Here is the latest ACC sports news from The Associated Press
By AP
UNDATED (AP) — No. 14 Gonzaga meets No. 22 UCLA in the lone matchup of AP Top 25 teams for the Christmas holiday week. Both teams will be returning to action a week after their previous games. Gonzaga is coming off a win against Bucknell while UCLA is coming off a loss to North Carolina. The other notable game on the schedule is No. 16 Mississippi visiting Memphis on Saturday. The Tigers have twice been ranked this year and could return to the poll again with a win. In all, 12 of the 25 ranked teams don’t play a game this week.
UNDATED (AP) — Michigan has gotten off to a strong start this season and the No. 23 Wolverines will try and close out 2024 with a big victory when they visit No. 4 USC on Sunday. The Wolverines won 10 of their first 12 games with the lone losses coming against then-No. 1 South Carolina and No. 9 Oklahoma. Michigan will have a good idea where it stands after the next two weeks as the team plays USC followed by No. 1 UCLA three days later. The Wolverines then return home to face No. 10 Ohio State a week later. The Wolverines have a talented freshman class led by Syla Swords and Olivia Olson. The pair are both averaging over 15 points a game.
UNDATED (AP) — Tennessee and Auburn remained Nos. 1-2 atop The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll. They were the headliners among the Southeastern Conference’s haul of 10 ranked teams. Iowa State, Duke and Alabama rounded out the top five. Kentucky had the week’s biggest fall, sliding six spots to No. 10 after a loss to Ohio State. Mississippi State, Arkansas, Illinois and Baylor rejoined the poll after stints in the rankings earlier this season. They replaced Memphis, Dayton, Michigan and Clemson. The Big 12 and Big Ten were tied for second with five teams each in the AP Top 25.
UNDATED (AP) — Southern California jumped to No. 4 in The Associated Press women’s college basketball poll on Monday after edging UConn. The Trojans moved up three spots after beating the then-No. 4 Huskies 72-70 in a rematch of last season’s Elite Eight game that UConn won. UCLA, South Carolina and Notre Dame remained the top three teams. The Bruins received 30 of the 32 first-place votes from a national media panel. The Gamecocks and the Fighting Irish each got one first-place vote. UConn fell to seventh behind Texas and LSU. Maryland, Oklahoma and Ohio State rounded out the top 10 teams.
UNDATED (AP) — The average final score over the first week of the College Football Playoffs: Winners 36, Losers 17. This bold, new experiment was supposed to bring more programs from more parts of the country into the loop of a largely regional sport that had been dominated by about a half-dozen teams for the last decade. Instead, it will take another 10 days to find out if “more” really means more — or if more just means more blowouts before arriving at what we had before — a group of four contenders battling it out for a title that only they had any realistic chance to win.
