Cricket-Australia recall Clarke for Sri Lanka ODIs

Jan 14 (Reuters) - Australia captain Michael Clarke is one of three big names to return to the squad for the third and fourth one-day internationals against Sri Lanka after a disappointing showing by stand-ins on Sunday.
Opening batsman David Warner and wicketkeeper Matthew Wade were the others to be recalled for the matches in Brisbane on Friday and Sydney on Sunday, with all-rounder Moises Henriques also given a chance to impress.
The 25-year-old Portuguese-born Henriques scored 18 runs and took one wicket in his two previous ODIs for Australia against India in 2009.
"Moises is a young man who has shown promise for some years with both the bat and the ball," Cricket Australia National Selector John Inverarity said in a statement.
"This will be an opportunity for him to impress as we look for a good seam bowling all-rounder."
Aaron Finch and Steve Smith, who struggled in the eight wicket loss to the tourists on Sunday that levelled the series at 1-1, were dropped from the 12-man squad with Usman Khawaja, Kane Richardson and Ben Cutting also making way.
Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin was also left out after suffering a hamstring injury in the Adelaide loss but Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson have been named despite injury concerns.
Australia's rotation policy has been criticised by a number of former players but Inverarity defended the system.
"The three different formats and the amount of cricket and the amount of travel is very different from the past," Inverarity told reporters.
"The other key factor that's not often mentioned is the lack of proper conditioning periods. It's very difficult to find an extended timeslot when they can undergo appropriate conditioning."
Changes will also take place in the coaching set up for Friday's clash at the Gabba with Steve Rixon taking over the head coach role with Mickey Arthur returning home to South Africa to spend time with family before the Sydney match.
The fifth and final ODI will be played in Hobart on Jan. 23 before Sri Lanka wrap up their tour with two Twenty20 matches.

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Sharapova starts Australian Open with 6-0, 6-0 win

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Maria Sharapova finished her first match of the year in 55 minutes Monday, cruising to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Olga Puchkova to start proceedings on center court at the Australian Open without showing any signs of trouble with her sore right shoulder.
The No. 2-ranked Sharapova, who lost the final to Victoria Azarenka here last year before going on to win the French Open, faced only two break points in the match and she saved both of those in the first game.
Then she went on a 12-game roll that earned her a second "double bagel" inside a year.
Sharapova started her run to the French Open title with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Alexandra Caduntu at Roland Garros last year. But she said the score line wasn't really relevant.
"If you win 7-6 in the third, you've still won the match," she said.
Sharapova withdrew from the Brisbane International earlier this month with an injured right collarbone, saying she wanted to concentrate on being fit for the season's first major. She skipped the tournament last year, as well, before going on to reach the Australian Open final.
"After a couple of close games and a few break points, I certainly started to concentrate a bit better," she said. "I didn't want to concentrate on the fact I hadn't played a lot of matches. I just wanted to focus on what was ahead of me and really be aggressive.
"It was one of those matches where I didn't try to worry about her too much."
Sharapova has a potential third-round match against Venus Williams, who needed just an hour for her opening 6-1, 6-0 win over Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan.
No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska won the last nine straight games in her opening 7-5, 6-0 win over Australian wild-card entry Bojana Bobusic 7-5, 6-0 and 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur beat Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan 7-6 (3), 6-3 to end a run of five losses on home soil.
Sixth-seeded Li Na, who lost the Australian Open final before winning the 2011 French Open, had a 6-1, 6-3 win over Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan, while No. 18 Julia Gorges of Germany and No. 27 Sorana Cirstea of Romania also advanced.
On the men's side, No. 10 Nicolas Almagro of Spain beat American qualifier Steve Johnson 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-2, No. 15 Stanislas Wawrinka beat German qualifier Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 and No. 16 Kei Nishikori of Japan had a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 win over Romania's Victor Hanescu.
No. 32 Julien Benneteau of France ousted rising Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.
Venus Williams played with power and determination and took command of the match early with a steady stream of winners and powerful serves.
She skipped last year's Australian Open due to illness and was warmly welcomed with applause as she entered the court. Venus Williams had the biggest jump of any of the top players in 2012, moving from outside the top 100 to finish the year at No. 24.
The announcer told the crowd as Williams, who has won seven major titles, was warming up on court: "She's back and fiery."
Williams said she was happy with the match statistics, particularly her serve, so early in the season.
"I don't think my opponent quite got the hang of ... you know, it's hard to play the first match in a major, first thing of the year, and that can be a lot of pressure,' Williams said. "I did my best to just close it out."
Her younger sister, Serena, was sitting in the crowd with coach Patrick Mouratoglou. Serena is the strong favorite to win the Australian Open, heading into the tournament with 35 wins in her past 36 matches including titles at Wimbledon, the Olympics and the U.S. Open.
No. 3-ranked Serena Williams is in the top half of the draw with defending champion Victoria Azarenka, and the pair won't start until Tuesday.
Novak Djokovic starts his bid to be the first man in the Open era to win three consecutive Australian titles later Monday with a first-round match against Paul-Henri Mathieu of France.
The top-ranked Djokovic shelved the conventional preparations for a while on the weekend, warming up for a shot at a third consecutive Australian title with a bit of weekend hit-and-giggle and a Gangnam Style dance with Serena Williams.
That was for kids' day, when thousands of people flocked to Rod Laver Arena to see 2012 Australian champions Djokovic and Azarenka hitting in a just-for-fun match with players including past champions Roger Federer and Williams and a cast of human-sized cartoon characters.
From Monday, it'll be all business. His five-set, 5-hour, 53-minute win over Rafael Nadal in the final last year has already been written into Australian Open folklore, and followed his titles at Melbourne Park in 2008 and 2011.
"This is my most successful Grand Slam. But this Grand Slam is also known for a lot of surprises, players who have been reaching the final stages who are not expected to. We'll see. The Australian Open always brings something interesting."

