Kings beat Raptors 105-96 to halt Toronto's win streak at ACC at five games

TORONTO - DeMarcus Cousins poured in 31 points and grabbed 20 rebounds to lift the Sacramento Kings to a 105-96 victory over the Raptors on Friday, handing Toronto its first loss at home in six games.
Kyle Lowry scored 24 points to top the Raptors (12-21), who've lost just twice in 10 games.
Alan Anderson added 20 points, DeMar DeRozan finished with 14, Jose Calderon had 13 points and just three assists, and Ed Davis had 11 points and a team-high 13 rebounds.
John Salmons added 20 points for the Kings, who won for just the third time on the road this season.
The game was a sloppy affair for a Toronto team that was coming off one of its most solid performances this season just two nights earlier in a 102-79 victory over Portland.
For all the positive vibe around a team that had been digging out of its early-season hole with hustle and teamwork, the Raptors seemed to be able to do little right Friday.
They had no answer for Cousins, who hammered the home team inside all night long with the Kings outscoring Toronto 52-32 in the paint.
And while the Raptors have been on a hot streak, the Kings have as well, winning six of their last nine games.
Toronto had an eight-point lead in the second quarter, but the wheels fell off in a third quarter that saw the Raptors outscored 28-10. They trailed 82-63 heading into the fourth in front of a disgruntled Air Canada Centre crowd that had developed a taste for winning.
The Raptors pulled to within 13 points with six minutes to play on back-to-back three-pointers from Calderon and Anderson, but that was as close as they would come.
Before the game, Raptors coach Dwane Casey cautioned against getting too excited over Toronto's recent success too soon.
"We're still 12 and 20, I'm not jumping up and down and throwing snowballs," he said.
Both team were missing some key players as Sacramento played its 10th straight game without Tyreke Evans (knee injury).
The Raptors have played 10 straight without forward Andrea Bargnani, and fourth without rookie forward Jonas Valanciunas. Linas Kleiza sat his second straight game with a sore knee.
Cousins had nine points and four boards as the Kings led for a good chunk of the first quarter — but never by more than six points. The visitors took a 23-22 advantage into the second.
The Raptors went on a 17-5 run early in the second to take an eight-point lead, but the Kings headed into the locker-room at halftime up 54-53.
Cousins continued to pound Toronto — to the tune of 10 points and eight rebounds — in the third quarter as the Kings outscored the Raptors 28-10 and took a 82-63 lead into the fourth.
NOTES: Sacramento took the first meeting between the two teams 107-100 on Dec. 5. . . The Raptors host Oklahoma City on Sunday. . . The Blue Jays' Jose Bautista and Adam Lind chucked autographed balls up into the crowd during a timeout.

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Notre Dame women shock No. 1 UConn 73-72

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — Skylar Diggins and Notre Dame just seem to have Connecticut's number.
The Irish have turned one of the best rivalries in women's basketball into a one-sided affair lately, winning five of the past six meetings.
The senior All-American scored 19 points hitting big shot after big shot in the second half to lift fifth-ranked Notre Dame to a 73-72 victory over the top-ranked Huskies on Saturday.
This was the latest victory for the Irish (12-1, 1-0 Big East), who also ended UConn's season the past two years by beating the Huskies in past two Final Fours.
"I think when we play them, there is a lot on the line, whether it is a Big East Championship or them being ranked higher than us or in the Final Four," Diggins said. "This is good for us."
No team has had this kind of success against UConn in the past 20 years.
The last team to beat UConn five out of six times was Miami back in the early 1990s — before the Huskies started winning national championships.
The Irish were expected to be down this season with three starters graduated. It didn't matter with Diggins still on the team.
With UConn poised to pull away in the second half, Diggins hit back-to-back 3-pointers to keep her team in the game.
Later with the shot clock about to run out, Diggins hit a leaner from the wing.
Finally, with the Irish down by one with 49 seconds left, she got fouled on a drive and calmly sank both free throws. It would be the last points of the game.
"I think Skylar has changed things for us," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "She believed we can win and has the confidence and that is contagious."
The Huskies (12-1, 0-1) had a few chances to pull out the win in the final 30 seconds, but in front of a sellout crowd of 10,127, they fell short.
Breanna Stewart had her shot blocked in the lane. The Huskies maintained possession and then after a timeout, Stewart missed a jumper from the top of the key. Kelly Faris grabbed the rebound giving UConn one more chance, but Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis caught the ball in the corner and her wide-open 3 fell off the rim.
The Irish grabbed the loose ball and Diggins ran out the clock.
"How many times can we put up our defense," McGraw said. "I thought about our football team getting that goal line stand (against Stanford) three times in a row, if they can do it, we can do it."
The Irish women were headed down South after the game to get ready for Tuesday's contest against South Florida. Notre Dame was going to first spend a day in Orlando.
McGraw laughed at the thought that her team would head to Disney World after beating the No. 1 team in the country. She put the victory in perspective.
"It's great to win when they are ranked No. 1," she said. "It's great for our team, but it's still January 5. We're just trying to get better."
The Huskies had come into the game unbeaten and a week earlier had stunned then-No. 1 Stanford 61-35 on the Cardinal's homecourt ending their 82-game home winning streak. They had already beaten five ranked teams by an average of 24 points.
"It's definitely been an up and down week" said Stefanie Dolson, who scored 17 points to lead Connecticut. "We were all extremely excited and on a high when we beat Stanford the way we did. We came into this game and we weren't ready. I don't think we were ready for how hard Notre Dame was going to come at us. They out-toughed us."
UConn trailed by two at the half and took a 48-44 lead on Dolson's layup with 16:18 left in the game. The Huskies led 63-60 with 8 minutes left before Notre Dame scored five quick points. Neither team could get more than a two-point lead the rest of the way.
Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma was OK with the shots his team got in the end.
"You got the best 3-point shooter in the country with a wide open 3 to win it and it doesn't go in," he said. "I'd be more upset if the wrong guy took the wrong shot at the wrong time. We came out of timeout and got the shot we wanted and it didn't go in."
Mosqueda-Lewis finished with 17 points.
Stewart, the high school player of the year last season, scored all 10 of her points in the second half after missing her first five shots. She also had six blocks and nine rebounds.
"She looked out of sorts a little bit, struggled a little bit," Auriemma said. "But then again you think about what she did, 10 points, nine rebounds, six blocks, that's not a bad day. I think that's what we expect from her. Shots she missed we come to expect she'll make all those."
The Irish won both regular-season meetings last year, before being blown out in the Big East championship game. They won the decisive meeting in the Final Four, 83-75, in overtime.
Notre Dame's lone defeat this season came at home to No. 2 Baylor, 73-61, on Dec. 5.
The two teams, who have played 12 times over the past four seasons, will play again in South Bend on March 4, in the final game of the regular season.
It's not certain if the two teams will play again after Notre Dame leaves for the Atlantic Coast Conference.
UConn led 18-15 midway through the first half before Notre Dame went on a 12-2 run sparked by Kayla McBride, who led Notre Dame with 21 points. She had back-to-back jumpers. Michaela Mabrey hit a 3-pointer and Natalie Achonwa a free throw to cap the burst.
Mabrey's second 3-pointer of the half gave the Irish a 34-26 lead with 5 minutes left in the half before UConn closed with a 12-4 burst to make it 38-36 at the break.

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Kelly wants Notre Dame keeping bar at title height

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Win or lose, Notre Dame's Brian Kelly doesn't want his team aiming any lower than the national championship game in the future.
Kelly said Sunday "it's unacceptable for the standard to be any less than being back here again." First things first, his top-ranked Fighting Irish will face No. 2 Alabama Monday night hoping for their first national title since 1988.
Kelly has been in national title games before. He led Division II Grand Valley State to championships in 2002 and 2003. For the last one, the team stayed mostly unnoticed in a Best Western and there was so much less buildup that it "was just another game."
He says "it's a totally different feeling for this one."
As for his pregame message, Kelly says he typically goes 80 percent by what he senses from his team.

