ABILENE, Texas (AP)—Abilene Christian set a record for points in an NCAA playoff game, beating West Texas A&M 93-68 in the second round of the Division II playoffs Saturday.
Bernard Scott rushed for 292 yards and scored seven touchdowns, both playoff records.
The combined 161 points was an NCAA Division II record.
Abilene Christian (11-0) gained 810 yards of offense and scored touchdowns on 13 of 14 possessions. The only time the Wildcats didn’t come away with points was on their second possession, when they missed a field goal attempt. The teams combined for 1,531 yards, also an NCAA Divison II record.
Keith Null, who completed 42 of 63 passes, set a school record by throwing for 595 yards and seven touchdowns in the loss for West Texas A&M (11-2), which was eliminated despite gaining 721 yards. Buffaloes receiver Charly Martin caught 14 passes for 323 yards and scored five times.
Abilene Christian, which will host Northwest Missouri State next Saturday, led 42-34 at halftime.
Billy Malone threw for 383 yards and six touchdowns, and Johnny Knox caught five passes for 125 yards for the Wildcats.
Scott had 19 carries and rushed for six touchdowns and added another score receiving.
Courtesy Rivals.com
STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Ticker)—Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who turns 82 next month, has every intention of coaching next season.
Paterno, whose 382 career victories are the most in the Football Subdivision, told a crowd of approximately 6,500 fans during a pep rally on Friday that he will return in 2009 and, “and run out of that tunnel next year.”
Paterno stood and spoke for 15 minutes without the cane he has used since injuring his right hip earlier this season. He recently admitted that he needs hip replacement surgery and will have it soon. The injury has caused Paterno to coach several games from the press box.
Paterno’s eighth-ranked Nittany Lions (10-1) can clinch at least a share of the Big Ten Conference title and Rose Bowl berth with a win over No. 15 Michigan State (9-2) on Saturday.
There had been rumors that JoePa would announce his retirement following the game.
Courtesy Rivals.com
Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter commented on the possible reinstatement of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and, as usual, Porter shot right from the lip, according to a report on EPSN.com. Vick was convicted for his role in a dogfighting ring and is serving time in a Kansas federal prison. He's scheduled to be released next summer.
"He's already been punished enough," said Porter (referring to Vick's possible reinstatement after serving his sentence), who owns a pair of pit bulls and a Maltese. "They gave him his penalty. He paid his penalty. What else should they do to him now?
"All it was was dogs. They act like they don't even like pit bulls anyway. That's the funny thing about it if you want to get back on that topic. I got pit bulls, I got to put them under a different breed just to travel. So you can't even fly pit bulls nowhere.
"It's a breed they don't care about. It's not like he was fighting cocker spaniels or something that they like. They don't really care too much about pit bulls."
Profootballtalk.com reported that Porter let his pitbull loose and it killed a miniature horse.
Courtesy Tim Graham ESPN.com
SANTA BARBARA, California (AP) -- Tennis great Jimmy Connors was arrested outside the campus arena where UC Santa Barbara and top-ranked North Carolina were playing a basketball game.
The eight-time Grand Slam champion was taken into custody Friday night after refusing to comply with an order to leave an area near the entrance of the Thunderdome following a confrontation, police Sgt. Dan Massey said in a statement.
A police dispatcher said Connors was arrested at the beginning of the game.
A Santa Barbara County jail employee said Connors was booked and released but did not have details.
Connors could not immediately be reached for comment early Saturday.
Connors lives in the Santa Barbara area and attends a handful of the Gauchos' games each season.
Connors was ranked No. 1 for five consecutive years in the 1970s, and had a fiery temperament on the court. Earlier this year, he resigned as Andy Roddick's coach after working together for nearly two years.
Courtesy Associated Press
 The Golden State Warriors and New York Knicks have received league approval to complete a trade that will swap disgruntled Warriors forward Al Harrington for Knicks guard Jamal Crawford.
ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher confirmed the league's sign-off after reporting early Friday morning that the teams were nearing completion on a deal featuring Harrington and Crawford.
