A 12-team playoff would include the six highest-ranked conference champions in major college football, plus six at-large selections.

The College Football Playoff announced Thursday that it will consider expanding from four to 12 teams to settle the national championship, with six spots reserved for the highest-ranked conference champions and the other six going to at-large selections.

The CFP’s surprising announcement outlined a plan that would triple the number teams that enter the postseason with a chance to win it all.

Even if the format is adopted — no earlier than this fall — there was no indication in the proposal about when an expanded playoff could be in place. The soonest would seem to be for the 2023 season, but it is probably more likely to be after the 2026 season.

A selection committee would still be involved but a 12-team playoff would not limit how many teams can come from any one conference. The conference champions would receive first-round byes and teams 5-12 would face each other in four games played on campus sometime during the two-week period following conference championship weekend, typically early December.

The plan calls for no re-seeding of the bracket as teams advance. Quarterfinals would be hosted by bowl games on New Year’s Day —- unless that falls on a Sunday, in which case those games will be played Jan. 2 — and an adjacent day.

The semifinals would also be hosted by bowl games, as is the case now.

The proposal includes no dates for semifinals and the championship game to be played, but did indicate the semifinals would not be played as a doubleheader on a single day.

Currently six bowl games have a three-year rotation for hosting the semifinals and the championship game site is open to bidders, similar to the what the NFL does with the Super Bowl. The current semifinal bowl rotation includes the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach bowls.

“The process for selecting the six bowls that would rotate as hosts of the quarterfinals and semifinals (is) still to be determined,” the CFP plan said.

The plan is expected to be presented to CFP officials in Chicago on June 17-18. It’s an important step in a process that has several more ahead.

The management committee must determine next week whether it will recommend expansion to university presidents who make up the CFP oversight committee. The presidents are scheduled to meet with the management committee in Dallas on June 22.

If the presidents sign off, the next step is determining whether the plan can be implemented and when.

The College Football Playoff is entering year eight of a 12-year agreement with ESPN. The deal doesn’t lock in a format but an assumption has been that any changes would come after that deal expires following the 2025 season.

CFP executive director Bill Hancock has said no changes to the CFP format could be made this season or in 2022.

The four-team playoff was implemented in 2014, a natural progression from the Bowl Championship Series, which matched No. 1 vs. No. 2 in the title game from 1998-2013.

The playoff’s popularity seems to have stagnated as only a few teams have grabbed the majority of the spots since 2014.

Alabama and Clemson have each made the playoff six times in seven years. Ohio State and Oklahoma have each been selected four times. That’s 71% of the playoff spots to just four of the 130 teams that play major college football.

A 12-team field with six spots reserved for conference champions would guarantee at least one team from outside the Power Five conferences would be in the playoff each season. The Group of Five has never had a team crack the field of four or been particularly close.

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Now a member of the Chiefs, Long hurt his knee Wednesday.

Kyle Long’s NFL comeback hit a snag Wednesday.

Playing for the Chiefs after spending last season in retirement as a CBS Sports analyst, the former Bears guard suffered a knee injury. Chiefs coach Andy Reid told reporters Thursday that “there’s a chance he has to have surgery on it, but we’ll see,’’ though the team does not believe he has ligament damage. They hope he’ll be back for the start of the regular season.

“I did everything I could to prepare to get back for football,” Long wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning. “Zero regrets. I’ve been getting better everyday and having so much fun with my new team. Focusing on controlling the things I can control. Yesterday was not one of those things! Thanks for the well wishes.”

Long started only 29 of 64 regular-season games over his last four years with the Bears because of a variety of injuries. He reached the Pro Bowl in each of his first three seasons, during which he missed only one contest.

He missed most of the 2019 season after the Bears put him on injured reserve with a hip injury that October. Long believed he could have continued playing that year. The Bears didn’t pick up his 2020 option. Long walked away from the sport and into retirement, which lasted one year.

With his body feeling better, Long went from 255 pounds in retirement to 315 pounds in preparing for his return. He signed a one-year deal with the Chiefs in March and was playing right guard during organized team activities.

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The show was rescheduled from its usual February dates and isn’t allowing in-person spectators. Human participants must be vaccinated or newly tested.

NEW YORK — There will be plenty of tradition, pup and circumstance at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show this weekend.

