A look at key dates before and during the San Jose State women’s volleyball season. The Spartans are 14-6, plus six wins via forfeit by four schools in Mountain West Conference regular-season play. Some players cited fairness in women’s sports as a reason for not playing, with plaintiffs in a lawsuit earlier this year asserting there is a transgender player on the San Jose State team.
Second-seeded San Jose State had been scheduled to play in Friday's semifinals at the Mountain West Tournament against No. 6 seed Boise State, which announced hours after its win Wednesday over No. 3 Utah State that it would withdraw from the event in Las Vegas and forfeit the match even with an NCAA Tournament berth potentially at stake.
Now, San Jose State moves automatically into Saturday's championship match against either top-seeded Colorado State or No. 5 seed San Diego State, both of which faced the Spartans this season.
__ March 14: Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was among more than a dozen college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in Atlanta, accusing the governing body of violating their Title IX rights by allowing transgender woman Lia Thomas to compete at the national championships in 2022. San Jose State senior setter and co-captain Brooke Slusser, an Alabama transfer from Denton, Texas, later joined the suit.
__ Sept. 14: Southern Utah became the first team to forfeit a match against San Jose State, without specifying why. It was a nonconference contest.
__ Sept. 27: Boise State released a statement announcing its women's volleyball team wouldn’t play at San Jose State on Sept. 28, but it included no further information on why the decision was made. The school also forfeited its second match against San Jose State, on Nov. 21.
__ Sept. 27: Idaho Gov. Brad Little publicly supported the school, posting on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter: “I applaud (at)BoiseState for working within the spirit of my Executive Order, the Defending Women’s Sports Act. We need to ensure player safety for all of our female athletes and continue the fight for fairness in women’s sports.”
__ Oct. 3: After the initial forfeits, San Jose State is beaten at Colorado State, a Rams sweep that marked the Spartans' first loss following a 9-0 start. San Jose State later beat Colorado State at home on Halloween.
__ Oct. 5: Two days later, the Spartans are given another forfeited win by Wyoming, which opted not to play again on Nov. 14.
__ Oct. 23: Utah State forfeited a match against San Jose State.
__ Nov. 15: The Mountain West Conference concluded there was insufficient evidence to determine misconduct between women’s volleyball players from the Colorado State and San Jose State programs ahead of the Oct. 3 match at Colorado State after a coach filed a Title IX complaint alleging the student-athletes were attempting to manipulate the contest.
San Jose State associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose brought her allegations to the conference on Oct. 29, the Mountain West said. Batie-Smoose has been away from the team since.
__ Nov. 25: A judge rejected a request made by nine current conference players to block the San Jose State player from competing in the Mountain West Tournament on grounds that she is transgender. U.S. Magistrate S. Kato Crews in Denver denied an emergency injunction, finding the players and others who challenged the league’s policy of allowing transgender athletes to participate should have filed the complaint earlier.
__ Nov. 26: That ruling was upheld by an appeals court.
__ Nov. 27: The Boise State program announced it wouldn't play the Spartans in Friday's semifinal.
“The decision to not continue to play in the 2024 Mountain West Volleyball Championship tournament was not an easy one,” the school said in a statement. “Our team overcame forfeitures to earn a spot in the tournament field and fought for the win over Utah State in the first round on Wednesday. They should not have to forgo this opportunity while waiting for a more thoughtful and better system that serves all athletes.”
__ Nov. 28: The Mountain West Conference released its own statement about the tournament, saying: “Decisions to forfeit matches are at the institutions’ discretion and are considered a loss. San Jose State will advance to the MW Women’s Volleyball Championship final.”
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
FILE - The San Jose State University Spartans line up for the playing of the national anthem and player introductions for their NCAA Mountain West women's volleyball game against the Colorado State University Rams in Fort Collins, Colo., on Oct. 3, 2024. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, file)
On Football analyzes the biggest topics in the NFL from week to week. For more On Football analysis, head here.
