BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Manchester United minority owner Jim Ratcliffe has flown in to personally watch the team play Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday as the pressure mounts on manager Erik ten Hag.
Ratcliffe took his seat at Villa Park alongside United’s new leadership team of chief executive Omar Berrada, technical director Jason Wilcox, sporting director Dan Ashworth as well as Dave Brailsford, a key figure at Ratcliffe’s Ineos Sport.
Present in Barcelona on Friday for the win by INEOS Britannia that earned the yacht a spot in the America’s Cup finals, Ratcliffe gave an interview there with the BBC in which he declined to say he had faith in Ten Hag.
Instead, the British billionaire, who bought a 27.7% stake in the 20-time English champion in February, said the decision over Ten Hag’s future rested in the hands of the executive he has put in place to run the club.
United started the match against Villa in 14th place in the 20-team Premier League, having lost three of its opening six games.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, center, looks out from the stands prior the English Premier League soccer match between Aston Villa and Manchester United, at Villa Park in Birmingham, England, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Vanderbilt's stunning upset of No. 1 Alabama that led to crazed fans marching the goal posts through the streets of Nashville was just the appetizer.
Saturday proved to be one of the wildest days in The Associated Press college football poll in years.
Four teams ranked in the top 11 in the latest poll were upset by unranked teams, the first time that happened on a single day since Nov. 12, 2016, when five teams did it, according to Sportradar.
What looked on paper to be a calm day — with only one matchup between ranked teams — turned out to be anything but predictable, with No. 1 Alabama, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 10 Michigan and No. 11 Southern California all losing to unranked teams. One other top-10 team lost Saturday, with No. 9 Missouri getting blown out 41-10 at No. 25 Texas A&M.
No. 8 Miami rallied to avoid falling, too, escaping with a 39-38 victory at California. The Hurricanes overcame a 25-point deficit in the second half, taking the lead with 35 seconds left in the game that ended near midnight on the West Coast.
This marked the first time that two SEC teams ranked in the top five lost to unranked conference opponents on the same day and was the fifth time in the past 20 years that at least five teams ranked in the top 11 lost on the same day.
Vanderbilt got it started in surprising fashion by knocking off the Crimson Tide 40-35 just a week after Alabama vaulted into the top spot in the AP Top 25 with a 41-34 win over Georgia. The Commodores had been 0-60 against teams ranked in the top five, according to Sportradar, which was the most games for any team that had lost every game against a top-five team. Temple now takes over that title with a 0-25 record.
The fans then tore down the goal posts and carried them a couple of miles before tossing them into the Cumberland River.
“This is the dream, right here,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said. “And for the next 12 hours, I’m going to enjoy the dream. We’ve got more ahead of us, but this is what Vanderbilt football needs to be about: big wins on big stages. We’re going to go get some more.”
The upsets and thrilling games were far from over.
The Volunteers were the next-highest ranked team to go down, when Malachi Singleton scored on an 11-yard run with 1:17 remaining to lift Arkansas to a 19-14 win at home.
Tennessee still had a chance by driving to the Arkansas 20, but Nico Iamaleava was pushed out of bounds on fourth-and-5 at the 16 as time expired. Arkansas fans immediately stormed the field.
“You get into coaching for moments like what just happened, and it’s to see the kids and the smiles on their face and the hard work that they do, because there’s a lot of teams that can’t get to that feeling,” Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman said. “We did tonight.”
There were two other field stormings in the Big Ten following wins that weren't nearly as shocking.
Washington beat Michigan 27-17 in a national championship rematch that was missing both coaches from the title game and most of the key players.
“It feels good. You lose to them in the championship and then to come back and win and beat them, it feels good,” said Washington safety Kamren Fabiculanan, one of the few holdovers on the Huskies' roster from the championship game.
The loss snapped Michigan’s 24-game Big Ten regular-season winning streak. The Wolverines had not suffered a Big Ten loss since falling at Michigan State on Oct. 30, 2021.
Minnesota then knocked off USC when Max Brosmer powered into the end zone for on fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 56 seconds left for a 24-17 win.
The officials on the field ruled him short, but the replay review resulted in a reversal the entire stadium knew was coming.
The game ended when Miller Moss' heave into the end zone was intercepted. The crowd streamed onto the field to engulf the Gophers in a raucous celebration of their first victory over the Trojans since 1955.
A version of this story was corrected to show that the last time this many teams ranked in the top 11 lost to unranked teams was 2016.
AP college football: Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
Washington players celebrate on the field after a 27-17 win over Michigan in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