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More for college athletes: not if, but how

MIAMI (AP) — After decades when paying college athletes was thought to violate the spirit of amateurism, the enormous television revenue generated by sports — football and basketball in particular — and the long hours of work by the players have changed the debate.
The head of the NCAA now supports a stipend for athletes to cover costs beyond tuition, books and fees, and both coaches in Monday's BCS championship between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama spoke in support of the idea in the days before the game.
The question is no longer whether to cut athletes a check, it's how best to do that.
"I still think the overriding factor here is that these young men put in so much time with being a student and then their responsibilities playing the sport, that they don't have an opportunity to make any money at all," Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said Sunday.
"I want them to be college kids, and a stipend will continue to allow them to be college kids."
To get a sense of the landscape, look at the way things were when Notre Dame last won the national championship, in 1988. That season, Fighting Irish players earned scholarships worth about $10,000 per year and the school got $3 million for playing in the Fiesta Bowl to go with the revenue it made for TV appearances throughout the season. Even then, there was discussion about the disparity between benefits for the players and for the schools.
This season's Irish will get scholarships worth about $52,000 per year and the school will receive $6.2 million for playing in the title game — to go with the $15 million NBC reportedly pays just to televise the school's regular-season home games.
While the value of that athletic scholarship has never been greater, the money being made by the schools that play big-time college football has skyrocketed, too.
NCAA President Mark Emmert believes it is time for a change.
While Emmert draws a clear distinction between the $2,000 stipend he has proposed and play-for-pay athletics, he unapologetically advocates for giving student-athletes a larger cut of a huge pie that is about to get even bigger.
The NCAA's current men's basketball tournament agreement with CBS is worth an average of more than $770 million per year, and the current Bowl Championship Series television deal — money that goes to conferences and then is distributed to schools, with no NCAA involvement — is worth $180 million per year.
The new college football playoff, which starts in the 2014 season, will be worth about $470 million annually to the conferences.
Emmert chides athletic programs that make major decisions guided by efforts to generate more revenue, such as switching conferences, and then complain they can't afford a stipend.
"When the world believes it's all a money grab, how can you say we can stick with the same scholarship model as 40 years ago?" he said last month.
In October 2011, the NCAA's Division I Board of Directors approved a rule change that would give colleges the option of providing athletes with a $2,000 stipend for expenses not covered by scholarships.
"It doesn't strike me as drastic by definition," said Mike Slive, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, Alabama's league, and one of the most vocal advocates for a full-cost-of-attendance scholarship. "There is a fixed definition for a scholarship. There's no reason why it shouldn't be reviewed."
But many schools objected to the policy, and last January, the board delayed its implementation. Colleges worried about how the stipends would affect Title IX compliance and whether they'd be able to afford them.
"I do understand the economics, that it might be more difficult for some than others, but for those that can do it, it's the right thing do to and that ought to be the guiding factor," he said.
Right now, the millions of dollars schools are making through sports are often going back into athletic programs. Colleges are caught in a never-ending race with their fellow institutions to attract the best talent with the best facilities, stadiums and coaches.
The Associated Press looked at federal filings by schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Big Ten, Pacific-12 (formerly the Pac-10) and Southeastern Conference.
In 2003, the members of those conferences at the time reported average athletic department revenues of $45.6 million and expenses of $42.3 million. By 2011, the current members' average revenue had increased 76.1 percent to $80.4 million. Expenses had grown at an even faster rate, up 76.5 percent to $74.6 million.
The average salary for head coaches of men's teams increased almost 131 percent in that span, with football driving that number.
Alabama coach Nick Saban will make about $6 million this season, including bonuses, if the Crimson Tide beats Notre Dame. Kelly's contract with Notre Dame pays him about $2.4 million per year, according to research done by USA Today (because it is a private school, Notre Dame does not make Kelly's salary public).
Having benefited most from the boom, it's perhaps not surprising coaches such as Kelly and Saban support finding a way to get more money to their players.
"A lot of the young people that we have, that play college football, the demographics that they come from, they don't have a lot and I think we should try to create a situation where their quality of life, while they're getting an education, might be a little better," Saban said. "I feel that the athletes should share in some of this to some degree. I don't really have an opinion on how that should be done. There's a lot of other people who probably have a lot more experience in figuring that one out, but I do think we should try to enhance the quality of life for all student-athletes.
"I believe the leadership in the NCAA finally sort of acknowledges that so that's probably a big step in that direction."
The old argument was that a scholarship provided enough benefit. And while there is wide variation, depending on the college and major, there is little doubt among those who study the issue that a bachelor's degree is a huge economic boon, even for those who have to borrow to pay for it.
In a 2011 report, Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce calculated a worker with a bachelor's degree will earn on average $2.3 million over a lifetime. That's roughly $500,000 more than associate's degree-holders, $700,000 more than those with some college but no degree, and $1 million more than those with just a high school diploma.
According to the latest NCAA statistics, 70 percent of football players in the top division graduated within six years. The NCAA's Graduation Success Rate takes into account transfers and athletes who leave in good academic standing.
In the 11 years that GSR data have been collected, the rate for football players in the top division has increased by 7 percentage points — so more players are getting the benefit of a college degree.
The problem is scholarship rules have lagged behind the times, said Pac-12 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott, now in his fourth year in the job. His conference, like most of the major ones, supports a stipend.
"The scholarship rules don't allow you to cover the full cost of attendance," he said. "Doesn't cover things like miscellaneous meals, trips home, clothes and other things. For me there has been a gap.
"This does not cross the philosophical Rubicon of paying players."
Players, naturally, agree.
"It kind of goes both ways," said Alabama defensive back Vinnie Sunseri, whose father, Sal, is a college football coach and former NFL player. "A lot of people would say we don't deserve it because we already get enough as college kids that just happen to play a sport. A lot of people don't realize all the work that goes into all the stuff that we have to do throughout the day.
"I have no time during the day. I wake up at 6 a.m., lift, go to class, right after class you come back up to the football complex to watch film and get ready for practice. By the time you get out, you've got to go to study hall. By the time you get out of study hall, it's basically bed time. It is really like a full-time job."
Alabama long snapper Carson Tinker made the team as a non-scholarship walk-on, but earned a scholarship this season.
"I'm very thankful for my scholarship," Tinker said. "All of us have bills. All of us have expenses, just like every other student. I don't live with football players. I live with two of my good friends. While I'm at practice every day, they have a job. They're able to pay their bills, buy food, stuff like that."
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick is on the NCAA committee studying how to implement a stipend. It's complicated.
To help build more support, Emmert's latest proposal would make the funds need-based. In other words, lower-income students would get more money than wealthy ones.
The problem is, that could limit students' access to federal aid, such as Pell Grants.
"If what you're doing is subsidizing the federal government because you offset the Pell Grant, what's the point?" he said Sunday. "What have you achieved if they are getting less money from the Pell Grant and more from you and the student-athlete hasn't netted out an additional dime?"
Also, this isn't just about paying football players.
"I'm not interested in having a different standard for football players than volleyball players," Swarbrick said.
However it works out, Kelly sees stipends as inevitable.
"This is going to happen," Kelly said. "It's just when is it going to happen? I think like minds need to get together and figure it out."

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Fighting Irish vs Crimson Tide: 2 storied programs try to live up to hype in BCS title game

