College Football Roundup: 2 Pivotal SEC Games

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] And now for your sports news, we're joined by NTD's Dave Martin. Dave, good to see you as always. >> Hi, good to see you, Arlene. >> And I guess you're busy today with all the college football games. I it's been quite an afternoon of sitting there and watching, you know. >> Yeah. Well, where are we so far? >> Well, I'll tell you what. You know, we we just about had the upset of this season today. Or you could call it maybe the comeback of this season, though. This is a thriller in the SEC, though. South Carolina led number three Texas A&M 30 30-3 at at halftime at College Station. It looked really bleak for the Aggies. They rallied in the second half with touchdowns on their first four drives. take back the league 31 to30. Then they held on late with their defense. So Texas A&M survives. They moved to 10 and0 on the season with the win. They are in first place in the SEC. Now meanwhile in the Big 10, second ranked Indiana had very little trouble with with Wisconsin. They won 31 to7. They're now 11-0. And then ninth ranked Notre Dame beat number 22 Pittsburgh 37 to 15. Irish now 8-2 on the season. Let's look at some more scores here. Starting in the Big 10, 18th ranked, Michigan hit a last second game-winning 31yd field goal as time expired to win at Northwestern 24-22. The game was played at iconic Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. Kind of a treat for the fans there. Also, Navy beat 24th ranked South Florida 41 to 38. The Midship are now 6-1 in the American Conference. Good for first place. And in the Big 12, Arizona what at 25th ranked Cincinnati 30- 24. Both teams are now 7 and3. Going on right now, we got another big one in the SEC with Oklahoma at number four Alabama. The Sooners just picked a field goal to go ahead 23-21. They are early in the fourth quarter on that one. Then we got another big one, the Big 10. 21st ranked Iowa and US and 17th ranked USC. USC leads that one 26-21 right now. Then tonight, well, guess what? But we got another big one. >> Four, huh? >> In the SEC, 10th. This is probably the best one of the day. I think 10th ranked Texas is at number five Georgia. The Longhorns are at the very edge of the playoff projections right now. They really need a big a big win today. Would really go a long ways for them. Of course, this is going to be tough at Georgia. Georgia is very difficult team wherever you play them. Even more tough at home. They are five and a half point favorites. So, those are the big ones that are going on right now. >> So, they're already projecting playoffs. Yeah, they have these the CFP for the last six weeks of the season puts out their projected playoffs if the season would end today. Now, personally, I mean, only the last one matters, you know. So, the the first five to me are they're pretty worthless to be honest with you, are they? They're they're media fodder. We we kind of like to talk about them, you know. They say that, you know, this is what we're thinking, you know, should they start today? They're not above, you know, doing a switcheroo at the last second and all of a sudden putting in somebody else. So they've already they've already shown to me that these are pretty much kind of useless. Just just fun for us to see. It only matters where you are on the final spot. Now this week is the second of the six. So that the final one is released like in the second week of December. So then we find out officially who's in it. >> So So not even you can predict like who might be the top teams right now. >> I mean right now it's pretty obvious who who the top few teams are. Of course Texas A&M they're undefeated. Indiana undefeated. Ohio State right now undefeated. Those are pretty obvious that they would be in. I mean, it's a 12 team playoff right now, so you can you can say right now, but they haven't clinched a spot yet. There are some there are some automatic bids you can get you can get. They're the the top five uh highest ranked conference champions get in and then it's seven at large teams that are determined by this committee. >> Well, lot of games in this in this college football, right? >> A lot of games. It's a fun season, Arlene. So, let's move on to baseball where I think there's something from Congress in here and I've got to read it here. It says expressing concerns over what is called a new integrity crisis. Now, this is a letter that Congress sent um to the league and they're saying this is just after the alleged betting scandal that led to the indictments of two players. So, what is at the crux of this inquiry? Yeah, this is senators Ted Cruz and Maria Canwell who lead the committee on commerce, science, and transportation with somehow overseas sports league somehow. I don't quite understand why they're questioning why the alleged actions of these players and especially Emanuel Claus went undiscovered for 2 years as prosecutors alleged. Now, in the federal indictment, this can't just came out this week. Prosecutors say Class's alleged hitch riging rigging started as early as May 2023. So they want to know how and when baseball found out because both these players uh Claus A and Luis Ortiz were placed on nondiscript nondis nondisciplinary excuse me paid leave back in July after betting firms flagged irregular bets on some pitches thrown by Ortiz. Now it's unclear how class A was linked originally as well at this part particular