But for the first time in its 145-year history, the storied canine competition is trading the buzz of the Big Apple for the airy grounds of a suburban riverfront estate, one of many changes prompted by pandemic precautions.

The show was rescheduled from its usual February dates and isn’t allowing in-person spectators. Human participants must be vaccinated or newly tested. Dogs will compete as usual on green carpet for televised parts of the competition, but some other rounds will happen on an even more traditional green carpet — the lawn at the Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown, New York.

And the sought-after best in show trophy will be awarded under a tent outside Lyndhurst’s Gothic-castlelike mansion, not in the sports palace of Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden.

AP

“It’s a heartbreak because that’s definitely part of the prestige of going, and the nostalgia,” says handler Renee Rosamilla of Ocala, Florida. “But I’m just, honestly, thrilled that they were able to let us have Westminster this year.”

The show kicks off with an agility competition Friday, followed by weekend events including the traditional breed judging that leads to the best in show title. It will be conferred Sunday night during a live broadcast on Fox. (Earlier rounds also are being televised or streamed.)

Some off-the-beaten-path breeds are in the hunt for the big prize this year. Dog cognoscenti are keeping an eye on high-ranking hopefuls including a lagotto Romagnolo — an Italian truffle-hunting breed that first appeared at Westminster only five years ago — and a Dandie Dinmont terrier, the 15th-rarest U.S. breed, by the American Kennel Club’s count. The Dandie, named for a character in Sir Walter Scott’s 1815 novel “Guy Mannering,” is considered to be at risk of disappearing even in its homeland, the United Kingdom.

The show also is due to feature four breeds that are eligible to compete for the first time — the barbet, the dogo Argentino, the Belgian Laekenois, and the Biewer terrier.

AP

Despite pandemic uncertainties and changes, Westminster filled its usual number of entry slots and even expanded the agility roster a bit, organizers said.

Still, with many dog shows canceled over the last 15 months, it was tough or impossible for some dogs to get the points needed to qualify for Westminster. There were 545 AKC-sanctioned dog shows nationwide last year, down more than 60% from 2019.

Tracy and Peter Rousseau have repeatedly made the trip to Westminster from their cattle ranch in Franktown, Colorado, to help ensure that their breed — the Norwegian lundehund, rarest of all in the AKC rankings — is represented. But none of their current dogs qualified, and the couple felt hesitant, anyway, because of virus concerns and other issues.

“We really do love showing our dogs, love educating people about this quirky little breed,” said Peter Rousseau, a civilian military employee and retired Air Force sergeant. “With all the pandemic craziness and everything, it just didn’t work out this year. We’re looking forward to getting back to it.”

The last Westminster show concluded Feb. 11, 2020, when there were only 13 confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide, though the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has since concluded the virus was already more prevalent. Within about a month, holding a public event was unthinkable.

Westminster spokesperson Gail Miller Bisher said organizers spitballed various scenarios for 2021. A virtual show? An event with archival footage? Fans-via-video, like at NBA games last summer? Something outside New York? And outdoors?

“We felt we owed it to the dog community and to the sports community to put this up,” club President Charlton “Chat” Reynders III said. “We just wanted to be sure that we created a venue where the person that might be most nervous about COVID, or health, would feel safe.”

By last fall, the club decided on June at the 67-acre Lyndhurst, about 25 miles north of Manhattan. The estate hosted a smaller dog show for decades, and former owner and Gilded Age railroad magnate/financier Jay Gould’s sons had dogs that won prizes at Westminster.

The show returns to the Garden in January 2022.

In the meantime, this year’s move is requiring some adjustments for handlers such as Rosamilla, who’s scheduled to show a harrier named Joker, a flat-coated retriever called Tildy and a Plott hound that goes by Fritz.

Unfamiliar with the area around Lyndhurst, Rosamilla initially booked at three different hotels before settling on one. Then she had to plan how to prep the dogs without the usual “benching” area where handlers have cheek-by-jowl berths — and a power supply — for grooming. This time, there will be a grooming tent, but competitors who need blow dryers or other electric accoutrements will have to wield them in their vehicles, homes or hotels.

“It’s definitely going to have challenges, but I always look forward to going to Westminster. We’ll just make do with whatever it throws at us,” Rosamilla said.

And, she said, “I’m sure the dogs are absolutely going to love it.”

