Top Stories
Posted by Ray Hui (RSS feed)
Filed Under: UFC

This is the UFC 106 live blog for
Tito Ortiz vs.
Forrest Griffin, the main event between two former UFC light heavyweight champions on tonight's pay-per-view.
The fight is a rematch from UFC 59 in April 2006 which saw Ortiz take a split decision over Griffin.
The live blog begins below.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 11:04PM By Terrance Harris (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Kansas, Texas, BCS, Big 12

AUSTIN,
Texas -- For 21 University of Texas seniors, Saturday night was their last time playing at Texas Memorial Stadium. So they made it a night to remember.
The second-ranked Longhorns overpowered
Kansas en route to a 51-20 victory that cemented them as the Big 12 South division champions and sealed senior quarterback
Colt McCoy's place as college football's all-time winningest quarterback with 43 career wins.
But the
Texas Longhorns, who are well positioned for their first BCS national championship game bid since 2005, still have quite a bit of business to finish. They will have to get past rival Texas A&M on Thanksgiving night and then North division champ
Nebraska in the Big 12 title game.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 11:00PM By Lem Satterfield (RSS feed)
Filed Under: WBA, Showtime, FanHouse Exclusive

FanHouse has a
Mikkel Kessler vs.
Andre Ward live blog for round-by-round updates for one of the Showtime Super Six Super Middleweight World Boxing Classic bouts.
The 168-pound main event will start a little after 10PM ET. The live blog begins below.
Kessler (42-1, 32 knockouts) vs. Ward (20-0, 13 KOs) live blog: Refresh this page often for minute-by-minute updates.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 7:14PM By Lisa Olson (RSS feed)
Filed Under: NBA

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Desperation oozed from every pore. If New York-area basketball hasn't reached its nadir, it's only because the
NBA has a silly rule that some team must win. Otherwise, who knows how low this charade might go? The players might be the ones slipping paper bags over their heads, to match the fans' embarrassment as they sit in the stands and try not to rubberneck.
Though plenty of empty seats were available, more than the usual few gluttons for punishment showed up at the Izod Center Saturday afternoon, hoping to see ... what?
New Jersey Nets coach
Lawrence Frank fired after the first quarter?
New York Knicks owner James Dolan do an about-face and sign Allen Iverson to a multi-year deal? The teams set a combined record for most horrendous shooting in four quarters? Dora the Explorer, the day's big draw, dunk over
Nate Robinson? The possibilities really were endless.
As it was, the
Nets dropped to 0-13 and continued to careen dangerously toward matching the league record of 17 straight losses to open a season. The Knicks, by virtue of their 98-91 victory, actually won consecutive games to improve to 3-9, and can now turn their focus back on the real goal: convincing
LeBron James, or any big free agent to-be, that the cesspool really isn't as nasty as it currently looks.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 6:16PM By Holly Cain (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Mark Martin, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports

HOMESTEAD, Fla. --
Mark Martin winces, then breaks into a grin every time he hears the introduction.
"Ladies and gentlemen ... Mark Martin, who is attempting to become the oldest champion in NASCAR history."
The difference between this week and years ago is that Martin grinned. He's been doing that a lot lately.
Martin trails his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson by 108 points entering Sunday's Ford 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup season finale at Homestead Miami Speedway. Johnson, 34, only needs to finish 25th or better to clinch a historic fourth consecutive title.
Martin, 50, is still looking for his first.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 4:00PM By Mark Hasty (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Michigan, Ohio State

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'" -- John Greenleaf Whittier For Michigan it really might have been, if not for a dreadful game by
Tate Forcier and the Wolverine offense.
Rich Rodriguez's squad fell to Ohio State 21-10 today, keeping Michigan out of the postseason for the second year in a row.
Forcier threw four interceptions. He also fumbled in Michigan's end zone on the Wolverines' opening drive, which OSU recovered for a touchdown.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 2:30PM By Holly Cain (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- If pressed to find one thing
Ryan Newman would change about his season, of course, he'd like to score a win in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup season finale at Homestead Miami Speedway.
After being close to victory circle a half-dozen times this season, that's about the only thing he feels is missing from a stellar debut season with the essentially start-up Stewart-Haas Racing team. Newman won two pole positions in the No. 39 U.S. Army-sponsored Chevrolet and, after an ominous start at the season-opening Daytona 500, still qualified for the 12-driver Chase for the Championship.
In our last installment of Inside the Chase for the Championship with Ryan Newman, FanHouse looks at the evolution of the season and how Newman evaluates his fresh start.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 1:55PM By Brett Pollakoff (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Celtics, Magic