time. Now this same committee sent the NBA the pretty much a similar letter last month after their own betting scandal. Personally though, I'm I'm kind of actually partial to the sports leagues in this because they don't have subpoena power like a federal prosecutor would have. I wouldn't think. I mean, plus sports betting was also legalized, you know, to the public in 2018. I mean, it's up to each state, you know, to decide on their own. I mean, to to me, it kind of seemed like it was only a matter of time before it would start possibly leaking into sports and you'd have problems like these arriving as the federal prosecutors are alleging. Well, you're saying sports betting is legal in some states. So, are they targeting states where it's not legal? Is that what's happening? >> No. No. What what they are alleging is that these players, you know, took money to to rig these pitches, you know, because they they have prop bets, you know, some of the pitches, some of the bets are, well, is this pitch going to be under 98 mph? And so they're alleging that on the on some pitches he that one of them took money to make it slower than 98 on purpose so that these people would win money. That's what they're alleging. And there's also, you know, you know, is this next pitch going to be a ball or a strike. And so they're alleging that these players were rigging these pitches so that the these betterers were winning money. So it's not it's not that they're it's not necessarily that their betting is is wrong. is that that if you try to, you know, game the system, that's what that's what they're saying. >> Okay. Well, let's talk more about baseball this week with Show Otani, who was a unanimous winner of the National League's MVP award uh over on the American League. Not so clear uh who's who's the contenders there and and what happened. >> Yeah, Judge won a very close vote. You know, he had 17 first place votes, 13 second place votes. Meanwhile, Cal Raleigh, the reverse, 13 first place, 17 second place. though very close co we almost had co- MVPs there in the American League if two guys had just switched them around but I think they got it right with Judge I mean for most of the season he really was the clear choice then he had that elbow injury in late July early August that cost him a couple weeks rally took advantage he kept hitting home runs there and I said at one point if he got to 60 home runs it'll be very difficult to ignore him on the MVP ballots especially since he's doing it a catcher I mean such a difficult position and sure enough he got hot late he ended up with exactly 60. But I still think they got it right with Judge. I mean, Judge hit 53 home runs. That's the most ever for someone who also led in batting average. But he really he led right a fair amount in pretty much every ad advanced metric as well. So, this is his third MVP award. Just 13 other players have ever done that. Otani, meanwhile, this is number four for him. Only Barry Bonds has more with seven. So, quite a week for these guys. >> Yeah, they're on their way maybe to beat Barry Bonds. >> I don't know. Well, they can combine to tie Barry Bonds. That's that's how far away Barry Bonds was in his time. Pretty amazing. >> But, you know, tennis is still ongoing. We talked about this last week about tennis. Carlos Alcarez's play this week at the ATP finals. Uh, he's guaranteed him a number one ranking through the end of the season. So, what's the significance of this number one at the end? Yeah, I mean they have rankings all throughout the year, but if you have it at the end, it's kind of more special to post because it really means you you had the best calendar year. I mean obviously at any time you got the it's a rolling 52- week calculation of points and the ATP finals where he's at right now. Uh this is the last term of the season. So they get only get some time off between now and the Australian Open in January. Now Alcan Center have really taken over the rankings the past two years. They've won the last eight grand slams between them four apiece. So, it really was a question of it's one or the other. Uh here's actually what Alcarez said after winning. The match was was really important for me. Uh playing for the number one for the number one and the number one. So, it was an it was an instant at the beginning with the with the nerves. Uh I knew that I was uh going to to play the almost the first set with with those nerves which I I had to to be focused on that. I try to handle that pressure, that nerves the the best the best I could. Uh so uh I'm just really really happy with the with the match with the level that I played today and obviously to to be able to end the the GS number one. >> Well, it's it's a great uh a great achievement. Uh it was uh it was the goal to to win the GS number one and uh yeah uh after getting getting the win in this in this match and and know that I got and and I achieved my my goal of the of the year. It means it means a lot. I think I've been playing great tennis. So excited about uh keep it going and uh I'm playing as as a final here in the ATB in the ATB finals. >> So Al Korez finishes the year number one. when he plays Yanuker tomorrow in the in the finals of the ATP finals. No matter who wins though, he's still number one. >> And he's number one with that hair, too. >> He's had a lot of good haircuts this year. >> All right, Dave, thanks so much for that report as usual. >> Thanks, Harlen. Now right.