Ivan Lee, chair of the USA Fencing board, has been suspended for alleged conduct that would constitute a violation of the SafeSport Code, USA Fencing announced Friday.

A Hall of Fame fencer, Lee was elected as chair of the board of directors in September. Lee resigned upon learning of his suspension, USA Fencing said. 

“In line with our unwavering commitment to the safety of our athletes and the fencing community, we immediately reported the information to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, and have taken immediate action to suspend Mr. Lee,’’ USA Fencing said in a statement.

Lee, 42, did not immediately respond to a request for comment by USA TODAY Sports left by voicemail and text message.

SafeSport is an independent body tasked by Congress with protecting athletes in the Olympic movement. In recent months it has been involved in several matters concerning USA Fencing.

Curtis McDowald, who competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has been temporarily suspended as of November for allegations of misconduct, according to the SafeSport website.

Alen Hadzic, the U.S. fencer who went to the Tokyo Olympics as an alternate despite being under investigation following accusations of sexual misconduct, was declared permanently ineligible by SafeSport in June.

Mauro ‘Maher’ Hamza, a former U.S. national fencing coach, in November was ruled permanently ineligible by SafeSport, which cites sexual misconduct involving minors as the reason for the ban.

In July, USA Fencing imposed ‘temporary safety measures’ against Andrew Doddo, another top U.S. fencer, before announcing last month that SafeSport has administratively closed the case.

USA Fencing had no further comment on the matters, said Bryan Wendell, Director of Communications for USA Fencing.

The matter involving Lee figures to rock the fencing community in light of his accomplishments and status. He trained under Peter Westbrook, the six-time Olympian and famed coach of inner-city youth in New York.

In 2004, Lee competed in the Olympics. He finished 12th in the individual sabre event and helped Team USA to a fourth-place finish in the team event.

A five-time national champion, Lee was inducted into the USA Fencing Hall of Fame in 2014 and has transitioned from competitive fencer to coach.

In 2019, he was named head coach of the women’s fencing program at Long Island University-Brooklyn.

He also founded a fencing club called Naviblue Sports in New York.

Yamamoto’s 12-year, $325 million agreement with the Dodgers startled, perhaps stunned, the baseball world Thursday night given that almost every major league heavyweight – Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Giants, Blue Jays – sought his services. And that the team he signed with just guaranteed $700 million to his Japanese countryman, the great Shohei Ohtani.

So, why not both?

It was a simple question but one not deeply pondered as Yamamoto’s North American tour ventured from coast to coast, with unfounded but leading vibes that suggested anywhere else might have made sense.

And what now?

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Well, there’s plenty of tremors from this massive transaction, affecting dozens of teams. Let’s break down the whys and the ramifications:

So, why did Yoshinobu Yamamoto sign with the Dodgers?

Good question, and one we may not fully know until the Dodgers trot him out with all the fanfare of their blue heaven Ohtani up-front a week ago. But there’s a few solid explanations.

No. 1 is that while the hundreds of millions of dollars are nice, these dudes are competitive. And it’s impossible to miss the Dodgers’ 11 consecutive playoff berths and 10 division titles in that span, that they could do virtually nothing last offseason yet still win 100 games.

It was a fun parlor game to ponder whether Yamamoto might view Ohtani’s signing as a lure or a deterrent, that Yamamoto might want to command a few more headlines back home if he charted his own course, like signing with the rival Giants. Well, we seem to have our answer and once again it was right in front of us: Who the hell wouldn’t want to play with Ohtani?

And sure, playing on the West Coast saves hours of flight time back to Japan. Though Yamamoto certainly isn’t flying coach again in his life.

How can the Dodgers afford all these players?

Can two things exist at once? Simply, a bottomless river of cash along with a dash of financial restraint.

Beyond the centralized revenue from national TV contracts and such, baseball franchises are subject to the financial peaks and valleys of ownership and, increasingly, the state of their local TV contract.

That, first: The Dodgers are still riding the wave of an $8.35 billion deal with Time Warner that runs through 2039. Let other markets worry about cord-cutting’s existential threat.

