out of his team that game. He told ESPN the following week, “I think the one thing that we need to take from [that loss], I think that everyone fought. There was no quit in anyone.” He added that they’d need to show a sense of urgency in the following week.
They had urgency… and then some. Pratt responded by going 9-of-14 passing for 141 yards and three touchdowns, as well as 70 yards on the ground and three more scores from there in a 59-24 win over SMU. The week after, they knocked off then-No. 24 Cincinnati on the road.
Now comes the rematch against a UCF team that rebounded this past week in the War on I-4, after a surprising 17-14 loss against Navy in Orlando. Quarterbacks Mikey Keene and John Rhys Plumlee have shared snaps the last couple of games, giving the Knights a variety of looks offensively, with no shortage of playmakers surrounding them.
The Knights ran for a then season-high 336 yards (176 of which came from quarterback Plumlee) in their first matchup with the Green Wave, which was the most Tulane has allowed all season. UCF’s 38 points in that game was also the most Tulane’s defense has allowed this year.
The Knights have won the previous five games against the Green Wave. In a season where Tulane has been one of the best and most surprising stories, the Green Waves’ next chapter becomes this second chance they’re being given against a UCF hurdle that they haven’t been able to clear.
There won’t be a better time to do it than Saturday afternoon, but as the Knights have established in the past, it’s not going to be easy. — Harry Lyles Jr.
You may like
Sports
First impressions from the Athletics’ new home opener
Published
4 hours agoon
April 4, 2025By
admin
-
Tim KeownApr 3, 2025, 12:45 PM ET
Close- Senior Writer for ESPN The Magazine
- Columnist for ESPN.com
- Author of five books (3 NYT best-sellers)
A local television news crew was stationed outside the Sawyer Hotel in downtown Sacramento on Sunday night, ready to catch every nuance of the magical moment the bleary-eyed Chicago Cubs stepped off their bus to enter the lobby. This was the first time a major league baseball team had arrived in Sacramento to play a legally sanctioned regular-season game, and no story was too small. If you ever wondered what Ian Happ looks like walking toward a hotel and being surprised by the presence of a camera and a reporter, CBS-13 was the channel for you.
“That was different,” Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd said. “But it’s the first time a big league team has come to Sacramento, and they’re excited. Baseball’s that cool thing that brings everyone together.”
It was quite a week for Sacramento — more specifically, West Sacramento, the place with the street signs declaring it “The Baseball Side of the River.” It got to host the first three games of the Athletics’ expected three-season interregnum between Oakland and Las Vegas, and it got to call a big league team its own, even if the team has decided to declare itself simply the Athletics, a geographically nonspecific generic version of a Major League Baseball team.
It’s tough to explain the vibe at Sutter Health Park for the first series. It looked like big league baseball and sounded like big league baseball; it just didn’t feel like big league baseball. The crowds were mostly sedate, maybe because there’s room for only about 14,000 fans, and maybe because the Athletics were outscored 35-9 over the course of the three games, the first and third of which could have been stopped for humanitarian reasons.
This is a team that is supposed to be better this season, and three games shouldn’t change that expectation. It spent some money nobody knew it had on a free agent contract for Luis Severino and extensions for Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler, moves that assured a payroll high enough to abide by the revenue-sharing rules of the collective bargaining agreement, but moves that improved the team nonetheless. (You’ve got to spend money to make money is an adage that, for the first time, appealed to owner John Fisher.) The A’s have a universally respected manager in Mark Kotsay, several promising young players from recent drafts and the confidence that came from playing really good baseball over last season’s second half. There is a creeping suspicion that they could be building something that could make West Sacramento proud.
It’s a long, maybe even interminable season that will contain every iteration of peak and valley. Three games can end up being the equivalent of one breath over the course of a lifetime. But still, it’s impossible to deny the Athletics brought back a lot of their old classics for their Sacramento debut: They walked 10 batters in Monday night’s home opener; they kicked the ball around enough for four unearned runs in three games; they walked seven more Wednesday afternoon. The crowds were mostly quiet; the numerous Cubs fans were noisy until it felt mean, but the A’s fans, when they found something cheer-worthy, reacted as if they were cheering for someone else’s kid at a piano recital. As first impressions go, it could have been better.
