Breaking News

Sports Columns

Rudel: How about Franklin for commissioner?

James Franklin thinks college football needs a commissioner, and I think James Franklin would be perfect. I’m serious. I know this will be taken as a disguised way to move on from him as the Nittany Lions’ coach, but it’s not. In terms of confidence in him leading the program to a national championship, there’s no question his big-game performances have frustrated the fan base, but also know this: Penn State could do a lot worse and, in many ways, Franklin would be difficult to replace. Franklin has provided excellent recruiting, his team has represented itself well in the ...

Tiger, Nike was partnership for a lifetime, until it wasn’t

KAPALUA, Hawaii — The red shirt on Sunday came to identify Tiger Woods. So did the swoosh. Woods and Nike were partners from the time he stepped to a podium at the Greater Milwaukee Open in August 1996, a 20-year-old fresh off his unprecedented third straight U.S. Amateur title. With a swoosh on his striped shirt, he gazed at the room and said, “I guess, hello world, huh?” It all sounded so innocent until Nike launched its “Hello, World” campaign a few days later. That wasn’t put together overnight, but so what? It worked. Just about everything did when it came to ...

Opt-outs shouldn’t be at bowl game

Some leftover Peach Bowl notes because, well, there’s still a lot to sort through: The biggest takeaway from Penn State’s 38-25 loss to Mississippi in the Peach Bowl was the number of opt-outs that left the Nittany Lions a game early — specifically their starting cornerbacks, whose absence left Penn State’s secondary inexperienced and ill-prepared under an interim defensive coordinator. James Franklin said prior to the game he expected to have Kalen King for “one more game,” and repeatedly said “transparency” in discussions, with players and families, had kept the ...

Lions save their worst for last

ATLANTA — If bowl games are typically a combination of an end of one season and the beginning of the next, Penn State badly failed on both fronts Saturday at the Peach Bowl. The Nittany Lions were drubbed by Mississippi, 38-25, and thus ended 2023 with a thud, falling to 10-3 and going 0-3 ...

Lions will rely on new faces

ATLANTA — This could be called “The Moving Parts Bowl.” Then again, given the state of college football, now dominated at this time of the year by the transfer portal, behind-the-scenes NIL maneuvering and coaching moves, they all could. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin admits he’s approaching today’s Peach Bowl against the Nittany Lions (noon, ESPN) with too much uncertainty. “We really don’t know what to expect,” he said. Kiffin was referring to the Nittany Lions’ defense, which lost coordinator Manny Diaz to Duke after the season. In his place, safeties coach ...

Endangered Species Act turning 50

Fifty years ago, on December 28, 1973, President Richard Nixon signed The Endangered Species Act into law. The full title of the ESA was “an Act to provide for the conservation of endangered and threatened species of fish, wildlife, and plants, and for other purposes.” The Supreme Court of the United States once called it “the most comprehensive legislation for the preservation of endangered species enacted by any nation.” Appeals for meaningful legislation to protect and conserve wildlife began to garner support in the early years of the twentieth century after the severe ...