ned with the Los Angeles Angels in 2005. So the manager has been deciding whet

The season that just started is pretty much half over. The teams that can still smell a championship no longer can feast on rent-a-victims, which is how we know that No. 2 Ohio State finally must play a Big Ten road game. Say this much for Urban Meyer, when he plays a road game, he makes it count. First, Oklahoma; now, No. 8 Wisconsin (ABC, 8 p.m. ET). No. 1 Alabama is playing its third SEC road game, and at No. 9 Tennessee at that. The schedule gods smiled on No. 4 Michigan, No. 5 Washington and No. 6 Texas A&M. At the exact midpoint of their seasons, they have an off week.1. Four Big Ten teams reached the AP top 10 for the first time in 56 years. Whats weird about that is on Oct. 3, 1960, Iowa,?Illinois,?Ohio State, and?Purdue?all were ranked between third and seventh, yet the Big Ten team that won the national championship that year was Minnesota. This time its Ohio State,?Michigan,?Wisconsin?and?Nebraska?-- RIP, Big Eight -- and, and barring a Badgers victory, there probably wont be four Big Ten teams in the top 10 next week. But theres no question here, anyway, that the Big Ten has been the strongest conference in the first half of the season. And the ACC is second.2. Miami freshman wide receiver Sam Bruce, the nephew of former NFL star Isaac Bruce, found out what Georgia players learned for 15 years under head coach Mark Richt: If you step over the line, he wont let you come back. Bruce already had been suspended once for a photo of him with a gun. He broke a leg last month playing pickup basketball and was out for the season. I always thought Richts soft-spokenness and compassionate religiosity masked a harder edge. But no one averages 10-3 in the SEC for that long if he doesnt have a structured program. Bruce found out what was well-known in Athens.3. Hurricane Matthew dumped nine inches of rain on Carter-Finley Stadium by 6 p.m. Saturday, but the calendar smiled upon NC State. With the state fair taking place across the street from the stadium, the Wolfpack play on the road for the next two weeks. Assistant athletic director Ray Brincefield said this annual break allows for a midseason overseed and top dress. For the latter, he said, the school used 24 tons of sand this week instead of 12. He predicts the grass will be ready for Boston College on Oct. 29. Dont forget: North Carolina State has a turf school. They know how to grow grass.4. Iowa?coach Kirk Ferentz, one of the least hyperbolic people Ive ever met, said Tuesday that he likes the College Football Playoff as is and has no desire to see the field expanded to eight teams -- and that he fully expects that to happen. Were going to [go to eight teams] because there is so much talk and attention and emphasis on it, Ferentz said. I think were right where we need to be. He is concerned for the fate of the bowls, which have suffered as the playoff has blossomed. You can be in the playoffs, Ferentz said, and still have bowls that mean a lot to the teams involved. Last season, Iowa won the Big Ten West, as opposed to the Big Ten, and went to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 25 years.5. The emergence of?Jake Browning?into the bright lights of Heisman Trophy contention also shines a beam on the meager history of Huskies and Heismans. The last time a Washington player finished among the top 10 vote-getters: 2000, when quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo led the Huskies to a Rose Bowl victory. The last time a Washington player finished among the top five: 1991, when defensive tackle Steve Emtman finished fourth. The last time a Huskies offensive player finished among the top five: never, as in not one. Emtman is the only Washington player who finished higher than seventh (tailback Greg Lewis, 1990). East coast bias? Your witness.6. Some rivalries are filled with tension every season.?Tennessee?and?Alabama, known to fans on both sides of the states shared border as the Third Saturday in October, is not one of them. The Vols and the Crimson Tide might be the streakiest rivalry in sports. Only twice since 1961 has a team not lost at least two years in a row. Check it out: 1961-66: Alabama, 5-0-1; 1967-70, Tennessee, 4-0; 1971-81, Alabama, 11-0; 1982-85, Tennessee, 4-0; 1986-94, Alabama 8-0-1 (the NCAA later forced the Tide to forfeit the 1993 tie); 1995-2001, Tennessee, 7-0; 2007-15, Alabama, 9-0. From 2002 to 06, Tennessee won three out of five, and the NCAA forced Alabama to vacate its 2005 victory. The Tide are favored to stretch the current streak to 10 games against the injury-riddled Vols.7. I have been thinking about my friend and colleague Beano Cook, who died four years ago this week. No one was ever more passionate about the history of college football, or about pricking pomposity. This, from a 2010 podcast: Jim Tatum