UNDATED (AP) — Florida's Thomas Haugh and Michigan State's Jeremy Fears Jr. highlight the preseason AP All-America team. Fears received 57 votes from a 58-person media panel and Haugh earned 56. Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner received 43 votes, Illinois forward David Mirkovic had 24 and Arizona big man Motiejus Krivas 17 to round out the team.
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Miami is about to take the field as the No. 1 team in The Associated Press' college football rankings for the first time since 2002. The Hurricanes aren't fazed by that whatsoever. Staying true to the process is among the biggest keys for unbeaten Miami this week as the top-ranked Hurricanes get set to play host to Pitt on Saturday afternoon. Getting wrapped up in the national rankings would be a recipe for failure, says coach Mario Cristobal. He wants Miami simply to think about the next task and nothing else.
UNDATED (AP) — Beware, Miami, when Pittsburgh comes to town Saturday. The No. 1 team in The Associated Press Top 25 has lost to unranked opponents two straight weeks. Oklahoma knocked off Texas and then Auburn upset Georgia. Unranked teams are 9-198 against No. 1s since 2000. That's according to Sportradar. The only other year No. 1 teams lost twice to non-Top 25 opponents over that span was 2007. Auburn is one of two schools with two wins over No. 1s as an unranked team since 2000. The other is Texas A&M.
UNDATED (AP) — College football fans should get a chance to catch their breath Saturday. Week 8 doesn’t set up to be nearly as upside down as Week 7. There were six Top 25 matchups last week and five of the top seven teams lost on the same day in a regular season for the first time in the 90 years of The Associated Press poll. This week there are just two Top 25 matchups with No. 7 Mississippi at No. 19 Texas and No. 14 Houston at No. 10 Utah. There also is a new No. 1 team in Miami.
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Bar says it has fired an employee over online messages that were sent to a Miami football player after the Hurricanes beat Florida State last weekend. Kade McLendon worked at the Bar for about two years as a computer technician and was identified Tuesday as the Bar employee under investigation. He was fired Wednesday, the Bar said. An account from a person using McLendon’s name sent a number of messages to Miami’s Damon Wilson II after the Hurricanes’ 43-35 victory, including several racist and homophobic slurs. It’s unclear why the private messages were sent to Wilson, who is in his first season at Miami.
UNDATED (AP) — South Carolina is ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press preseason Top 25 women's basketball poll. The Gamecocks received 23 first-place votes from a 31-member national media panel. UConn, Southern California, Duke and Michigan round out the top five. This marks the fifth time in seven years that Staley's team has been ranked No. 1 in the preseason. South Carolina will face five ranked teams in the first month, including UConn, USC and Duke. UConn, which lost to South Carolina in the Final Four last season, garnered six first-place votes. USC picked up the other two.
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) — 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.