The A’s players, in their defense, are going through an adjustment period. When I asked closer Mason Miller how he likes Sacramento, he starts counting on his fingers and says, “I’ve literally spent five nights here.” They’re young, wealthy and accustomed to living in a new place every season as they progress through the minor leagues, and they’re trying to view their new home as an opportunity to bond over experiencing something together for the first time.
“We’re all new here,” rookie second baseman Max Muncy says, “so even though I’m a rookie, I can earn some cred if I find a good restaurant and let everyone know.” I mention the toughest reservation in town, a Michelin-starred, fixed-price restaurant less than 2 miles away.
“That sounds like a two-month wait,” he says.
“Not if you tell them who you are,” I joke.
“Yeah, I can’t imagine doing that,” he says. “Besides, if I say, ‘Max Muncy,’ when I show up they’ll say, ‘Oh great, we got this one.'”
The A’s bigger concern is playing the next three seasons in a minor league ballpark and sharing it with a minor league team, the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. It’s kind of like a senior rooming with a freshman; the senior has dibs on just about everything, but he still has to deal with the roommate. For the A’s, that means wondering how the field will hold up over the course of the 155 games it’ll wear this season, and figuring out how to cope with having a clubhouse beyond the outfield wall, disconnected from the dugout.
Severino made his first home start for the A’s on Tuesday night, and he had to tweak his routine to account for the new reality: Once he left the clubhouse, there was no going back. It was cold and windy, so he had to make sure his jacket made it to the dugout with him. The notes he likes to reference during the game had to be there, too. His usual practice of popping into the clubhouse to watch the game on television while his team hits (“It looks easier and more fun on TV,” he says with a laugh) is on hold for home starts for the foreseeable future. He had to sit there with his teammates whether he pitched well or not — on Tuesday: not — and know that every one of his emotions would be picked up by at least five cameras.
“You just have to stick it out,” Severino says. “You can’t have all the stuff you have in a normal stadium. When you go out there, you have to bring everything with you. You have to try to stay warm and find out a different routine. It’s not the same, but the thing is, it doesn’t matter because it’s happening, and we need to get used to it. Just treat it like spring training, because it feels like spring training.”
Players coming off the bench to pinch-hit or play defense have nowhere to get loose. In any other park, they’d jump into the cage behind the dugout and take some swings or stretch out and run a few sprints. Here, they have to do whatever they can do within the confines of the dugout. “Just do some arm circles and maybe run in place,” Cubs infielder Jon Berti says. “Make it old-school.”
Just one of the three games sold out, an unexpected development after months of civic backslapping and grand proclamations about Sacramento cementing its status as a major league city. Tickets for Wednesday’s game, which drew 9,342 fans, were selling on the secondary market for $20 about 30 minutes before first pitch. The A’s have the highest median ticket prices — $181 — in baseball, according to data compiled by the ticket app Gametime. The idea was to employ the time-honored scarcity=demand concept to seize maximum profits from minimal opportunities, but one sellout — the opener, which also included roughly 2,000 comped tickets — in the first three games shows the A’s remain capable of straining even the most fundamental economic concepts.
It’s probably not fair to judge Sacramento’s worth as a baseball town based on its willingness to support a team that won’t be identified by the city’s name during its time here. And it’s definitely not fair to judge a region based on the number of fans eager to hand money to an owner who pulled the team out of Oakland after 57 years and is on his way to Las Vegas.
