The New York Red Bulls started the MLS Cup Playoffs by eliminating the defending league champions.

Now, they have a chance to become MLS champions.

The Red Bulls will play for the MLS Cup title after defeating Orlando City SC, 1-0, in the Eastern Conference final on Saturday night at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, Florida.  

The Los Angeles Galaxy and Seattle Sounders FC meet at 10:30 p.m. in the Western Conference final.

The Red Bulls will be the visiting team in the MLS Cup final on Dec. 7.

Andres Reyes scored a header in the 47th minute, from the left side of the box after a corner kick, to seal the Red Bulls’ second trip the MLS Cup final.

“No one actually believed in us, but we did it. But the job is not finished,” Red Bulls standout Emil Forsberg said in a postgame interview after the game.

The Red Bulls, riding the longest playoff appearance streak in American sports at 15 years, still seeks its first MLS Cup. They fell 3-1 to Columbus Crew in the 2008 final, the team’s only appearance in the league championship game.

However, the Red Bulls’ playoff run started by eliminating the defending champion Columbus Crew in two games during the first round of the playoffs. They beat in-state rival New York City FC, 2-0, in the semifinals. And they’re one win away from the title.

New York entered the playoffs as the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference, outlasting the likes of Lionel Messi and Supporters’ Shield winners Inter Miami, the Crew, and last year’s Shield winners in FC Cincinnati.

“I’m very proud of the whole group. It’s amazing the last couple of weeks, and now we have a big one. We’re not done,” Red Bulls coach Sandro Schwarz said during a postgame interview after the win.

Orlando City was the No. 4 seed in the playoffs, needing three games to beat Charlotte FC in the first round before beating playoff darling Atlanta United (which knocked out Inter Miami) in the semifinals.

Orlando City relied on three shutouts in four games to reach their first Eastern Conference final. But their fifth straight postseason trip has come to an end.

As the Red Bulls await their MLS Cup final opponent, their goal is clear.

“Whoever we get, we’re going to go there and win,” Forsberg said. 

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The end of Week 14 is not only the end of the college football regular season, but the end of some Heisman Trophy campaigns. 

Quarterbacks Cam Ward (Miami), Dillon Gabriel (Oregon), running back Ashton Jeanty (Boise State) and two-way star Travis Hunter (Colorado) were slated as the top four favorites for the award coming into the week with many others already out of reach based on BetMGM odds.

Here’s a look at the top four players in the Heisman odds and how things look for each of them coming out of Week 14 of the season:

Odds via BetMGM as of Friday, Nov. 29:

WR/DB Travis Hunter, Colorado (-1000)

Travis Hunter and the Buffaloes earned a 52-0 victory over Oklahoma State on Friday. Hunter had 10 receptions for 116 yards and three touchdowns. On defense, he had one tackle, two pass breakups and an interception that he returned for six yards.

RB Ashton Jeanty, Boise State (+750)

Jeanty had 37 carries for 226 yards and a touchdown in the Broncos’ 34-18 victory over Oregon State on Friday. He did lose just his second of two fumbles this season.

QB Cam Ward, Miami (+1200)

Quarterback Cam Ward likely saw his stock plummet Saturday night following a surprising 42-38 loss to Syracuse.

As a result of the Hurricanes’ loss, the team lost its chance to participate in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. It denies him one more chance to impress the Heisman voters during the voting window.

He completed 25 of 36 passes for 349 yards and two touchdowns. He was also sacked once by the Orange’s defense.

QB Dillon Gabriel, Oregon (+6600)

Gabriel was the longest shot of the four entering the week but unlike Ward, he’ll have another opportunity to impress voters. Gabriel and the Ducks earned a 49-21 victory over rival Washington to finish out the season undefeated. The Ducks were already tabbed to play in the Big Ten Conference championship game after a victory last week.

Gabriel completed 16 of 23 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns in the victory. He also rushed for 20 yards and a touchdown on three carries.

The Colorado State volleyball team is back to the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament.

The Rams secured the automatic Mountain West bid Saturday by defeating San Jose State, 3-1 (27-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-16), to win the conference tournament championship game in Las Vegas.

CSU dominated the Mountain West tournament, becoming the first No. 1 seed to win since the conference tournament was re-instated in 2021. The Rams had a bye to the semifinals, where they beat San Diego State 3-1 and then toppled No. 2-seed San Jose State in the title match.

Malaya Jones had a match-high 26 kills, extending her CSU single-season record (modern scoring format) to 541 and counting. Karina Leber had 11 kills and Naeemah Weathers had 10.

The win gives CSU a sweep of the Mountain West’s regular season and tournament championships. The Rams have now won 24 MW titles (regular season and tournament combined).

CSU now returns to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. The Rams made every NCAA Tournament from 1995-2019.

OPINION: Don’t blame Boise State players for forfeit vs. San Jose State. Extremists forced the issue.