MIAMI - Sometimes, the buildup to a game can overwhelm what actually happens on the field.
Certainly, No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama would have to play nothing less than a classic to live up to all the hype for Monday night's BCS championship.
Before either team stepped on the field in balmy South Florida, this was shaping up as one of the most anticipated games in years, a throwback to the era when Keith Jackson & Co. called one game a week, when it was a big deal for teams from different parts of the country to meet in a bowl game, when everyone took sides based on where they happened to live.
North vs. South. Rockne vs. Bear. Rudy vs. Forrest Gump.
The Fighting Irish vs. the Crimson Tide.
College football's two most storied programs, glorified in movie and song, facing off for the biggest prize.
"It's definitely not any other game," said Alabama linebacker C.J. Mosley.
For the Crimson Tide (12-1), this is a chance to be remembered as a full-fledged dynasty. Alabama will be trying to claim its third national championship in four years and become the first school to win back-to-back BCS titles, a remarkable achievement given the ever-increasing parity of the college game and having to replace five players from last year's title team who were picked in the first two rounds of the NFL draft.
"To be honest, I think this team has kind of exceeded expectations," coach Nick Saban said Sunday. "If you look at all the players we lost last year, the leadership that we lost ... I'm really proud of what this team was able to accomplish."
That said, it's not a huge surprise to find Alabama playing for another title. That's not the case when it comes to Notre Dame.
Despite their impressive legacy, the Fighting Irish (12-0) weren't even ranked at the start of the season. But overtime wins against Stanford and Pittsburgh, combined with three other victories by a touchdown or less, gave Notre Dame a shot at its first national title since 1988.
After so many lost years, the golden dome has reclaimed its lustre in coach Brian Kelly's third season.
"It starts with setting a clear goal for the program," Kelly said. "Really, what is it? Are we here to get to a bowl game, or are we here to win national championships? So the charge immediately was to play for championships and win a national championship."
Both Notre Dame and Alabama have won eight Associated Press national titles, more than any other school. They are the bluest of the blue bloods, the programs that have long set the bar for everyone else even while enduring some droughts along the way.
ESPN executives were hopeful of getting the highest ratings of the BCS era. Tickets were certainly at a premium, with a seat in one of the executive suites going for a staggering $60,000 on StubHub the day before the game, and even a less-than-prime spot in the corner of the upper deck requiring a payout of more than $900.
"This is, to me, the ultimate match-up in college football," said Brent Musberger, the lead announcer for ESPN.
Kelly moulded Notre Dame using largely the same formula that has worked so well for Saban in Tuscaloosa: a bruising running game and a stout defence, led by Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te'o.
"It's a little bit old fashioned in the sense that this is about the big fellows up front," Kelly said. "It's not about the crazy receiving numbers or passing yards or rushing yards. This is about the big fellas, and this game will unquestionably be decided up front."
While points figure to be at a premium given the quality of both defences, Alabama appears to have a clear edge on offence. The Tide has the nation's highest-rated passer (AJ McCarron), two 1,000-yard rushers (Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon), a dynamic freshman receiver (Amari Cooper), and three linemen who made the AP All-America team (first-teamers Barrett Jones and Chance Warmack, plus second-teamer D.J. Fluker).
"That's football at its finest," said Te'o, who heads a defence that has given up just two rushing touchdowns. "It's going to be a great challenge, and a challenge that we look forward to."
The Crimson Tide had gone 15 years without a national title when Saban arrived in 2007, the school's fifth coach in less than a decade (including one, Mike Price, who didn't even made it to his first game in Tuscaloosa). Finally, Alabama got it right.
In 2008, Saban landed one of the greatest recruiting classes in school history, a group that has already produced eight NFL draft picks and likely will send at least three more players to the pros (including Jones). The following year, the coach guided Alabama to a perfect season, beating Texas in the title game at Pasadena.
Last season, the Tide fortuitously got a shot at another BCS crown despite losing to LSU during the regular season and failing to even win its division in the Southeastern Conference. In a rematch against the Tigers, Alabama romped to a 21-0 victory at the Superdome.
The all-SEC matchup gave the league an unprecedented six straight national champions, hastening the end of the BCS. It will last one more season before giving way to a four-team playoff in 2014, an arrangement that was undoubtedly pushed along by one conference hoarding all the titles under the current system.
"Let's be honest, people are probably getting tired of us," Jones said. "We don't really mind. We enjoy being the top dog and enjoy kind of having that target on our back, and we love our conference. Obviously, we'd rather not be a part of any other conference."
This title game certainly has a different feel than last year's.
"That was really kind of a weird national championship because it was a team we already played," Jones remembered. "It was kind of another SEC game. It was in the South, and it just had a very SEC feel to it obviously. This year is much more like the 2009 game (against Texas) for me. We're playing an opponent that not only we have not played them, but no one we have played has played them. So you don't really have an exact measuring stick."
In fact, these schools have played only six times, and not since 1987, but the first of their meetings is still remembered as one of the landmark games in college football history. Bear Bryant had one of his best teams at the 1973 Sugar Bowl, but Ara Parseghian and the Fighting Irish claimed the national title by knocking off top-ranked Alabama 24-23.
If you're a long-time Notre Dame fan, you still remember Parseghian's gutty call to throw the ball out of the end zone for a game-clinching first down. If you were rooting for the Tide, you haven't forgotten a missed extra point that turned out to be the losing margin.
Of course, these Alabama players aren't concerned about what happened nearly four decades ago.
For the most part, all they know is winning.

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Money for college athletes: not if, but how

MIAMI (AP) — After decades when paying college athletes was thought to violate the spirit of amateurism, the enormous television revenue generated by sports — football and basketball in particular — and the long hours of work by the players have changed the debate.
The head of the NCAA now supports a stipend for athletes to cover costs beyond tuition, books and fees, and both coaches in Monday's BCS championship between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama spoke in support of the idea in the days before the game.
The question is no longer whether to cut athletes a check, it's how best to do that.
"I still think the overriding factor here is that these young men put in so much time with being a student and then their responsibilities playing the sport, that they don't have an opportunity to make any money at all," Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said Sunday.
"I want them to be college kids, and a stipend will continue to allow them to be college kids."
To get a sense of the landscape, look at the way things were when Notre Dame last won the national championship, in 1988. That season, Fighting Irish players earned scholarships worth about $10,000 per year and the school got $3 million for playing in the Fiesta Bowl to go with the revenue it made for TV appearances throughout the season. Even then, there was discussion about the disparity between benefits for the players and for the schools.
This season's Irish will get scholarships worth about $52,000 per year and the school will receive $6.2 million for playing in the title game — to go with the $15 million NBC reportedly pays just to televise the school's regular-season home games.
While the value of that athletic scholarship has never been greater, the money being made by the schools that play big-time college football has skyrocketed, too.
NCAA President Mark Emmert believes it is time for a change.
While Emmert draws a clear distinction between the $2,000 stipend he has proposed and play-for-pay athletics, he unapologetically advocates for giving student-athletes a larger cut of a huge pie that is about to get even bigger.
The NCAA's current men's basketball tournament agreement with CBS and Turner is worth an average of more than $770 million per year, and the current Bowl Championship Series television deal — money that goes to conferences and then is distributed to schools, with no NCAA involvement — is worth $180 million per year.
The new college football playoff, which starts in the 2014 season, will be worth about $470 million annually to the conferences.
Emmert chides athletic programs that make major decisions guided by efforts to generate more revenue, such as switching conferences, and then complain they can't afford a stipend.
"When the world believes it's all a money grab, how can you say we can stick with the same scholarship model as 40 years ago?" he said last month.
In October 2011, the NCAA's Division I Board of Directors approved a rule change that would give colleges the option of providing athletes with a $2,000 stipend for expenses not covered by scholarships.
"It doesn't strike me as drastic by definition," said Mike Slive, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, Alabama's league, and one of the most vocal advocates for a full-cost-of-attendance scholarship. "There is a fixed definition for a scholarship. There's no reason why it shouldn't be reviewed."
But many schools objected to the policy, and last January, the board delayed its implementation. Colleges worried about how the stipends would affect Title IX compliance and whether they'd be able to afford them.
"I do understand the economics, that it might be more difficult for some than others, but for those that can do it, it's the right thing do to and that ought to be the guiding factor," he said.
Right now, the millions of dollars schools are making through sports are often going back into athletic programs. Colleges are caught in a never-ending race with their fellow institutions to attract the best talent with the best facilities, stadiums and coaches.
The Associated Press looked at federal filings by schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Big Ten, Pacific-12 (formerly the Pac-10) and Southeastern Conference.
In 2003, the members of those conferences at the time reported average athletic department revenues of $45.6 million and expenses of $42.3 million. By 2011, the current members' average revenue had increased 76.1 percent to $80.4 million. Expenses had grown at an even faster rate, up 76.5 percent to $74.6 million.
The average salary for head coaches of men's teams increased almost 131 percent in that span, with football driving that number.
Alabama coach Nick Saban will make about $6 million this season, including bonuses, if the Crimson Tide beats Notre Dame. Kelly's contract with Notre Dame pays him about $2.4 million per year, according to the school's federal filings (because it is a private school, Notre Dame does not have to release his contract).
Having benefited most from the boom, it's perhaps not surprising coaches such as Kelly and Saban support finding a way to get more money to their players.
"A lot of the young people that we have, that play college football, the demographics that they come from, they don't have a lot and I think we should try to create a situation where their quality of life, while they're getting an education, might be a little better," Saban said. "I feel that the athletes should share in some of this to some degree. I don't really have an opinion on how that should be done. There's a lot of other people who probably have a lot more experience in figuring that one out, but I do think we should try to enhance the quality of life for all student-athletes.
"I believe the leadership in the NCAA finally sort of acknowledges that so that's probably a big step in that direction."
The old argument was that a scholarship provided enough benefit. And while there is wide variation, depending on the college and major, there is little doubt among those who study the issue that a bachelor's degree is a huge economic boon, even for those who have to borrow to pay for it.
In a 2011 report, Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce calculated a worker with a bachelor's degree will earn on average $2.3 million over a lifetime. That's roughly $500,000 more than associate's degree-holders, $700,000 more than those with some college but no degree, and $1 million more than those with just a high school diploma.
According to the latest NCAA statistics, 70 percent of football players in the top division graduated within six years. The NCAA's Graduation Success Rate takes into account transfers and athletes who leave in good academic standing.
In the 11 years that GSR data have been collected, the rate for football players in the top division has increased by 7 percentage points — so more players are getting the benefit of a college degree.
The problem is scholarship rules have lagged behind the times, said Pac-12 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott, now in his fourth year in the job. His conference, like most of the major ones, supports a stipend.
"The scholarship rules don't allow you to cover the full cost of attendance," he said. "Doesn't cover things like miscellaneous meals, trips home, clothes and other things. For me there has been a gap.
"This does not cross the philosophical Rubicon of paying players."
Players, naturally, agree.
"It kind of goes both ways," said Alabama defensive back Vinnie Sunseri, whose father, Sal, is a college football coach and former NFL player. "A lot of people would say we don't deserve it because we already get enough as college kids that just happen to play a sport. A lot of people don't realize all the work that goes into all the stuff that we have to do throughout the day.
"I have no time during the day. I wake up at 6 a.m., lift, go to class, right after class you come back up to the football complex to watch film and get ready for practice. By the time you get out, you've got to go to study hall. By the time you get out of study hall, it's basically bed time. It is really like a full-time job."
Alabama long snapper Carson Tinker made the team as a non-scholarship walk-on, but earned a scholarship this season.
"I'm very thankful for my scholarship," Tinker said. "All of us have bills. All of us have expenses, just like every other student. I don't live with football players. I live with two of my good friends. While I'm at practice every day, they have a job. They're able to pay their bills, buy food, stuff like that."
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick is on the NCAA committee studying how to implement a stipend. It's complicated.
To help build more support, Emmert's latest proposal would make the funds need-based. In other words, lower-income students would get more money than wealthy ones.
The problem is, that could limit students' access to federal aid, such as Pell Grants.
"If what you're doing is subsidizing the federal government because you offset the Pell Grant, what's the point?" he said Sunday. "What have you achieved if they are getting less money from the Pell Grant and more from you and the student-athlete hasn't netted out an additional dime?"
Also, this isn't just about paying football players.
"I'm not interested in having a different standard for football players than volleyball players," Swarbrick said.
However it works out, Kelly sees stipends as inevitable.
"This is going to happen," Kelly said. "It's just when is it going to happen? I think like minds need to get together and figure it out.

