Te'o Sits Down With Couric

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

In Manti Te'o news, it seems that this guy is definitely not the smartest guy on Notre Dame campus.  Te'o recently sat down with Katie Couric to give his side of the story about what happened with his invisible girlfriend that died then came back to life, if that's how you want to put it.  One of the questions that was asked was is Te'o gay and he replied definitely not, but recently the voice of the "girl" that Te'o spent hours on hours talking on the phone to has been revealed and the woman he was talking to was a man disguising his voice as a woman.  Now I don't know about you but it definitely sounded like a man.  But maybe Te'o was just in denial and thought that "she" just had a really deep voice.

Te'o "Victim" of Online Hoax

Photo: http://cbssports.tumblr.com/

Social networks were in an uproar with jokes last night when it came out that the story of Manti Te'o girlfriend was all a lie.

If you don't know the story Manti Te'o of Notre Dame stated back in September that he had lost his grandmother September 12th and only six hours later he lost his girlfriend Lennay Kekua to leukemia. He says that the death of Kekua inspired him to play better. Well the death of Kekua turned out to be a hoax.

Notre Dame released a newsletter Wednesday stating that they couldn't even find any indication that Lennay Kekua existing. In the news conference Wednesday night Athletic Director Jack Swarbick stated the following:

"On the morning of December 26, very early in the morning, Manti called his coaches to inform them that while he was in attendance at the ESPN award show in Orlando, he received a phone call from a number he recognized as having been that he associates with Lennay Kekua. When he answered it, it was a person whose voice sounded like the same person he had talked to, who told him that she was, in fact not dead. Manti was very unnerved by that, as you might imagine."

Notre Dame hired an investigative firm to investigate the situation and they believe that Te'o was fooled into an online relationship with a woman whose death was then faked by the perpetrators of the hoax.

Like my grandmother would say something in the milk ain't clean. Had Te'o ever met this woman? If not, had he tried? And how do you determine that somebody you've never met us your significant other? I don't know all the details but there are so many unanswered questions that doesn't add up.

For more on the story visit ESPN.com

Man Stabbed at Orange Madness

Who said that a fun, collegiate event couldn't turn into a tragedy?

A man was stabbed during Syracuse's annual Orange Madness Celebration.  It was last stated that the victim was in stable condition at Upstate University Hospital.  Orange Madness is an event that is used to celebrate the start of the basketball season in which 15,000 people were in attendance.  The event was brought to an end early after several fights occured.  None of the fights and stabbing are believd to involve Syracuse students according to the Syracuse police Sgt. Tom Connellan.

"We were saddened to learn of the incident at th Dome last night.  There is no place and no tolerance for anything like this and future Orange Madnes events will be designed to prevent incidents such as this.  We are proud of the terrific partnership among Syracuse City Police, SU Department of Public Safety, and Carrier Dome security staff, and we are confident that our work will continue to maintain a safe and secure environment for our patrons who come to the Dome to enjoy the hard work and efforts of our student-athletes." -Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Athletic Director Darryl Goss

Flying Fan

Photo Credit: 
http://www.wanderlustatlanta.com/ 

Two fans were injured at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia after a 20 year old male fell from the upper deck and landed on a fan in the mezzanine area.  The young man fell about 35 feet during the Tennessee vs. NC State game.  Both fans were taken to the Atlanta Medical Center after the incident, where it was stated that both fans suffered minor injuries.

"We were celebrating.  He started pumping fists and was leaning over the rail.  He just slipped off.  We looked down.  It took forever to get someone down there.  He was moving a little but it took about fifteen minutes to get a stretcher down there." -Ryan Coleman, Tennessee Senior

The young man fell when Tennessee scored there second touchdown of the first half.

Former Penn State Players set to Appeal Sanctions

A group of former Penn State players have come together and notified the NCAA of their intention to appeal the sanctions set on the football program due to the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

The group of players consist of former quarterback Michael Robinson (2001-2005), Anwar Phillips (2001-2005), Josh Gaines (2004-2008), Shamar Finney (1998-2002), Richard Gardner (1999-2003), Gerald Cadogan (2004-2008), Anthony Adams (1998-2002), Just Kiurpeikis (1996-2000), and ex-assistant coach Bill Kenney.

The group is represented by Attorney Paul V. Kelly, who sent in an intent to appeal letter to the NCAA dated August 7, 2012.  According to the governing body for college sports has said that the sanctions brought are not subject to appeal.  This is not the first intent to appeal letter that the NCAA has received on behalf of Penn State, a PSU trustee has also sent in an intent to appeal letter.

Penn State Gets Worse than Death Penalty?

Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

The NCAA has come down on Penn State and it wasn't with the death penalty.  Penn State has received a $60 million sanction, 4 year football postseason ban, vacation of all wins dating from 1998 and they must reduce 10 initial and 20 total scholarships each year for four years.

Presidents Approve Four Team Playoffs

After years of fans complaining about the championship selection for NCAA football was less than fair, a presidential oversight committee may have set things in the right direction for upcoming seasons.

The presidential oversight committee approved a proposal that will allow the playoffs to consist of four teams instead of the only two teams that play in the championship game.  The four team playoff will begin in 2014 and will continue through the 2025 season.  Teams will be chosen by a selection committee and the semifinals will be held at current bowl sites with the championship game being awarded to the highest bidder.

The proposal for the four team playoff was put together by several conference commissioners and was voted on by a board of twelve university presidents.  The presidents also endorsed a rotation of the semifinal games among six bowl sites and a rotation of the championship game among neutral sites.  The Semifinals will be played on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day and the championship game will be held on "Championship Monday", which is the first Monday of January.

The two main topics that are still up in the air and will need to be worked out are how teams will be selected and how revenue will be distributed.

BREAKING NEWS: Jerry Sandusky Found Guilty

Gene J. Puskar/AP

After 21 hours of deliberation the jury's verdict was delivered around 10pm tonight.  Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of 48 counts related to sexual abuse over a 15 year time span.  Judge Cleland revoked Sandusky's bail and ordered his arrest.  Sentencing will occur in approximately 90 days.  

For more on the story visit CNN justice at http://bit.ly/LJVDBj

Kentucky Wildcats 2012 NCAA Champions

The 2012 NCAA tournament got off to a rough stuff with a lot of star teams shocking everyone by being eliminated in the first round, including Duke and Missouri.  But Kentucky stuck around through the tournament and became the NCAA champions like a lot of people had predicted.  Although most had the Wildcats facing the UNC Tar Heels in the finals, who eventually was eliminated during the elite 8, Kentucky was able to defeat the Kansas Jayhawks last night 67-59.

Kansas outscored Kentucky 32-26 during the 2nd half of action, but after going down 41-27 at halftime Kansas was unable to fight back from the huge deficit to upset the Wildcats.  Kentucky's Lamb led the Wildcats and Jayhawks in scoring with 22 points and Taylor was the leading scored for the Jayhawks with 19 points.  Monday night's victory is Kentucky's 8th NCAA basketball title and is its first title sine 1998.  

Kentucky Forward Davis ended the night with 16 rebounds, 6 blocks, 5 assists, and 3 steals.  Although Davis had an off shooting night, scoring his only field goal with 5:13 left in the game, he was still able to have a major part in the Wildcat victory.  Marquis Teague, brother of Atlanta Hawks Jeff Teague, added 14 points to the Wildcats final 67 points.  

"Nobody even expected us to be here in the first place, for us to have a great season and we did.  We were able to compete for a championship. We had a great year." -Kansas Guard Travis Reliford

Kansas was truly the underdog in Monday night's game.  The first half it was obvious that Kentucky was going to run and run and run the entire game and Kansas was having a hard time keeping up, but in the 2nd half Kansas fought back and was able to keep up but not good enough as Kentucky ended up defeating Kansas 67-59.

Congratulations RG III

Tonight was a very memorable night for Robert Griffin III.  RGIII, as he is called, became the first player from Baylor to win the Heisman Trophy.  With Andrew Luck returning to Stanford for his senior year everyone believed that he would be the sure winner of the Heisman after coming in 2nd to Cam Newton last year.  Coming into the last week of the regular season it was up in the air on who believed would win the trophy between the 5 candidates, but RGIII made a run to the end proving why he should take the trophy at the end of tonight's ceremony.  Griffin ended this year at Baylor with the most passing yards and highest completion rate throughout his college career.  Griffin played 12 games as a true freshman, 3 games as a sophomore due to a tear to his ACL, and starting all the games during his 3rd and 4th year.  Griffin this season with 72.6% passing completion rate, 267/369 completed/attempted passes for 3,998 passing yards, 36 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions, he also rushed for 644 rushing yards and 9 rushing touchdowns.  RGIII first 3 years his quarterback rating ranged between 142 to 144 and jumped to 192.3 this year.  Along with the Heisman Trophy Robert Griffin III also won the Davey O'Brien award this year as well.  Once again Congrats to RGIII and I'm sure this won't be the last we see of him.