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Tennis-Australian Open order of play - day two

MELBOURNE, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Order of play on the main
showcourts at the Australian Open on Tuesday (play starts at
0000 GMT on all courts, prefix denotes seeding):
Rod Laver Arena
Robin Haase (Netherlands) v 3-Andy Murray (Britain)
1-Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) v Monica Niculescu (Romania)
Benoit Paire (France) v 2-Roger Federer (Switzerland)
From 0800
Bernard Tomic (Australia) v Leonardo Mayer (Argentina)
20-Yanina Wickmayer (Belgium) v Jarmila Gajdosova
(Australia)
- - - -
Hisense Arena
10-Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) v Sabine Lisicki (Germany)
3-Serena Williams (U.S.) v Edina Gallovits-Hall (Romania)
7-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) v Michael Llodra (France)
6-Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina) v Adrian Mannarino
(France)
- - - -
Margaret Court Arena
Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) v 7-Sara Errani (Italy)
Francesca Schiavone (Italy) v 8-Petra Kvitova (Czech
Republic)
29-Sloane Stephens (U.S.) v Simona Halep (Romania)
Marinko Matosevic (Australia) v 12-Marin Cilic (Croatia)
From 0800
Gael Monfils (France) v 18-Alexander Dolgopolov (Ukraine)
- - - -
(Compiled by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Patrick Johnston)

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New Zealand show fight against South Africa

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (Reuters) - New Zealand fought bravely to move to 157 for four in their second innings, following on and still 247 runs behind South Africa, at the close of the third day's play in the second test on Sunday.
Unbeaten pair BJ Watling (41) and Dean Brownlie (44) provided stern resistance and the duo looked relatively untroubled as they added an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 73 off 27.2 overs to steer their team to the close of play.
Opener Martin Guptill contributed 48 before being bowled by seamer Rory Kleinveldt who went on to have Daniel Flynn (0) caught behind with his next delivery.
Kleinveldt ended the day with two for 31 while left-arm spinner Robin Peterson, who accounted for Brendon McCullum (11) and Kane Williamson (11), claimed two for 29.
The tourists showed far more determination with the bat than they had in their first innings when they subsided to 121 all out in reply to the top-ranked hosts's 525-8 declared.
Watling said that while the pitch was providing some variable bounce it was still good for batting which would aid New Zealand's seemingly impossible task of at least forcing South Africa to bat again.
"It is a little bit variable and there are a few balls staying quite low. It's still a reasonable track and we need to keep fighting away tomorrow morning and keep wearing them out," Watling told a news conference.
The morning session had belonged to speedster Dale Steyn, the world's top-ranked bowler, who claimed five for 17 off 13 overs to bundle New Zealand out 30 minutes before lunch, at that stage trailing South Africa by 404 runs.
Watling provided the one shining light for the tourists in their first dig as his battling 63 off 87 balls with 13 fours added some gloss to the innings.
ATTACK OR DEFEND?
Steyn, while expressing some sympathy for the situation that New Zealand find themselves in, said that the introduction of the second new ball soon after the start of play on day four could settle the test.
"It's a difficult situation when you have been asked to follow on and you are so many runs behind. How do you go about batting? Do you attack or do you defend? It is a tough one for them," he said.
"We are 13 overs away from the second new ball so if we can knock one over tomorrow with the older ball then get the new ball to talk a bit and get some swing then that would help," he added.
New Zealand began the day on a parlous 47 for six and the pair of Watling and Doug Bracewell (7) added 14 runs to the overnight total before the right-handed Bracewell prodded at a Steyn delivery to send an outside edge through to keeper De Villiers.
Steyn struck again one run later when he trapped the left-handed Neil Wagner (0) leg-before with an in-swinging delivery.
The 29-year-old Steyn was not done yet and in his next over he bowled Jeetan Patel (0) after the batsman backed away from a good length delivery.
Steyn enjoyed a wonderful morning as he claimed his 19th five-wicket haul in tests as he sent down a spell that produced figures of 5-3-3-3.
Watling and Trent Boult (17 not out) then provided some late resistance with a last-wicket stand that produced 59 runs, a New Zealand record 10th-wicket partnership against South Africa beating the 57 scored by Simon Doull and Richard de Groen scored in Johannesburg during the 1994/95 season.
The aggressive Watling was the last man out, caught at first slip off the bowling of paceman Morne Morkel.

