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Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Breakthrough coming? USA TODAY Sports Network's Big Ten football preseason rankings tabs Penn State as best
INDIANAPOLIS — One of the fiercest rivalries in all of sports has teams who represented the Big Ten quite well as College Football Playoff national champions in consecutive years. But it's a team that has for years played third fiddle that is picked to break the glass ceiling it has faced. A pool of writers across the USA TODAY Sports Network from coast to coast were polled on who will win the league, and Penn State was the preseason choice to win the championship Dec. 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Nittany Lions have not won the Big Ten since 2016, their only time supplanting Ohio State and Michigan in the defunct East Division. Penn State lost to Oregon, 45-37, in last year's championship game, the first without divisions, but went on to reach a CFP national semifinal where they lost to eventual national runner-up Notre Dame. It may be Penn State's best chance to win a national championship for the first time in 39 years. Though its 1994 team went undefeated, it was Nebraska that claimed the national title after beating Miami in the BCS national championship game. The Nittany Lions will have competition, though, as the Big Ten hopes to have a third straight national champion. There was a grouping of Penn State, Ohio State and Oregon as the three programs who were predicted to finish first by network writers. A pool of teams were bunched up in the middle, and another cluster in the lower third. They ranked teams first through 18th with a total points system used to rank teams: a first-place prediction equaled one point and last was 18. The team with the fewest points was ranked first. First-year Purdue football coach Barry Odom has his work cut out for him. His Boilermakers were a consensus pick to finish 18th. Meanwhile in-state rival Indiana is not expected to have much of a drop off from a (tied) second-place finish in Curt Cignetti's first season. Toppmeyer: Why the Big Ten desperately wants to rig College Football Playoff USA TODAY Sports Network preseason Big Ten champion, order of finish 1. Penn State, 16 2. Ohio State, 20 3. Oregon, 26 4. Michigan, 45 5. Illinois, 55 6. Indiana, 63 Insider: IU football schedule a politicking punching bag in inconsistent College Football Playoff process 7. USC, 72 (tie) 8. Nebraska, 85 (tie) 8. Washington, 85 10. Iowa, 86 11. Minnesota, 112 12. Wisconsin, 117 13. Rutgers, 138 14. UCLA, 139 15. Michigan State, 141 16. Maryland, 155 17. Northwestern, 165 18. Purdue, 180 Local Boiler: 'Authentic' Lawrence Central grad can go 'as far as he wants' as Purdue football general manager Champion: Penn State (5 votes) Aaron Ferguson is assistant sports editor at the Indianapolis Star. He coordinates Big Ten polls, rankings, enterprise and more for the USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on Twitter/X at @Sports_Aaron, Instagram at a_ferg_writes, TikTok at sports_aaron, Reddit at sports_aaron and BlueSky at This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: USA TODAY Network's Big Ten football preseason rankings, championship picks
CNN
9 minutes ago
- CNN
Wyndham Clark feels ‘terrible' about Oakmont locker damage and says he will make good
Wyndham Clark said Sunday he feels 'terrible' about damaging a locker at century-old Oakmont during the US Open and that he wants to make good with the Pittsburgh-area country club and longtime US Open site. Club president John Lynch sent Oakmont members a letter last week saying Clark would not be allowed back on the property until he paid for repairs and got counseling for his anger. Media were not allowed in the locker room, but a photo was leaked. 'I feel terrible with what happened. I'm doing anything I can to try to remedy the situation,' Clark said after he shot 65 in the final round and tied for fourth in the British Open. 'We're trying to keep it private between Oakmont, myself and the USGA. … I'm hoping we can get past this and move on and hope there's no ill will towards me and Oakmont.' It's been a rough year for Clark, who was on the verge of missing a second straight cut in a major when he opened with a 76 at Royal Portrush. He rallied with rounds of 66-66-65 for his best finish in a major since he won the 2023 US Open. He also threw a club at the PGA Championship after a poor tee shot that damaged a sign and nearly hit a volunteer. 