And Guggenheim Baseball Management Group, the ownership group helmed by Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter, gives the Dodgers financial heft in an MLB landscape that’s increasingly the battlefield of finance and private equity bros. Guggenheim manages more than $300 billion in assets.

But they don’t necessarily pass out blank checks like Dodger Dogs at Chavez Ravine. The club did virtually nothing last offseason, cutting ties with longtime stars Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger, all with an eye toward Ohtani. The franchise did, in fact, duck under the competitive balance tax from 2018-2020, resetting its penalty rates.

All the while, a best-in-class drafting and development apparatus has endured under baseball ops president Andrew Friedman. And the group caught a huge break when Ohtani offered to defer $680 million of his $700 million contract, making his CBT salary $46 million instead of $70 million.

“I figured if I defer as much money as I can,’’ Ohtani said last week, via longtime translator Ippei Mizuhara, “that’s going to help the CBT and it’s going to help the Dodgers be able to sign better players and make a better team.’’

Players like oh, say, Yamamoto.

Are the Dodgers a lock to win the World Series?

Oh, you silly goose.

There truly are no superteams in baseball, not even ones with former MVPs like Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and Ohtani, and a ready-made ace like Yamamoto. Regardless of how it all comes together, the best team over 162 games rarely wins the World Series – just 14 times in the 54 seasons since divisional play began.

And it only got tougher with the playoff field expanded to 14 teams. In the first two years of this format, the teams with the best records – the 2022 Dodgers and ’23 Braves – were knocked out in the Division Series.

With Ohtani’s pitching exploits shelved until at least 2025 due to elbow surgery, the Dodgers still have rotation questions, even with the trade for Tyler Glasnow and Yamamoto’s signing. Walker Buehler’s strong return from Tommy John surgery and youngster Bobby Miller’s continued progression would make them very scary, however.

That said, Yamamoto’s signing may truly have something for everyone: A 110-win team for Dodgers fans, and schadenfreude for everyone else should they fall short in the playoffs.

What will the Yankees and Mets do now?

Cope with the utter irrelevance of New York baseball now that the Dodgers have landed two international superstars.

Kidding, kidding (mostly). Yet this is a big blow for both teams, especially after both showed their love for Yamamoto with trips to Japan and offers of uniform numbers and meetings with Japanese legends.

For now, it’s certainly a bigger blow for the Yankees. With 2024 shaping up as an all-in effort after the trade for slugger Juan Soto, Yamamoto and Gerrit Cole would have given the Yankees a peerless 1-2 punch and, perhaps more important, served as a key hedge against injuries or ineffectiveness from left-handers Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes.

Now, a reunion with lefty Jordan Montgomery would make a lot of sense – though he’s gotten much more expensive since the club dealt him to St. Louis for Harrison Bader in 2022 and he went on to win a World Series title last month with the Rangers.

As for the Mets? It seems likelier they’d simply lick their wounds and retrench. The trades of $43.3 million aces Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander already signaled 2024 as a transition season of sorts. Signing Yamamoto would have given them a devastating look next year – Yamamoto, Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana is a real nice 1-2-3 – while locking up a near surefire ace for a decade.

Montgomery and Blake Snell do not fit that profile, and both should see bidding for their services near or well exceed the $200 million mark. The Mets jumping into that pool would smack of doing something merely for the sake of doing something.

How does this shape the rest of the offseason?

In hindsight, Yamamoto was perhaps a bigger domino to fall, in that Ohtani’s market never realistically extended past two or three teams. Now, trade activity should ramp up even further with an already flaccid free agent market missing five of its top 10 stars.

And there’s simply far too many teams in need of talent – or a big free agent victory – than there are difference-making players.

The Giants went in big but predictably missed out on Ohtani and Yamamoto; Snell remains an imperfect option but perhaps one they can’t afford to miss. Third baseman Matt Chapman would also fit.

The Blue Jays, too, have not shied from the big boy poker table but have nothing to show for it. Bestowing the largest contract in franchise history on Cody Bellinger plugs a lot of holes.