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Australian wildfires spare observatory, uncover bush drug lab

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Raging wildfires destroyed at least another 28 homes and licked at Australia's leading optical space observatory on Monday, officials said, but spared giant telescopes that have mapped far-away galaxies and discovered new planets.
Less fortunate were a father and son who police arrested after a fire was lit deliberately to destroy illegal drug laboratories they were alleged to be running in dense bushland. Police were closing in on the drug labs when the fire was lit.
More than 140 fires are burning across vast areas in the north and west of New South Wales state (NSW), Australia's most populated state, and in the island state of Tasmania despite cooler weather giving firefighters some respite.
A searing heat-wave had fuelled the fires over the past week. Only one person, an elderly firefighter working alone in Tasmania, has died so far in the fires.
The biggest blaze, with a perimeter of 100 km (60 miles), destroyed around 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) of bushland and 28 homes around the Warrambungle National Park in NSW.
That fire also forced the evacuation of the Siding Springs Observatory, which houses 15 major telescopes.
Cameras inside the mountain-top observatory showed large flames and thick smoke sweeping over it. There appeared to be little damage to telescopes and dishes but scientists have been unable to visit the site yet to assess any damage.
"We do not yet know what impact the extreme heat of the ash might have on the telescopes themselves," said Erik Lithander, acting vice chancellor of the Australian National University, which operates the observatory.
The fire damaged five buildings at the observatory, including accommodation for visiting astronomers, but Lithander said scientists were confident the telescopes would still work.
Siding Springs is home to the 4-metre (13 ft) Anglo-Australian Telescope, which has surveyed 200,000 galaxies and was instrumental in confirming the existence of dark energy.
That discovery led to Australian Brian Schmidt sharing the 2011 Nobel Prize for physics.
The observatory has also helped find more than 30 new planets over the past decade and is being used to map the southern sky.
In Sydney, police arrested two men late on Sunday over a fire that broke out in the Blue Mountains National Park west of the city last week. The fire destroyed more than 50 hectares of bushland in the Blue Mountains, a popular tourist destination.
Police said they had been aware of the illegal, outdoor drug labs but were forced to postpone a raid due to the extreme fire danger in the area last week.
"The two sites ... were only accessible by foot and required police to trek through tick, leech and snake-infested scrubland to reach them," NSW police said in a statement on Monday.
Police said a father and son had been charged with "the large commercial manufacture of a prohibited drug" and contaminating a water catchment area. The younger man was also charged with lighting the fire.

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Will game live up to hype in BCS championship?

