ti Page 1248 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
![Reports: ESPN College Football Playoff Game Ratings Went Into Toilet [UPDATES]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/kmb10u6hurewxtk5ofve.jpg)
Reports: ESPN College Football Playoff Game Ratings Went Into Toilet [UPDATES]
Three months of annoying, Kimmel-led promos and awkward corporate tie-ins weren’t enough to keep ESPN’s college football playoff semifinal TV ratings from plummeting on a New Year’s Eve, the traditions of which have never featured watching college football at home....

This Has Been Your 2015
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Cyrus Jones Takes Punt 57 Yards, Extends Alabama Lead To 24-0
Alabama’s Cyrus Jones increased an already big Crimson Tide lead to 24 with this 57-yard punt return. Above is the ESPN Deportes call; here’s how it sounded on Alabama’s Crimson Tide Sports Network:...

Report: Baylor Settles With Former Student Sexually Assaulted By Football Player
In August, then-Baylor football player Sam Ukwuachu was found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to 180 days in jail. And now the woman he was found guilty of assaulting, a former Baylor student, has settled with the university, the Dallas Morning News reported today....

Clemson Fake Punt Sets Up Go-Ahead Touchdown
Clemson punter Andy Teasdall connected with Christian Wilkins for 31 yards and a first down as Dabo Swinney used some trickery to get the Tigers inside Oklahoma’s 15-yard line. Two plays later, Deshaun Watson found the end zone to put Clemson up 10-7 in today’s first college football playoff semifin...

Even Disney Jr. Can't Escape The College Football Playoff Cross-Branding
We noted last night that ESPN corporate parent Disney shoved a bunch of hilariously bad references to the college football playoff games on New Year’s Eve into yesterday’s episode of General Hospital. Commenter JortReform noted that even Disney Jr. had been running tie-in promos, and we caught one o...

Ball-Snatching Memphis Player Autographs His Prize, Instagrams It, Gets Dismissed
The Memphis Tigers lost to Auburn in the Birmingham Bowl yesterday, but safety Reggis Ball wanted a souvenir to commemorate his two interceptions in the game. So, he wrestled an equipment staffer for a game ball and ran. The school dismissed the redshirt senior from the team a few hours after the in...

Disney Inundates <i>General Hospital</i> Episode With References To New Year's Eve College Football Playoff Games
ESPN says it isn’t worried about viewership for tomorrow’s college football playoff games on New Year’s Eve, but the degree to which TV viewers have been choked to death by promos for the two games—which were played on New Year’s Day last year—has left many never wanting to hear “Auld Lang Syne” eve...

The Kobe Bryant Farewell Tour Feels Strange And Unfamiliar
With the Los Angeles Lakers visiting the Boston Celtics tonight, you might have thought it’d be a brief respite from the Kobe Bryant Farewell Tour. After all, the Celtics-Lakers rivalry is the biggest in the sport, and the last time these two teams faced off with something on the line—the 2010 NBA F...

Christian Benteke Had Another Brutal Miss Today
Don’t click on the video just yet. Look at the image for a second. Christian Benteke, yards clear of any defender, strolls into the heart of the penalty box with only the keeper to beat. It was right about at that frame when, watching it live, I thought to myself, He’s definitely about to miss this....

Sports Overtime Rules, Ranked
Every sport has a different way of dealing with a game that ends in a tie. Some overtimes are wonderful and compelling, while others are boring and lame. Here’s Deadspin’s non-exhaustive ranking of sports overtime rules....
![Confusing Reports: After Loss, Memphis Player Steals Game Ball, Flips Off Auburn, Flees [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/tli9ux4jvamz2esogbfg.jpg)
Confusing Reports: After Loss, Memphis Player Steals Game Ball, Flips Off Auburn, Flees [UPDATE]
Auburn just put the finishing touches on a 31-10 victory over Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl, but according to some dispatches from reporters on the scene, the real drama started after the game. Get ready for some good drama!...

You Know Who Should Run For President? George Pataki
I mean, if the guy could get elected governor of New York as a Republican, he could be a heckuva candi—...

Johnny Manziel Might Have A Concussion
Johnny Manziel could be concussed. Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported that Manziel mentioned symptoms of a concussion at the Browns’ facility today and went into protocol. If he can’t start, Austin Davis will take his place against the Steelers....

GRRM Has No Pages
Fans of A Song Of Ice And Fire—the books on which the popular HBO drama Game of Thrones are based—have a lot of theories. Some are about Jon Snow’s true parentage; some are about whether Brandon Stark ate his friend Jojen Reed; some are about whether Tyrion Lannister is the product of Daenerys Targa...

Ben Simmons Did So Many Cool Dunks Tonight
The LSU Tigers lost tonight to Wake Forest in basketball while their football team was scoring a bunch on Texas Tech. The hoopin’ Tigers are 7-5, and don’t look like much of a threat to Kentucky for the SEC title, but for our purposes, that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Ben Simmons, al...

Report: Three Clemson Players Suspended From Orange Bowl For Failing Drug Tests
According to a report from Price Atkinson of ESPN Greenville and later confirmed by others, Clemson’s Deon Cain, Ammon Lakip, and Jay Jay McCullough are going to be suspended from the team’s College Football Playoff/Orange Bowl matchup with Oklahoma on Thursday for a violation of team rules. The Cle...

LSU's D.J. Chark Goes 79 Yards, Scores Touchdown On First Career Touch
D.J. Chark’s at the end of his second year in an LSU uniform, but it took until tonight’s Texas Bowl for him to ever touch the football in a real game. We’ll expect he touches it plenty in the future after taking his first touch 79 yards and for a touchdown....

Legendary Fighter Kazushi Sakuraba Brutalized In Depressing Spectacle
Fighting is too young a sport for a descriptor like “legend” to mean all that much, but so far as it does, Kazushi Sakuraba is one of the few people who deserve it. His incredible career has been too strange and interesting to easily summarize, but, briefly, after starting out as a pro wrestler, he ...