OPINION: Ruling in San Jose State volleyball case reveals farce of transgender hysteria

Now, under second-year coach Emily Kohan, the Rams are back.

CSU is 20-10 on the season.

NCAA Tournament selection information

The bracket for the 2024 NCAA women’s volleyball tournament will be released at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, Dec. 1 (on ESPN).

First round matches are Dec. 5-6.

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on X and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.

No. 100 will have to wait for Mikaela Shiffrin.

Shiffrin will miss Sunday’s slalom in Killington, Vermont, after a hard crash during the second run of the giant slalom on Saturday. She was taken off the hill on a sled, though said a few hours later that there was ‘not really too much cause for concern.’

‘I just can’t move. I have a pretty good abrasion. And something stabbed me,’ she said, panning to a wound above her hip in a video she posted to social media. ‘So I just can’t move. I’m so sorry to scare everybody. It looks like all scans so far are clear.’

Shiffrin wished her U.S. teammates luck in Sunday’s slalom and said she’ll be ‘cheering from the sidelines on this one.’ Shiffrin has won the slalom title six times at Killington. She’s also won the first two slalom races of the season.

The giant slalom was Shiffrin’s first chance to get her 100th World Cup victory, extending her own record. Though she’d never won the GS at Killington, she seemed poised to do it Saturday with a comfortable lead heading into the second run.

But with shadows lengthening on an already icy course, Shiffrin appeared to get off-balance and lose her edge as she took a tight line around a gate less than 15 seconds from the finish line. She fell over and slid sideways, hitting one gate and somersaulting into another before slamming into the safety netting on the side of the hill.

She stayed down for several minutes as safety personnel immediately rushed to her side and the crowd grew silent. Killington is only a two-hour drive from the Burke Mountain Academy, where Shiffrin and many other top U.S. skiers train as teenagers, and the crowd is always a raucous one for U.S. skiers.

The crash put a damper on what was an otherwise stellar day for the Americans. The other four U.S. women all made the second run, and Paula Moltzan and Nina O’Brien finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

‘Thank you for the support and the concern,’ Shiffrin said in her video. ‘And congratulations to the winners and to my teammates for incredible performances.’

It’s only the eighth time in Shiffrin’s World Cup career, and first since 2018, that she hasn’t finished a giant slalom race, and it brought a shocking end to a day that began with such promise.

Shiffrin finished the first run more than three-tenths of a second ahead of Sara Hector of Sweden. While some of the other top contenders got tripped up by the icy terrain, Shiffrin said after the first run that she found the surface to be ‘really great.’

‘The course and the conditions are really spectacular,’ she said between runs. ‘It’s pretty straightforward. There may be some spots on the hill with a few stones that are surfacing as people ski. Some of the skiers, they look fine, and then their ski slips out.

‘I don’t think it’s an issue of not enough grip so much as you hit a stone and you lose the edge,’ she added. ‘It’s pretty typical for this race here.’

Now, the Cardinal are turning to a familiar face to try to it back to the national relevance they enjoyed for much of the 2010s.

Former Stanford star quarterback Andrew Luck is returning to his alma mater to become the general manager of the school’s football program, he told ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

There, Luck will take over a newly created role that, according to ESPN, “will place him above the entire program” and differs from many of the general manager positions that have sprouted up across college football over the past handful of years.

His responsibilities will include managing the coaching staff, the player personnel staff, recruiting, roster management and the athlete experience. He’ll have business-related duties, as well, like fundraising, sponsorship, sales, the in-stadium experience and alumni relations.

‘I’m excited,’ Luck said to ESPN. ‘I think Stanford is taking an assertive and innovative step. We’re undoubtedly the best athletic department in college sports. We have to re-prove it in football, and we’re excited to be part of that challenge.’

The 35-year-old Luck has been away from football and largely out of the public eye since 2019, when he abruptly retired two weeks before the start of the NFL season.

Luck was an all-American at Stanford in 2011 and was a two-time Heisman trophy runner-up. In his final two seasons with the program, he led the Cardinal to a 23-3 record and a pair of major bowl appearances, including a victory in the Orange Bowl at the end of the 2010 season.

Hailed as one of the best quarterback prospects in decades, he was the No. 1 overall pick of the Indianapolis Colts in the 2012 NFL Draft. He excelled at the professional level, making four Pro Bowls and leading the NFL in passing touchdowns in 2014, the same season in which he led the Colts to the AFC championship game.

He endured a slew of injuries over his professional career, however, which factored into his decision to retire in his prime.

Luck later returned to Stanford to earn his master’s degree in education in 2022.

He told ESPN that the possibility of returning to Stanford was raised in a conversation with university president Jonathan Levin. As part of his job, he’ll try to help the academically prestigious institution acclimate to the modern college football landscape in which players can earn money off their name, image and likeness, something with which he said Stanford has been “slow to the draw,” according to ESPN.

