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As No. 1 Michigan prepares to face No. 2 Washington on Monday in the College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T, Wolverines players pushed back on allegations of their involvement in the highly publicized sign-stealing scandal, saying any possible NCAA penalties, including vacating wins, wouldn’t detract from their accomplishments this season.

“We did things the right way as players,” Wolverines quarterback J.J. McCarthy said during a teleconference Wednesday. “It would be very unfortunate [to] not get recognized for all the hard work that we put in and everything we accomplished over this last year.

“But at the end of the day, you know it’s not going to change the amount of accomplishment and the amount of pride for being on this football team and just everything that we accomplished because we know what we put in. We know the work that we put in, and we know that we did things the right way as players. Whatever happened, with all the outside controversies, it’s out of our control, and whatever the NCAA wants to do is out of our control, but we’re going to appreciate the things we did control and accomplish.”

Michigan will take the sport’s greatest stage Monday with two separate NCAA investigations still looming — one into the sign-stealing scandal that allegedly spanned multiple seasons, and another into alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 season. It’s possible the program will face NCAA sanctions that could include vacating wins.

While a majority of college football teams, if not all, try to steal signs during games from opposing sidelines and from game film they study, the NCAA prohibits off-campus sign stealing. The Big Ten this season suspended coach Jim Harbaugh for the final three games of the regular season for an off-campus sign-stealing operation led by former staff member Connor Stalions, who resigned Nov. 3.

Harbaugh, who also served a university-imposed three-game suspension at the beginning of the season for the alleged recruiting violations, said any talk of NCAA sanctions at this point is purely “living in the world of rumorville or speculation.”

“We don’t have any room to be doing that at this point,” Harbaugh said. “Our time’s spent elsewhere.”

Michigan sophomore defensive lineman Mason Graham said he felt most of the allegations of cheating were aimed against the defense, but said their only edge is watching film to study tendencies.

“I feel like we just have a high football IQ here at Michigan,” Graham said. “And you know, we go over specific situations multiple times a week, just kind of just learning more about the game every day, every meeting, just kind of just building the IQ and being smarter football players all around so we pick up on things faster. Even if it’s in-game adjustments stuff, I think little stuff like that film study really helped us this year.”

McCarthy on Wednesday also alleged rival Ohio State was legally stealing their signs in 2019 or 2020 and the Wolverines “had to adapt.”

“They were doing it the legal way,” McCarthy said of the Buckeyes. “We had to get up to the level they were at and make it an even playing field. It sucks because we do work our butts off. We do watch so much film and look for the little tendencies and spend like 10, 15 minutes on one clip alone just looking at all the little details of the posture of the linebackers or the D-end … little stuff like that where it’s like, OK, you can say it’s all sign stealing, but you know, there’s a lot more that goes into play … a lot of work that gets masked just because of the outside perception of what sign stealing is all about.”

Graham said it was all part of the adversity the team overcame this season, and that’s not something the NCAA can take away.

“We’ve kind of been working all the way up until this moment,” Graham said. “Things happen along the way that don’t fall into place. We’ve overcome a lot of adversity this season. I felt like it’s brought us closer together.”

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Journalism rallies in $1M Haskell Invitational win

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Journalism rallies in M Haskell Invitational win

OCEANPORT, N.J. — Journalism launched a dramatic rally to win the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Saturday at Monmouth Park.

It was Journalism’s first race since the Triple Crown. He was the only colt to contest all three legs, winning the Preakness while finishing second to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

Heavily favored at 2-5 odds, Journalism broke poorly under jockey Umberto Rispoli and wound up trailing the early leaders. He kicked into gear rounding the final turn to find Gosger and Goal Oriented locked in a dogfight for the lead. It appeared one of them would be the winner until Journalism roared down the center of the track to win by a half-length.

“You feel like you’re on a diesel,” Rispoli said. “He’s motoring and motoring. You never know when he’s going to take off. To do what he did today again, it’s unbelievable.”

Gosger held on for second, a neck ahead of Goal Oriented.

The Haskell victory was Journalism’s sixth in nine starts for Southern California-based trainer Michael McCarthy, and earned the colt a berth in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

Journalism paid $2.80, $2.20 and $2.10.

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Heavy rain helps Elliott to pole for Dover Cup race

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Heavy rain helps Elliott to pole for Dover Cup race

DOVER, Del. — Chase Elliott took advantage of heavy rain at Dover Motor Speedway to earn the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.