Matt Eberflus could be running out of time in Chicago after botching a timeout while a national audience watched on Thanksgiving.
The clock is ticking on Brian Daboll in New York.
Mike McDaniel isn’t on the hot seat but Miami won’t go anywhere if the Dolphins can’t win in the cold.
Eberflus’ mistake was so egregious Thursday it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Bears made a coaching change.
The embattled third-year coach’s massive blunder overshadowed an impressive second-half performance by Caleb Williams after the rookie No. 1 pick rallied the Bears into position to potentially upset Detroit.
Eberflus then doubled down on the decision to allow precious seconds to tick off the clock.
Trailing the Lions 23-20, the Bears faced a second-and-20 at the Detroit 35 with 36 seconds remaining in the game. Williams was sacked by Za’Darius Smith for a 6-yard loss on a play he said was supposed to be a quarterback draw.
Eberflus should’ve used Chicago’s final timeout with 32 seconds left to give Williams and the offense an opportunity to reset after the sack. The priority on third-and-26 from the 41 should’ve been to call a short sideline pass to shorten the attempt for a tying field goal. Even a play in the middle of the field would’ve given the special-teams unit ample time to line up for a kick.
Instead, the clock kept ticking. Williams was helped up by two offensive linemen and his teammates lacked urgency lining up for the next play, perhaps thinking a timeout was going to be called. The Bears wasted 26 seconds before the ball was finally snapped to Williams with just 6 seconds to go. His deep pass to Rome Odunze fell incomplete as time expired before Cairo Santos could try a 59-yarder.
The decision not to stop the clock after the sack was inexplicable. Yet, Eberflus defended it.
“Our hope was, because it was third (down) going into fourth, that we would re-rack that play at 18 seconds, throw it inbounds, get it in field-goal range and then call a timeout,” Eberflus said. “And that’s where it was and that was our decision-making process on that.”
Williams also deserves blame for taking too much time to survey the field at the line of scrimmage before calling for the snap.
“I like what we did there,” Eberflus insisted. “I think we handled it the right way. I believe we could re-rack the play and get it done. It just didn’t work out.”
Eberflus should’ve had two timeouts entering that sequence but he had to waste one after Williams threw an incomplete pass on first down that stopped the clock with 43 seconds left.
He called that timeout to prevent a delay-of-game penalty because offensive coordinator Thomas Brown took too long to call a play.
The Bears are 4-8 following their sixth straight loss. A season that began with high expectations has deteriorated and Chicago is destined to miss the playoffs for the fifth straight year. Eberflus is 14-32 and isn’t helping his case with his questionable decisions.
Daboll didn’t have to mess anything up on Thursday to further jeopardize his position. His job status with the Giants has been iffy for weeks. The 2022 AP NFL Coach of the Year is 2-10 following a 27-20 loss at Dallas.
The Giants have lost seven straight games and are likely headed for a major overhaul that would include general manager Joe Schoen.
After a 2-5 start, owner John Mara said: “We are not making changes this season, and I do not anticipate making any changes in the offseason, either.”
The team hasn’t won a game since his vote of confidence.
“No, I don’t like the results,” Daboll said. “Nobody likes the results. But, again, I have confidence in the people. Just have to get better.”
The holiday tripleheader concluded with the Green Bay Packers defeating the Dolphins 30-17. Miami (5-7) has lost 12 straight games in which the temperature at kickoff has been below 40 degrees, according to Sportradar.
McDaniel led the Dolphins to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons, both ending with wild-card losses on the road in Buffalo two years ago and Kansas City last season.
With road games at Cleveland and the New York Jets to finish the season, Miami should have two more chances to break that cold-weather losing streak.
It could be too late to matter this season.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) talks with head coach Matt Eberflus during the second half of an NFL football game in Detroit, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)
Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus talks to the media after an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears in Detroit, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
