UNDATED (AP) — Former N.C. State football coach Chuck Amato has died at the age of 80. The school announced on its athletics website that Amato died early Monday at his Raleigh home under hospice care. Amato had previously battled throat cancer and eventually lost his voice. Amato was a defensive assistant under the late Bobby Bowden during Florida State's peak run of the 1990s before returning to N.C. State as head coach. As a player, Amato was a linebacker who was part of a team that shared an Atlantic Coast Conference title. He also was an ACC champion wrestler at N.C. State.
UNDATED (AP) — Florida starts the men's college basketball season ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25. Coach Todd Golden says the ranking is expected, as the team aims for another national championship. Duke and Illinois are next while UConn and Arizona round out the top five. Michigan State, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia and Houston finish out the top 10,
UNDATED (AP) — Miami is now No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since 2002. No. 2 BYU has reached its highest ranking since its 1984 national championship season. Notre Dame and Georgia remain in the top five despite close losses. This week, five of the top seven teams lost, marking a first in the AP poll's 90-year history. Miami and BYU benefited most from the chaos, joined by Ohio State in a tightly packed top three.
UNDATED (AP) — Just when you thought the SEC and Big Ten were the biggest and baddest conferences in the land, along comes the Big 12 with three teams in the top 10 of The Associated Press Top 25 and the ACC with the No. 1 team. Five of the top seven teams lost Saturday. That's most on one day in a regular season since the AP rankings started 90 years ago. No. 2 BYU, No. 8 Texas Tech and No. 10 Utah landed in the top 10 Sunday. That's largely the result of Georgia, Alabama and Texas losing.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida State coach Mike Norvell expressed frustration with the Atlantic Coast Conference officiating crew that oversaw his team’s 43-35 loss at Miami in double overtime, calling a late holding penalty “an absolute joke.” Norvell also questioned the interception that ended the game. Norvell says he spoke with ACC Supervisor of Football Officials Gary Patterson but has not heard “his final review” of the game. On the first of two “Hail Mary” attempts in the waning seconds, FSU’s Ashton Daniels completed a pass to Micahi Danzy in the end zone, but the completion was waved off because left tackle Xavier Chaplin was flagged for holding.
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Duke cornerback Kimari Robinson has apologized for aggressively swatting away the hand of a member of the team’s training staff as she arrived to tend to an injured teammate on the field during the Blue Devils’ loss to rival North Carolina. Robinson posted a statement of apology on social media Sunday evening. Coach Manny Diaz said Monday afternoon that Robinson has also apologized privately. Diaz said the team will handle the matter internally, but wouldn’t elaborate on specifics of any potential discipline or other steps to address the incident.
UNDATED (AP) — BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier is The Associated Press national college football player of the week. He had a hand in all four of his team’s touchdowns in a 28-24 win over Notre Dame. He had TD runs of 5 and 1 yard, caught a throwback pass for a 15-yard TD and threw 6 yards to Walker Lyons for the go-ahead score with 1:47 left. Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown was runner-up for the award after rushing for 115 yards and a TD and passing for 150 yards and a score in the Tigers’ 27-24 upset of then-No. 1 Georgia.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Notre Dame might have deserved one more play at the end of its game at BYU. Florida State was furious over how referees saw its two Hail Mary completions for would-have-been touchdowns in double overtime against Miami. And once again, end-of-game officiating was under fire. Dramatic — and sometimes controversial — endings were the story of a wild college football Saturday, with late-game calls deciding some outcomes and potentially even having an effect on how the College Football Playoff shapes up a couple months from now.
