south Page 15 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

And your SEC women’s hoop champion is… Kentucky?
For the first time in 40 seasons, the Kentucky Wildcats emerged as champions of the SEC conference tournament. The Wildcats have been NCAA Tournament regulars, but Sunday’s final marks only their third conference regular season or tournament championship. The Wildcats’ conference championship wouldn...

The best NCAA Women’s Tournament teams at each seed
For the first time this year, the NCAA Women’s Tournament will expand to 68 teams, matching the men’s showcase, which expanded to that number of teams chasing a national championship in 2011. That’s more chances for a longshot to make a run and take down the sport’s elite....

The best NCAA March Madness teams by seed
The NCAA Tournament has become one of the most unpredictable, edge-of-your-seat sporting events of the year due to its knockout nature. It’s a clash of college basketball styles coming together as the calendar turns from winter to spring, pitting teams that usually never see each other on the same c...

Can we talk about the most dominant team in sports right now?
There’s an outlier on the South Carolina women’s basketball schedule. It happened nearly two months ago in Columbia, Missouri to begin Southeastern Conference play against Mizzou. The Gamecocks were at full strength while the Tigers were far from it. An Omicron outbreak knocked out six players, leav...

CFP-staples Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Clemson rejoice!
Get ready for more of the gridiron rotation of Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Clemson and occasionally others. College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock announced Friday that the CFP will stay at its current four-team format through the end of the 2025, when its current 12-year contra...

Frisky NFL teams that could get friskier with the right QB
Watching the Rams walk a tightrope without a net this season was exhilarating. They traded two first round picks for Matthew Stafford, and people who hated the deal were a Tom Brady comeback away from laughing at Stan Kroenke and Los Angeles for being so frivolous with their assets. (I would’ve been...

Joe Cool after the loss
Not many outside of Southern Ohio have seen a year No. 3 from Joe Burrow as a starting quarterback. He never started a game in his three seasons at Ohio State and had two superb years at LSU. His second year taking the mantle of the Cincinnati Bengals ended with a 23-20 loss in Super Bowl LVI to the...

Arkansas will pay for fans rushing the court after beating Auburn, but who cares?
It was a matter of if, not when, Auburn men’s basketball lost another game. As its football team, the biggest draw of the athletic department that overshadows every other sport combined, goes through unsettling offseason turbulence, the fightin’ Bruce Pearls are putting together the school’s best re...

<i>My time in Permian Panthers country</i>
I didn’t know how I was going to feel eight months out of college packing up everything I own, shoving it into my midsize sedan, and moving nearly two time zones away from the East Coast for the first time. But I knew for growth personally and professionally, I needed to feel it....

SEC out to conquer more than football as Auburn hoops is No. 1 for first time in school history
The Southeastern Conference doesn’t have a plan only to dominate in football. The league’s leadership believes a monopoly, like its 12 of the last 16 national gridiron championships, including the last three with a trio of different schools, can be achieved across the board....

My Waffle House challenge odyssey
As punishment for finishing last in my fantasy football league, I now have to complete the Waffle House challenge. I must spend 24 straight hours in a Waffle House with one hour being subtracted for every waffle I eat. Under no circumstances am I allowed to leave. If there’s a grease fire, I go down...

Auburn beats Kentucky, could get first AP No. 1 ranking in school history
With a decisive victory against the Kentucky Wildcats, the perennial kings of the SEC, the Auburn Tigers have likely made school history (not to jinx them or anything). At 18-1, this year’s squad is positioned to reach the No. 1 seed for the first time since the AP began ranking teams in the late ...

Hamilton vs. Hutchinson/Thibodeaux is this year’s Chase vs. Sewell
When a team has as many holes as the Jacksonville Jaguars and is in rebuild mode, it can be difficult to determine who to take, not because of talent level, but because certain positions are more vital to a rebuild than others. Obviously, the most important position for a successful rebuild is quart...

So about those expanded playoffs…
The NFL got its first Monday night playoff game. It’s got its first expanded playoffs in a non…well, less COVID season (barely). And it was all something of a bust. One good game, five ass-kickings, some wondering what all the fuss was about....

There would be a beautiful symmetry to Newcastle getting relegated
It’s unusually harsh on Newcastle supporters, who are one of the more tortured fanbases in any sport you can find. Imagine if Pirates owner Bob Nutting owned a soccer club, that’s what Newcastle fans just went through. Mike Ashley was not only a raging asshole, but incredibly cheap when it came to t...

Kaylee Bryson makes Chili Bowl history as first woman in main event
And here I thought bowl season was over....

Which team could use Calvin Ridley most?
Atlanta Falcons’ wide receiver Calvin Ridley has been the subject of much criticism this year. His decision to step away from his team in the middle of the season was admirable, but not exempt from the criticism of NFL “fans.” Even when he was playing, Ridley underwhelmed. After finishing tied for f...

Week 18 NFL Powerless Rankings: It's over
Welcome to this week’s NFL Powerless Rankings. It’s time to wrap up the season for the league’s most powerless. So, let’s check out the worst teams to close out the regular season in Week 18....

That’s a clown lawsuit, bro
The Jacksonville Jaguars were a joke long before this season. They’ve made the playoffs seven times in their 27-year history, and four of those were in the first five seasons of their existence. This season will be Jaguars’ fifth in the last six years in which they’ve finished last in the AFC South,...

You play to win the game… or do you?
More than half of the NFL remains in playoff contention heading into the final week of the season. That includes teams like the Packers, who have clinched home-field advantage throughout the postseason, and it includes teams like the Raiders and Chargers, who play each other but can both get into th...