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Will game live up to hype in BCS championship?

MIAMI (AP) — Sometimes, the buildup to a game can overwhelm what actually happens on the field.
Certainly, No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama would have to play nothing less than a classic to live up to all the hype for Monday night's BCS championship.
Before either team stepped on the field in balmy South Florida, this was shaping up as one of the most anticipated games in years, a throwback to the era when Keith Jackson & Co. called one game a week, when it was a big deal for teams from different parts of the country to meet in a bowl game, when everyone took sides based on where they happened to live.
North vs. South. Rockne vs. Bear. Rudy vs. Forrest Gump.
The Fighting Irish vs. the Crimson Tide.
College football's two most storied programs, glorified in movie and song, facing off for the biggest prize.
"It's definitely not any other game," said Alabama linebacker C.J. Mosley.
For the Crimson Tide (12-1), this is a chance to be remembered as a full-fledged dynasty. Alabama will be trying to claim its third national championship in four years and become the first school to win back-to-back BCS titles, a remarkable achievement given the ever-increasing parity of the college game and having to replace five players from last year's title team who were picked in the first two rounds of the NFL draft.
"To be honest, I think this team has kind of exceeded expectations," coach Nick Saban said Sunday. "If you look at all the players we lost last year, the leadership that we lost ... I'm really proud of what this team was able to accomplish."
That said, it's not a huge surprise to find Alabama playing for another title. That's not the case when it comes to Notre Dame.
Despite their impressive legacy, the Fighting Irish (12-0) weren't even ranked at the start of the season. But overtime wins against Stanford and Pittsburgh, combined with three other victories by a touchdown or less, gave Notre Dame a shot at its first national title since 1988.
After so many lost years, the golden dome has reclaimed its luster in coach Brian Kelly's third season.
"It starts with setting a clear goal for the program," Kelly said. "Really, what is it? Are we here to get to a bowl game, or are we here to win national championships? So the charge immediately was to play for championships and win a national championship."
Both Notre Dame and Alabama have won eight Associated Press national titles, more than any other school. They are the bluest of the blue bloods, the programs that have long set the bar for everyone else even while enduring some droughts along the way.
ESPN executives were hopeful of getting the highest ratings of the BCS era. Tickets were certainly at a premium, with a seat in one of the executive suites going for a staggering $60,000 on StubHub the day before the game, and even a less-than-prime spot in the corner of the upper deck requiring a payout of more than $900.
"This is, to me, the ultimate match-up in college football," said Brent Musberger, the lead announcer for ESPN.
Kelly molded Notre Dame using largely the same formula that has worked so well for Saban in Tuscaloosa: a bruising running game and a stout defense, led by Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te'o.
"It's a little bit old fashioned in the sense that this is about the big fellows up front," Kelly said. "It's not about the crazy receiving numbers or passing yards or rushing yards. This is about the big fellas, and this game will unquestionably be decided up front."
While points figure to be at a premium given the quality of both defenses, Alabama appears to have a clear edge on offense. The Tide has the nation's highest-rated passer (AJ McCarron), two 1,000-yard rushers (Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon), a dynamic freshman receiver (Amari Cooper), and three linemen who made the AP All-America team (first-teamers Barrett Jones and Chance Warmack, plus second-teamer D.J. Fluker).
"That's football at its finest," said Te'o, who heads a defense that has given up just two rushing touchdowns. "It's going to be a great challenge, and a challenge that we look forward to."
The Crimson Tide had gone 15 years without a national title when Saban arrived in 2007, the school's fifth coach in less than a decade (including one, Mike Price, who didn't even made it to his first game in Tuscaloosa). Finally, Alabama got it right.
In 2008, Saban landed one of the greatest recruiting classes in school history, a group that has already produced eight NFL draft picks and likely will send at least three more players to the pros (including Jones). The following year, the coach guided Alabama to a perfect season, beating Texas in the title game at Pasadena.
Last season, the Tide fortuitously got a shot at another BCS crown despite losing to LSU during the regular season and failing to even win its division in the Southeastern Conference. In a rematch against the Tigers, Alabama romped to a 21-0 victory at the Superdome.
The all-SEC matchup gave the league an unprecedented six straight national champions, hastening the end of the BCS. It will last one more season before giving way to a four-team playoff in 2014, an arrangement that was undoubtedly pushed along by one conference hoarding all the titles under the current system.
"Let's be honest, people are probably getting tired of us," Jones said. "We don't really mind. We enjoy being the top dog and enjoy kind of having that target on our back, and we love our conference. Obviously, we'd rather not be a part of any other conference."
This title game certainly has a different feel than last year's.
"That was really kind of a weird national championship because it was a team we already played," Jones remembered. "It was kind of another SEC game. It was in the South, and it just had a very SEC feel to it obviously. This year is much more like the 2009 game (against Texas) for me. We're playing an opponent that not only we have not played them, but no one we have played has played them (except for Michigan). So you don't really have an exact measuring stick."
In fact, these schools have played only six times, and not since 1987, but the first of their meetings is still remembered as one of the landmark games in college football history. Bear Bryant had one of his best teams at the 1973 Sugar Bowl, but Ara Parseghian and the Fighting Irish claimed the national title by knocking off top-ranked Alabama 24-23.
If you're a long-time Notre Dame fan, you still remember Parseghian's gutty call to throw the ball out of the end zone for a game-clinching first down. If you were rooting for the Tide, you haven't forgotten a missed extra point that turned out to be the losing margin.
Of course, these Alabama players aren't concerned about what happened nearly four decades ago.
For the most part, all they know is winning.
"There's a lot of tradition that goes into Alabama football," Mosley said, "and our plan is to keep that tradition alive.

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Fowler flies blind on yardage at windy Kapalua

Yardage numbers were often meaningless for Rickie Fowler on a brutal Friday at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii where the first round was eventually abandoned because of severe gusting winds.
With golf umbrellas bending sharply in intermittent driving rain and balls being blown off line on the more exposed greens, Fowler realized he simply had to choose his shot and then try to pull it off.
"For the most part, I told my caddie I almost didn't even need any (yardage) numbers today," American Fowler told reporters after the opening round was scrapped because of winds gusting up to 45 mph.
"It's more looking at the shot and seeing what the weather is, just grab a club and pick the flight and hit it. Numbers were kind of irrelevant at times.
"I had a ball that rolled up the hill on (hole) six with a gust; and that was a few holes back from when we finished. We didn't say anything. We were just kind of toughing it out ... guinea pigs up front."
Fowler and fellow American Jason Dufner had teed off as the first pairing of the day in the PGA Tour's season-opening event at the Kapalua Resort.
They had completed only eight holes, with Fowler slipping to three over par and Dufner sitting at one over, when play was suspended.
Organizers later decided to wipe out the first round and send the players out on Saturday in a bid to complete 36 holes.
"After the strong winds that came through and the weather, I felt like it was a smart decision," said Fowler, who booked his place in the elite, winners-only field of 30 with his maiden PGA Tour victory at last year's Wells Fargo Championship.
"Obviously Webb (Simpson) is probably the only one that may be a little bummed," he added, referring to U.S. Open champion who was three under for the round after seven holes. "He was out there playing well and had control of his golf ball."
The killer blow for Fowler came when he double-bogeyed the eighth after dumping his tee shot into a hazard, and he was delighted when play was abandoned soon after.
"I'm really glad that didn't count because after hitting that and hearing the horn blow a minute later as I'm walking off the tee made me a little upset," he said.
"I felt like I was playing pretty well up until we had to hit in some crazy weather on eight and I ended up making double. Other than that, one over par, I felt like it was pretty good over seven holes.
"It was brutal out there. You definitely had to be hitting solid golf shots and picking the right times to hit."
Friday's decision by organizers to wipe out a round due to poor weather was the first on the PGA Tour since the second round of the 2005 Players Championship was declared "null and void".

