The Sun Belt Conference has two teams ranked for the first time since it began sponsoring football in 2001 as Louisiana-Lafayette, at No. 19, and Appalachian State, at No. 24, were among 10 new teams ranked Sunday in the first regular-season Associated Press college poll, which was stripped of teams not yet scheduled to play a fall season. Louisiana-Lafayette, which won 31-14 at Iowa State, was last ranked in 1943. Preseason No. 1 Clemson received 60 of 61 first place-votes. Alabama moved up to No. 2, followed by Oklahoma, Georgia, and Florida. Defending champion LSU, with one first-place vote, is No. 6. The panel of 61 voters was permitted to consider only the 60% of Football Bowl Subdivision teams scheduled to play in the fall. Preseason No. 2 Ohio State, No. 7 Penn State, and No. 9 Oregon, along with six other Big Ten and Pac-12 teams, dropped out. The Big Ten, Pac-12, Mid-American Conference, and Mountain West have delayed their seasons due to coronavirus concerns, but the Big Ten is taking some steps toward a possible mid-October start.
Big Ten still in limbo after meeting
Big Ten school presidents were presented a comprehensive plan for a fall football season, but no decision has been made. A person with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that the full Council of Presidents and Chancellors heard from all the subcommittees of the conference’s Return to Competition Task Force over 2 1/2 hours. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the Big Ten was not making its plans public, said there was no vote made and no set plans to reconvene. The medical part of the presentation focused on what has changed since the conference postponed its entire fall sports season on Aug. 11 because of COVID-19 concerns, such as the emergence of daily rapid-response testing. A potential late-October start could allow for an eight-game season and conference championship game in mid-December. That schedule could set up Big Ten teams to be part of the College Football Playoff.
TOUR DE FRANCE
Pogacar outlasts Roglic in Stage 15
The Tour de France boiled down to a battle between its two star Slovenian riders as defending champ Egan Bernal dropped out of realistic contention, plummeting from third to 13th in the standings. Tadej Pogacar beat yellow jersey holder Primoz Roglic in a dramatic mountaintop finish to Stage 15, though Roglic retains a 40-second advantage overall. Pogacar and Roglic finished the 108-mile ride from Lyon to Grand Colombier with the same time. As the stage winner, Pogacar was awarded 10 bonus seconds in the general classification against Roglic’s six for second place. Colombians Rigoberto Uran and Miguel Angel Lopez managed to stay with the lead group and sit third and fourth in the overall standings. Monday is a rest day.
WNBA
Aces clinch top spot, Mystics squeak in
A’ja Wilson and Dearica Hamby each scored 23 points and the Las Vegas Aces secured the top seed in the playoffs with an 86-84 win over the Seattle Storm in Bradenton, Fla. Each team finished at 18-4 but the Aces won both regular season contests against the Storm. Seattle played without injured forward Breanna Stewart and point guard Sue Bird. Jewell Loyd’s jump shot with 5:11 left put the Storm up 79-74. Kayla McBride followed with a 3-pointer 17 seconds later, Hamby recorded a three-point play, and Las Vegas led the rest of the way … Ariel Atkins scored 26 points and the Washington Mystics clinched the eighth and final playoff berth with an 85-78 win over the Atlanta Dream in Bradenton, Fla. The Mystics (9-13) will face No. 5-seed Phoenix (13-9) on Tuesday in a single-elimination game. Washington’s win eliminated Dallas (8-14) from playoff contention after the Wings beat the New York Liberty, 82-79, behind Arike Ogunbowale’s 26 points, including a three-point play with 12.4 seconds left.
AUTO RACING
Hamilton holds off Bottas in Italy
Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton kept his cool amid the mayhem caused by an unpredictable circuit, winning a crash-marred Tuscan Grand Prix in Italy. It was his 90th career win, putting him one behind Michael Schumacher’s record. Hamilton can equal tie Schumacher at the Russian Grand Prix in two weeks. The first F1 race on a Mugello track with super-fast corners usually used by MotoGP riders was incident-packed. Two crashes on the first seven laps saw six drivers go out, and a red flag suspended the race for the first time after the second one. Valtteri Bottas got to within 1.1 seconds of Hamilton on the penultimate lap but the British driver clocked a fastest lap on the last one to take a bonus point. Bottas is 55 points behind Hamilton, who is looking to equal Schumacher’s record of seven F1 titles. Alexander Albon finished third for his first career podium.
MISCELLANY
Tig tops Bouchard for first title
Patricia Maria Tig, ranked 88th in the world, outlasted Eugenie Bouchard, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), in the final of the Istanbul Tennis Championship for her first WTA title. Bouchard, a Wimbledon finalist in 2014, was playing in her first WTA final since 2016 … Miomir Kecmanovic won his first career title at the Generali Open in Kitzbuehel, Austria, beating Yannick Hanfmann, 6-4, 6-4, in the first ATP event in Europe since February. The 47th-ranked Serbian used an early break to take the opening set against the 118th-ranked German qualifier. Kecmanovic was in control in the second but had to hold off two break points while serving for the match at 5-4. This was the first tournament in ATP tour history with three qualifiers in the semifinals … Neymar, in his first soccer game since testing positive for COVID-19, was among five players sent off in stoppage time as host Paris Saint-Germain fell, 1-0, to French League rival Marseille for the first time in nine years. Neymar was ejected after an altercation with Alvaro Gonzalez. A video replay showed he aimed a jab to the back of Gonzalez’s head. Neymar told officials he had been racially abused.