No. 1 Notre Dame has underdog in its DNA

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — The rankings say Notre Dame is No. 1 going into the BCS championship against Alabama. Plenty of folks aren't buying it, starting with the oddsmakers who currently have the Crimson Tide as about a touchdown favorite for the Jan. 7 meeting in Miami between two of college football's proudest programs.The Fighting Irish aren't sweating the point spread. In fact, it's pretty much...

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Big Ten teams all underdogs in bowl season

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Big Ten spent much of the year as a national punch line.It might get worse during bowl season.The Big Ten could only fill seven of its eight predetermined bowl slots — and each of those bowl-bound teams is currently an underdog.From the five-loss Wisconsin team that still wound up in the Rose Bowl to the 6-6 Purdue squad that fired its coach, the beleaguered Big Ten isn't...

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Big 12 basketball lacking depth this season

The top of the Big 12 looks familiar, with Kansas in first place and ranked in the top 10.The rest of the league doesn't appear to be nearly as deep as usual this season, its first with West Virginia and TCU instead of Missouri and Texas A&M.No. 24 Oklahoma State (8-1) is the only other league team to join the ninth-ranked Jayhawks (8-1) in the Top 25 and nobody else received a single vote for...

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Notre Dame's Kelly wins AP coach of the year

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — After two seasons as Notre Damecoach, Brian Kelly decided he wasn't spending enough time doing the best part of his job: coaching players. Kelly changed that in 2012, and he shuffled his staff. Then, with Kelly more in tune to his team and the assistants in sync with the head coach, Notre Dame went from unranked to top-ranked. For leading the Fighting...

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Spelman College to cut sports in bid to improve student health

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Spelman College, the oldest historically black U.S. college for women, is scrapping its competitive sports program in a bold effort to help students combat the troubling health statistics faced by African-American women. The private school, based in Atlanta, Georgia, will cease competing against other colleges' athletic teams at the end of the current...

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School Modesty Club Says Cover Up

High-school freshman Saige Hatch was sick of seeing her peers revealing too much skin when she came to school each day.The 15-year-old saw midriff-grazing tops, exposed cleavage, short shorts."From elementary to middle school, and then to high school, I noticed immodesty," she told ABCNews.com. "I really wanted to start a club to bring awareness to it and bring remembrance to what modesty is."Inspired...

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Australian prank call radio to donate profits to nurse's family

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The Australian radio station behind a prank call to a British hospital will donate its advertising revenue until the end of the year to a fund for the family of the nurse who apparently took her own life after the stunt, the company said on Tuesday. Southern Cross Austereo , parent company of Sydney radio station 2Day FM, said it would donate all advertising revenue,...

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Lady Gaga accused of illegal gay rights promotion in Russia

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - A political ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking legal action against American pop star Lady Gaga for promoting gay rights to minors during a concert on Sunday. Vitaly Milonov, a member of the ruling United Russia party in the St Petersburg assembly and the architect of a city law that bans gay "propaganda", accused the singer of breaking...

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Rapper Big Boi brings electro sounds to new album

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rapper Big Boi  is trying new sounds and styles for his highly anticipated second album out on Tuesday, carving a successful solo spotlight beyond OutKast's devoted following.Big Boi, whose real name is Antwan Andre Patton, is best-known as one-half of hip-hop duo OutKast with Andre 3000. The group, which went on indefinite hiatus in 2007, scored hits including "Ms. Jackson"...

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Jenni Rivera's family hopes Mexican-American singer still alive

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The family of Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera  said on Monday they are holding onto hope that she may still be alive, although U.S. officials said earlier that she died on Sunday in a plane crash in Mexico."In our eyes, we still have faith that our sister will be OK," Rivera's brother Juan told reporters outside the family house near Long Beach, California."We thank...

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