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PGA Tour's season opener at Kapalua gets mulligan

KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — A bum deal for Webb Simpson. A big break for Scott Stallings.
And a mulligan for the PGA Tour.
The new golf season was not even two hours old when the wind squalls roaring down the mountains above Maui made conditions too severe to continue Friday in the Tournament of Champions. Because the first group off had only completed eight holes — six players had not even started — and the forecast offered no relief from the wind, the first round was wiped out.
Season opener, take two.
Rickie Fowler will return to the first tee Saturday morning, and for the second straight day, officially launch the PGA Tour season. But even that's in doubt. The plan was to play 36 holes, though the forecast was for wind just as strong.
"I can honestly say the forecast isn't real good, but maybe we'll get lucky," said Slugger White, the tour's vice president of rules and competition. "That's the hope."
Fowler already was 3 over for the day after a 40-mph gust knocked his ball out of the sky on the par-3 eighth and sent it into a gorge, leading to double bogey. Conditions were so tough that only two of the 20 players who had a score on their cards were under par.
One of them was Simpson, who turned in a remarkable performance by keeping it simple and making a few putts. He was 3 under through seven holes, and now starts from scratch when he comes back to the Plantation Course at Kapalua.
"It stinks for me," Simpson said.
Stallings already was 7 over through four holes. That no longer counts, either.
"Obviously, I was thrilled," Stallings said. "It was just really bad. I hit bad shots and got bad breaks. I'd like to know how Webb Simpson was 3 under."
The wind was raging along the west coast of Maui from sunrise, mixed in with clouds and bursts of rain. When the rain stopped, white caps could be seen dancing along the gray ocean below the mountainous course.
The only way players could have claimed to get the short end of the draw would be if the wind had died after play was suspended. Everyone faced the same conditions, except for those who didn't have to play.
"I got off to a great start, but that's the way it goes. I'm sure they made the decision that's best for all the guys," Simpson said. "But the good news is, I had a good start and I'm playing well. We're just trying to keep the ball in play and in front of us and I was able to make a couple of putts. And that's what you have to do on a day like today."
So much for starting the year in paradise. Kapalua in this kind of weather felt more like work than a working vacation.
The 40-mph gusts became too much when Carl Pettersson lagged a 40-foot putt that was slowing around the hole until a gust came up and blew it another 30 feet and just off the green. Hunter Mahan went to address a putt and the ball blew a few feet forward. Ian Poulter said he used his umbrella to shield the wind so he could mark his ball on the green, but when the umbrella moved, so did his golf ball.
"You couldn't identify the best players out here," Pettersson said.
The last time a round was washed out on the PGA Tour was at The Players Championship in 2005, when 30 players were on a soggy Sawgrass course. That tournament finished on Monday, and this one is also scheduled for a Monday finish. With only a 30-man field, it should be no problem getting it finished by then.
But 36 holes figures to be brutal on the caddies who walk a Plantation Course built on a mountain.
"I'm not sure how I'm going to feel," Pettersson said.
Bubba Watson, who had yet to tee off, said it looked like "goofy golf" from what he saw on television. FedEx Cup champion Brandt Snedeker was on the practice range and told of an 8-iron that only went about 50 yards.
"I could have caught it if I ran fast enough," he said.
Those were the kind of shots that counted on the golf course.
Players were averaging about 350 yards off the tee on the first hole, with the trade wind at their backs. On the third hole, dead into the wind, no one hit a drive longer than 248 yards except for Stallings — his went 265 yards, only because it hit a cart path and disappeared into the native grass and was never found.
Fowler hit a driver and a 5-iron on the third hole. It's usually a wedge.
"Numbers were kind of irrelevant at times," Fowler said, referring to yardages.
That happens all the time in golf, especially on links courses. The problem, however, was on the putting greens. And the back nine is the most exposed to the wind.
Why even start?
"We aren't really looking for these gusts up to 40 mph," White said. "We had gusts up to 42 mph. I don't think you can just not try to play."
Kuchar was on the eighth tee when play was stopped. He stood over his 4-iron, then back off. He got back into position to play, and then backed off again.
"It just felt too funny to pull the trigger," he said.
Players originally were told to stay on the course to see if conditions would improve, and before long, they were brought back to the clubhouse. About an hour later, White met with them in the dining room to tell them the day was over.

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Golf-Play abandoned for second straight day at Kapalua

Jan 5 (Reuters) - The official start of the 2013 PGA Tour was postponed for a second consecutive day because of strong gusting winds at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii on Saturday.
First-round play in the PGA Tour's season-opening event had been entirely scrapped on Friday because of similar conditions and hopes of playing 36 holes on Saturday had to be abandoned.
Winds gusted up to 40mph (64.4 kph) across the Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course, making the layout unplayable. On some of the more exposed holes on the back nine, golf balls rolled uphill when dropped on the greens as a test by officials.
With the weather expected to improve over the next two days, organisers said they planned to complete 36 holes on Sunday and 18 on Monday in a tournament cut to 54 holes.
While 24 players in the elite, winners-only field of 30 were able to tee off on Friday before the first-round scores were wiped out, not a single shot was struck on Saturday.

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Angels trade 1B-DH Morales to Seattle for Vargas

The Los Angeles Angels got the pitching depth they wanted. The Seattle Mariners got the power-bat they so desperately needed.
Two foes in the AL West found a way to work together Wednesday when the Angels traded switch-hitting slugger Kendrys Morales to the Seattle Mariners for left-hander Jason Vargas, filling needs for both teams.
The 29-year-old Morales became expendable after the Angels agreed to a deal last week with free agent slugger Josh Hamilton. The Angels had been looking for a pitcher after losing Zack Greinke and Dan Haren to free agency and trading Ervin Santana.
The Angels added a left-hander to their rotation, while Seattle got a hitter that can instantly take a spot in the middle of its order.
"We were going to try and come up with some type of offense and I think this worked out in a positive way," Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik said. "Both players are at the end of their contracts."
Getting Vargas reunites the lefty with his former Long Beach State teammate Jered Weaver at the top of the Angels' rotation. The duo played college ball together in 2004 and now will be counted on in helping make the big money the Angels spent on Hamilton and Albert Pujols last season pay off.
"I'm back home in California now," Vargas said. "It's perfect."
Vargas grew up in Southern California where his father coached high school baseball. He used to watch his second cousin, infielder Randy Velarde, play for the Angels in the late 1990s.
Vargas led Seattle in wins last season, going 14-11 with a 3.85 ERA and pitched a career-high 217 1-3 innings. The 29-year-old is 36-42 with a 4.09 ERA in four years with the Mariners.
"Jason was what we were looking for on the market this year: just a steady reliable left-hander who can go out there. He's got a history of pitching a high volume of innings and clearly I think we make ourselves a little bit better just in that we don't have to face him because he's given us fits," Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto said. "So we're thrilled to make the deal. We feel like this makes us a better, more complete and balanced team."
In his career, Vargas is 5-4 with a 2.65 ERA and 66 strikeouts in 85 innings pitched against the Angels.
A flyball pitcher, Vargas is excited to have an outfield that includes Rookie of the Year Mike Trout and Hamilton.
"Those guys out there behind me is outstanding," he said.
Morales hit .273 with 22 home runs and 73 RBIs last season after missing the entire 2011 season after breaking his leg early in 2010 while celebrating a game-ending grand slam against the Mariners. Morales was at his best later in 2012, hitting .275 with 11 homers, 28 RBIs and an OPS of .827 over the final two months. Among its regular starters, no Seattle hitter had an OPS higher than .738 for the 2012 season.
Morales said his leg got progressively stronger through last season and has felt 100 percent during offseason workouts.
"It's allowing me to work this offseason for the first time since about two years back," Morales said through an interpreter. "Following workouts and what I'm doing, I'm feeling no pain, no inflammation. So at this point I would say I feel 100 percent."
Morales could quickly become the most productive hitter in the Mariners lineup. He would have led Seattle in home runs and been second in RBIs last season and could be even more potent with the Mariners bringing the fences closer in the outfield.
In 34 career games at Safeco Field, Morales is a .292 hitter with a .904 OPS, seven home runs and 23 RBIs.
"I thought it was a situation where we could acquire a middle of the lineup bat, and a switch hitter. And here is a guy who played in this division, here is a guy who knows the American League. I thought that was really good," Zduriencik said.
Zduriencik said the conversations with Dipoto became serious on Tuesday morning and the deal was wrapped up by midday on Wednesday.
The acquisition of Morales will instantly boost Seattle's offense but also creates a log-jam of with catcher/designated hitter Jesus Montero and first baseman Justin Smoak. Morales started just 28 games at first base last season, but Zduriencik said they are confident he could play in the field. He's also hopeful that Montero comes to spring training ready to be the everyday catcher.
"As long as we create competition and as long as we have these pieces in spring training we'll see what happens," Zduriencik said. "I don't have the exact answer. We've certainly talked about a lot of scenarios and feel very comfortable that there will be enough at-bats to go around for all these guys but at the end if you've added a piece that you think makes your club better, that's just better."
Morales and Vargas each are eligible for salary arbitration and can become free agents after next season. Morales made $2,975,000 and Vargas $4.85 million last year.
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Baseball-Ichiro reaches deal to return to Yankees

