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The Playoff picture saw some major changes after Oregon’s loss to Arizona State. That opens up a wide-open debate for the No. 4 final spot. MORE: How Oregon’s loss shakes up Pac-12, Playoff races For now, SN has Oklahoma in the final spot. Utah and Alabama will have a strong case, but the Sooners might get the edge with a Big 12 championship, buoyed by potential quality wins against Oklahoma State and Baylor the next two weeks....

The Linemakers on Sporting News, a group of former sports book operators with dozens of years of collective experience making odds and handicapping games in Las Vegas, offer our opinions and picks on the Week 11 slate. Be sure to click through to the informative and entertaining videos, which are shot at the South Point sports book and our studios in Vegas. The lines and totals listed below are the Las Vegas consensus as of Friday afternoon....

Like we said, it’s a doozy of a week. MORE: Sporting News midseason All-Americans That said, there other interesting games to key in on, including the Third Saturday in October between No. 1 Alabama and Tennessee (which just beat Auburn in Jordan-Hare and is led by former Tide defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt). We have picks for all these games and more, many of which can be streamed online at fuboTV....

RENO – As we get near college football playoff time, part of the jockeying for position involves scheduling. Iowa is getting the biggest knock for its weak strength of schedule, while many SEC teams card the late cupcake game like Alabama against Charleston Southern this weekend. Not many teams in the hunt, however, have had it easier than Ohio State. The Buckeyes are 13.5-point favorites to upend Michigan State with a game total of 53....

Starting possibly in 2024 or 2025, but definitely by 2026, there will be a 12-team playoff in place. The four top teams may still end up in the semifinals, but the field will give more teams realistic chances to make the single-elimination field late in the regular season and set up more win-or-go-home games. MORE: Why more CFP games need to be on campus What a 12-team playoff bracket would look like A 12-team field would consist of the six highest rated conference champions and the six highest-rated at-large teams....

The Playoff field is starting to thin out. Just five unbeaten teams remain, including two Power 5 conference teams in Alabama and Clemson (surprise), independent Notre Dame and American Athletic Conference rivals UCF and South Florida. A dozen one-loss teams in the Power 5 are behind them. That leaves 17 teams with varying amounts of postseason hope, considering no two-loss team has made the College Football Playoff. MORE: Week 9 Playoff picture...

For the NFL, it means the scouting season has officially kicked off, with the focus being on which players are standing out, where they need to improve, and what their 2014 college play could mean for their pro potential. Based on players’ 2013 performances and projections as to how they should perform in 2014, here’s our first mock draft for 2015. Note: Draft order is based on SportsBook.ag’s rankings of projected 2014 finishes based on their over/under win odds....

His previous road trips … Year One, Year Two, Year Three, Year Four, Year Five. Follow along today … PHOTOS: Fagan’s basketball road trip | MORE: 16 teams that can win it all 11:23 a.m. RALEIGH, N.C. — Road trip day is the best day. That was true back in my undergrad years, whether the trip with my buddies was up to Chicago (where we somehow wound up on “Oprah”) or with seven or eight of us packed in a car headed up to Kansas City for a concert (in retrospect, two cars would have been a better idea) or if the trip was a weekend of loosely planned randomness (like the time four of us decided to visit a city that started with every letter of the alphabet, in order)....

The school released a statement Wednesday saying it was from the members of the Cougars men’s basketball team this season. Wojcik was fired by school President Glenn McConnell on Tuesday for cause. MORE: Wocjik was subject to second investigation Wojcik, 50, has apologized to those he hurt emotionally or offended. A 50-page report done by the school contained summaries of interviews with Wojcik and 26 others — including 10 anonymous players and five anonymous employees — who are current and former players and assistant coaches, college staffers and athletic director Joe Hull....

Two people were killed and eight more were wounded in a shooting near the Monarch nightclub in downtown Minneapolis in the early hours of Saturday morning, police said. Charlie Johnson was identified as one of the victims in the shooting, and had been due to graduate from the University of St. Thomas that day. “Our community is shocked and saddened by the news of Charlie’s death,” UST President Julie Sullivan said in a statement....

The legend of TCU’s Luken Baker is beginning to grow, as the freshman slugger once again homered in the postseason.This time it was a go-ahead, 3-run blast in the top of the ninth that gave the Horned Frogs (48-16) their third consecutive CWS opening-game win, a 5-3 victory over Big 12 rival Texas Tech. Baker, named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, now has six homers in his last 12 games after blasting a pitch from Red Raiders closer Robert Duggar just inside the left field foul pole....

If you’re interested in getting involved in the CWS futures markets, Sporting News has you covered. Below, we’ll break down the top teams and a couple of sleepers who can win the College World Series. It’s important to note that these odds will change as the College World Series progresses. MORE CWS: Full schedule College World Series betting odds, picks 2022: Favorites Odds courtesy of Sports Interaction Texas Longhorns +425 (implied probability 19....

Heads-up poker tournament specialist Daniel Colman came out on top during ESPN’s televised coverage of the 2014 World Series of Poker Big One for One Drop charity poker tournament Tuesday—beating out Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu for the first place prize of $15.3 million. MORE: Schemion, Smith flip-flop at the top of GPI World Rankings | Daniel Negreanu Player of the Month | WSOP November Nine Set The sixth episode of ESPN’s broadcast of the $1 million buy-in tournament featured a key hand that played out between the two remaining players in which Colman enticed Negreanu to commit a good portion of his stack on the river with only King-high....

Utah is peaking at the right time and quite a few consider them a legitimate Sweet 16 team as it comes into tonight’s regular season finale at home against Colorado riding six-game a winning streak. Best of all for bettors, the Utes have covered their past five games, including a home sweep of both Arizona schools last week. MORE: College hoops live odds page They won at Boulder Jan. 8, 56-54, in their first meeting in a pick ’em game....

Tom Patierno was hiking with a friend on the Rio Grande Trail when a 68-year-old woman asked Patierno to give her some room as they got closer to each other. After the woman requested he move over, “Patierno came up close to her, got in her face and intentionally coughed in her face,” according to an Aspen Police Department report obtained by The Aspen Times. The report said the Aspen police officer initially charged Patierno with disorderly conduct for his alleged behavior....

Snow will continue to fall in areas across Colorado, as a southward plunge of the jet stream causes a significant drop in temperatures, according to Weather.com. Forecasters at news station KOAA in southern Colorado expect rain and snowfall on Tuesday, which will get worse during the overnight hours. Winter storm warnings and advisories were issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) in several areas across the state. “Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories will be in effect tonight through early Wednesday across the state,” the NWS in Boulder tweeted....