left Oklahoma to take the Maryland job after the 46 season and (Bud) Wilkinson got the Oklahoma job. I dont think the people of Oklahoma had any idea what they were getting. They got absolutely, I wont say genius. I will use an adjective: a football genius. These people who refer to coaches as a genius: Einstein was a genius. Edison was a genius. Football coaches arent geniuses. They might be football geniuses. But not geniuses.NMD Dam Rea . The next step is a better finish. Bae played bogey-free Friday on another gorgeous day at Riviera for a 5-under 66, giving him a one-shot lead over Aaron Baddeley and Robert Garrigus going into the weekend. Adidas Superstar Skor Herr .com) - Christian Ponder will get another chance to prove himself for the Minnesota Vikings, with head coach Leslie Frazier announcing Wednesday that the struggling quarterback will start this weekends game against the Green Bay Packers. http://www.nmdsverige.com/falcon-adidas-skor.html . But now that hes in the NHL, the Calgary Flames centre showed big improvement in that department by scoring the winner in the eighth round of a 5-4 shootout victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. Adidas NMD R1 Herr Rea . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. Adidas Continental 80 Sverige . - Derek Wolfe says hes finally healthy after suffering a seizure in November that doctors now believe was related to the spinal cord injury he suffered in the preseason.Hes the Kansas City Royals hottest hitter. And on Friday night, he was starting in right field for the third straight game. But Royals manager Ned Yost said Friday that Kendrys Morales days as a right fielder wont extend beyond this weekend, after his team completes a run of five games in a row in National League parks.Even though the Royals just placed Lorenzo Cain on the disabled list this week, Yost said he thinks his team has enough options that, over the long haul, weve got the outfield covered.You know, this team is built around pitching and defense, he said. Weve got Cain and [Alex] Gordon and [Paolo] Orlando and [Jarrod] Dyson. So weve got a pretty good defensive alignment out there. ... So well just keep Kendrys in his DH spot. But as long as hes got that bat and weve got these National League games -- five in a row right here -- were going to put him out there.Before Wednesday, when the Royals played the first of two games in St. Louis, Morales hadnt played the outfield since Sept. 27, 2008, before a freak ankle injury, at the end of a triumphant, game-winning home run trot in 2010, turned him into a full-time designated hitter. But after watching Morales run down five fly balls without issue in St. Louis, Yost said he planned to play his DH in right in all three games in Philadelphia this weekend.It kills you not to have his bat in there when were playing these interleague games, Yost said. I hate having him sit on the bench. ... With him being hot like he is now and with Cain being out, if youve got Cains bat out of the lineup, to take Morales bat out of the lineup too, it just doesnt make sense. That would be two pretty big bats that are missing.Morales, 33, isnt just the Royals hottest hitter at the moment, though. Hes actually the hottest hitter in baseball.dddddddddddd He entered Fridays game riding a streak of six straight multi-hit games, in which he has gone 16-for-24, with three homers, three doubles and an 1.833 OPS. Hes also a candidate for the American League player of the month award, after a June in which he hit .402 (35-for-87), with five home runs, seven doubles, a .655 slugging percentage and 1.108 OPS. He went 6-for-8 in his two games as a right fielder in St. Louis, with two doubles and a homer.Yost said the Royals talked about playing Morales in right in NL parks as far back as 2015. Even though they never actually did it, that idea has been in the back of the managers head ever since. You know, last year, going through the thought process ... he was having a tremendous year and I said, How do we get this guy in the game? Yost said.Then he was shagging during BP in Cleveland, and I was watching him out there, and man, he was making great catches and running good routes and looked good out there. So I really kept my eye on him for like two days.Yost also knew that Morales used to be an outfielder in Cuba before he defected and signed with the Los Angeles Angels in 2005. So the manager has been deciding whether to play this card ever since, and this week, he got his chance to play it. But hes wary of putting too much physical stress on Morales over the long haul.As an outfielder, theres a toll, Yost said. I mean, theres a lot of running around out there.So come next week, Morales will be back in his familiar DH spot. But for the next couple of days, hell be putting his glove to more use than it has seen in almost a decade. ' ' '