The Red Sox have once again done nothing to improve their club, badly need pitching and risk further alienating their fan base. They may have little choice but to overpay Montgomery.

In short: It’s going to get late awfully early for lots of teams – save for the one that already secured a billion-dollar bonanza.

Jordan Seaton, the top-ranked offensive lineman in the 2024 recruiting class, has signed with Colorado after all.

Seaton had initially announced his decision to play for Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes on Dec. 7, during an appearance on FS1’s “Undisputed.” But when the early signing period opened Wednesday, Seaton was not among Colorado’s signing announcements.

That prompted plenty of speculation that he was going to flip his commitment, and 247Sports cited Maryland as the front-runner of a group that also included Ohio State, Oregon, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee. But, in the end, the No. 11 overall recruit in the 247Sports Composite out of Florida’s IMG Academy signed on the dotted line with the Buffs.

Seaton will be called on to protect Sanders, Colorado’s star quarterback and coach Deion Sanders’ son, who was battered behind a porous offensive line. Shedeur Sanders was sacked a nation-leading 52 times and ended the season injured with a fracture in his back.

Though Deion Sanders once again secured the top-ranked transfer class, Seaton is the crown jewel of a very small traditional recruiting class. Colorado has landed just six high school recruits to date, giving them the 99th-ranked class via the 247Sports Composite, even with the five-star Seaton and three four-star recruits (Drelon Miller, Kamron Mikell and Brandon Davis-Swain) in the fold.

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, citing an error made by league officials, confirmed that the footballs used for kicking in the first half of Sunday’s Week 15 game against the Kansas City Chiefs were underinflated by about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds.

‘I think you could see that by the kicks,’ Belichick said Friday during a news conference. ‘Both kickers missed kicks. (Chiefs kicker Harrison) Butker hadn’t missed a kick all year. Kickoffs, we had two of them that almost went out of bounds.

‘They had six balls. It was both sets of balls. It was all six of them. So, I don’t know. You have to talk to the league about what happened on that because we don’t have anything to do with that part of it. They control all that.’

Belichick’s comments confirmed a Thursday report from MassLive.com that broke the news on the matter.

Per league rules, game balls are required to fall within a range of 12.5 pounds per square inch to 13.5 psi, and game officials and league security personnel oversee the entire operation.

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According to MassLive.com, however, Patriots staffers complained to the officiating crew and said the balls supplied to the kicking units appeared to be off.

Veteran referee Shawn Hochuli’s crew worked the game. Belichick confirmed that officials took the balls into the locker room, where they were inflated to fall within the required range. Per MassLive.com, the balls were measuring 11 psi when they were checked at halftime.

‘They fixed them at halftime, but didn’t do it before then, which is another question you could ask,’ Belichick continued. ‘But, we don’t have anything to do with it. Were we aware of it? Definitely. But, as I understand it, they were all the same (for both teams).’

Indeed, kicking was a struggle in the first half for both teams. Butker came into Sunday a perfect 23-for-23 on field goal attempts, but missed a 39-yard attempt midway through the first quarter. In the second half, he converted field goals of 29 and 54 yards.

Despite that, Butker on Thursday didn’t attribute the miss to the underinflated balls and said officials alerted him coming out of halftime that the kicking balls had been below the required range.

‘I think it was technique, one of those misfires that you wish you had back,’ he said. ‘My second kick of pregame warmup, I had a 38-yarder middle, and it kind of sliced off to the right like that. So it showed up, kind of, in warmup. I made a lot of big kicks with flatter balls, and shoot, even in college, I kicked a lot of flat balls.’

The possession after Butker missed his field goal, Patriots place kicker Chad Ryland missed a 41-yard try. Later in the half, with 4:50 left in the second quarter, Ryland converted a 25-yard field goal.

The Patriots lost the game 27-17.