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A 12-team playoff would include the six highest-ranked conference champions in major college football, plus six at-large selections.

The College Football Playoff would expand from four to 12 teams, with six spots reserved for the highest ranked conference champions, under a proposal that will be considered next week by the league commissioners who manage the postseason system.

A 12-team playoff would include the six highest-ranked conference champions in major college football, plus six at-large selections, a person familiar with announcement told The Associated Press on Thursday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the CFP has not yet released details.

A full announcement with more details of the plan was expected later Thursday. The Athletic was the first to report a 12-team model was being proposed.

The CFP’s surprising disclosure comes a week ahead of the planned presentation by a subgroup of the management committee to the full panel in Chicago on June 17-18.

It’s an important step in a process that has several more to check off before expansion can become a reality.

The management committee must determine next week whether it will recommend expansion to university presidents who make up the CFP oversight committee. The presidents are scheduled to meet with the management committee in Dallas on June 22.

If the presidents sign off, the next step is determining whether the plan can be implemented and when.

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Why do we panic when hackers shut down oil pipelines, but cheer when protesters do?

“People are the worst,” said my older son, a phrase I kept in my back pocket for frequent reference, as a sort of half explanation, half benediction. He put a little oomph on the last word, “People are the worst!”

Although, in their defense, people can be very indulgent about learning new words. For my entire career, I’ve trotted out five-dollar locutions in this column, sometimes because they’re the most precise term for conveying a particular thought, sometimes just to show off. Either way, readers invariably take the bother of looking them up, occasionally even writing in, grateful to learn a new word.

Words like “juxtaposition.” Setting one thing next to another, for comparison and contrast. To clarify a point that otherwise might be elusive.

For instance. Remember in early May, when cybercriminals shut down the east coast’s Colonial Pipeline? Suddenly everyone was panicked about gas shortages and price spikes. That video of some idiot (people … are … the … WORST!) filling a garbage bag with gasoline. Nobody greeted the Colonial crisis with “Hooray for hackers! I hope the pipeline never re-opens.”

Now draw a line from that to this week, and the Keystone XL crude pipeline being finally scuttled after years of fighting environmentalists and Native American protesters. Good news, right? Boo global warming! Three cheers for tribal activism!

Let me ask you this: How is oil supposed to be transported across our enormous country? Because if it doesn’t go by pipeline, it has to move in trucks or train cars, which are even more expensive, more dangerous and worse for the environment. Sure, like everybody else, I’m looking forward to the day when a sleek vehicle that looks like a pale blue bean and runs on a pack of Mentos glides noiselessly up in front of my house and stops; my phone softly pings, and I pad over to the curb as a previously invisible door slides open with a faint pneumatic sigh. I climb in, settle back and addictively scroll through shuffle dance videos on Instagram while the vehicle automatically ferries me where I’m going. Maybe making gasoline more expensive is part of nudging that long-anticipated future toward us. But to jump ahead and stop building pipelines now is premature, like ripping up airport runways in the hope that people will sprout wings and fly — both cheaper and more environmentally sound, if only we could do it.

Unlike you, I’ve been down to the Patoka Oil Tank Farm, about 250 miles south of Chicago, where a dozen major pipelines converge and 50 giant white tanks each hold nine minutes worth of our nation’s oil thirst. Infrastructure we seldom think about, and when we do we insist it both work flawlessly and also go away. People hate pipelines but love cars. See why that phrase is so handy? People ARE the worst.

Correction, etc.:

Print readers had enormous fun with “Wildwife,” the neologism (newly coined word) that somehow appeared in my column Wednesday instead of “Wildfire,” the actual name of the restaurant chain started by Rich Melman. Corrected immediately online, but nothing to do about the newsprint version. So much fun, I could almost take pride in inventing the term. Heck, I should probably quit my job and use it as the title of a novel. “Wildwife: A Natasha Stroganoff Romance” about a man who weds a Russian woman he met on Hinge, only to discover that …

Maybe not. The Sun-Times regrets the error.

While on the topic of mistakes. One astute reader took issue with my saying Rich Melman brought the salad bar over from Hawaii when he opened R.J. Grunts in 1971, pointing out that a Wisconsin supper club claims to have started the practice in the early 1950s. A genesis laid out in an article called, “The Evolution of the American Salad Bar,” that Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises boldly posts on its web site.