MIAMI (AP) — Sometimes, the buildup to a game can overwhelm what actually happens on the field.
Certainly, No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama would have to play nothing less than a classic to live up to all the hype for Monday night's BCS championship.
Before either team stepped on the field in balmy South Florida, this was shaping up as one of the most anticipated games in years, a throwback to the era when Keith Jackson & Co. called one game a week, when it was a big deal for teams from different parts of the country to meet in a bowl game, when everyone took sides based on where they happened to live.
North vs. South. Rockne vs. Bear. Rudy vs. Forrest Gump.
The Fighting Irish vs. the Crimson Tide.
College football's two most storied programs, glorified in movie and song, facing off for the biggest prize.
"It's definitely not any other game," said Alabama linebacker C.J. Mosley.
For the Crimson Tide (12-1), this is a chance to be remembered as a full-fledged dynasty. Alabama will be trying to claim its third national championship in four years and become the first school to win back-to-back BCS titles, a remarkable achievement given the ever-increasing parity of the college game and having to replace five players from last year's title team who were picked in the first two rounds of the NFL draft.
"To be honest, I think this team has kind of exceeded expectations," coach Nick Saban said Sunday. "If you look at all the players we lost last year, the leadership that we lost ... I'm really proud of what this team was able to accomplish."
That said, it's not a huge surprise to find Alabama playing for another title. That's not the case when it comes to Notre Dame.
Despite their impressive legacy, the Fighting Irish (12-0) weren't even ranked at the start of the season. But overtime wins against Stanford and Pittsburgh, combined with three other victories by a touchdown or less, gave Notre Dame a shot at its first national title since 1988.
After so many lost years, the golden dome has reclaimed its luster in coach Brian Kelly's third season.
"It starts with setting a clear goal for the program," Kelly said. "Really, what is it? Are we here to get to a bowl game, or are we here to win national championships? So the charge immediately was to play for championships and win a national championship."
Both Notre Dame and Alabama have won eight Associated Press national titles, more than any other school. They are the bluest of the blue bloods, the programs that have long set the bar for everyone else even while enduring some droughts along the way.
ESPN executives were hopeful of getting the highest ratings of the BCS era. Tickets were certainly at a premium, with a seat in one of the executive suites going for a staggering $60,000 on StubHub the day before the game, and even a less-than-prime spot in the corner of the upper deck requiring a payout of more than $900.
"This is, to me, the ultimate match-up in college football," said Brent Musberger, the lead announcer for ESPN.
Kelly molded Notre Dame using largely the same formula that has worked so well for Saban in Tuscaloosa: a bruising running game and a stout defense, led by Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te'o.
"It's a little bit old fashioned in the sense that this is about the big fellows up front," Kelly said. "It's not about the crazy receiving numbers or passing yards or rushing yards. This is about the big fellas, and this game will unquestionably be decided up front."
While points figure to be at a premium given the quality of both defenses, Alabama appears to have a clear edge on offense. The Tide has the nation's highest-rated passer (AJ McCarron), two 1,000-yard rushers (Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon), a dynamic freshman receiver (Amari Cooper), and three linemen who made the AP All-America team (first-teamers Barrett Jones and Chance Warmack, plus second-teamer D.J. Fluker).
"That's football at its finest," said Te'o, who heads a defense that has given up just two rushing touchdowns. "It's going to be a great challenge, and a challenge that we look forward to."
The Crimson Tide had gone 15 years without a national title when Saban arrived in 2007, the school's fifth coach in less than a decade (including one, Mike Price, who didn't even made it to his first game in Tuscaloosa). Finally, Alabama got it right.
In 2008, Saban landed one of the greatest recruiting classes in school history, a group that has already produced eight NFL draft picks and likely will send at least three more players to the pros (including Jones). The following year, the coach guided Alabama to a perfect season, beating Texas in the title game at Pasadena.
Last season, the Tide fortuitously got a shot at another BCS crown despite losing to LSU during the regular season and failing to even win its division in the Southeastern Conference. In a rematch against the Tigers, Alabama romped to a 21-0 victory at the Superdome.
The all-SEC matchup gave the league an unprecedented six straight national champions, hastening the end of the BCS. It will last one more season before giving way to a four-team playoff in 2014, an arrangement that was undoubtedly pushed along by one conference hoarding all the titles under the current system.
"Let's be honest, people are probably getting tired of us," Jones said. "We don't really mind. We enjoy being the top dog and enjoy kind of having that target on our back, and we love our conference. Obviously, we'd rather not be a part of any other conference."
This title game certainly has a different feel than last year's.
"That was really kind of a weird national championship because it was a team we already played," Jones remembered. "It was kind of another SEC game. It was in the South, and it just had a very SEC feel to it obviously. This year is much more like the 2009 game (against Texas) for me. We're playing an opponent that not only we have not played them, but no one we have played has played them (except for Michigan). So you don't really have an exact measuring stick."
In fact, these schools have played only six times, and not since 1987, but the first of their meetings is still remembered as one of the landmark games in college football history. Bear Bryant had one of his best teams at the 1973 Sugar Bowl, but Ara Parseghian and the Fighting Irish claimed the national title by knocking off top-ranked Alabama 24-23.
If you're a long-time Notre Dame fan, you still remember Parseghian's gutty call to throw the ball out of the end zone for a game-clinching first down. If you were rooting for the Tide, you haven't forgotten a missed extra point that turned out to be the losing margin.
Of course, these Alabama players aren't concerned about what happened nearly four decades ago.
For the most part, all they know is winning.
"There's a lot of tradition that goes into Alabama football," Mosley said, "and our plan is to keep that tradition alive.

