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Further Review: Barrett, Buckeyes are back at the top of the B1G heap
Ohio State 39, Penn State 38. Those who watched it won’t soon forget it. And I’m including those of us who had no choice but to record it, block out all contact with the outside world awhile and then...
View ArticleWeek 10 Big-Game Hunting: From Bama to Bedlam, it’s all about playoff
November is here, which I bring up not only as a public-service announcement — you’re welcome — but also as a warning that, henceforth, this column must obsess about the College Football Playoff as...
View ArticleWisconsin moves into our B1G No. 1 spot — but we don’t have to like it
It’s Bucky or bust. There will be no Big Ten participant in the four-team College Football Playoff unless Wisconsin gets from 9-0 to 13-0, which will require beating Iowa and Michigan at home,...
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Big Game Hunting: Notre Dame-Miami has a 1990 feel, Rick Mirer says
Former Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer was in the house last weekend in South Bend as the Irish beat up on Wake Forest. He watched them wail away with their running game, hit a few big plays through...
View ArticleSnow joke: Bulls lose again, but Markkanen has ‘happiest’ day yet
On the morning of Nov. 10, 2016, Lauri Markkanen looked around and saw paradise. He was with the Arizona Wildcats in Honolulu, preparing to make his college debut the following afternoon against...
View ArticleWeek 11 Further Review: Badgers in the playoff four? Not happening yet
Nos. 1 Georgia, 3 Notre Dame, 6 TCU and 9 Washington think they had bad weekends just because they were flattened on the field and watched their playoff dreams (OK, Georgia, not necessarily yours) fade...
View ArticleWeek 12 Further Review: Media love for Fitz, but none for Lovie?
I just want to say this about: Pat Fitzgerald and Lovie Smith: Illinois fans love to complain that we in the Chicago media throw rose petals at the feet of Northwestern coach Fitzgerald and essentially...
View ArticleBig-Game Hunting: Can Auburn add to Cam Newton, Kick 6 lore vs. Bama?
We’ve reached the final full week of the regular season, with Alabama and defending champion Clemson on track to meet in the national-title game for what would be the third year in a row. As...
View ArticleNew AP Top 25: Clemson in top spot, Wisconsin No. 3, Alabama No. 5
Well, that was weird. The initial sight Sunday of the new Associated Press Top 25, that is. No Alabama in the No. 1 spot? We knew it was coming after the Crimson Tide’s 26-14 defeat at Auburn, but it’s...
View ArticleWisconsin enters playoff top four behind Clemson, Auburn and Oklahoma
For the first time this season, the Big Ten has cracked the College Football Playoff top four. And for the first time in the four-year history of the playoff, we’ve got a tangible picture of a playoff...
View ArticleFitzgerald on Northwestern: ‘Our brand is as strong as I’ve ever seen’
Coach Pat Fitzgerald was out beating the bushes Wednesday, recruiting with fire in his eyes for his Northwestern program. When the 42-year-old talks about what’s cooking with the Wildcats — winners of...
View ArticleBig Game Hunting: College football’s Power Five championship previews
Power Five championship game previews and picks: PAC-12: NO. 12 STANFORD VS. NO. 10 USC The facts: Friday, 7 p.m., ESPN, Santa Clara, Calif. The records: Stanford 9-3, 7-2 Pac-12; USC 10-2, 8-1 Pac-12....
View ArticleOhio State left out of playoff; Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama in
It’s official. And it’s more than a little surprising to many. The Jan. 1 College Football Playoff matchups: No. 1 Clemson vs. No. 4 Alabama in New Orleans and No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 3 Georgia in...
View ArticleCFB awards: Baker Mayfield, Bradley Chubb and other picks to win
Twenty-seven finalists. Nine awards. And one awards show — Thursday at 6 p.m. on ESPN — at which to hand out all that National College Football Awards Association hardware. The Heisman Trophy won’t be...
View ArticleThe Heisman? Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield won’t be walking on without it
It was a gut punch, a shocker and a cause for extreme concern in Sooner Nation. How could Oklahoma, 4-0 and ranked in the top 10, fall to rival Texas, a 1-4 train wreck? This was 2015, a season after...
View ArticleActivists to copy Illinois ‘gay panic defense’ ban elsewhere
Starting in January, Illinois will bar a rare criminal defense allowing the use of a victim’s sexual orientation as justification for violent crime, a ban gay rights advocates say they will attempt to...
View ArticleJoe Maddon and the 2018 Cubs: Manager’s people skills will be tested from Day 1
Close your eyes, if it helps, and try to imagine the sight of 63-year-old Joseph John Maddon Jr. driving the highways of Arizona next month, holding steady at 85 miles per hour but every now and then...
View ArticleYour Turn: March has lots to choose from, but there’s only one NCAA Tournament
What tops your sports list the rest of March? The NCAA Tournament (we see you, Loyola)? Cubs and White Sox spring training? The stretch runs in the NBA and NHL (the massive shortcomings of the Bulls...
View ArticleSweet 16 picks: Only Kansas State-Kentucky is a lock — the Wildcats shall win
ATLANTA — Congrats on surviving three whole days with no NCAA Tournament games. It was rough for me, too. A look at each of Thursday and Friday’s Sweet 16 matchups: SOUTH (ATLANTA) No. 11 Loyola vs....
View ArticleIllinois Supreme Court suspends convicted judge from practicing law
Two months after a federal jury found her guilty of fraud, the Illinois Supreme Court has suspended Cook County Judge Jessica Arong O’Brien from practicing law “effective immediately.” But rather than...
View Article‘Go back to Mexico’? A better idea: Let the racists crawl back under their rocks
Imagine the middle-aged man — quite possibly a dad, certainly a blight on kindness and decency, lower than a crumble of dirt on the bottom of one’s shoe, really — who would say to a 17-year-old...
View ArticleRemember when the Big Ten didn’t stink? Upsets galore marked a wicked Week 3
The sad, sick, twisted story dates to 1936. It might as well go back forever. Seven Big Ten teams lost to unranked nonconference opponents Saturday, the most in a single day since the Associated Press...
View ArticleBig-Game Hunting: Can NIU kick Seminoles while they’re down in ‘rematch’?
Six seasons ago, then-Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch looked me dead in the eyes during a one-on-one interview and said of upcoming Orange Bowl opponent Florida State: ‘‘We plan on wearing...
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Trial enters new phase as state rests, but was it enough to convict Van Dyke?
The case that Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke murdered 17-year-old Laquan McDonald has been made — in only four days. Whether it will be enough to convict the veteran officer caught up in one of...
View ArticleIt’s that time again: Will Cubs’ cruelty to Cardinals continue on final weekend?
Don’t know about you, but some of us are old enough to remember a time — a long time, actually — when it tended to feel like the Cardinals simply had an edge over the Cubs. In a closely contested game,...
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