NCAAF:
Ohio State has won the first College Football Playoff and captured its fifth outright national championship by pounding Oregon 42-20 in Arlington, Texas. Ezekiel Elliott ran for 246 yards and four touchdowns, while Cardale Jones threw for a TD and ran for another. The Buckeyes saw a 21-7 lead shrink to 21-20 before Elliott scored three second-half touchdowns.
NBA:
In the NBA, Boston bested New Orleans 108-100, Houston won against Brooklyn 113-99, Detroit squeaked by Toronto 114-111, and it was Orlando over Chicago 121-114.
The Boston Celtics have completed a three-team trade. The C's have acquired forward Tayshaun Prince and a future first round pick from the Memphis Grizzlies, and guard Austin Rivers from the New Orleans Pelicans. The Celtics have traded forward Jeff Green to Memphis.
NHL:
Over on the ice, Washington edged Colorado 2-1, Philadelphia topped Tampa Bay 7-3, and it was Los Angeles over Toronto 2-0.
NFL:
The Buffalo Bills confirmed in a release yesterday that Rex Ryan has been hired as coach.
The Denver Broncos are the latest NFL team to begin a coaching search.
The Broncos and John Fox have agreed to part ways after four AFC West titles and one Super Bowl appearance in four seasons. Denver was 49-22 under Fox, including a 46-18 mark during the regular season. But the Broncos lost their only playoff game in two of the last three seasons and were clobbered by Seattle 43-8 in last year's Super Bowl.
Team president John Elway issued a statement saying "It became clear that it was best for both the Denver Broncos and coach Fox to move on and make this change."
ESPN is reporting today that Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning played with a torn quad muscle during Sunday's 24-13 loss to Indianapolis, the severity of which he had tried to conceal.
However, two people with knowledge of Manning's health told The Associated Press it was "a strain," as the team had characterized it all along. The two people also said the tear-strain debate could be a matter of semantics because a strain occurs when a muscle is stretched too much and tears.
MLB:
Jeff Pentland has been hired to replace Kevin Long as the New York Yankees' hitting coach, and Joe Espada will take over as third base coach. Rob Thomson moves from third base to bench coach in place of Tony Pena, who shifts to first base and takes over from Mick Kelleher.
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