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Riddick, Wood interchanging for Notre Dame

MIAMI (AP) — Notre Dame tailbacks Theo Riddick and Cierre Wood showed how interchangeable they are in the final two games of the regular season for the Fighting Irish.
Game 11 against Wake Forest, Wood ran for 150 yards, while Riddick had 20.
Game 12 against USC, it was Riddick running for 146 yards, and Wood for 20.
And so has been the theme for the Irish this season: Two running backs — and sometimes three — are better than one. That approach has served Notre Dame pretty much since training camp, and the top-ranked Irish (12-0) are hoping it holds true once Monday night when they face No. 2 Alabama (12-1) in the BCS title game.
Riddick has run for 880 yards and five touchdowns this season, Wood 740 yards and four scores, and George Atkinson III — who got only 51 carries, compared with 180 for Riddick and 110 for Wood — added five touchdowns and 7.1 yards per carry.
"We try to utilize all their strengths," Notre Dame offensive coordinator Chuck Martin said. "The truth be told, they all could be a feature back, they all could do all the things. Everybody is like, 'He plays more, what's wrong with him?' There's nothing wrong with any of the three. We'd like to get George 20 carries a game but there's one football."
Notre Dame was unranked to start the year, which means not many — well, very few — people thought the Irish would be in the national title game against the reigning champion Crimson Tide.
Among those who thought the Irish would play in the season's last game: Riddick, Wood and Atkinson.
"We've had RB meetings where we talk about what we want to do and what we all want to accomplish," Wood said. "In the beginning of the season, what we said normally was, 'We want to win them all.' That was word-for-word what we said. We want to win them all. And up to this point, we have. So we took that upon ourselves. We think we're one of the more skilled groups on the whole team. That's just how we go about our business."
Martin was asked in the days leading up to the BCS title game to describe all three backs, rapid-fire style. His responses:
On Riddick, "pound for pound as good a football player as they make."
On Wood, "as explosive a player as they make."
On Atkinson, "really explosive athlete."
Notice any trends there? The Irish love their backs, and Alabama is raving about what they see from them all as well.
"Riddick is probably quicker than the other two," Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart said. "Great one-step quickness, the ability to make you miss, good stiff arm. Didn't think a former receiver would run with that much power, but he does run with power. They're really good backs."
Riddick came to Notre Dame as a running back, then primarily played wide receiver for two years and returned to the backfield this season. He said he never complained, said he never wondered which position better suited him.
Whatever it took to win was fine with him, Riddick said.
"What can I say? I feel like I'm at ease," Riddick said. "Everything slows down tremendously and I think it's just helped me."
Ask anyone on the Notre Dame offensive line how Riddick has handled his return to running back, and they'll say they believe he's hitting his best stride at the perfect time.
That being, title game.
"He's been unbelievable," offensive lineman Zack Martin said. "Especially in the last three or four games of the season, he's been great. To have a guy like that behind you, he's fun to block for."
That probably can be said for Wood and Atkinson as well.
"It's a credit to all three of them that they've stuck with it and prepared hard every week, and some weeks they've gotten more touches, but that's the nature of the beast," said Chuck Martin, the offensive coordinator. "But we're very fortunate to have three very talented kids at that position.

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Alabama AD made a brief stop at Notre Dame

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Mal Moore's career was adrift.
A quarter century of winning games and titles as an Alabama player and assistant to Bear Bryant had ended, and Moore was passed over to succeed the famed coach.
He was thinking about getting out of the profession altogether before Notre Dame's Gerry Faust called one Sunday morning to gauge his interest in a job.
"At the time, I kind of felt like a man without a country," Moore said. "I was in a strange position that I'd never been in before."
He flew to South Bend that day for an interview, then served as running backs coach from 1983-85. From one elite program to another and, ultimately, back to his alma mater to stay.
Moore's stopover in northern Indiana is now a footnote in a 50-year career defined by the eras of Bryant, Gene Stallings and now Nick Saban. He has been around for nine national titles at Alabama and is hoping to crack double digits Monday night when the Tide faces No. 1 Notre Dame.
But back in the 1980s, Moore's career moves were the height of intrigue and drama in the college football world.
He was either a player or assistant for Bryant during all but one season of a historic 25-year run. Bryant, who died a couple of months after stepping down following the 1982 season, won 323 games, six national titles and 13 Southeastern Conference championships during his tenure in Tuscaloosa.
When he left, Moore and fellow assistant Ken Donahue interviewed for a job that went to Ray Perkins, then coaching the NFL's New York Giants. And Notre Dame made an attention-getting hire.
"It was considered quite a coup, an amazing coup," said Lou Somogyi, senior editor of 247Sports' Notre Dame site and Blue and Gold Illustrated. "All of a sudden, here's Mal Moore, who's been part of so many national titles with Bear, and he's looking for work.
"Out of the blue, Gerry Faust called him. That was a pretty extraordinary set of circumstances."
It was also quite an adjustment for a Southern Baptist heading to a Catholic university.
Moore lived for several months in the Morris Inn on campus, where he could step out the door, glance left and see the golden dome. Wife Charlotte, who died in 2010, and daughter Heather moved to South Bend after their home was built.
"It was a good three years," said Moore, who had become Alabama's first offensive coordinator in 1975. "We weren't a great team during that time. We went to two bowl games, but it was quite an experience. Especially for Charlotte. Charlotte was Catholic growing up. She loved her time there and on the campus."
Moore then went on to coaching stops in the NFL before returning to his alma mater as Stallings' offensive coordinator in 1990, helping the Tide to a national title two years later. He's been athletic director since 1999, hiring Saban from the Miami Dolphins in his best career move. The football and athletic administration building is named after him.
Moore was on the opposite sideline for the first four of six meetings between Notre Dame and Alabama. The Fighting Irish won by one point in 1973, two in 1975 and three in 1976.
Notre Dame's 7-0 win in 1980 broke the pattern of one-point increase in scoring margin.
"Bear Bryant said after the (1976) game: "I don't think I'm going to be around for the four-pointer," Somogyi recalled.
He noted that "Notre Dame fans were groaning" after Alabama missed a field goal in '80 that would have created that four-point margin.
Moore and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbuck had several discussions about trying to set up regular-season meetings, perhaps at some neutral site like New York or Orlando.
"We just never could quite pull it off," Moore said. After the BCS matchup was set: "I called him and said, 'Jack, you and I couldn't put a game together but now we let the players do it.'"
After ups and downs for both programs, they're once again vying for national supremacy. And Moore, of course, will have a prime view.
His stop at Notre Dame showed him the similarities both programs share. Notre Dame had Knute Rockne and Ara Parseghian, Alabama Wallace Wade and Saban. Both have had five different coaches claim national titles.
Traditions galore.
"A powerful university. Great history, great tradition," said Moore, who has talked to several of his former Notre Dame players leading up to the matchup. "That is what's so similar between the two programs, is the great success that both have enjoyed through the years.
"There's a lot of people that have had success at both universities. The alumni at both expect greatness. This is what here at Alabama I hope never changes. Once it doesn't matter then you are in trouble.

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Lakers guard Bryant finally joins Twitter world

(Reuters) - Los Angeles Lakers All-Star guard Kobe Bryant finally succumbed to the social network Twitter when he opened his own verified account on Friday.
"The antisocial has become social #mambatweets," Bryant, who is nicknamed "Black Mamba", said in his first tweet.
Within five hours of his account being open, the 14-time All-Star and five-time NBA champion had attracted nearly 300,000 followers.
One of the most popular players in the game and a regular user of Facebook, Bryant had flirted with Twitter when he briefly took over Nike basketball's account last week.
"You're able to get a lot of great feedback about the game but also about the product as well -- what they thought, what they like, what they didn't like," the 34-year-old told reporters about the benefits of Twitter.
"It's the best way to gauge reaction."

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Kobe Bryant: I'm on Twitter now

against the Los Angeles Clippers, Friday, Jan. 4, 2013, in Los Angeles. (AP …more
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kobe Bryant is no longer a holdout. He's on Twitter.
With five words — "The antisocial has become social" — the Los Angeles Lakers guard sent the first tweet from his account Friday. About 270,000 people followed his verified account, (at)kobebryant, within a few hours and he was up to 365,000 late Friday night as the Lakers played the Clippers.
Bryant tiptoed into the Twitterverse last week when he briefly took over Nike basketball's account, when he sent out things like a photo of him hanging out with his daughter, an ice bath that he was dreading and even a suit he was wearing to a particular game.
Bryant says those few days made him consider starting his own account, saying he enjoyed connecting with fans "with no filters."
Heat star LeBron James has 6.8 million followers, the most of any NBA player.

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Monti, in Twitter Q&A, says new voting law priority for Italy