Of course both could be true. The existence of a predecessor in the hinterlands of Wisconsin doesn’t negate Melman deserving credit for reviving the culinary feature and starting a trend decades later. Alexander Graham Bell isn’t the man who invented the telephone — dozens of others developed various versions — so much as the guy who made it finally work and then grabbed all the credit for himself. People are the worst.

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The Chicago Bears are continuing the voluntary potion of their off-season program this week and on Thursday, the team secured a pivotal piece to their long-term future. On Thursday, Bears rookie quarterback Justin Fields officially signed his contract with the team. Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reported on Thursday that Fields has signed a […]

Chicago Bears News: Justin Fields signs rookie contract – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More

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Former Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler joined Red Line Radio and gave new Bears quarterback Justin Fields some advice and also discussed why he thinks Fields can succeed in Chicago.

The post Jay Cutler’s Advice to Chicago Bears Quarterback Justin Fields: “Be Patient” first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

The three-time NBA champion takes on a new challenge as game show host.

Chicago native Dwyane Wade won three NBA championships for Miami, but it’s a glass box that’s bringing the heat on his new game show.

TBS’ “The Cube,” premiering Thursday at 8 p.m. Chicago time, is based on a British format in which teams of two attempt to complete a series of deceptively easy games — like emptying a box of balls or counting rapidly moving squares – inside the structure to win a $250,000 prize. They have nine lives to accomplish seven tasks (with one or two players) and can tap Wade to help them once, a “One Shot.”

Wade, who retired from the Miami Heat in 2019, first signed on to the series as an executive producer and was hesitant when approached to host. “But I decided to take the challenge because it was something that I was a little afraid of doing,” he says. “Once I got the chance to know the game, I was like, ‘Oh, we can really do some good here as well. So it was a win-win.’”

Wade, 39, says his interaction with the contestants made hosting the 11-episode season memorable.

“It was actually emotional,” he says. “I went home most nights drained a little bit, not just from the hours but really getting so emotionally invested into each contestant’s story and the reason they were there.”

Wade spoke with USA TODAY this week about his new gig, the pressure of “The Cube,” and how he thinks he and his wife, actress Gabrielle Union, would fare as show contestants. (Spoiler alert: Not great!)

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Question: How does it feel when a team calls in their “One Shot”? Are you nervous?

Dwyane Wade: There is so much pressure. I’m sitting there for hours. I’m doing multiple groups per day. I’m getting three or four different (teams) in per day, and then it’s like, in the midst of the heated moment, they like, “OK, Let’s call D in to do it.”

And I haven’t practiced; I can’t go in there and warm up. The only thing I can do is run back and change my outfit, but that’s it. I don’t even go in the back and get a chance to play the game. So it’s definitely a lot of pressure, but it’s real, too. It’s like the contestants. … But I went in there and represented.

Q: Is there one game in particular for which you hoped you weren’t called in?

Wade: There was one game that I could not beat. It was the game where you have to put 25 balls into the glass container in 20 seconds. That was almost impossible for me to do. I tried it the day I was practicing (the games), I tried it over and over and over, and I couldn’t complete it. … So, that was the one I was like, “Don’t call me. I’m not gonna be able to do it.”

Q: In one episode, you deliver a rather inspirational speech to a player who has lost all confidence. Do you feel being a coach is part of your role as host?

Wade: One hundred percent. I think that’s one of the reasons why they wanted me to host it as well. I’m used to being in the locker room. I know how to motivate guys as leaders. Also, too, I have the compassion. In those moments, sometimes I crack jokes and I’m trying to push them, and there’s other moments where I’m in there with them. I want them to feel like we all are in this together.

Q: How do you think that you and Gabrielle would do competing as a team on the show?

Wade: Terrible (laughs). I give couples a lot of credit. You would think that’s who you’re supposed to work best with, your significant other, but I think it’s hard. Me and my wife are both alphas, and sometimes you got two alphas in there, it can mess things up. So I don’t know how well we would do, unless we really both came in very humble, like “If you think you got it, I’mma let you.”

We was on our honeymoon, and we were in there kayaking, and she wanted to go one way, and I wanted to go another way. If you ever want to challenge your relationship, just go kayaking together. And you’ll see that it is not that easy to communicate.

