college Football
As expected, Florida State and Auburn to play for title
No. 1 Florida State and No. 2 Auburn will play in the final BCS championship game on Jan. 6 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
The match made Saturday night when the Seminoles and Tigers won their conference championship games and Ohio State lost was made official when the pairings for all the marquee bowl games were announced.
The Seminoles played in the first three BCS title games under former coach Bobby Bowden, winning one but haven’t been back since 2000. Auburn is 1-for-1 in championship games, winning the 2010 title behind Heisman winner Cam Newton.
Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston is the favorite to win this season’s Heisman.
Auburn is trying to extend the Southeastern Conference’s national title streak to eight.
Colorado State will go bowling in Albuquerque
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Colorado State will play Washington State in the New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 21.
The Mountain West Conference’s Rams (7-6) also played in the 2008 New Mexico Bowl, which was the team’s last trip to the postseason. The Rams defeated Fresno State 40-35.
The Cougars (6-6) are playing in a bowl for the first time since 2003.
skiing
Make it four victories in a row for USA’s Ted Ligety
BEAVER CREEK – Ted Ligety turned in a flawless final run to win a fourth straight World Cup race, edging U.S. teammate Bode Miller.
Ligety completed the technical course in a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 35.77 seconds on Sunday, eclipsing Miller by 1.32 seconds. Marcel Hirscher of Austria was third.
Moments after Miller took the lead with a hard-charging pass through the course, Ligety thrilled the capacity crowd in Beaver Creek with a furious run of his own, leaning across the finish line.
It’s the first time the Americans have placed two skiers on a GS podium since 2005, when Miller and Daron Rahlves went 1-2.
Gut feeling just fine Sunday in her super-G triumph
LAKE LOUISE, Alberta – Lara Gut of Switzerland won a super-G on Sunday by three-hundredths of a second for her fourth victory of a World Cup season that is only eight races old.
She’s won two super-Gs, one downhill and one slalom.
Gut finished in 1 minute, 22.86 seconds to edge Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein, while Anna Fenninger of Austria was third in 1:23.19. Wierather and Fenninger also finished 2-3 in Saturday’s downhill.
Olympic downhill champion Lindsey Vonn was fifth Sunday in 1:23.71, showing more progress in her comeback from major knee surgery after coming 40th on Friday, then 11th on Saturday.
Golf
Johnson outlasts Tiger Woods in playoff at World Challenge
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Zach Johnson delivered the kind of theatrics that usually belong to Tiger Woods to win the World Challenge.
Johnson holed out for par from the drop area on the 18th hole at Sherwood to get into a playoff, and he won when Woods hit a poor shot into the bunker and missed a 5-foot par putt on the first extra hole.
The final World Challenge at Sherwood after 14 years was set up for the perfect sendoff. There was a record crowd, and the tournament host was poised to win. Instead, Johnson rallied from four shots down with eight holes to play for his second win this year.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Lydia Ko rallied to win her first title as a professional.
The 16-year-old from New Zealand won the Swinging Skirts World Ladies Masters on Sunday, closing with a 4-under 68 for a three-stroke victory over South Korea’s So Yeon Ryu.
Associated Press