Dec 19 (Reuters) - Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki has agreed a deal to return to the New York Yankees worth a reported $13 million over two years.
The 39-year-old was traded to the Yankees in July after playing his first 12 Major League seasons with the Seattle Mariners. He thrived in New York, hitting .322 in 67 regular season games.
A 10-times All Star and former league MVP, Suzuki has 2,606 career hits.
"The Yankees are the kind of team that I always envisioned being a part of," Suzuki said in a statement. "Everyone in the world of competition has a strong desire to win, but the Yankees also have an atmosphere where losing is not an option.
"I believe the Yankees organization appreciates that there is a difference between a 39-year-old who has played relying only on talent, and a 39-year-old who has practiced, prepared meticulously and thought carefully about their craft through the experience they have gained."
News of the deal comes after reports Suzuki was growing impatient with the pace of negotiations, though Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman explained the team had prioritized securing their pitching staff before dealing with the other positions.

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AP source: Polanco reaches agreement with Marlins

A person familiar with the negotiations says third baseman Placido Polanco has agreed to terms with the Miami Marlins.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday because the Marlins hadn't announced a deal.
Polanco, 37, battled injuries this year and hit .257 with two home runs and 19 RBIs in 90 games with Philadelphia. The 15-year veteran is a career .299 hitter with 103 homers.
The deal solidifies the Marlins' lineup following an offseason payroll purge. Other projected starters include Logan Morrison at first base, Donovan Solano at second, Adeiny Hechavarria at shortstop, Jeff Brantly at catcher, Giancarlo Stanton in right field, Justin Ruggiano in center field and Juan Pierre in left field.

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Placido Polanco agrees to $2.75M deal with Marlins

 Former All-Star third baseman Placido Polanco agreed to a $2.75 million, one-year contract Thursday with the Miami Marlins, plugging the final hole in the team's projected lineup following a payroll purge.
The 37-year-old, who can earn an additional $250,000 in performance bonuses, battled injuries this year and hit .257 with two home runs and 19 RBIs in 90 games with the Philadelphia Phillies. The 15-year veteran is a career .299 hitter with 103 homers.
Other projected starters include Logan Morrison at first base, Donovan Solano at second, Adeiny Hechavarria at shortstop, Jeff Brantly at catcher, Giancarlo Stanton in right field, Justin Ruggiano in center field and Juan Pierre in left field.
Hanley Ramirez played 90 games at third this year for Miami before being traded in July. That was part of the salary purge by the Marlins, who pared $146.5 million in future payroll when they swung a trade last month that sent former NL batting champion Jose Reyes, former NL ERA leader Josh Johnson and left-hander Mark Buehrle to Toronto.
The Marlins have a projected 2013 payroll of about $45.75 million. Their payroll on opening day this year was $112 million, not including money received in the Carlos Zambrano trade, but the team finished last in the NL East and drew smaller crowds than expected in its new ballpark.
Polanco was chosen to start in the All-Star game for the second time in 2011, but went only 10 for 58 (.172) after June 30 this year. The Phillies declined a $5.5 million option on Polanco after the season, and he received a $1 million buyout.
Polanco was the 2006 AL championship series MVP for Detroit, and he also played for St. Louis. He has 2,044 hits, and he has won two Gold Gloves at second base and one at third.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Polanco has a home in Miami and attended Miami-Dade Community College.

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Never-say-die Giants cap season of surprises

- The never-say-die San Francisco Giants' rousing drive to the World Series title capped a year of surprises, sensational individual achievements and big-name doping controversies in Major League Baseball (MLB).
Miguel Cabrera of the pennant-winning Detroit Tigers claimed the first Triple Crown sweep of the American League's (AL) major offensive categories in 45 years by slugging 44 home runs with 139 runs batted in, while batting .330.
San Francisco's Matt Cain, Phillip Humber of the Chicago White Sox and Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners put their names in the record books with perfect games, a remarkable triple considering the total of 23 perfectos since Lee Richmond threw MLB's first recorded one in 1880 for Worcester.
Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout had one of the best rookie seasons ever, hitting 30 home runs, 83 RBIs, batting .326 and leading MLB with 49 stolen bases to finish runner-up to Cabrera in the AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) voting at age 21.
Those feats marked 2012 as a special year, with the Giants' rise to the top providing the crowning touch.
San Francisco fought off elimination six times during the playoffs, overcoming a 2-0 deficit with three straight road wins in the best-of-five Division Series against the Cincinnati Reds, and battling back from 3-1 down against the 2011 champion St. Louis Cardinals to reach the World Series.
VENEZUELA POWER
In the Fall Classic against the Tigers, the Giants served immediate notice they would no longer play from behind.
Stocky third baseman Pablo Sandoval, nicknamed Kung Fu Panda, powered home runs in his first three at-bats to kick-start San Francisco on their way to a four-game sweep.
Venezuela's Sandoval, saluted by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez via Twitter, joined Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols as the only players with three homers in a World Series game.
Giants catcher Buster Posey, 25, returned from a home plate collision that aborted his 2011 season to win National League (NL0 MVP honors.
It was also a banner year for Venezuelan players.
Sandoval won the World Series MVP award, following compatriot Marco Scutaro, who was MVP of the National League Championship Series for San Francisco.
Cabrera claimed the American League MVP award and in addition to the perfect game by fellow-Venezuelan "King Felix" Hernandez, countryman Johan Santana of the Mets threw the first no-hitter by a Mets pitcher in their half-century of existence.
SERIOUS CONCERNS
The Tigers had reached the World Series by sweeping the New York Yankees, who had some serious concerns going forward.
Yankees captain Derek Jeter fractured his ankle diving for a ball at shortstop in the series against Detroit, and slugging third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who suffered through an abysmal postseason, was found after the season to need hip surgery that will sideline him for half the 2013 season.
Making the Giants' climb to the top even more unlikely was the loss of outfielder Melky Cabrera, who was hit with a 50-game suspension in August for testing positive for testosterone while leading the majors with a .346 batting average.
A week later starting pitcher Bartolo Colon (10-9) of the Oakland Athletics, across the bay from San Francisco, also received a 50-game ban for testosterone.
The loss of Colon did not impede the Athletics either, as they rode a rotation that featured four rookie pitchers all the way to AL West title over two-time champion Texas Rangers.
The Baltimore Orioles gave the AL a second Cinderella team, as they reached the postseason for the first time in 15 years, reversing a 69-93 2011 record, and knocked out Texas in this season's debut of a wildcard playoff game.
The Washington Nationals reached the playoffs for the first time in their eighth season in the U.S. capital and posted the best record in the majors with 98 wins.
DOPING ISSUES
Even before the season started, doping was a prominent talking point as NL MVP Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers was found to have tested positive for a performance enhancing drug.
However, Braun won an appeal against an automatic suspension by proving that his urine test had been mishandled.
Doping news also grabbed attention after the season when Hall of Fame ballots went out with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens listed as candidates for the first time.
Bonds, a seven-time NL MVP and the all-time career and single season home run king, and seven-time Cy Young winning pitcher Clemens would ordinarily be first-ballot shoo-ins, but a cloud of doping suspicion hovers over both of them and turns the vote into a referendum on the taint of the Steroids Era.
The year closed with some tantalizing prospects for the new season.
The big-spending Los Angeles Dodgers added top free agent pitcher Zack Greinke to MLB's biggest payroll, the Toronto Blue Jays opened their wallets to take on high-priced talent from the economizing Miami Marlins, and the Los Angeles Angels signed premier slugger Josh Hamilton to fortify their lineup.