When the
Celtics signed
Rasheed Wallace over the summer as their big offseason acquisition, they may have thought they were getting a big man who would stretch the floor with his three-point shooting, and one who would force the centers on the other contenders to come out of the paint to try and stop him.
But 13 games into the Sheed experiment in Boston, Wallace's three-point shooting has hurt his new team far more than it has helped them. And Friday night's 0-for-8 performance from beyond the arc?
That one was so bad, it made history.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 11:00AM By Matt Snyder (RSS feed)
Filed Under: MLB Free Agency

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each week.
I used to always enjoy lists like our own
Frankie Piliere's Top 50 Free Agents. Then
Milton Bradley happened. Now, as a
Cubs fan whose been scorned by the clubhouse-dividing, unaccountable-yet-entitled lunatic, I can't look through the list without being skeptical of many of them. Which one is going to ruin someone else's favorite team like Bradley ruined mine? With this in mind, I present 11 potentially dangerous free agent signings in this year's class.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 10:09AM By Brett Pollakoff (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Clippers, Grizzlies, NBA Media Watch

The
Clippers got what was by far their best win of the season on Friday, but unfortunately, the team's longtime play-by-play man Ralph Lawler wasn't in his usual courtside spot to see it.
Lawler and color commentator Michael Smith were suspended for Friday's game, for what the team deemed to be inappropriate remarks the two made during the Clippers' telecast on Wednesday, when the team faced the
Memphis Grizzlies.
The comments in question were regarding
Hamed Haddadi, who is a rookie and the first Iranian player to appear in the
NBA.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 9:23AM By David Whitley (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Boise State

LOGAN,
Utah -- It's not easy to feel sorry for the winningest football program of the millennium, but let's try.
Boise State beat
Utah State, 52-21, Friday night to improve to 11-0. For the second straight year it will probably finish the regular season unbeaten.
Who knows? If the Broncos have five or six more perfect seasons, the BCS might invite the Broncos to its title game. Not to play, but perhaps they'll be allowed to valet
Alabama's bus or hand out towels in the men's room.
With that vision in mind, I came here to feel sorry for the eternally shafted Broncos. The more I saw, the less sympathy I felt.
Posted: Nov 21, 2009 8:30AM By FanHouse Newswire (RSS feed)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- New York Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce is out indefinitely after an MRI exam on Friday surprisingly revealed a bulging disk in his neck. The Giants said their defensive captain underwent the test in New York and was ...
Posted: Nov 20, 2009 11:14PM By Pat Lackey (RSS feed)

The Nationals learned Friday that the knee injury suffered by Stephen Strasburg will not require surgery to repair. It's instead been diagnosed as a dislocated knee cap. As painful as that sounds, there's no ligament damage and the Nats' phenom will ...
Posted: Nov 20, 2009 9:30PM By Brian Straus (RSS feed)

SEATTLE -- David Beckham continues to claim he's committed to both the Los Angeles Galaxy and Major League Soccer, and on Friday afternoon seemed to back that up with a promise to play in Sunday's MLS Cup final despite pain in his foot that will ...
Posted: Nov 20, 2009 8:25PM By Holly Cain (RSS feed)

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- The hard-core conspirators will think NASCAR scripted it. The reality is Jimmie Johnson was the fastest driver of the day. Johnson will start his No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet from the pole position in Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead ...
Posted: Nov 20, 2009 8:06PM By Michelle Smith (RSS feed)

The Sacramento Monarchs, one of the WNBA's original eight franchises folded Friday, leaving the league to scramble to find a new ownership group, possibly in the San Francisco Bay Area, in time for the 2010 season. The league announced Friday that it ...