Louisiana-Lafayette and Appalachian State were among 10 new teams ranked Sunday in first regular-season Associated Press college football poll, which was stripped of the teams not yet scheduled to play a fall season.
There was no change at the very top: Preseason No. 1 Clemson received 60 of 61 first place-votes this week.
After all Division I teams were eligible to be voted on for the preseason Top 25, the panel of 61 voters was permitted to consider only teams playing in the fall now that the season has started.
That meant preseason No. 2 Ohio State, No. 7 Penn State and No. 9 Oregon, along with six other Big Ten and Pac-12 teams, dropped out of the rankings. The Big Ten, Pac-12, Mid-American Conference and Mountain West have delayed their seasons, but the Big Ten is taking some steps toward a possible mid-October start.
With those teams gone, Alabama moved up to No. 2. Oklahoma is No. 3, followed by No. 4 Georgia and No. 5 Florida. Defending champion LSU, with one first-place vote, is No. 6.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Arike Ogunbowale scored 26 points, and her three-point play with 12.4 seconds left helped carry Dallas past the New York Liberty 82-79 on Sunday, keeping the Wings’ playoff hopes alive.
The Wings (8-14) needed help to earn the No. 8 spot, but Washington beat Atlanta later in the day to secure the final playoff position.
• A’ja Wilson and Dearica Hamby each scored 23 points and the Las Vegas Aces secured the top seed in the playoffs with an 86-84 win over the Seattle Storm.
• Ariel Atkins scored 26 points and the Washington Mystics clinched the eighth and final seed to the playoffs with an 85-78 win over the Atlanta Dream.
CYCLING
TOUR de FRANCE: Tadej Pogacar won Stage 15 of the Tour de France on a brutal final climb Sunday as his fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic retained the yellow jersey.
Pogacar powered past Roglic on the final sprint at the top of Grand Colombier for his second stage win. Roglic leads Pogacar by 40 seconds overall, down from 44 seconds before the stage.
Last year’s winner, Egan Bernal, dropped off the lead group on the long Grand Colombier climb and appeared to lose his chance of retaining the title as he dropped out of the top 10.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton kept his cool amid the mayhem caused by an unpredictable circuit, winning a crash-marred Tuscan Grand Prix for the 90th win of his incredible career to move one behind Michael Schumacher’s record.
But Hamilton’s focus was elsewhere as he stood on the podium wearing a T-shirt featuring the words “Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor.” The blunt message was in capital letters on the front of his black shirt.
Taylor was a Black emergency medical worker fatally shot by police serving a narcotics search warrant in her home on March 13. The shooting has sparked months of protests in Louisville, Kentucky with calls for the officers to be charged in her death.
SOCCER
PREMIER LEAGUE: Dominic Calvert-Lewin produced the goal and James Rodriguez provided the spark on his debut as Everton opened its Premier League season with a 1-0 win at Tottenham.
Calvert-Lewin rose above defenders Eric Dier and Toby Alderweireld to meet Lucas Digne’s free kick and power a header past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris 10 minutes into the second half.
GOLF
PGA TOUR: Stewart Cink won the season-opening Safeway Open at 47 years old in Napa, California for his seventh PGA Tour victory and first since the 2009 British Open.
Cink closed with a 7-under 65 — rebounding from a bogey on the 17th with a birdie on the 18th — for a two-stroke victory over Harry Higgs.
Cink is the oldest PGA Tour winner since Phil Mickelson at 48 at Pebble Beach in February 2019. Cink’s last victory came at the expense of then-59-year-old Tom Watson at Turnberry, with Cink winning a four-hole playoff.
CHAMPIONS: Miguel Angel Jimenez completed a wire-to-wire victory in the Sanford International in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the PGA Tour Champions’ first event with fans since returning from a break for the coronavirus pandemic.
Jimenez closed with a 5-under 65 at Minehaha Country Club to beat Steve Flesch by a stroke. The 56-year-old Spanish star won for the second time this season and 10th on the 50-and -over tour.
LPGA TOUR: Mirim Lee chipped in three times Sunday, the last one for eagle on the final hole that got her into a three-way playoff at the ANA Inspiration that she won on the first extra hole with a birdie, in Rancho Mirage, California.
It was another wild finish in the LPGA major that moved from the first weekend of April to the 100-degree heat of September, and no one was more surprised than the 29-year-old Lee.
She was never in the lead at any point until she calmly holed a 5-foot birdie putt on the 18th to beat Nelly Korda and Brooke Henderson, who each had the lead on the back nine.
U.S. OPEN: Scottie Scheffler became the second player forced to withdraw from a major championship because of the coronavirus with a positive test result that knocks him out of the U.S. Open this week at Winged Foot.
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