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AP IMPACT: Steroids loom in major-college football

With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight — 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes — without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams.
Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid policy can face a team whose players have repeatedly tested positive.
An investigation by The Associated Press — based on interviews with players, testers, dealers and experts and an analysis of weight records for more than 61,000 players — revealed that while those running the multibillion-dollar sport say they believe the problem is under control, that control is hardly evident.
The sport's near-zero rate of positive steroids tests isn't an accurate gauge among college athletes. Random tests provide weak deterrence and, by design, fail to catch every player using steroids. Colleges also are reluctant to spend money on expensive steroid testing when cheaper ones for drugs like marijuana allow them to say they're doing everything they can to keep drugs out of football.
"It's nothing like what's going on in reality," said Don Catlin, an anti-doping pioneer who spent years conducting the NCAA's laboratory tests at UCLA. He became so frustrated with the college system that it was part of the reason he left the testing industry to focus on anti-doping research.
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EDITOR'S NOTE — Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the first of a two-part series.
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While other major sports have been beset by revelations of steroid use, college football has operated with barely a whiff of scandal. Between 1996 and 2010 — the era of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong — the failure rate for NCAA steroid tests fell even closer to zero from an already low rate of less than 1 percent.
The AP's investigation, drawing upon more than a decade of official rosters from all 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, found thousands of players quickly putting on significant weight, even more than their fellow players. The information compiled by the AP included players who appeared for multiple years on the same teams.
For decades, scientific studies have shown that anabolic steroid use leads to an increase in body weight. Weight gain alone doesn't prove steroid use, but very rapid weight gain is one factor that would be deemed suspicious, said Kathy Turpin, senior director of sport drug testing for the National Center for Drug Free Sport, which conducts tests for the NCAA and more than 300 schools.
Yet the NCAA has never studied weight gain or considered it in regard to its steroid testing policies, said Mary Wilfert, the NCAA's associate director of health and safety.
The NCAA attributes the decline in positive tests to its year-round drug testing program, combined with anti-drug education and testing conducted by schools.
The AP's analysis found that, regardless of school, conference and won-loss record, many players gained weight at exceptional rates compared with their fellow athletes and while accounting for their heights.
Adding more than 20 or 25 pounds of lean muscle in a year is nearly impossible through diet and exercise alone, said Dan Benardot, director of the Laboratory for Elite Athlete Performance at Georgia State University.
In nearly all the rarest cases of weight gain in the AP study, players were offensive or defensive linemen, hulking giants who tower above 6-foot-3 and weigh 300 pounds or more. Four of those players interviewed by the AP said that they never used steroids and gained weight through dramatic increases in eating, up to six meals a day. Two said they were aware of other players using steroids.
"I ate 5-6 times a day," said Clint Oldenburg, who played for Colorado State starting in 2002 and for five years in the NFL. Oldenburg's weight increased over four years from 212 to 290.
Oldenburg told the AP he was surprised at the scope of steroid use in college football, even in Colorado State's locker room. "There were a lot of guys even on my team that were using." He declined to identify any of them.
The AP found more than 4,700 players — or about 7 percent of all players — who gained more than 20 pounds overall in a single year. It was common for the athletes to gain 10, 15 and up to 20 pounds in their first year under a rigorous regimen of weightlifting and diet. Others gained 25, 35 and 40 pounds in a season. In roughly 100 cases, players packed on as much 80 pounds in a single year.
In at least 11 instances, players that AP identified as packing on significant weight in college went on to fail NFL drug tests. But pro football's confidentiality rules make it impossible to know for certain which drugs were used and how many others failed tests that never became public.
Even though testers consider rapid weight gain suspicious, in practice it doesn't result in testing. Ben Lamaak, who arrived at Iowa State in 2006, said he weighed 225 pounds in high school. He graduated as a 320-pound offensive lineman and said he did it all naturally.
"I was just a young kid at that time, and I was still growing into my body," he said. "It really wasn't that hard for me to gain the weight. I love to eat."
In addition to random drug testing, Iowa State is one of many schools that have "reasonable suspicion" testing. That means players can be tested when their behavior or physical symptoms suggest drug use. Despite gaining 81 pounds in a year, Lamaak said he was never singled out for testing.
The associate athletics director for athletic training at Iowa State, Mark Coberley, said coaches and trainers use body composition, strength data and other factors to spot suspected cheaters. Lamaak, he said, was not suspicious because he gained a lot of "non-lean" weight.
But looking solely at the most significant weight gainers also ignores players like Bryan Maneafaiga.
In the summer of 2004, Bryan Maneafaiga was an undersized 180-pound running back trying to make the University of Hawaii football team. Twice — once in pre-season and once in the fall — he failed school drug tests, showing up positive for marijuana use but not steroids.
He'd started injecting stanozolol, a steroid, in the summer to help bulk up to a roster weight of 200 pounds. Once on the team, he'd occasionally inject the milky liquid into his buttocks the day before games.
"Food and good training will only get you so far," he told the AP recently.
Maneafaiga's former coach, June Jones, said it was news to him that one of his players had used steroids. Jones, who now coaches at Southern Methodist University, believes the NCAA does a good job rooting out steroid use.
On paper, college football has a strong drug policy. The NCAA conducts random, unannounced drug testing and the penalties for failure are severe. Players lose an entire year of eligibility after a first positive test. A second offense means permanent ineligibility for sports.
In practice, though, the NCAA's roughly 11,000 annual tests amount to a fraction of all athletes in Division I and II schools. Exactly how many tests are conducted each year on football players is unclear because the NCAA hasn't published its data for two years. And when it did, it periodically changed the formats, making it impossible to compare one year of football to the next.
Even when players are tested by the NCAA, experts like Catlin say it's easy enough to anticipate the test and develop a doping routine that results in a clean test by the time it occurs. NCAA rules say players can be notified up to two days in advance of a test, which Catlin says is plenty of time to beat a test if players have designed the right doping regimen. By comparison, Olympic athletes are given no notice.
Most schools that use Drug Free Sport do not test for anabolic steroids, Turpin said. Some are worried about the cost. Others don't think they have a problem. And others believe that since the NCAA tests for steroids their money is best spent testing for street drugs, she said.
Doping is a bigger deal at some schools than others.
At Notre Dame and Alabama, the teams that will soon compete for the national championship, players don't automatically miss games for testing positive for steroids. At Alabama, coaches have wide discretion. Notre Dame's student-athlete handbook says a player who fails a test can return to the field once the steroids are out of his system.
The University of North Carolina kicks players off the team after a single positive test for steroids. Auburn's student-athlete handbook calls for a half-season suspension for any athlete caught using performance-enhancing drugs.
At UCLA, home of the laboratory that for years set the standard for cutting-edge steroid testing, athletes can fail three drug tests before being suspended. At Bowling Green, testing is voluntary.
At the University of Maryland, students must get counseling after testing positive, but school officials are prohibited from disciplining first-time steroid users.
Only about half the student athletes in a 2009 NCAA survey said they believed school testing deterred drug use. As an association of colleges and universities, the NCAA could not unilaterally force schools to institute uniform testing policies and sanctions, Wilfert said.
"We can't tell them what to do, but if went through a membership process where they determined that this is what should be done, then it could happen," she said.
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Associated Press writers Ryan Foley in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; David Brandt in Jackson, Miss.; David Skretta in Lawrence, Kan.; Don Thompson in Sacramento, Calif., and Alexa Olesen in Shanghai, China, and researchers Susan James in New York and Monika Mathur in Washington contributed to this report.
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Contact the Washington investigative team at DCinvestigations (at) ap.org.
Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the first of a two-part series.

