NCAAF

1:00 AM ET The 2021 college football season has been a rollicking, chaotic mess so far, but until Week 8, something had been missing — something terrible and beautiful and ridiculous. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Kansas to the party. The Jayhawks brought a close game against Oklahoma and a bottle of cheap wine. They’re,

5:04 PM ET Oklahoma survived another slow start in a 35-23 win over Kansas, and Caleb Williams once again provided a spark, but in an unusual way. With Oklahoma clinging to a 28-23 lead in the fourth quarter with just over three minutes remaining, the Sooners went for it on fourth and 1 at their

6:08 PM ET CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Miami Hurricanes athletic director Blake James was not ready to make any pronouncements for how this season would play out for coach Manny Diaz, who has come under fire for a 2-4 start. Asked whether Diaz was on the hot seat, James told ESPN.com, “I don’t know how

6:58 PM ET Southern Miss is set to join the Sun Belt Conference, which could soon add several members, sources told ESPN. The Southern Miss move is a “done deal,” a source said, and the school probably will join the Sun Belt for the 2023 fall athletics season. Southern Miss is the latest school to

1:16 PM ET Oklahoma State and Mike Gundy have agreed to a new deal that will restore the football coach to a “perpetual five-year contract” with the Cowboys after the rollover had been decreased to four years in 2020, the university announced Friday. Last year, Gundy voluntarily took a $1 million pay cut and amended

3:46 PM ET ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Thursday that quarterback JT Daniels was as healthy as he’s been since the fourth game of the season, but that doesn’t mean Smart is necessarily going to make a quarterback change. Senior Stetson Bennett has started the past three games and four of the

6:29 PM ET The family of Jake Ehlinger, a Texas linebacker who died in May, said Thursday that his death was caused by an accidental overdose of what was believed to be Xanax laced with Fentanyl. Ehlinger, the younger brother of former Texas and current Indianapolis Colts quarterback Sam Ehlinger, was found unresponsive on May

10:12 AM ET Six schools — Florida Atlantic, Charlotte, North Texas, UTSA, Rice and UAB — have accepted invitations to join the American Athletic Conference, the league announced Thursday. No date has been set for the schools to join the conference, but a source told ESPN that the earliest they could join would be the

6:00 AM ET Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett is off to an exceptional start to the season, and he’s worked his way into the Heisman conversation while putting the Panthers in the driver’s seat in the ACC Coastal. Still, this is just a good QB having a great season, right? Perhaps not, says Clemson defensive coordinator

11:09 AM ET Former Washington State coach Nick Rolovich will be suing the university for illegal termination, in part because of “discriminatory and vindictive behavior” by athletic director Pat Chun, an attorney representing Rolovich said Wednesday. Washington State fired Rolovich and four other assistant coaches Monday night after they refused to comply with a mandate

7:00 AM ET [Editor’s note: The number of winless teams keeps dwindling, which means changes at the top of the Bottom 10. Could a Power 5 team in Arizona win the whole thing? And what is Tennessee doing in here?] Inspirational thought of the week: Why be afraid if I’m not alone?Though life is never

7:00 AM ET A quarterback of one of the country’s leading quarterback factories, one of the nation’s top recruits, was yanked from the lineup and replaced with a young firebrand who rallied the team. “It’s uncomfortable, it’s awkward, it’s unfortunate,” he said on Monday. We’re not talking Spencer Rattler — at least not yet. But

5:45 PM ET The American Athletic Conference has received applications from six schools hoping to join the conference, and the AAC is expected to send them each formal letters by the end of the week detailing the terms of expansion, a source with knowledge of the process told ESPN on Tuesday. Florida Atlantic, Charlotte, North

12:17 PM ET Clemson football’s Dabo Swinney said Tuesday that he had no interest in the LSU coaching vacancy at this point, joking that he was surprised to be considered “a big-time coach.” “This is the only Death Valley I’m concerned with right here,” Swinney said, referring to the stadiums in Clemson and Baton Rouge,

10:00 AM ET Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich and four assistant coaches were fired Monday for refusing to comply with a mandate that required all state employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. It marked the end of a monthslong process during which Rolovich did not explain why he was unwilling to get the vaccine

4:05 PM ET Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher attempted to shut down rumors that he would consider leaving for LSU, telling reporters on Monday that “we’re in the process of building something great and I plan on being here and fulfilling this contract.” Fisher’s comments came a day after LSU and coach Ed Orgeron

7:57 PM ET PULLMAN, Wash. — Nick Rolovich is out as the Washington State football coach after refusing to become vaccinated for COVID-19, a requirement for all state employees, a source confirmed to ESPN on Monday. Multiple unvaccinated assistant coaches are also out, the source said. Defensive coordinator Jake Dickert is expected to be named

7:31 AM ET KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Lane Kiffin stood outside the visitor’s locker room at Neyland Stadium in the wee hours of Sunday morning proudly twirling a beaten-up yellow range ball and searching for a new visor. He’d just tossed his old visor to the jeering Tennessee fans as he exited a field littered with