In the days after Kings/River Cats owner Vivek Ranadive joined with Fisher to bring the A’s to Sacramento, someone identified to me as “as Sacramento as it gets” sent a text that illustrates the conflict that lives within the Sacramento sports fan:
So many thoughts as I’ve been following this:
1) I hate it in that we are just bailing out Fisher
2) I hate that we are basically acting as Seattle a decade ago with regards to the Kings and poached the A’s away from Oakland. That’s an awful feeling I wish on no one
3) I am interested to see if this actually goes anywhere other than just bailing out Fisher for 3 years while he waits out whatever magic is gonna happen in LV
4) Reeeeeally wish Vivek read the room on this one
5) We could buy $30 lawn seats and catch a ball from Mike Trout or even better, [Austin] Slater, on a Wednesday night in Sac. That would be wild
The A’s are quick to point out that there weren’t many crowds of 10,000 on Tuesday nights in Oakland. (There was just one last year, during the final homestand of the season.) Still, Sacramento is a city attempting to use this three- to four-year run to audition for its own big league team. And if the A’s can’t sell out a minor league stadium in an area with established fans of the team, what does that foretell for their eventual move to Las Vegas, where the team is forecasting sellout crowds, including nearly 5,000 tourists per game — in a 33,000-seat stadium in an area with no connection to the A’s?
But that’s someone else’s problem, some other day. Three trips this week to Sutter Health — Sunday for the River Cats, Monday and Wednesday for the A’s — was a chance to watch big league baseball in a quaint, intimate ballpark. I thought it might be like venturing back in time, maybe what it felt like to watch a Philadelphia A’s game in 1907 at Columbia Park if Columbia Park had a state-of-the-art video screen that looks like an 86-inch television hanging from the wall of a studio apartment. This would be baseball back when games were just games and big league ballparks didn’t feel obligated to stock luxury suites with $300 cabernet and fist-sized prawns. Back to when every concession stand sold pretty much the same thing (at Sutter Health, each vendor has a set menu and one or two “specialty” items, like the pizza at Pizza & Pints) and fans could bring a chair or sit on the grass out in right field and dream of Mike Trout or Austin Slater.
Its charms are undeniable, but sustainable? The workers in the ballpark are all genial and helpful, thrilled with having major league baseball in their humble yard, but maybe we should check back in August. At the River Cats’ game Sunday, I spoke with an employee working in the team store who laid out the process of turning it from a River Cats’ store to an Athletics’ store over the course of roughly 24 hours. Starting at 5 p.m. Sunday, three overlapping shifts worked through the night and well into Monday, folding and packing and hauling out all the minor league gear, storing it somewhere she isn’t privy to, while hauling in all the big league gear, unpacking it, unfolding it and displaying it nicely enough that someone might feel compelled to forfeit $134.99 for an authentic JJ Bleday jersey.
As she detailed the process, and the time constraints, knowing this River Cats-to-A’s and vice versa conga will take place roughly every 10 days to two weeks over the next six months, I was beginning to feel stressed just looking at every cap, sock, T-shirt, bobblehead, Dinger the mascot doll and performance men’s half-zip pullover sweatshirt that awaited their attention.
“Will it get done?” I asked her.
She laughed.
“I guess it has to,” she said, “but I’m off tomorrow.”
And poof, just as there was no sign of the A’s on Sunday, there was no sign of the River Cats on Monday. Everything brick red and gold was replaced by something kelly green and gold. Even the sign proclaiming Sacramento’s Triple-A championships was replaced by one proclaiming the A’s nine World Series wins, five in Philadelphia and four in Oakland. But, like everything else involving the 2025 Athletics, there is no geographic designation. As the A’s know better than most, you are where you are until you’re where you want to be.
Sports
What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB’s hottest trend
Published
11 hours agoon
April 3, 2025By
admin
The opening weekend of the 2025 MLB season was taken over by a surprise star — torpedo bats.
The bowling pin-shaped bats became the talk of the sport after the Yankees’ home run onslaught on the first Saturday of the season put it in the spotlight and the buzz hasn’t slowed since.
What exactly is a torpedo bat? How does it help hitters? And how is it legal? Let’s dig in.
Read: An MIT-educated professor, the Yankees and the bat that could be changing baseball
What is a torpedo bat and why is it different from a traditional MLB bat?