Heisman Trophy Finalist

The Heisman Trophy finalist were announced on Monday after ballots of the 926 voters, mostly media members and former winners, were due on Monday evening.  The Heisman Trophy winner will be announced at the Heisman Trophy ceremony on Saturday December 10th at 8 pm.

Robert Griffin III, Baylor Quarterback
(ICON)

Andrew Luck, Stanford Quarterback

Trent Richardson, Alabama Running Back

Tyrann Mathieu, LSU Defensive Back
(AP)

Montee Ball, Wisconsin Running Back
(AP)

Who do you think is the front runner for the Heisman Trophy?

LSU Runs Over UGA

LSU headed to the Georgia Dome this past weekend for the SEC Championship game against the Georgia
Bulldogs.  A lot of fans were hoping that UGA would upset LSU who were the favorites to win this game.  Georgia got off to great start scoring 10 points in the first quarter.  Only thing is that was the only points that the Bulldogs scored.  LSU played a really sloppy 1st half and if UGA could have held on to the momentum in the 1st half they might have been able to upset the Tigers.  LSU went 3 downs and out for all 7 possessions in the 1st half and the only points scored for the Tigers came from a 62 yard punt return by Mathieu in the 2nd quarter.  The Dawgs went into halftime up 10-7 but they were unable to hold on to the lead in the 2nd half as LSU ran away with the game.  Georgia's Murray had 16 of 40 pass completions for 163 passing yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions.  LSU's Jefferson on the other hand had only 5 of 13 completions for 30 passing yards and 1 touchdown.  With the 42-10 victory of the Bulldogs the Tigers sealed their bid to the BCS title game.

Kentucky Quiets UNC fans

Joe Robbins - Getty Images

Kentucky handed UNC their 2nd loss of the season on Saturday coming the same week that UNC rival Duke was handed their first loss.  Everything was looking hopefully for UNC's victory when the Tarheels went into halftime up 43-38 over the Wildcats.  Kentucky came back after the half holding UNC to only 29 points and bouncing back to beat the Tarheels 73-72.  Bullock made a 3-pointer with 48 seconds left in the game to bring the Tarheels within 1.  The game ended with Tarheels Henson's shot being block by Wildcats Davis and grabbing the rebound as the time ran out, securing the game for Kentucky.  Zeller and Barnes both led the Heels in scoring with 14 points, in which Barnes was 4-5 from 3-point range.  Kidd-Gilchrist led the Wildcats in both scoring and rebounds with 17 points and 11 rebounds.  After their loss to UNLV the Tarheels dropped from #1 to #5 as Kentucky took their place in the #1 spot.

Lattimore Out For Season

After dismissing quarterback Stephen Garcia earlier last week, the South Carolina Gamecocks have now lost tailback Marcus Lattimore but not at their hands.  Lattimore will miss the remainder of the season after leaving the game during the 4th quarter versus Mississippi State on Saturday with a knee injury.  After further examinations by doctors Coach Steve Spurrier announced that the injury to Lattimore was more severe that had been expected and that Marcus would not return for the season.

AP Photo
"Our worst fear were realized," -Coach Steve Spurrier on finding out Lattimore
will miss remainder of season.

Lattimore suffered a torn ligament and cartilage damage in the left knee.  Marcus will be required to wear a brace and keep the knee stabilized before undergoing surgery in several weeks.

Before leaving the game Saturday Lattimore had already rushed for 818 yards and 10 touchdowns for the season and was well on the way to having an outstanding season for the Gamecocks.  Marcus' injury was suffered during the 4th quarter when a Mississippi State defender rolled under his left leg.  Freshman Brandon Wilds will likely be the tailback filling in for Lattimore beginning on October 29th when South Carolina take on Tennessee.

UGA Defeats Vanderbilt

Scoring on six consecutive possessions in the game, Georgia held off to defeat Vanderbilt 33-28.  UGA needed to victory last night to remain in 2nd place in the SEC East behind the South Carolina Gamecocks.  The victory made UGA 4-1 in the SEC East Conference and 5-2 overall.

The game went down to the wire and came down to a penalty with 7 seconds left in the game.  With 1:12 left in the game Vanderbilt's Rodgers pass was intercepted by Georgia's Rambo which sealed the victory for the Bulldogs.  Vanderbilt continued to fight blocking Georgia's punt getting the ball on Georgia's 19 yard line.  During the punt Vanderbilt received a 5 yard penalty pushing the ball back to the 24 yard line and within 7 seconds the Bulldogs had officially gotten the victory over Vanderbilt.

Georgia's Aaron Murray had a career high in passing yards with 326 yards for 3 touchdowns and 1 interception.  UGA's Brown also had a great game with 4 receptions for 121 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns.

