COLLEGE SPORTS

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Al Goldis/Associated PressQuarterback Nate Davis (13) guided Ball State to an undefeated regular season and a berth in Friday's MAC title game against Buffalo.

But the MAC's most prestigious award, the Vern Smith Trophy for overall excellence and leadership as voted by the coaches, went to NIU defensive end Larry English. He was also named Defensive Player of the Year. English finished his senior season with 13.5 tackles for lost yardage and eight sacks for the 6-6 Huskies.

Akron landed one player on the All-MAC first team, senior offensive lineman Chris Kemme, while Kent did not have a first-team member.

Hoke and Davis combined to not only lift the Cardinals to an undefeated (12-0) regular season but a No. 12 ranking in the BCS poll. Ball State won the West Division to advance to the conference title game on Friday versus Buffalo. The Cardinals' 12-0 regular season is the league's best since Marshall went 11-0 in 1999.

Ursuline photoWhitney Blackburn

The Arrows defeated SUNY Canton on Saturday 100-51, with Whitney Blackburn scoring a game high 17 points, including 5 three pointers. Jessica Wood also had 17 points and 5 rebounds.

The championship game saw Ursuline defeat Carlow, 80-65. Wood scored 15 points and grabbed 5 rebounds, while Blackburn chipped in with 12 points. Blackburn was named MVP of the tournament. Wood and Jenna Tomaro earned All-Tournament team honors. The Arrows are
now 3-3.

With each side having tallied two goals, the two teams went to penalties to decide the match. Nine penalty goals later, the Falcons found themselves on the short end of a 5-4 score, ending their run in the tournament.

JCU photo by John Reid IIICarlo Melaragno was the 2008 co-recipient of the Lee J. Tressel Award for the Most Outstanding Defensive Back in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

FOOTBALL

John Carroll University seniors Carlo Melaragno and Michael Nettling both earned major awards to headline the John Carroll selections on the 2008 All-Ohio Athletic Conference Football Team that was announced by the league office on Nov. 25.

In a vote of the ten head coaches, Melaragno was named a co-recipient (along with Mount Union's Daryl Ely) of the Lee J. Tressel Award for the league's Most Outstanding Defensive Back.

CWRUDan Whalen is a finalist for the Gagliardi Trophy, the highest honor in Division III football.

Case Western Reserve junior quarterback Dan Whalen of Willoughby, who was just named the University Athletic Association Offensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, has been named one of 10 finalists for the Gagliardi Trophy, given to the top all-around player in NCAA Division III.

Since it was first presented in 1993, the Gagliardi Trophy has become one of the leading collegiate football awards and is widely recognized as the premier individual award in Division III football, honoring excellence in athletics, academics and community service.

APJon Diebler drives against Miami. The sophomore scored a career-high 20 points in Ohio State's win over the Hurricanes on Tuesday.

Thoughts from my basement on Ohio State's 73-68 win at Miami on Tuesday night.

* New strategy - get the other team's best player to hit Anthony Crater in the face. Miami was up 19-7 when leading scorer Jack McClinton was ejected for taking a swipe at Crater 10 minutes into the game. When the NCAA Tournament selection committee is considering Ohio State's road win over a ranked team three months from now, McClinton's ejection won't be a huge deal. This was a giant win for Ohio State. But you must realize the game would have been very different with McClinton in there the entire way. He had 12 points in just eight minutes.

Lake Erie lost to No. 1 Findlay, 84-54; Gannon,76-56; and Goshen, 91-83, all on the road this past week.

Senior forward Derrick Thornton (Lutheran East) and junior center Veljko Lalovic each totaled 40 points for the Storm. The duo combined to shoot 64 percent from the field. Lalovic also led the team with 14 rebounds. Senior forward Rick Leasure (Riverside) recorded 38 points and 12 rebounds in the three games; and senior guard John Dickinson (Euclid) had 11 assists.

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Sherron Collins scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half after early foul trouble and Kansas made 32 of 36 free throws in a rugged 87-60 win over Kent State Monday night.

Kansas (5-1) dropped out of The Associated Press Top 25 poll earlier Monday for the first time in 47 weeks dating back to the 2005-06 season.

The Jayhawks responded with a sometimes ragged win over Kent State (3-3), building a big first-half lead with pressure defense and maintaining it by hitting 24 of 26 free throws in the second half.

CLEVELAND --- Case Western Reserve's junior guard Bryan Erce led four Spartans in double figures with 16 points, but Case dropped to 0-5 with an 84-80 loss in men's basketball to Hiram College (3-1) at Horsburgh Gymnasium in the Veale Center.

The game would be tied six times in the first seven minutes of the second half before sophomore guard Colin Mulholland hit consecutive three-pointers and a jumper to put Case up by six, 64-58, with 10:50 left.

The Spartans held the lead until an Ian Pfouts tip-in with less than three minutes [2:43, 73-72] left gave Hiram a 73-72 edge. Pfouts scored nine of the Terriers' last 13 points and finished the night with 25. Chris Roberts had a game-high 29 for Hiram.

Men

Akron 85, Fairleigh Dickinson 41

Nate Linhart came off the bench to score 19 points and grab seven rebounds as the Zips (4-2) routed the Knights (0-5) in a Legends Classic game in Hackensack, N.J.

Brett McKnight and Anthony Hitchens both added 12 points for Akron, which hit 47.1 percent from the field and forced Fairleigh Dickinson to commit 22 turnovers.

The Zips, who opened the game with a 20-7 run and jumped out to a 43-23 lead at the break, was in command from the start and held double-digit leads for most of the game.

Erich Schlegel/Associated PressA Texas fan made his feelings clear as he watched the Longhorns rout Texas A&M on Thursday night. But the BCS decided that a 10-point victory over Oklahoma wasn't enough to keep Texas ahead of the Sooners in the standings --- sending Oklahoma into this week's Big 12 championship game against Missouri.

Doug Lesmerises looks at college football in preview/review

Polls & BCS standings

Heisman Watch

If only the Big 12 would have resorted to something as logical as a vote of athletic directors on Sunday.

Instead, the conference playing the best football in the country this season left the determination of its potential champion up to the most convoluted system in sports. Out of other tiebreakers, the Big 12 South champion -- with Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech all tied at 11-1 and 7-1, with each going 1-1 against the others -- was determined by the team ranked highest in the BCS standings on Sunday.

That was No. 2 Oklahoma, which finished ahead of No. 3 Texas despite the Longhorns winning their head-to-head matchup on a neutral field seven weeks ago. Texas Tech, blown out by Oklahoma and a last-second winner over Texas, was No. 7.

A college conference sacrificing its sovereignty in favor of the BCS? The Big 12 would have been better off doing anything that would have kept the decision in-house -- a tiebreaker based on total points, an arm-wrestling contest between Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy, Barry Switzer flipping a coin.