The idea of the torpedo bat is to take a size format — say, 34 inches and 32 ounces — and distribute the wood in a different geometric shape than the traditional form to ensure the fattest part of the bat is located where the player makes the most contact. Standard bats taper toward an end cap that is as thick diametrically as the sweet spot of the barrel. The torpedo bat moves some of the mass on the end of the bat about 6 to 7 inches lower, giving it a bowling-pin shape, with a much thinner end.
How does it help hitters?
The benefits for those who like swinging with it — and not everyone who has swung it likes it — are two-fold. Both are rooted in logic and physics. The first is that distributing more mass to the area of most frequent contact aligns with players’ swing patterns and provides greater impact when bat strikes ball. Players are perpetually seeking ways to barrel more balls, and while swings that connect on the end of the bat and toward the handle probably will have worse performance than with a traditional bat, that’s a tradeoff they’re willing to make for the additional slug. And as hitters know, slug is what pays.
The second benefit, in theory, is increased bat speed. Imagine a sledgehammer and a broomstick that both weigh 32 ounces. The sledgehammer’s weight is almost all at the end, whereas the broomstick’s is distributed evenly. Which is easier to swing fast? The broomstick, of course, because shape of the sledgehammer takes more strength and effort to move. By shedding some of the weight off the end of the torpedo bat and moving it toward the middle, hitters have found it swings very similarly to a traditional model but with slightly faster bat velocity.
Why did it become such a big story so early in the 2025 MLB season?
Because the New York Yankees hit nine home runs in a game Saturday and Michael Kay, their play-by-play announcer, pointed out that some of them came from hitters using a new bat shape. The fascination was immediate. While baseball, as an industry, has implemented forward-thinking rules in recent seasons, the modification to something so fundamental and known as the shape of a bat registered as bizarre. The initial response from many who saw it: How is this legal?
OK. How is this legal?
Major League Baseball’s bat regulations are relatively permissive. Currently, the rules allow for a maximum barrel diameter of 2.61 inches, a maximum length of 42 inches and a smooth and round shape. The lack of restrictions allows MLB’s authorized bat manufacturers to toy with bat geometry and for the results to still fall within the regulations.
Who came up with the idea of using them?
The notion of a bowling-pin-style bat has kicked around baseball for years. Some bat manufacturers made smaller versions as training tools. But the version that’s now infiltrating baseball goes back two years when a then-Yankees coach named Aaron Leanhardt started asking hitters how they should counteract the giant leaps in recent years made by pitchers.
When Yankees players responded that bigger barrels would help, Leanhardt — an MIT-educated former Michigan physics professor who left academia to work in the sports industry — recognized that as long as bats stayed within MLB parameters, he could change their geometry to make them a reality. Leanhardt, who left the Yankees to serve as major league field coordinator for the Miami Marlins over the winter, worked with bat manufacturers throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons to make that a reality.
When did it first appear in MLB games?
It’s unclear specifically when. But Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton used a torpedo bat last year and went on a home run-hitting rampage in October that helped send the Yankees to the World Series. New York Mets star Francisco Lindor also used a torpedo-style bat last year and went on to finish second in National League MVP voting.
Who are some of the other notable early users of torpedo bats?
In addition to Stanton and Lindor, Yankees hitters Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt have used torpedoes to great success. Others who have used them in games include Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers and Toronto’s Davis Schneider. And that’s just the beginning. Hundreds more players are expected to test out torpedoes — and perhaps use them in games — in the coming weeks.
How is this different from a corked bat?
Corking bats involves drilling a hole at the end of the bat, filling it in and capping it. The use of altered bats allows players to swing faster because the material with which they replace the wood — whether it’s cork, superballs or another material — is lighter. Any sort of bat adulteration is illegal and, if found, results in suspension.
Could a rule be changed to ban them?
Could it happen? Sure. Leagues and governing bodies have put restrictions on equipment they believe fundamentally altered fairness. Stick curvature is limited in hockey. Full-body swimsuits made of polyurethane and neoprene are banned by World Aquatics. But officials at MLB have acknowledged that the game’s pendulum has swung significantly toward pitching in recent years, and if an offensive revolution comes about because of torpedo bats — and that is far from a guarantee — it could bring about more balance to the game. If that pendulum swings too far, MLB could alter its bat regulations, something it has done multiple times already this century.