Gamecocks Escape Bulldogs

Alshon Jeffrey catches a 4-yard touchdown pass from
Connor Shaw with 3:50 left in the game 

Earlier this week South Carolina's quarterback Stephen Garcia was dismissed from the team which resulted from Garcia testing positive for marijuana and alcohol.  Garcia's positive testing for alcohol was a violation of agreement between with Garcia that stipulated he would not drink alcohol.  South Carolina was unable to play pass the controversy and get the 14-12 victory over the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Shaw which has started the last 2 games in place of Garcia was 20 for 38 in passing with 155 passing yards 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. The Bulldogs' Russell had similar numbers with 165 passing yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions.  

The 'cocks trailed the 'dogs 10-7 with 4 minutes left in the game when a touchdown pass from Connor Shaw to Alshon Jeffrey with 3:50 left in the game put the Gamecocks on top of the Bulldogs by 4 points.  With less than 3 minutes left in the game the Bulldogs were unable to capitalize during their possession and Russell threw an interception with 1:45 left in the game, sealing the victory for South Carolina as they proceeded to run out the clock.  Both teams great defense was the key to factor in this low scoring game and also led to a Bulldogs safety on the final play of the game.  

South Carolina's Matt Lattimore left the game early during the 4th quarter with a leg injury. Lattimore ended the game with 39 rushing yards and 1 touchdown before being escorted to the locker room.

Boise State Rolls Over Toledo

With 5 minutes still left in the game, Kellen Moore of Boise State had already thrown for 455 yards and 5 touchdowns and was 32 for 42 in passing.

Moore got the pace of the game rolling in the first quarter throwing 2 touchdown passes, one for 26 yards and the other for 71 yards.  Going into the half Moore kept the game rolling throwing a touchdown pass to Tyler Shoemaker with 17 seconds left in the 1st half putting the Broncos up 20-9 at halftime.

The Broncos went into the game against Toledo looking to improve its running game who ended up having only 145 rushing yards in Friday's game.  Doug Martin led the Broncos in rushing with 19 carries for 70 yards as well as leading Boise State in receiving with 5 receptions for 122 yards.

Moore was definitely a beast in Friday's game, putting up NFL numbers.  His precision, accuracy and the numbers he put up had a lot sitting back in awe.  With 1:22 left in the 1st half Moore was able to get the football down to the 1 yard line within 6 consecutive passes.  Moore went on the lead the Broncos in a 40-15 victory over the Toledo Rockets.

"If we have to put the ball in Kellen's hands, we don't have any problems with that," Boise State Coach Chris Peterson.

Terrelle Pryor Forgoes Senior Year

After Coach Jim Tressel's decision to resign as head coach at Ohio State, quarterback Terelle Pryor has announced that he would not return to Ohio State for his senior year.  Pryor would have started next season suspended for five games for trading memorabilia for money and tattoos from individuals while playing for Ohio State.  Pryor was one of several players that would undergo suspension during the upcoming school year due to allegations.  The resignation of Tressel and Pryor's decision cam weeks after a former Ohio State player came forward with information that would prove all allegations to be true.  Pryor's lawyer announced today that Pryor felt that it was in the best interest of his teammates to not return to the Ohio State football team next season.

Walker's Buzzer Beater

With the score tied at 74, Kemba Walker stepped back and took a shot and the buzzer sounded just as the ball went through the hoop putting UCONN over Pittsburgh 76-74.  Walker was 8-22 from the field and had 24 points in the game including the buzzer beater to end the game.  UCONN converted 11 of Pittsburgh turnovers into 20 points and played with guard Roscoe Smith in the 2nd half.  Huskies guard Smith went out with 7:20 left in the 1st half after receiving an elbow to the head and having to get 8 stitches and undergoing a concussion test.  Pittsburgh's Gibbs had a great game as well hitting a 3 pointer with 47.9 seconds left in the game which tied it at 74.  Gibbs was 10-13 from the field and ended the game with 27 points.

Orange Crush

Frank Ordonez/The Post Standard 

After going 18-0 at the beginning of the season, Syracuse Orange has now lost 4 games straight including a game last night to the Marquette Golden Eagles.  The 4 game losing streak is the first time Syracuse has lost 4 games straight since the 2005-06 season.  The Golden Eagles rose over the Big Orange last night defeating them 76-70.  Marquette a 42-31 lead heading into the second half and Syracuse started the second half with an 8-1 run while holding Marquette scoreless for almost four minutes to pull to 43-39 with 16:38 left. Marquette's Crowder had 25 points in the victory and Syracuse's Joseph led the Orange with 18 points in the loss.