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Cleared Minnesota college coach fights suspension

A Minnesota college football coach who was cleared of child porn charges is fighting a suspension, his union said Thursday, although neither it nor the university would say what prompted the punishment or shed light on his prospects for reinstatement.
Coach Todd Hoffner received a written notice from Minnesota State University, Mankato late Tuesday afternoon about a 20-day unpaid suspension that begins Jan. 7, the general counsel for the Inter Faculty Organization said in an email to The Associated Press. Connie Howard said the union has filed a grievance challenging the suspension.
Hoffner was put on paid administrative leave after videos of his naked children were found on his university-issued cellphone in August. A judge ruled Nov. 30 that the videos were not pornographic and dismissed the felony charges against Hoffner, accepting his testimony that the videos merely showed his children acting silly after a bath.
"The grievance charges that the university failed to follow progressive discipline and did not have just cause to issue the suspension," Howard wrote. She declined to provide further details and would not say what reason the university gave for Hoffner's suspension, whether it was related to the videos or what his prospects might be for being reinstated as head coach of the Mavericks.
The MnSCU system has a policy prohibiting the use of university-issued cellphones or mobile devices for personal business.
Hoffner was beginning a new four-year contract when he was escorted off a practice field in August, a few days after he returned his malfunctioning phone to the school. University technicians found the videos and notified university officials, who contacted police. Hoffner was not allowed back and had to miss the Mavericks' 13-1 season, including their appearance in the NCAA Division II semifinals Dec. 8. He had a 34-13 record in his first four years at Mankato.
Minnesota State issued a brief statement Wednesday night saying Hoffner's administrative leave ended Monday and he remains on the university's payroll, but Aaron Keen remains acting coach.
"One complaint against the football coach was investigated and the investigation has been completed. One complaint against Mr. Hoffner is pending and is under investigation," the statement said without elaboration.
University spokesman Dan Benson, citing privacy laws, told the AP he couldn't comment on the nature of the complaints.
"The word 'reinstated' would not be accurate," Benson said. "He is no longer on leave. He remains on the payroll ... but he has not assumed duties as the head football coach again at this time."
Hoffner could not be reached immediately for comment Thursday. He does not have a listed phone number. His civil attorney, Chris Madel, was in court and unavailable Thursday. His attorney for the criminal case, Jim Fleming, said he was not directly involved in the personnel case.
Minnesota State athletics director Kevin Buisman did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.

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College basketball's best _ so far

Kentucky's Anthony Davis was pretty much everyone's choice as the national player of the year last season.
This season, at least as it nears the midpoint, the player of the year honor appears to be up for grabs.
Though there are a few players who might be considered front-runners, there are roughly two dozen, maybe more, who could be considered the best in the country.
Here's a few, sort of a sampler of the season so far:
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Mason Plumlee, Duke. Best player on the No. 1 team is a pretty good start the conversation. The versatile, 6-foot-10 forward has been dominating at times during his senior season, shooting 61 percent from the floor while averaging 19.1 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. Plumlee had 21 points and 15 rebounds in the Blue Devils' rout of Elon Thursday night, a day after getting 19 and nine against Cornell. When Duke (11-0) needs a big shot or rebound, it's usually Plumlee who gets it, and he's a big reason the Blue Devils climbed to No. 1 for the 16th straight season under coach Mike Krzyzewski.
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Trey Burke, Michigan. Burke thought about leaving for the NBA after his freshman season. Deciding to stick around may end up helping his draft status. The 6-0 sophomore was an AP preseason All-American and has arguably been the nation's best point guard through the first two months of the season. Burke got away with playing on natural ability last season, but his game has matured and he's helped the Wolverines open the season 11-0 and climb to No. 2 in the AP Top 25. He's shooting 53 percent, impressive for a guard, while averaging 18 points and seven assists, teaming with Tim Hardaway Jr. in what may be the nation's best backcourt.
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Doug McDermott, Creighton. Another preseason All-American, the coach's son is as tenacious as anyone in the game. Teams have tried just about everything against the 6-8 junior forward and few have found a way to slow him down. McDermott was third nationally with 22.9 points per game last season and is third again this year, up to 23.7. McDermott became the first Creighton player since 1990 to score 30 points in consecutive games last week and is averaging 6.8 rebounds. He's also shooting 55 percent, including 51 percent from 3-point range.
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Nick Johnson, Arizona. East Coast fans probably don't get to see much of Johnson since Arizona's games are usually on late, but he's been the glue that's held the Wildcats (9-0) together during their best start in 25 years. An athletic 6-3 guard, he was solid as a freshman last season, but has played with much more poise and confidence as a sophomore. Johnson has hit some big shots for Arizona while scoring 13.6 points per game, second on the team, and is a tenacious defender in the vein of his uncle, former Boston Celtics great Dennis Johnson.
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C.J. McCollum, Lehigh. McCollum was fifth nationally with 21.9 points per game last season and drew plenty of attention by scoring 30 points in Lehigh's upset victory over Duke in the NCAA tournament. Even with opponents geared toward stopping him, McCollum has been nearly unstoppable during his senior season. The 6-3 guard leads the nation with 24.9 points per game and is averaging 5.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists. McCollum is tied for fifth nationally in 3-point shooting, hitting 51.9 percent, and is generating plenty of attention from NBA scouts.
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Isaiah Canaan, Murray State. Canaan may be the best player in his state, which is saying something with powerhouses like Louisville and Kentucky just down the road. The 6-1 senior guard led the Racers to national prominence last season and has been even better this season. A preseason All-American and the reigning Ohio Valley Conference player of the year, he's seventh nationally in scoring at 21.3 points per game and has led Murray State to a 9-1 record. Relatively unheralded when he joined the Racers, he could be headed to the NBA after he leaves Murray.

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NCAA considering proposals to change recruiting

The NCAA released a package of proposals Friday that would change the recruiting calendar, lift restrictions on how and how often coaches can contact recruits, and allow athletes to accept more money for participating in non-scholastic events.
All the proposals are expected to be voted on Jan. 19 at the NCAA's annual convention near Dallas. If approved, they could take effect Aug. 1.
This is the first detailed glimpse into how the NCAA intends to rewrite its massive rulebook and Jim Barker, chairman of the NCAA rules committee working on the plan, said the goal is "smarter rules and tougher enforcement."
If the package is approved, the overall result would provide coaches with more leeway in recruiting. The hope is that athletes will build more meaningful relationships with their coaches, and they will get more opportunities to showcase their skills in front of college and pro scouts.
Campus leaders are embracing the moves, too.
"We have to keep track of all that now," Indiana athletic director Fred Glass said before the sixth-ranked Hoosiers hosted Florida Atlantic on Friday night. "If don't have to do that, it will eliminate a substantial part of it."
One key recommendation would create a uniform recruiting calendar for all sports and allow coaches to begin contacting potential recruits after July 1 of their sophomore year, though coaches would still have to abide by the no-contact periods.
"The rules group believes that the uniform recruiting date will create significant ease of administration on campus, make the rules more understandable and allow for better recruiting decisions from both the coach and prospective student-athlete," said Barker, the Clemson president.
Those were the goals NCAA President Mark Emmert outlined more than a year ago when he backed the move to shrink the rulebook following a year of major college scandals that included stripping a national champion of its title, a Heisman Trophy winner giving back his trophy, criminal allegations and the accusation that another Heisman winner's father was peddling his son's services.
In the wake of so much turmoil, Emmert held a presidential retreat in August 2011 to acknowledge that the governing body needed to focus more on enforcing the rules that go to heart of college sports — fair play, ethical behavior and tough penalties that dissuade coaches from considering cost-benefit analyses when making decisions about playing by the rules.
Some rules, Emmert acknowledged are simply unenforceable or so narrow they consume too much time and effort at the institution level and the NCAA level.
That's one reason another proposal would allow coaches to reach out players through any communication mode with no limitation on the number of contacts. College basketball coaches were given that ability in June, and now the working group Barker has led wants to extend those privileges to all sports.
"I've always thought they should let that go anyways and let the marketplace decide," Glass said when asked about lifting the contact restrictions.
Other proposals would allow:
—Athletes to accept up to $300 per year beyond their own expenses to attend non-scholastic events, receive expenses and "reasonable benefits" associated with practices and competition with national teams, including tryouts;
—Schools to provide normal expenses, including travel expenses, for athletes representing the school at events such as goodwill tours and media appearances;
—Amateur teams or event sponsors to award money beyond an athlete's expenses based on the performance of that athlete or team in all sorts, not just tennis;
—Schools, conferences or the NCAA to pay for medical expenses and any related expenses for the athlete.
Barker acknowledged this is only the first phase of recommendations. The working group is expected to focus next on financial aid, playing and practice season rules.

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NCAA suspends Texas Longhorns guard Myck Kabongo of Toronto 23 games

The NCAA has suspended Texas basketball player Myck Kabongo of Toronto for 23 games for accepting impermissible benefits and providing false statements during an investigation into the infractions.
The Division I committee on student-athlete reinstatement announced the suspension Friday.
Kabongo also must repay $475 to a charity of his choice. The suspension includes the 10 games he has already missed.
The NCAA says Kabongo accepted airfare and personal training instruction and then provided false and misleading information about the infractions during two interviews with university officials.
University officials were notified of the decision last week, the NCAA said. An appeal was heard Thursday, and the NCAA decided to overturn the original decision to suspend Kabongo for the entire season.

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