So the torpedo bat is here to stay?
Absolutely. Bat manufacturers are cranking them out and shipping them to interested players with great urgency. Just how widely the torpedo bat is adopted is the question that will play out over the rest of the season. But it has piqued the curiosity of nearly every hitter in the big leagues, and just as pitchers toy with new pitches to see if they can marginally improve themselves, hitters will do the same with bats.
Comfort is paramount with a bat, so hitters will test them during batting practice and in cage sessions before unleashing them during the game. As time goes on, players will find specific shapes that are most comfortable to them and best suit their swing during bat-fitting sessions — similar to how golfers seek custom clubs. But make no mistake: This is an almost-overnight alteration of the game, and “traditional or torpedo” is a question every big leaguer going forward will ask himself.
Sports
St. Pete to spend $22.5M to fix Tropicana Field
Published
11 hours agoon
April 3, 2025By
admin
-
Associated Press
Apr 3, 2025, 12:48 PM ET
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The once and possibly future home of the Tampa Bay Rays will get a new roof to replace the one shredded by Hurricane Milton with the goal of having the ballpark ready for the 2026 season, city officials decided in a vote Thursday.
The St. Petersburg City Council voted 7-1 to approve $22.5 million to begin the repairs at Tropicana Field, which will start with a membrane roof that must be in place before other work can continue. Although the Rays pulled out of a planned $1.3 billion new stadium deal, the city is still contractually obligated to fix the Trop.
“We are legally bound by an agreement. The agreement requires us to fix the stadium,” said council member Lissett Hanewicz, who is an attorney. “We need to go forward with the roof repair so we can do the other repairs.”
The hurricane damage forced the Rays to play home games this season at Steinbrenner Field across the bay in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. The Rays went 4-2 on their first homestand ever at an open-air ballpark, which seats around 11,000 fans.
Under the current agreement with the city, the Rays owe three more seasons at the Trop once it’s ready again for baseball, through 2028. It’s unclear if the Rays will maintain a long-term commitment to the city or look to Tampa or someplace else for a new stadium. Major League Baseball has said keeping the team in the Tampa Bay region is a priority. The Rays have played at the Trop since their inception in 1998.
The team said it would have a statement on the vote later Thursday.
The overall cost of Tropicana Field repairs is estimated at $56 million, said city architect Raul Quintana. After the roof, the work includes fixing the playing surface, ensuring audio and visual electronics are working, installing flooring and drywall, getting concession stands running and other issues.
“This is a very complex project. We feel like we’re in a good place,” Quintana said at the council meeting Thursday.
Under the proposed timeline, the roof installation will take about 10 months. The unique membrane system is fabricated in Germany and assembled in China, Quintana said, adding that officials are examining how President Donald Trump’s new tariffs might affect the cost.
The new roof, he added, will be able to withstand hurricane winds as high as 165 mph. Hurricane Milton, one of the strongest hurricanes ever in the Atlantic basin at one point, blasted ashore Oct. 9 south of Tampa Bay with Category 3 winds of about 125 mph.
Citing mounting costs, the Rays last month pulled out of a deal with the city and Pinellas County for a new $1.3 billion ballpark to be built near the Trop site. That was part of a broader $6.5 billion project known as the Historic Gas Plant district to bring housing, retail and restaurants, arts and a Black history museum to a once-thriving Black neighborhood razed for the original stadium.
The city council plans to vote on additional Trop repair costs over the next few months.
“This is our contractual obligation. I don’t like it more than anybody else. I’d much rather be spending that money on hurricane recovery and helping residents in the most affected neighborhoods,” council member Brandi Gabbard said. “These are the cards that we’re dealt.”
Trending
-
Sports2 years ago
‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports12 months ago
Story injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year ago
Game 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years ago
MLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years ago
Japan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years ago
Game-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years ago
Bank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway