— Cincinnati Bengals are worth $5.5B, the least of any NFL team.
There are only four major league baseball teams worth more than the Bengals:
Cubs, Red Sox, Dodgers, Bronx.
— Louisiana Tech 23, Coastal Carolina 14
Chanticleers led 14-3 at halftime.
Coastal in second half: 41 plays, 107 yards, 3 turnovers.
La Tech in second half: 34 plays, 175 yards, 3 turnovers, 20 points.
— Illinois 30, Tennessee 28
Illinois drove 65 yards, kicked game-winning FG at the gun.
Tennessee had taken lead on 94-yard kick return with 4:58 left.
Illini ran for 221 yards, outgained Tennessee 417-278.
— TCU 30, USC 27 OT
TCU scored 10 points in last 4:24 to force overtime.
TCU scored TD on 3rd-and-20 play to win game in OT.
Underdogs are 8-3 ATS in last eleven Alamo Bowls.
— Former Eagles-49ers-Oregon-UCLA head coach Chip Kelly is the new offensive coordinator at Northwestern. Kelly was OC for the Raiders this year, at Ohio State last year. Football coaches move around a lot.
— Clemson fired offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, making him the scapegoat for the Tigers’ 7-6 season. Clemson was 26-14 in Riley’s three years there; he is the brother of USC head coach Lincoln Riley.
— Chargers’ QB Justin Herbert (left thumb) won’t play against Denver this week; Trey Lance (2-3 as an NFL starter) will get the nod.
— Famous birthdays, December 31:
Anthony Hopkins, 88
Ben Kingsley, 82
Tim Matheson, 78
Bebe Neuwirth, 67
Rick Aguilera, 64
Bryon Russell, 55
Esteban Loaiza, 54
Brent Barry, 54
Heath Shuler, 54
Jason Campbell, 44
— Movie of the Day: Hustle (2022)- A scout for the 76ers discovers a phenomenal streetball player while in Spain and sees the prospect as his opportunity to become an assistant coach. If you like basketball, this is an excellent movie.
Adam Sandler is the coach, Queen Latifah is his wife, Juancho Hernangomez is the player who gets discovered on a playground in Spain. There are a lot of NBA players/executives in this movie. The basketball workout scenes are well-done.
— Creighton 89, Butler 85
Bluejays shot 58.1% inside the arc, scored 1.23 ppp.
Butler had 21 offensive rebounds (#14 on offensive boards)
Creighton is 3-0 in the Big East, scoring 90.3 ppg.
— Oregon State 70, San Francisco 62
Good bounce back for Beavers (lost by 38 to Santa Clara Sunday)
San Francisco led 30-25 at halftime.
Oregon State was 11-23 on arc, Dons 4-21
— Seton Hall 79, Marquette 73
Marquette led by 6 with 2:50 left in the game.
Seton Hall out-rebounded Marquette, 51-33.
12-2 Pirates are #15 experience team; they’re forcing turnovers 23.1% of time (#8)
— Duquesne 89, Davidson 83, 2OT
Dukes shot 35.3% inside arc, 16-35 outside arc.
Duquesne out-rebounded Davidson, 53-39
6-2 senior Guinyard played 46:00, scored 24 points, had 6 assists.
Some baseball notes…….
— Last year, Houston Astros scored 4.23 runs/game, their worst mark since 2014; they missed the playoffs last year for the first time since 2016. Altuve-Alvarez were hampered by injuries last year; they need to be healthier and to score more runs this coming season.
— 2024 White Sox scored the fewest runs of any team since 1972; last year, they scored 140 more runs than they did the year before, and now they’ve added 1B Munetaka Murakami, so their offense figures to improve again.
Last three years, Chicago won 61-41-60 games, after going 81-81 in 2022.
— Last year, the 12 worst teams in on-base %age missed the playoffs; Rockies/Royals walked the fewest times in the major leagues. Adding Isaac Collins from Milwaukee figures to spruce up the Kansas City offense (his OBP% was .368).
— Orioles re-signed P Zach Eflin for one year, $10M; last year, Eflin was 6-5, 5.93 in 14 starts in a injury-hampered season. He had a 2.60 ERA in 2024, is 68-67, 4.28 in 188 career starts.