Although neither team has commented, NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com that the deal involves no other players and will be formally announced later Friday.
Harrington went public with a trade demand just before the start of the season after privately urging Golden State to move him for months. New York had immediate interest, seeing the versatile and mobile Harrington as an ideal frontcourt fit in new coach Mike D'Antoni's up-tempo system.
"Al is a true NBA veteran who possesses multi-positional skills," D'Antoni said in a statement. "He will fit perfectly into our system and will help us win some games immediately."
Knicks president Donnie Walsh, furthermore, might be Harrington's biggest fan in the league; he drafted the 28-year-old in 1998 with Indiana, and brought him back to the Pacers in a deal with Atlanta in the summer of 2006. But Harrington's second stint with the Pacers lasted only a half-season before he was dealt to Golden State in January 2007, along with Stephen Jackson.
Reuniting with Harrington comes at a cost for Walsh: It will require the Knicks to part with Crawford, their leading scorer and another player they had pegged to flourish under D'Antoni. The Warriors, according to NBA front-office sources, see Crawford as a versatile guard who, although not a pure floor leader, can function well in coach Don Nelson's system while Monta Ellis recovers from ankle surgery -- and in tandem with Ellis once he returns.
Yet it's believed that Walsh has multiple motivations for reacquiring one of his favorites. The biggest lure is Harrington's contract, which pays him $9.2 million this season and $10 million next season if Harrington exercises his option. Either way, Harrington's deal would be off New York's payroll by the summer of 2010, which meshes with New York's intent to slice payroll and get as far under the salary cap as possible for the highly anticipated free-agent summer of 2010 and the possibility of joining the bidding for Cleveland's LeBron James, who could be in that class.
Crawford is scoring 19.6 points per game this season after averaging a career-best 20.6 points per game and 5.0 assists last season. Assuming Crawford declines a player option to become a free agent in July 2009, his deal would run through the 2010-11 season, paying $8.6 million this season, $9.4 million in 2009-10 and $10 million in 2010-11. Harrington has played only five games this season, averaging 12.4 points and 5.6 rebounds before missing Golden State's past six games with a back injury. Nelson told ESPN.com on the first weekend of the season that the Warriors would "try to accommodate" Harrington, but not when the Knicks were looking to part with center Eddy Curry as opposed to Crawford.
Courtesy Marc Stein
 As I may have mentioned before, I tend to always measure and lament my rapidly advancing age against the life progression of Ken Griffey Jr. That sounds a bit weird and maybe pathetic, but I'm sure I'm not the only one to use the career span of a ballplayer as a benchmark. When I was 12, I used all of my earnings to try to pull his rookie from packs of Upper Deck. Now, as he nears the end of his career, I'm worried about things like 401Ks and losing all of my earnings to the state of the economy. The circle of life ain't what it's cracked up to be.
At any rate, to see Griffey named an American Public Diplomacy Envoy by Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday enhanced the contrast even more. Once derided by baseball's old guard for doing things like wearing his hat backward, blowing bubblegum bubbles and endorsing video games, The Kid outgrew all of that to become not only an elder statesman of the sport but of the entire country. (Again, people of my generation — we are getting old.)
As an unofficial ambassador, Rice said Griffey will travel overseas to "talk to young people and to spark their interest in America and in our culture." His first trip is scheduled for Panama in January, where he'll hopefully be able to meet my two favorite Panamaniacs while avoiding the trouble Cal Ripken just found in Nicaragua.
Continuing the discussion here, I'd like to throw out a question to my older readers. Who was the "Griffey" of past generations? Who was there not only for your grammar school graduation, but for your first car, your first beer, your first kid and beyond?
Courtesy Yahoo News
 Ocho Cinco Deactivated Tonight Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ocho Cinco will be deactivated for tonight's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers for violating a team rule, the Bengals have announced today.
The Bengals did not provide details and indicated they would have no further comment until after the game.
The league-owned NFL Network, which is carrying tonight's Bengals-Steelers game from Pittsburgh, reports that Johnson got into a dispute with a member of the Bengals organization Wednesday night and left a team function.