ROME (Reuters) - Outgoing Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Saturday if he wins February's parliamentary election one of his first acts would be to overhaul the voting law to improve democracy and government stability.
Monti, 69, who last week confirmed he would lead a centrist coalition in the February 24-25 vote, called himself a "bit of a pioneer" in politics during nearly 2 hours of #MontiLive tweets.
The electoral law is unpopular because party leaders select candidates and voters cannot choose their representatives. For technical reasons, it also makes forming a stable majority more difficult, leading to broad and unwieldy coalitions.
"This electoral law is not worthy of a country like Italy," said Monti of the 2005 legislation passed when centre-right rival Silvio Berlusconi was in power.
Monti and Berlusconi trail the centre-left in opinion polls and have made multiple appearances, mainly on TV, over the past week as they seek to recoup support and motivate voters who have said they do not intend to vote.
A poll by the Tecne research institute released on SkyTG24 on Friday showed Monti's grouping would likely attract slightly more than 12 percent of the vote.
That compared with 40 percent for the centre-left bloc led by Pier Luigi Bersani's Democratic Party (PD); and 25 percent for the most likely centre-right coalition of Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL) and the Northern League.
In a separate tweet, Monti indicated he would "dialogue" with anyone after the vote whether he wins or not, as long as they are "reformists".
BERLUSCONI BROADSIDE
Speaking at the same time in a live interview on the website of Corriere della Sera newspaper, Berlusconi said he would never again ally himself with Monti even though he offered him the leadership of the centre-right just a few weeks ago.
"All Italian citizens, in one way or another, are suffering" as a result of Monti's 13 months in power, said Berlusconi, who says austerity has led the country into a recessionary spiral.
Monti took over in November 2011 when Italy was scrambling to avert a financial crisis and after Berlusconi, besieged by a sex scandal involving an underage prostitute, stepped down.
Berlusconi repeated on Saturday that his resignation was the result of an international plot to oust him and denied having made mistakes during his more than nine years in power.
"My only error is that I have not been able to explain what I have done for the country," Berlusconi said.
"By now (Monti's) image has become that of a person with whom I could not possibly collaborate," Berlusconi said, calling the prime minister's new alliance with two of Berlusconi's former allies a "triple disaster".
Berlusconi said a renewed accord with the Northern League may be finalized on Sunday. The Northern League has said the 76-year-old billionaire must not be the bloc's prime ministerial candidate for a sixth time.
"Monti is an enemy of the north, and stopping him from returning to government is a categorical priority for us. Who is against Monti is an ally of the League," Northern League leader Roberto Maroni tweeted on Saturday.

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Kobe Bryant joins Twitter, 100s of thousands immediately follow him

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Kobe Bryant is no longer a holdout. He's on Twitter.
With five words — "The antisocial has become social" — the Los Angeles Lakers guard sent the first tweet from his account Friday. About 250,000 people followed his verified account, (at)kobebryant, within a few hours and he was up to 365,000 late Friday night as the Lakers played the Los Angeles Clippers.
Bryant tiptoed into the Twitterverse last week when he briefly took over Nike basketball's account, when he sent out things like a photo of him hanging out with his daughter, an ice bath that he was dreading and even a suit he was wearing to a particular game.
Bryant says those few days made him consider starting his own account, saying he enjoyed connecting with fans "with no filters."
Heat star LeBron James has 6.8 million followers, the most of any National Basketball Association player.

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Tax filing season starts Jan. 30 for most filers

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service says late changes to federal tax laws should mean only a short delay for most taxpayers to file their 2012 returns.
The agency said Tuesday that more than 120 million taxpayers — about 80 percent of all filers — should be able to start filing their federal returns on Jan. 30. Others will have to wait until late February or March to file because the agency needs time to update and test its systems.
Those who will have to wait include people claiming residential energy credits, depreciation of property or general business credits. The filing season had been slated to start Jan. 22 but was delayed because of the big tax package passed by Congress Jan. 1.

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New York governor wants casinos to spur upstate economy

(Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed on Wednesday dozens of new initiatives for the state, including new casinos and other measures aimed at helping upstate areas regain their financial footing after decades of economic decline.
Cuomo, in his annual State of the State address, proposed locating up to three casinos upstate to increase tourism and provide some local property tax relief and education funds for struggling cities.
New York legislators agreed last year to legalize public casinos, saying they would amend the state constitution to expand gambling outside Native American resorts. They must still finalize the legislation.
Cuomo also said the state, with a population of nearly 20 million, would launch new marketing plans that include duty-free stores for New York-made products and a national white-water rafting competition.
Cuomo floated several ideas for supporting fledgling businesses, including the creation of a $50 million venture capital fund. He also proposed 10 high-tech incubator "hot spots" in which start-up companies would not have to pay business, property or sales taxes.
The plans were just a few of the dozens put forward by Cuomo in what he said was the most aggressive agenda he has proposed since taking office in January 2011. But he did not indicate in his speech how any of the proposed programs would be funded.
Speaking for more than an hour, Cuomo said he would focus on upgrading the state's fuel delivery system, subways, and other infrastructure to prevent multibillion-dollar damage from severe weather events like Superstorm Sandy, which slammed into the region on October 29.
He also proposed specific new restrictions on firearms in the wake of deadly shooting rampages in late 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, and Webster, New York.
And he said the state's minimum wage should rise to $8.75 an hour from the current $7.25.
"We have daunting challenges," he said. "But these challenges also pose exciting opportunities."
Several of New York's local governments have faced severe financial struggles after the recession, including Nassau and Suffolk counties, both on Long Island to the east of New York City.
But several cities in the northern and western parts of the state, including Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, have been losing jobs for many years.
On Wednesday, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Niagara Falls to Baa1 from A2, warning that it could cut the credit rating further if the city loses a legal dispute with the Seneca Nation over gambling revenue.
Cuomo proposed creating a program that would advise local governments on how to restructure their finances.
The program would be run jointly by private consultants, the state's budget division, the attorney general and New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, whose program to monitor municipal fiscal distress went into effect this year.
He also said the state should consider spending $1 billion to create or preserve 14,000 units of affordable housing over the next five years.

