LSU, USC MOVE UP IN CFP RANKINGS
LSU moved up to fifth and USC was sixth Tuesday night in the College Football Playoff rankings behind Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan and TCU.
The top four remained the same for the third straight week, but the chasing teams changed order after Tennessee lost to South Carolina last Saturday night.
Selection committee Chairman Boo Corrigan, who is also the athletic director at North Carolina State, said there was a lot of discussion about LSU (9-2) and USC (10-1) this week.
“The committee at the end of the day, saw the wins over Alabama, Mississippi (for LSU) as stronger than the wins over UCLA and Oregon State (for USC),” Corrigan said.
“The one area we still have questions on is the strength of the defense of USC and looking at it in its entirety, we believe that LSU deserves to be ranked five and SC six.”
Two games this weekend could create more clarity.
Michigan (11-0) is at Ohio State (11-0) on Saturday and USC hosts Notre Dame (8-3), which checked in at 15th in the selection committee’s rankings.
There are two more rankings left. The final ones on Dec. 4 set the field for the College Football Playoff.
The semifinals will be played Dec. 31 in the Peach and Fiesta bowls. The national championship game will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
Alabama was seventh, though the Crimson Tide don’t seem to have a realistic route to make the College Football Playoff for the eight time in nine years. LSU and Georgia are already locked into the Southeastern Conference title game.
Clemson came in eighth, Oregon was ninth and Tennessee fell to 10th.
KU extends Leipold again Kansas Lance Leipold
and coach have agreed to their second contract extension in less than three months, this time adding two years to his deal and keeping him tied to the Jayhawks through the 2029 season, a person familiar with the terms told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday night because the school had not announced the extension.
Leipold had a year added to his original contract on Sept. 1 as a reward for a two-win first season that raised hopes around Lawrence that the football program might return to relevance. But after a 5-0 start had the Jayhawks ranked in the AP Top 25, and a sixth win made them bowl-eligible, the school aggressively moved to lock up Leipold well into the future — especially with Nebraska and Wisconsin, where he has deep connections, in the market for coaches.
Leipold’s original contract was a $16.5 million, six-year pact that paid him $2.2 million in its initial season with $200,000 increases each year.
He also would earn $50,000 for finishing in the Top 25, earning Big 12 coach of the year or winning seven regular-season games, a threshold he can clear with a win Saturday over rival Kansas State.
He’s already earned a $100,000 bonus for qualifying for a bowl and can earn another $75,000 for academic benchmarks.
Notable
Wisconsin-Whitewater coach Kevin Bullis has retired after posting a 78-13 record in seven seasons at the Division III program, school officials announced.
Wisconsin-Whitewater was an NCAA Division III runner-up under Bullis in 2019 and lost in the semifinals in 2015, 2018 and 2021.
The Warhawks went 8-3 this season and fell 33-28 to Aurora in the first round of the playoffs.
Bullis posted a 45-4 mark in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference competition.