‘I think I’m entering this with eyes wide open and aware of my strengths and my limitations,’ Luck said to ESPN. ‘I know there’s a lot that I do not know. Part of that makes it exciting. I’m excited to work with (Stanford athletic director) Bernard (Muir) and (Stanford football coach) Troy (Taylor). I’ve got a lot to learn from Troy. He’s been a winner everywhere he’s been.’

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Michigan put itself in position to pull the stunner against rival No. 2 Ohio State.

And, with plenty of help from the self-wounding Buckeyes, the Wolverines got it done.

Dominic Zvada converted a 21-yard field goal with 45 seconds left to break the tie, and the Wolverines defense held up to give Michigan a 13-10 victory at Ohio Stadium and its fourth consecutive in the series. Michigan was a 19½-point underdog against Ohio State, which squandered a chance to play Oregon for the conference championship next week.

A skirmish broke out at midfield, when Michigan players gathered at midfield waving a Michigan flag in the faces of Ohio State players. It lasted several minutes.

Michigan senior running back Kalel Mullings rushed for 116 yards on 32 carries and said postgame, ‘For such a great game, you hate to see stuff like that after the game. It’s bad for the sport, bad for college football. But at the end of the day, some people, they gotta learn how to lose, man. You can’t be fighting and stuff just cause you lost the game. We had 60 minutes, we had four quarters to do all that fighting and now people want to talk and fight. That’s wrong, it’s just bad for the game, classless in my opinion. People gotta be better.’

The game was filled with mistakes from both offenses. Jayden Fielding missed two short field goals for Ohio State and Will Howard threw two interceptions, one to Aamir Hall in the second quarter which set up the Wolverines’ lone touchdown. Michigan’s Davis Warren threw two interceptions, including one into the end zone with the game tied in the middle of the fourth quarter.

The Buckeyes, which were ranked No. 2 by the College Football Playoff committee this week, will likely make the field as an at-large team.

The Wolverines will learn their 2024 bowl season fate a week from Sunday.

Peter Westbrook, the first Black American fencer to win an Olympic medal and who later developed multiple Olympic champions while coaching underserved youth in New York, died Friday, according to his foundation.

He was 72.

The cause of death was cancer, according to an Instagram post from the Peter Westbrook Foundation in New York.

‘It is with profound grief that we announce the death of the Founder and CEO of the Peter Westbrook Foundation, Peter Westbrook…,’ stated the post signed by Robert Cottingham, the Chair of Board at the Peter Westbrook Foundation. ‘While surrounded by family, Peter passed peacefully due to complications after a long and valiant battle with cancer.’

Corinne Cater, identified as a family spokesperson by the Instagram post, confirmed Westbrook’s death to USA TODAY.

In 1984, Westbrook won an Olympic bronze medal at the Los Angeles Games in the individual saber. It marked not only first time an Black American fencer won an Olympic medal, but also first time in 36 years an American won an Olympic medal in fencing.

Inducted into the United States Fencing Hall of Fame, Westbrook was a five-time Olympian. He made his first appearance at the 1976 Montreal Games and competed through the 1996 Atlanta Games.

His impact as a coach was just as profound. Working with the underserved, Westbrook established his foundation in 1991 and helped developed seven Olympians.

Lauren Scruggs, an American fencer who represented the Peter Westbrook Foundation at the Olympics this past summer, won a gold medal in the women’s team foil and a silver medal in the individual women’s foil.

‘Peter was not only the leader of this organization; he was the consummate embodiment of dedication to athletic excellence, civic engagement, and youth mentorship,’ states the Instagram from the Peter Westbrook Foundation, also referred to as PWF. ‘His inimitable spirit will be greatly missed by all of the athletes, families and staff of PWF.’Peter’s unyielding dedication to cultivating scholar-athletes was demonstrative of his life’s purpose. As a thirteen-time U.S. National Men’s Sabre Champion and five-time Olympian, Peter set a standard of excellence for every student and the staff.’

Westbrook also served on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Olympic Committee and testified before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on the value of sports in providing opportunities for personal growth, self-discipline, and accomplishments, the Instagram posted note.

The son of an Black American father and Japanese mother, Westbrook was born in Kansas City on April 16,1952. He was raised by his mother, Mariko Wada-Westbrook.

‘A child of the 1950’s, Peter was raised lacking in economic means by his mother and as a teen he faced the tumultuous civil rights riots of the 1960’s in Newark, New Jersey,’ according to the Peter Westbrook Foundation website.

Westbrook’s mother enrolled him in fencing to keep him out of trouble, and he went on to win a full scholarship at New York University and won the NCAA championship in 1973 in sabre before his international career took off.

Westbrook is survived by his wife Susann, stepson Dorian Miles, Sr., sister Vivian, grandchildren, and extended family, according to the Instagram post Robert Cottingham, the Chair of Board at the Peter Westbrook Foundation.

Services are not yet confirmed, according to Cater, the family spokesperson.