Ocho Cinco, known as Chad Johnson before legally changing his name, clashed with the team in the offseason when he demanded to be traded.
The Bengals refused, however, and the wide receiver had avoided controversy since the season began.
Ocho Cinco had played in 113 straight games and hadn't missed a game since his rookie season in 2001.
The five-time Pro Bowl selection has 41 catches for 383 yards and four touchdowns in 10 games this season. That's far from last season's production of 93 catches for 1,440 yards and eight touchdowns.
He underwent ankle surgery before training camp and suffered a slight shoulder separation during the preseason.
The wideout has been involved in controversies in the past, mostly for his playful verbal jabs at opponents and his touchdown celebrations that provoked disciplinary action by the NFL.
He spent much of last offseason lobbying for a trade, saying in one televised interview: "I want to continue my career wherever I have the opportunity to win a playoff game and get to the Super Bowl. That's where I want to be."
But the Bengals wouldn't budge, even rejecting a trade offer by the Washington Redskins that included two first-round draft picks, and he reported to training camp on time.
He made his name change and was prepared to have his new name on his jersey before being informed that, under league marketing rules, he was responsible for purchasing the unsold jerseys with his old last name on them.
Ocho Cinco mostly had been on good behavior so far this season, even kissing Bengals Coach Marvin Lewis on the cheek during an early-season game. He later told reporters the gesture had come in reaction to some encouraging words by Lewis.
"He just said, 'Keep your head in the game, stay focused, blah blah blah,' " Ocho Cinco said. "And he said, 'Smile!' This little thing Coach Lewis and I have: When things aren't going right, he just looks at me and says, 'Smile.' Whatever's going on, it goes right away.
"It's a little thing we've got going, so it's pretty cool. It's kind of been able to keep myself from getting angry, from getting mad, from getting frustrated. Smile. And I do the same to him when he's out there screaming in practice or something [doesn't] go right in the game. I'll just walk by him and just say, 'Smile!' "
During a recent interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Ocho Cinco credited Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb with helping him to gain a more positive attitude about this season.
"Donovan was a big influence. [He] really is one of the reasons why I really turned myself around and looked at my situation as more of a positive outlook and just thinking about all the people that would love to play this game, you know?" Ocho Cinco told the newspaper.
"He took me in that direction, instead of thinking about, 'Oh, I'm tired of losing and I don't want to be here any more,' but just thinking about, 'Man, a lot of people wish they were in your shoes just to have the ability to play in the NFL.' That kind of turned me around, and that's why I've been as positive as I have been this year, and even though we're losing, man, I've just been plugging away."
The Bengals take a record of 1-8-1 into tonight's game and remain without quarterback Carson Palmer, who has been sidelined for much of the season because of an elbow injury and reportedly is considering undergoing surgery.
Chris Henry is likely to start at the wide receiver spot opposite T.J. Houshmandzadeh, with Ocho Cinco deactivated. The Bengals just placed third receiver Antonio Chatman on the injured reserve list because of a neck injury.
UPDATE (12:25 p.m.)...
Agent Drew Rosenhaus, who represents Ocho Cinco, said in a televised interview that the wide receiver is scheduled to meet with Lewis on Friday and expects to resume practicing and playing in games after that.
"This is what I have been told but, again, that's going to be up to the team," Rosenhaus said on ESPN. "We certainly hope that's the case, and we expect to move on from this and finish the season in a very positive way for Chad Ocho Cinco Johnson."
Rosenhaus declined to release details about the reason for Ocho Cinco's deactivation.
"Chad is very disappointed that he's not playing but he respects Coach Lewis and the team's decision," Rosenhaus said. "He's not going to make this a controversy or a circus. We're going to keep this in-house between ourselves and the team. He's got five more games to go. This is unfortunate that he's not playing. Chad lives to play. The guy's been playing with a separated shoulder. He came off of ankle surgery. He's been playing with a backup quarterback. He's been battling to help this team win football games. It's a shame that he's not able to play against a very strong rival in the Steelers on a national television game."
Rosenhaus said it's been a frustrating season for Ocho Cinco, and indicated he doesn't know if the wideout has a future in Cincinnati beyond this season.
"I guess that's going to be up to the team," Rosenhaus said. "Chad has been very outspoken. He has said how he feels. We know we're not going to bully our way out of Cincinnati. It's going to be [Bengals owner] Mike Brown's way or no way at all. It's going to be up to Mike Brown. He's going to decide whether or not Chad is going to be with the team in the future and, you know, we're going to basically take a low-key approach to that."
UPDATE II (1:45 p.m.)...
More details are trickling in.
ESPN reports that Ocho Cinco and Lewis got into an argument after the wide receiver was 45 minutes late to a team meeting Wednesday night. Ocho Cinco was sent home, according to the report.
Courtesy Mark Maske
 NEW YORK – George Steinbrenner's 35-year reign as boss of the New York Yankees ended Thursday when he passed control of baseball's most famous team to his youngest son, Hal.
The elder Steinbrenner has gradually withdrawn from the Yankees' day-to-day operations in recent years, and brothers Hal and Hank were appointed co-chairmen in April.
"I realize it's a great responsibility," said Hal Steinbrenner, who turns 40 on Dec. 3. "My dad is, needless to say, a tough act to follow."
George Steinbrenner, now 78, headed a group that bought the club in January 1973 for an $8.7 million net price and became one of the most high-profile owners in all of sports. He dominated the back pages of New York's tabloids, earning the nickname "The Boss" as he spent lavishly on players and changed managers 20 times during his first 23 years as owner, feuding with Billy Martin, Yogi Berra and Dave Winfield.
The Yankees regained their former glory, winning six World Series titles and 10 American League pennants from 1976-2003. They also have transformed themselves into a billion-dollar business that owns a cable television network and food concession company and is preparing to move into a $1.3 billion new Yankee Stadium next year.
Steinbrenner is baseball's longest-serving current owner, but has been in declining health following fainting spells that required hospitalization in December 2003 and October 2006.
His speech in public has been halting and weak since the second fall, and he has needed assistance when walking. He delivered the balls for the ceremonial first pitches from a golf cart at July's All-Star game at Yankee Stadium, then stayed home in Florida to watch the 85-year-old park's final game on television in September.
Baseball owners unanimously approved the change in control during a meeting Thursday.
"He's been slowing down the last couple years," Hal Steinbrenner said. "Really, for the last two years I have been intimately involved with all aspects and all departments of the company. It's what I've been doing day-to-day. My duties aren't really going to change and my workload isn't going to change much. So, I mean, it's as much a procedural thing within the family, I think, as anything at this point."
While the 51-year-old Hank has spoken out publicly far more than his brother in the past year, Hal was at Yankee Stadium much more frequently than his brother. Hal is responsible for financial operations of the club, and Hank oversees general manager Brian Cashman and the baseball operations.
"I'm not going to ask the people in the family why they picked one against the other," said baseball commissioner Bud Selig, who visited Steinbrenner in Tampa, Fla., before Game 2 of the World Series last month. "I get enough trouble as commissioner. I don't need to get into family squabbles."
Major League Baseball said George Steinbrenner requested the change in control be made. George Steinbrenner retains his title as the team's chairman and his wife, Joan, is a vice chairperson along with their daughters, Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal and Jessica Steinbrenner.
Before Hal, each son-in-law of the owner emerged as heir apparents, only to divorce the owner's daughters and depart the team.
Joe Molloy, married to Jessica Steinbrenner, was a general partner from 1992-97. Steve Swindal, married to Jennifer Steinbrenner, was a general partner from 1998-06, then became chairman of Yankee Global Enterprises LLC, the team's holding company, He was publicly designated by George Steinbrenner as his successor in June 2005 but departed Swindal after his driving under the influence arrest early on Feb. 15, 2007.
Hal Steinbrenner became more active in the team's operations following Swindal's arrest.
"George is still going to be involved," Yankees president Randy Levine said. "This is really just a codification, with the commissioner's help and input, of what's been going on the last several years."
Courtesy Ronald Blum
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