COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The third-ranked Texas Longhorns still have their undefeated record and BCS national championship hopes intact.

But the Longhorns found themselves in a much tougher than expected shootout with rival Texas A&M before pulling away for a 49-39 win Thursday night at Kyle Field in their regular-season finale to keep their dreams alive. Texas, which finished 12-0, 8-0 in Big 12, is a win away from a likely BCS national title bid provided the Longhorns make it past Nebraska in next week's Big 12 Championship Game.

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The Backyard Brawl between West Virginia and Pittsburgh is one of the best -- and better named -- rivalries in college football.

And it's also home to the Big East's rudest fan bases, according to a survey of college football fans by SI.com.

The survey of 33,144 fans nationwide voted West Virginia and Pittsburgh as the favorite stadiums to visit in the Big East -- 23.2 percent voted for WVU's Milan Puskar Stadium and 19.5 percent voted for Pitt's Heinz Field.

However, West Virginia and Pitt fans also were the overwhelming choices as the league's rudest fans. WVU received 34.9 percent of the vote, followed by Pitt at 25 percent.

Friday night when Pitt visits West Virginia, there might be more late hits in the stands than on the field.

The mystery surrounding Dan Hawkins' immediate future at Colorado has been resolved.

Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn announced Thursday morning that the embattled coach will return for his fifth season in 2010 despite four losing seasons. Speculation had mounted in recent weeks as the Colorado Buffaloes spiral at 3-8 – their third non-bowl season in four years.

But Bohn and Colorado chancellor Dr. Phillips DiStefano met with Hawkins and his team Thursday morning to inform them of the plans to allow Hawkins to continue on.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Charles Woodson wants to be known as more than a football player.

Donating $2 million to the new University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital and Women's Hospital gives him a chance to do that.

The school announced Woodson's gift on Thanksgiving before he played for the Green Bay Packers against the Detroit Lions. The money will support pediatric research by The Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund in the $754-million, 1.1-million square foot hospital scheduled to open in 2012.

On Wednesday night, New Jersey Devils broadcaster Sherry Ross made history when she became the first female broadcaster to provide play-by-play in English for an entire NHL game.

Ross, who is usually the color commentator on Devils radio broadcasts, took over the play-by-play when fourth-year New Jersey announcer Matt Loughlin took time to be with his family after the passing of his father-in-law. Ross called the game, with former Devils forward Rob Skrlac serving as analyst.

Nearly a decade ago, I took my first and only trip to the center of the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, Miss., and I lived to tell about it.

It wasn't fun.

The place is called The Grove, where tailgaters join others before Mississippi football games to hear a concert from The Pride of the South Marching Band. With various versions of "Dixie " blaring, Confederate flags waving and "yahoos" echoing through the willow oaks, the whole thing ranks among the most appalling things I've seen as a sports journalist who happens to be darker than a KKK hood.

As a man who lives and works in Green Bay, Wis., Aaron Rodgers knows. He's not blind or deaf. He sees the highlights, browses the web, listens to the talking heads. Like each and every one of his green-and-gold-clad neighbors, Rodgers is aware that the 2009 NFL season has been a turbulence-free cloud surf for Brett Favre and the Vikings and a brutal, muddy slog for his own Packers. You could actually argue that nobody knows this better than Rodgers, since no one else in town has (presumably) been sacked 43 times this year.

But since this is a day on which we're supposed to appreciate all the good things we have in life and take a little break from dwelling on the bad, I hereby invite the good people of Green Bay to fry up some Thanksgiving cheese curds, sit back and watch their man Rodgers dismantle the Detroit Lions. And as you watch, take a second to think to yourselves, "Hey, we could have it a lot worse."

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

Just because something is corny, doesn't mean it can't be done. Saying what you are thankful for on Thanksgiving is an American tradition. Sure, it may be a bit played out -- and some would even say lame -- to write a column about things we're thankful for in a given sport. But I'll be damned if I'm gonna spit in the face of all the great Americans before me who began the tradition and kept it alive for all these years. So, let's do it, baseball-style.

If you're a Steelers fan, there were a lot of things in Sunday's loss to the Chiefs that would drive a man to drink, but in rewatching the game with an eye on the offensive line play, there was one disappointing aspect that may have been missed when watching the game live.

After not getting any sacks in the first 55 minutes of the game, Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger was sacked three times in the final three minutes of regulation. The first sack came on a third down, forcing the Steelers to punt while the third sack, also on third down, ended Pittsburgh's chances of keeping the game from going to overtime.

Now the frustrating part was that both of those third-down sacks came on the exact same blitz call by the Chiefs, both of which took advantage of a flaw in the Steelers' blocking scheme.

The six teams that will play on Thanksgiving are a combined 10-1 this season when their quarterbacks pass for at least 300 yards. Historically, that's unusual: in the past, 300-yard passing games have not corresponded to winning. That, however, is no longer the case.