'I've been pretty open about my mental shift and change to get better, and I did that in '23 and '24,' Clark said. 'And then having a tough year and all the expectations and just frustration all coming together, and I did two stupid things. 'But one thing that it did do is wake me up and get me back into the person I know I am and the person I want to be,' he said. 'I hope those things don't reflect because I don't think they reflect on who I am, and going forward that stuff is not going to happen again.' The US Open returns to Oakmont in 2033, the final year of Clark's exemption for winning. Asked if he expected to be there, Clark said: 'I don't know. That's up to them. I would hope so. It's a fantastic course and place. I did something awful, and I'm really sorry for it. 'Hopefully, they have it in their heart to forgive me, and maybe in the future I'll be able to play there.' Lynch said in the letter, which was obtained by Golf Digest, that reinstatement would depend on Clark paying for damage, making a meaningful contribution to a charity of the Oakmont board's choice and completing an anger management course. 'Obviously, it's a no-brainer to pay for the damages. That was a given,' Clark said. 'Then obviously all the apologies, and I want to give back to the community because I hurt a great place in Pittsburgh, so I wanted to do anything I can to show them that what happened there was not a reflection of who I am and won't happen again.'
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How Clemson football's Dabo Swinney mistook LSU's Brian Kelly for a country singer this summer
CLEMSON — Somehow Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney confused his Week 1 coaching opponent with a musician while on vacation this summer. Swinney said July 15 during Clemson's preseason availability that he and his wife, Kathleen, visited Grayton Beach in Florida with one of his brothers and his wife, who informed Dabo and Kathleen that Brian Kelley was having a concert there, and the musician's wife also has a gift shop there. Assuming it was LSU coach Brian Kelly, Dabo said Kathleen purchased an item to support the shop, and Dabo took pictures of the concert stage and imagery and sent them to his first-week opponent. It wasn't until Dabo Swinney's brother's friend told Kathleen it was Brian Kelley, the country singer from the group Florida Georgia Line, that they realized their mistake. "Kath goes, 'Babe, it's Brian Kelley. He's a singer with the Florida Georgia Line,' and I went 'What?' " Dabo Swinney said. "I've been firing all these pictures off to Brian Kelly. He's probably over there saying, 'What is this dude doing?' " Swinney admitted the LSU coach was probably confused about the context of the photos but he had responded to the messages anyway, saying something along the lines of "You can't get away from Brian Kelly." How could he? It is one of the most anticipated matchups this season. Clemson hosts LSU on Aug. 30 (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC) at Memorial Stadium. Both teams have quarterbacks with Heisman Trophy hopes (Clemson's Cade Klubnik, LSU's Garrett Nussmeier) and Hall of Fame-level coaching. Klubnik said last month that he began preparing for the marquee game during the first week of July. Kelly also has emphasized the importance of this matchup, saying at SEC media days on July 14 that Clemson's logo has been plastered on workout bags at LSU's facility this summer for motivation. MORE: Our suggestions for Clemson as revenue sharing starts from alcohol deals to Memorial Stadium concerts "We've got a Clemson paw print on the bags that we hit every day," Kelly said. "It's on every monitor in the building to go 1-0. I think it was important to have a tangible, specific goal for us to start the season." Kelly, who is 0-3 in Week 1 games in his LSU tenure, said Tiger Stadium is the real "Death Valley," which is what Clemson calls Memorial Stadium. His comments didn't seem to bother Swinney. "It ain't gonna have nothing to do with blocking and tackling and executing it on game day, so it makes it fun, but just go focus on what we gotta do," Swinney said. He said he will share a laugh with Kelly if he sees the video of Swinney talking about the case of mistaken identity. He also has extended an invite to Florida Georgia Line's Brian Kelley to come perform at Clemson. Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@ and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00 This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson football: How Dabo Swinney mistook LSU's Brian Kelly for singer