Of course, a story about the inflation of footballs and the New England Patriots requires mention of the drawn-out Deflategate scandal from 2014 in which the NFL alleged that then-quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots orchestrated a scheme to intentionally deflate game balls used in the AFC Championship Game against the Colts to extract a perceived competitive advantage. Brady has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but New England was fined $1 million and forfeited a pair of draft picks, and Brady served a four-game suspension.

‘Again, the things that are out of our control, I don’t know what the explanation is,’ Belichick said Friday of the Chiefs game. ‘But, it was the same for both teams. So, whatever that means. I mean, Butker had a perfect season going.’

The Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions can all clinch playoff spots during NFL Week 16.

The Chiefs, Lions, Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins also can secure division titles this weekend. The Browns can clinch just their third playoff berth since coming off hiatus in 1999 by defeating the Houston Texans — another team in the AFC playoff race — on Sunday and getting help in some of this weekend’s other matchups.

The Ravens, Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers have already secured qualification for the playoffs.

NFL playoff clinching scenarios for Week 16

AFC

The Ravens have clinched a playoff berth.

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➤ Ravens clinch AFC North division title with:

Win, Browns loss or tieTie, Browns loss

➤ Browns clinch playoff berth with:

Win, Bengals loss, Broncos loss or tie, Bills loss, Dolphins win or tie, Colts loss or tieWin, Steelers loss or tie, Bills loss, Dolphins win or tie, Broncos loss or tieWin, Steelers loss or tie, Bills loss, Dolphins win or tie, Jaguars loss, Colts winWin, Steelers loss or tie, Broncos loss or tie, Jaguars loss, Colts winWin, Steelers loss or tie, Bills loss, Chiefs win, Colts win, Jaguars lossWin, Steelers loss or tie, Broncos loss or tie, Dolphins win or tie, Colts lossWin, Steelers loss or tie, Broncos loss or tie, Dolphins win or tie, Jaguars lossWin, Bengals-Steelers tie, Bills loss, Colts win, Jaguars loss

➤ Chiefs clinch playoff berth and AFC West division title with:

WinTie, Broncos loss

➤ Dolphins clinch playoff berth with:

WinTie, Jaguars lossTie, Colts loss, Texans lossTie, Colts loss or tie, Browns lossTie, Texans loss or tie, Bengals loss or tieTie, Bengals loss or tie, Colts loss or tie

➤ Dolphins clinch AFC East division title with:

Win, Bills loss or tieTie, Bills loss

NFC

The Cowboys, Eagles and 49ers have clinched playoff berths. The 49ers also have clinched the NFC West division title.

➤ Lions clinch playoff berth with:

Rams lossSeahawks loss or tie

➤ Lions clinch NFC North division title with:

Win or tie

➤ 49ers clinch NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed, first-round bye and home-field advantage with:

Win, Eagles loss, Cowboys loss, Lions loss

The freedom fighters of Florida State aren’t doing this — and by this, we mean potentially blowing up college sports beyond all recognition — because of sour relationships in the Atlantic Coast Conference or because they’re mad about being denied a College Football Playoff spot.

We know it’s not about that because the school’s lawyers, its trustees and even its president Richard McCullough said so over and over Friday as they announced that they’re suing the ACC in an attempt to break the contract that binds them to the league through 2036. 

This is just about pursuing freedom, baby — the freedom to spend endless amounts on football just like those teams in the Big Ten and SEC. After all, don’t the quarter-zip wearing patriots at Florida State deserve the same right as anyone else in college sports to shop themselves to the highest bidder? Is it even America if you can’t preemptively go to court before trying to weasel out of a signed agreement that’s no longer favorable to your interests? 

“The system is broken,” said trustee and former Florida State quarterback Drew Weatherford. “I view this as doing our part to look out for ourselves but also to take a step in the right direction to try to fix the system.” 

How benevolent of them. Surely, Florida State wrecking the ACC and potentially re-starting another round of realignment is going to be the moment where everything starts to make sense and be more equitable in college sports. 

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Or, more likely, it’ll be the moment where the band-aid gets ripped off for good. The moment where the elite level of college football truly starts to become NFL-lite and the battle for table scraps begins among the unwashed peasants that FSU wants to leave behind. 

HIGHS AND LOWS: Winners and losers from college football signing day

In describing FSU’s dire financial situation in the ACC, Weatherford unironically chastised college sports as a place where “50-to-70 schools (are) waking up every year pretending to be competing for something they really have no chance to compete for.”

That’s always been true, of course, in college football. It becomes more codified into the system with every round of realignment and each new lucrative television deal that launches the SEC and Big Ten another notch or two ahead of the other conferences.

That won’t change, and Florida State knows it. But they don’t care about inequity in college sports. They care how it potentially applies to them, and the school is now prepared to take the ultimate legal step to ensure they don’t get caught on the wrong side of the line. 

For that, it’s hard to blame anyone at Florida State. When your distribution from the ACC is $40 million and the schools you’re competing against for recruits and championships are headed toward the $70 million range, it’s hard to accept. 

Under former commissioner John Swofford, the ACC made two key moves in the last decade that have now put the conference and Florida State at odds. The first was to make it extremely penal for a team to leave the conference through an agreement called the Grant of Rights, a clear reaction to Maryland’s shocking departure for the Big Ten in 2012. The second was to sign a television deal that locked the ACC in with ESPN for the long-term in exchange for launching the ACC Network, which the conference thought was necessary to keep up with the SEC and Big Ten. 

In both instances, the ACC accepted terms that it knew might look unfavorable down the road in exchange for long-term stability among its membership. The ACC might have to live with a financial gap, but leaving the league would be so financially onerous that nobody would even consider it. 

Or so they thought. 

According to Florida State, the penalty for leaving the ACC would be $572 million — a number that will be challenged in court. The ACC, via a statement from commissioner Jim Phillips, says the Seminoles “willingly and knowingly re-signed the current Grant of Rights in 2016, which is wholly enforceable and binding through 2036.” The school’s lawyers say they were strong-armed into a bad deal that isn’t even legally enforceable under Florida law. 

No matter which side you’re on, only the court’s opinion matters in determining who’s right. And it’s not even totally clear how FSU will get on even financial footing with the SEC and Big Ten even if they win their freedom from the ACC. As of now, neither league has shown great interest in adding Florida State, and it’s not a certainty that either one would act unless they could make more money for their current members by adding the Seminoles. 

But the theory Florida State is acting on here is logical: College sports has shown a propensity over and over for the most valuable brands to congregate into a smaller number of leagues. Even if it takes one or two more cycles of realignment, Florida State will eventually have to be among that group.

That’s the end game, though. It’s inevitable, and everyone in college sports knows it.

Once the Pac-12 blew up and the Big Ten became a league that stretches from Piscataway, New Jersey, to Los Angeles and Seattle, there were no more rules or norms.

Conferences are no longer groups of like-minded schools with shared history and geography, they are media companies that exist to aggregate and sell the broadcast rights of their members. The next step in that evolution is an obvious one: The most valuable members keep congregating and shedding the dead weight until you end up with two leagues that look like college football’s answer to the AFC and NFC. 

If Florida State is successful in wrecking the ACC’s media rights deal, the floodgates suddenly open to a world where Clemson, North Carolina and Virginia — the other three most valuable properties in the ACC — also become available. Are the Big Ten and SEC just going to sit idly by and let the other one gain the upper hand? Of course not. In realignment, you either get criticized for acting or you lose your job for not acting. Guess which one people prefer. 

That’s the bet Florida State is making, and it’s not a bad one. It’s going to be awkward, it’s going to be messy, and it just might cause the ACC to implode. Is Florida State doing something desperate? Yes, but only because it sees a desperate future if it can’t forge a path to the Big Ten or SEC. 

Though the gravity of dollars inevitably made their business look more like pro sports than amateurism, colleges have tried to maintain at least some tie to an ethic that goes beyond the next check they can cash. Florida State no longer has time for such high-mindedness. If the Seminoles win their freedom from the ACC, the changes that have already occurred in college sports will look like child’s play compared to what comes next. 

This was in no way predetermined, but the league happened to get a record 12 teams up to the eligibility threshold, including one that is ahead of schedule (more on that below).

It probably won’t hurt that three of the day’s contests are in the heart of Sun Belt territory in the Yellowhammer State, but outside of that trio the league’s foil will be three representatives from the Mountain West Conference. The lineup also includes a prime-time clash of power conferences in the desert. Here’s the full schedule for – oh, let’s just go with ‘Sun Belt Saturday.’

Birmingham Bowl: Duke vs. Troy, Dec. 23, noon, ABC

This is the SBC’s lone crack at a so-called Power Five conference squad, and it seems fitting that it’s the league champ getting that opportunity. As it happens, both schools will be led by interim coaches with Duke’s Mike Elko and Troy’s Jon Sumrall off to Texas A&M and Tulane, respectively. Trooper Taylor will mind the store for the Blue Devils as they await the arrival of Manny Diaz, and the Trojans will be managed by Greg Gasparato with Gerad Parker on the way. From a player standpoint, the exodus via the portal has seemingly been more consequential for Duke, particularly on the defensive side. Trojans RB Kimani Vidal will look to take advantage, though he’ll likely have frequent encounters with Duke LB Tre Freeman. Blue Devils QB Grayson Loftis, pressed into service as a freshman when Riley Leonard went down in the middle of the season, hopes to avoid Trojans DE Javon Solomon as he looks to add to his 16 sacks.

Camellia Bowl: Arkansas State vs. Northern Illinois, Dec. 23, noon, ESPN

This is the first of two contests on the day matching the Mid-American Conference against the Sun Belt, with those two leagues having split their first two encounters in the postseason thus far. Arkansas State is bowling for the first time since 2019, but Northern Illinois will be just as motivated as it seeks to snap a seven-game bowl losing streak. The RedWolves’ attack is directed by QB Jaylen Raynor, a good ball distributor who is at his best in a quick tempo. The Huskies are better equipped to control the time of possession behind veteran QB Rocky Lombardi and workhorse RB Antario Brown.

Armed Forces Bowl: No. 25 James Madison vs. Air Force, Dec. 23, 3:30 p.m., ABC

Here we have the bowl newcomers. The Dukes’ program has enjoyed plenty of postseason success in the FCS playoffs and now makes its bowl debut in just its second year at the sport’s top level, though they lost coach Curt Cignetti to Indiana in the process. The Falcons are bowl regulars, including numerous appearances at this event, but they enter with no momentum on a four-game skid after starting the campaign 8-0. QB Jordan McCloud, who is planning to play in the team’s bowl, is the driving force for the Dukes, making extensive use of 1000+-yard WRs Elijah Sarratt and Reggie Brown. The Air Force option attack has been far less efficient with QB Zac Larrier and FB Emmanuel Michel battling injuries down the stretch, but both should benefit from the time off and be available for this first ever meeting with the Dukes.

Idaho Potato Bowl: Georgia State vs. Utah State, Dec. 23, 3:30 p.m., ESPN

The Panthers are a long way from home but can’t claim the title of making the day’s longest trip (we’ll get to that one in a bit). The Aggies were farther down the Mountain West pecking order than usual in 2023 but managed to qualify for a bowl for the 11th time in the last 13 seasons. The schools have never met, but Utah State coach Blake Anderson went 5-1 against Georgia State during his tenure at Arkansas State. QB Levi Williams, who shined in the Aggies’ double-overtime victory at New Mexico in the regular-season finale, will again get the nod with Cooper Legas still injured. Williams was the MVP in this bowl two seasons ago when playing for Wyoming. Georgia State dropped its last five games after a 6-1 start. The Panthers will also be without standout RB Marcus Carroll, bound for Missouri, so even more will be asked of QB Darren Grainger and WR Robert Lewis to carry the offense.

