Tuesday's Sports in Brief
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
NEW YORK (AP) - Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson and Ohio State will enter championship weekend in position to make the College Football Playoff with very little drama.
In fact, where the semifinals will be played might be more in doubt than who will play in them.
The top five teams were locked into their places for the fourth straight week, with the Crimson Tide (10-0) leading the way as it prepares to play Florida for the Southeastern Conference championship.
The Fighting Irish (10-0) are second and Clemson is third going into their Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.
Ohio State (5-0) is fourth going into the Big Ten title game against Northwestern, and Texas A&M is on deck at No. 5. The Aggies play at Tennessee in their last regular-season game Saturday.
If all the favorites win - that includes Clemson (9-1) in the rematch with Notre Dame - the current top four likely would be reordered a bit and placed in the semifinals.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) - Tara VanDerveer made history, and then took a moment to tell her Stanford players what they mean to her.
Typical Tara, wanting to share the joy on a night when the spotlight shined brightly on her - and her alone.
VanDerveer became the winningest women´s college basketball coach Tuesday night, passing the late Pat Summitt with her 1,099th victory as No. 1 Stanford romped to a 104-61 victory over Pacific.
VanDerveer received the game ball after the final buzzer. Her dancing players chanted "Tara! Tara!" and gave her a new oversized pullover reading "T-DAWG" to celebrate the latest milestone for the Hall of Fame coach in her 35th season on The Farm and 42nd overall as a college head coach.
NFL
NEW YORK (AP) - NFL teams won´t be allowed to create local bubbles during the postseason by mandating that players stay in a hotel, except for the night before a game.
Teams will be allowed to continue paying for players who want to move into a hotel to avoid the risk of catching COVID-19 from family or roommates throughout the postseason, according to the memo.
When teams stay in hotels before games, players and staff now will be required to wear a tracing device until they return to their rooms for the night whether staying at home or on the road.
The NFL also reminded teams that gathering socially at team hotels remains prohibited, while requirements to wear masks and physical distance from each other are still in effect.
NBA
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Giannis Antetokounmpo agreed to a supermax extension with the Milwaukee Bucks that takes the two-time reigning MVP off next summer´s free-agent market.
Antetokounmpo posted Tuesday on his social media platforms that he was staying in Milwaukee. The Bucks announced later in the day that Antetokounmpo had signed an extension without announcing the terms or length.
The 26-year-old Antetokounmpo had until Monday to sign the Bucks´ supermax extension offer. If he turned it down, Antetokounmpo could have become a free agent after the upcoming season.
The Athletic and Stadium reported that he agreed to a five-year extension worth $228 million that includes an opt-out clause in 2025.
His decision means the Bucks will hang on to their biggest star since Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who led Milwaukee to its lone NBA title in 1971, but demanded a trade and was dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1975
BASEBALL
NEW YORK (AP) - Free agent catcher James McCann signed a $40.6 million, four-year contract with the New York Mets, joining a team now ready to spend big to build a winner.
The 30-year-old McCann was an All-Star with the White Sox in 2019 and this season set career highs in batting average (.289), on-base percentage (.360) and slugging percentage (.536).
McCann gets a $600,000 signing bonus payable on Jan. 15, salaries of $8 million in each of the first two seasons and $12 million in each of the final two years.
New team owner Steve Cohen has said he would consider it disappointing if the don´t win the World Series in the next three to five years.
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