World Cup playoff pairings announced
FIFA announced the match-ups for its UEFA Playoffs earlier this week, as eight European teams will battle for the continent’s final four 2010 World Cup berths. 2006 runner-up France will face Ireland, while perennial powerhouse Portugal will play Bosnia-Herzegovina. Russia will take on Slovenia, and Greece will play Ukraine. Traditionally home to some of the world’s best teams, World Cup qualifying in Europe sees 53 national clubs battle for just 13 spots. Each series will consist of two matches played in the “home and home” format, meaning each team will play one home match and one road match. Each of the eight teams finished second in its respective qualifying group, and now all eight face must-win series in order to get a place in “football’s” biggest event. The first leg of each series will be played on Nov. 14, and the second on Nov. 18.
Florida first in initial BCS rankings
The season’s first edition of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) were released on Sunday, controversially ranking college football’s top-ten teams by computer as the nation’s best squads push towards the National Championship. Defending champion Florida is ranked first, followed closely by SEC rival Alabama, with Texas sitting in third. Boise State, Cincinnati, Iowa, the University of Southern California, Texas Christian University, Louisiana State University and Miami round out the top-ten. The inaugural edition of this year’s rankings is not without controversy, however, as the Associated Press poll has Alabama ranked first in the nation, while the BCS puts them in second. Despite being in third, pundits put Texas in a great position to play for the national title, as Florida and Alabama will likely play each other in the SEC Championship game, essentially guaranteeing that one team will not finish the year undefeated.
“Detroit Shock City” no more?
The WNBA and an already-reeling city may be on the verge of receiving a serious blow, as the Associated Press is reporting that the Detroit Shock, one of the league’s most successful teams, is on the verge of moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma. According the the AP, a Shock team official said that a group of investors has placed a bid to buy the team with the intention of moving it to Tulsa, where it would play in the 18,000 seat BOK Center, in time for the start of the next WNBA season. The Shock have been in the league since 1998, and won the title in 2003, 2006 and 2008. According to ESPN.com, the team also set a single-game WNBA attendance record in this past season’s playoffs, as a crowd of 22,076 filled The Palace at Auburn Hills, but overall attendance had been sparse. The team’s departure would be another sign of the tough times in Detroit, where the unemployment rate approached 30 percent this past summer.
Tenor fired for anti-Semitic remark
Ronan Tynan, the Irish tenor whose rendition of “God Bless America” has become as synonymous with baseball at Yankee Stadium as “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” has been removed from that position after allegedly making an anti-Semitic remark. The AP reported that while a real estate agent was showing an apartment in Tynan’s building to a potential buyer, she remarked to the singer that the buyers weren’t Red Sox fans. He replied with, “as long as they’re not Jewish.” When contacted by a member of the Yankees organization, Tynan confirmed he’d made the comment, but insisted he was joking. He has since made a public apology that was accepted by the woman about whom he’d made the remark, and has made a donation to KiDs of NYU, where the woman works as a doctor. The Yankees, however, have not yet changed their stance on Tynan’s removal.