68 Ventures Bowl: Eastern Michigan vs. South Alabama, Dec. 23, 7 p.m., ESPN

This is a home game for the Jaguars, but the Eagles are in their third consecutive postseason and might not be an easy out. South Alabama came up short in its other encounter with the MAC this season, falling at Central Michigan on Sept. 23, but the Jaguars also own a decisive victory against Big 12 finalist Oklahoma State. QB Carter Bradley was playing on a bad knee late in the season but is expected to take at least some of the snaps. His arsenal includes WR Caullin Lacy, who amassed a lofty 1,316 yards, and La’Damian Webb, who rushed for 1,007 yards and 16 TDs. This is EMU’s second contest in Alabama this season. The first didn’t go well as the Eagles fell at Jacksonville State, but they enter on a two-game winning streak. QB Austin Smith can be mistake prone when under duress, but RBs Samson Evans and Jaylon Jackson can help alleviate the pressure.

Las Vegas Bowl: Northwestern vs. Utah, Dec. 23, 7:30 p.m., ABC

After claiming the last two Pac-12 crowns, the Utes are undeniably not at their preferred bowl destination. Any postseason appearance was a reward for the Wildcats, who dealt with a coaching change before their season kicked off. But motivations aside, points could be at a premium in this contest as defense is the strong side of the ball for both teams. The Wildcats’ main stoppers are LBs Bryce Gallagher and Xander Mueller, who will look to keep Utes’ RBs Ja’Quinden Jackson and Jaylon Glover bottled up. Utah DB Sione Vaki, who occasionally moonlights as an all-purpose weapon in the offensive backfield, will likely devote most of his attention to the Wildcats’ most reliable producer, RB Cam Porter.

Hawaii Bowl: Coastal Carolina vs. San Jose State, Dec. 23, 10:30 p.m., ESPN

The day wraps up with this ultimate warm-weather destination with camera shots guaranteed to cause envy among viewers from northern climes. It’s actually the second visit to the islands for the Spartans. They blanked Hawaii’s Rainbow Warriors in October during their season-ending six-game winning streak that earned them a share of first place in the Mountain West, though they were denied a spot in the league championship game due to tiebreakers. SJSU should have most of its key personnel on hand, including QB Chevan Cordeiro and RB Kairee Robinson. The Chanticleers lost a lot of talent to the Portal, most notably QB Grayson McCall, who is bound for North Carolina State. The offense will likely be in the hands of freshman Ethan Vasko, who does have four touchdown passes to his credit with a couple more by land.

Taylor Swift may be one of the newest Kansas City Chiefs fans, but she’s part of the ‘Chiefs Kingdom’ now, according to quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

The reigning NFL MVP was asked about how the mega pop star has become linked with the team − thanks to her relationship with tight end Travis Kelce − on ‘CBS Mornings,’ and the two-time Super Bowl champion had nothing but good things to say about Swift. He said the team stayed away from it until their public reveal as a couple.

“At first, I felt like everybody kind of stayed away, just let (Kelce) do what he was doing. And then he started bringing Taylor around when he realized how cool of a person she is,” Mahomes said. ‘There was a couple of jokes here and there at the beginning, but she’s just part of Chiefs Kingdom. Now. She’s part of the team.’

Mahomes may be one of the few players on the Chiefs to have gotten to know Swift, as she has been frequently seen at games with his wife, Brittany, including hanging out outside of games. The quarterback said Swift has ’embraced’ his wife, and Kelce is ‘lucky enough to be with a great girl and a great woman.’

‘It’s been cool to kind of interact with her and see, because she’s top-tier at her profession, and see how she drives,’ he said. ‘It’s really cool to hear about and to see. Now I have a firsthand look at that through Brittany and Travis’ eyes.

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‘I’m glad that she’s the person that she is, and that’s why I think her and Travis match so well.’

Swift has been to several games since her first game on Sept. 24, appearing at a string of games before she resumed her Eras Tour in South America. Once that wrapped up, she returned to watch Kelce play at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers, and has attended every game since then.

Kelce and the Chiefs has enjoyed success with Swift in attendance, as Kansas City is 5-2 when she’s at the game. The Chiefs next matchup comes in Week 16 when they host the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas Day.