Elliott and the rest of the field never got to turn a scheduled practice or qualifying lap on Saturday because of rain that pounded the concrete mile track. Dover is scheduled to hold its first July race since the track’s first one in 1969.

Elliott has two wins and 10 top-five finishes in 14 career races at Dover.

Chase Briscoe starts second, followed by Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and William Byron. Shane van Gisbergen, last week’s winner at Sonoma Raceway, Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch complete the top 10.

Logano is set to become the youngest driver in NASCAR history with 600 career starts.

Logano will be 35 years, 1 month, 26 days old when he hits No. 600 on Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway. He will top seven-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty by six months.

The midseason tournament that pays $1 million to the winner pits Ty Dillon vs. John Hunter Nemechek and Reddick vs. Gibbs in the head-to-head challenge at Dover.

The winners face off next week at Indianapolis. Reddick is the betting favorite to win it all, according to Sportsbook.

All four drivers are winless this season.

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Hamlin on 23XI trial: ‘All will be exposed’

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Hamlin on 23XI trial: 'All will be exposed'

DOVER, Del. — NASCAR race team owner Denny Hamlin remained undeterred in the wake of another setback in court, vowing “all will be exposed” in the scheduled December trial as part of 23XI Racing’s federal antitrust suit against the auto racing series.

A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request from 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to continue racing with charters while they battle NASCAR in court, meaning their six cars will race as open entries this weekend at Dover, next week at Indianapolis and perhaps longer than that in a move the teams say would put them at risk of going out of business.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell denied the teams’ bid for a temporary restraining order, saying they will make races over the next couple of weeks and they won’t lose their drivers or sponsors before his decision on a preliminary injunction.

Bell left open the possibility of reconsidering his decision if things change over the next two weeks.

After this weekend, the cars affected may need to qualify on speed if 41 entries are listed – a possibility now that starting spots have opened.

The case has a Dec. 1 trial date, but the two teams are fighting to be recognized as chartered for the current season, which has 16 races left. A charter guarantees one of the 40 spots in the field each week, but also a base amount of money paid out each week.

“If you want answers, you want to understand why all this is happening, come Dec. 1, you’ll get the answers that you’re looking for,” Hamlin said Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway. “All will be exposed.”

23XI, which is co-owned by retired NBA great Michael Jordan, and FRM filed their federal suit against NASCAR last year after they were the only two organizations out of 15 to reject NASCAR’s extension offer on charters.

Jordan and FRM owner Bob Jenkins won an injunction to recognize 23XI and FRM as chartered for the season, but the ruling was overturned on appeal earlier this month, sending the case back to Bell.

Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, co-owns 23XI with Jordan and said they were prepared to send Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst to the track each week as open teams. They sought the restraining order Monday, claiming that through discovery they learned NASCAR planned to immediately begin the process of selling the six charters which would put “plaintiffs in irreparable jeopardy of never getting their charters back and going out of business.”

Hamlin said none of the setbacks have made him second-guess the decision to file the lawsuit.

“Dec. 1 is all that matters. Mark your calendar,” Hamlin said. “I’d love to be doing other things. I’ve got a lot going on. When I get in the car (today), nothing else is going to matter other than that. I always give my team 100%. I always prepare whether I have side jobs, side hustles, more kids, that all matters, but I always give my team all the time that they need to make sure that when I step in, I’m 100% committed.”

Reddick, who has a clause that allows him to become a free agent if the team loses its charter, declined comment Saturday on all questions connected to his future and the lawsuit. Hamlin also declined to comment on Reddick’s future with 23XI Racing.

Reddick, one of four drivers left in NASCAR’s $1 million In-season Challenge, was last year’s regular-season champion and raced for the Cup Series championship in the season finale. But none of the six drivers affected by the court ruling are locked into this year’s playoffs.

Making the field won’t be an issue this weekend at Dover as fewer than the maximum 40 cars are entered. But should 41 cars show up anywhere this season, someone slow will be sent home and that means lost revenue and a lost chance to win points in the standings.

“Nothing changes from my end, obviously, and nothing changes from inside the shop,” Front Row Motorsports driver Zane Smith said. “There’s not typically even enough cars to worry about transferring in.”

Smith, 24th in the standings and someone who would likely need a win to qualify for NASCAR’s playoffs, said he stood behind Jenkins in his acrimonious legal fight that has loomed over the stock car series for months.

“I leave all that up to them,” Smith said, “but my job is to go get the 38 the best finish I can.”

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