Q: Is your daughter Kaavia James going to watch “The Cube,” and if so, are you worried about what the Shady Baby’s review might be?

Wade: She’s definitely gonna watch. And I just hope she sit down and watch cause she’ll probably just be like, “OK, Dad’s on TV,” and just go and do something else.

Zaya and I — the other night after basketball, (TBS) played “The Cube” (in a sneak preview on Saturday ). And Zaya was sitting there watching it with me, and it was just so cool to see her all into it and her responses. Neither one of us wanted to leave the TV. I was almost late for dinner trying to watch it. She was the same way. It was just so cool, and I cannot wait till the whole family can sit down and sit back and watch at least the first episode together, and then everybody can go off and do what they do.

Read more at usatoday.com

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The Chicago Blackhawks‘ farm system isn’t oozing with young talent but there are some very good players at the top of it. One of those players is Lukas Reichel. The Hawks selected Reichel to an entry-level deal yesterday and that is great news. He is going to come to North America with a chance to […]

Chicago Blackhawks ink a very talented young kid to a contract – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More

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With on-field practices he didn’t get last year that already have given him better “cohesion” with quarterback Andy Dalton, the Bears’ second-year tight end is hoping to be a bigger weapon in the passing game. “We’re all going to see a lot more of him,” coach Matt Nagy said.

As a rookie a year ago, Bears tight end Cole Kmet didn’t need a full offseason program to get acclimated to the NFL.

Even with a virtual introduction instead of an on-field one because of the limitations of the coronavirus and with no preseason games, Kmet was pegged as a likely rookie “hit” just off impressive training camp practices.

Maybe that was more a byproduct of the Bears’ desperation for a productive tight end after the position was a virtual black hole in 2019, but Kmet modestly lived up to the hype.

With 28 receptions for 243 yards and two touchdowns Kmet wasn’t a sensation, but by the eye test he was as good as advertised — a player likely to grow in a more productive offense. Unlike Adam Shaheen, the 2017 second-round pick who never showed the matchup-nightmare, downfield passing-game skills he was purported to have, Kmet at least showed signs of living up to the Bears’ evaluation of him as a big-play offensive weapon.

With on-field OTAs this season, Kmet already is ahead of his rookie learning pace. “What I’ve noticed — not having them last year and having them this year — is being able to get timing and kind of cohesion with Andy [Dalton] and the quarterbacks,” Kmet said. “Things as simple as cadence and how they articulate in the huddle and what they’re seeing and the timing of the throws and the routes are huge. I’ve already seen from Day 1 to now … a gradual increase [that] has been really good for me and I’m sure the other receivers as well.”

Along with fellow 2020 rookie Darnell Mooney, Kmet is one of the keys to a Bears offensive surge, a player poised for a breakthrough season if the offensive pieces come together under coach Matt Nagy and offensive coordinator Bill Lazor. Nagy has been careful to not over-hype Kmet as the Bears’ version of Travis Kelce, whom Nagy coached with the Chiefs. But he is looking forward to growth in Year 2 under tight ends coach Clancy Barone.

“I envision a lot for him,” Nagy said. “He’s very similar to Darnell — he wants more. He wants to do everything he can. He’s so fun to coach. We’re all going to see a lot more of him and that’s important because he’s very talented and can do a lot of things.

“He creates matchups in the pass game and he can hold an edge and dent a defense in the run game, so that’s really exciting for us to be able to use him more. We all saw last year here some stages there, middle-to-end of the year, where he started taking off and doing more things and that’s the expectations and the standards for us this year with him.”

With the Bears’ offense spinning its wheels for most of last season, Kmet was virtually invisible in the passing game. He had just eight receptions for 94 yards and a touchdown in the first 11 games — 37 of those yards on a catch-and-run vs. the Rams in Week 7.

But in the final five games of the regular season, Kmet had 20 receptions for 149 yards and a touchdown on 30 targets. With a busy offseason that included taking online classes toward his degree at Notre Dame, Kmet figures to build off that strong finish — in particular with more production in the downfield passing game.

“After being a year in the offense and kind of understanding what coach Nagy and coach Lazor are doing with this offense, I’m a lot more comfortable with it,” Kmet said. “I’m stronger. I feel quicker and faster. Just a lot of confidence going in with the offense and in myself.”

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