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US tax code longer than Bible _ without good news

WASHINGTON (AP) — Too intimidated to fill out your tax return without help? Join the club.
At nearly 4 million words, the U.S. tax law is so thick and complicated that businesses and individuals spend more than 6 billion hours a year complying with filing requirements, according to a report Wednesday by an independent government watchdog.
That's the equivalent of 3 million people working full-time, year-round.
"If tax compliance were an industry, it would be one of the largest in the United States," says the report by Nina E. Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate.
The days of most taxpayers sitting down with a pencil and a calculator to figure out their taxes are long gone, Olson said. Since 2001, Congress has made almost 5,000 changes to U.S. tax law. That's an average of more than one a day.
As a result, almost 60 percent of filers will pay someone to prepare their tax returns this spring. An additional 30 percent will use commercial software. Without the help, Olson says, most taxpayers would be lost.
"On the one hand, taxpayers who honestly seek to comply with the law often make inadvertent errors, causing them to either overpay their tax or become subject to IRS enforcement action for mistaken underpayments," Olson said. "On the other hand, sophisticated taxpayers often find loopholes that enable them to reduce or eliminate their tax liabilities."
Olson ranks complexity as the most serious tax problem facing taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service in her annual report to Congress. She urges lawmakers to overhaul the nation's tax laws, making them simpler, clearer and easier to comply with.
Momentum is building in Congress to overhaul the tax code for the first time since 1986. But Washington's divided government has yet to show it can successfully tackle such a task.
President Barack Obama and Republican leaders in Congress say they are onboard, though they have rarely seen eye to eye on tax policy. They struggled mightily just to avoid the year-end fiscal cliff, passing a bill that makes relatively small changes in the nation's tax laws.
Undaunted, the top tax writer in the House says he is determined to pass reform legislation this year.
"This report confirms that the code is 10 times the size of the Bible with none of the good news," said Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the House and Ways and Means Committee. "Our broken tax code has become a nightmare of loopholes and special interest provisions that create added complexities and costs for hardworking taxpayers and small businesses."
"Comprehensive tax reform will make sure everyone is playing by the same rules and help businesses create more jobs and invest in their workers," Camp said.
The general formula for tax reform is widely embraced on Capitol Hill: Eliminate or reduce some tax credits, exemptions and deductions and use the additional revenue to pay for lower income tax rates for everyone. There is, however, no consensus on which tax breaks to scale back.
That's because Americans like their credits, deductions and exemptions — the provisions that make the tax law so complicated in the first place. Would workers want to pay taxes on employer-provided health benefits or on contributions to their retirement plans? How would homeowners feel about losing the mortgage interest deduction?
Those are the three biggest tax breaks in the tax code, according to congressional estimates. Together, they are projected to save taxpayers nearly $450 billion this year.
In all, taxpayers will save about $1.1 trillion this year by taking advantage of tax breaks, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeeper for Congress. That's almost as much as individuals will pay in income taxes.
To avoid angering millions of constituents who rely on popular tax breaks, politicians prefer to endorse tax reform without getting into specifics. Instead, they say they want to reform the tax code by eliminating special interest "loopholes" that help only small but well-connected groups of taxpayers.
Obama has repeatedly said he wants to eliminate tax breaks for hedge fund managers and companies that buy corporate jets. Throughout the recent fiscal cliff debate, House Speaker John Boehner said he favored raising additional tax revenue by reducing unspecified tax loopholes rather than raising income tax rates.
Olson defines "loopholes" as tax breaks that benefit someone else. She warns that targeting only narrow provisions won't raise enough revenue to significantly lower rates or make the law much simpler.
"That's what we've been trying to say to taxpayers, that the special interests are us. It's not just oil and gas or whatever you want to point your finger at," Olson said. "That's not where the money is.

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Golson hopes Notre Dame's season ends on BCS note

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — When Everett Golson sees a piano, he usually sits down and starts entertaining. He plays several instruments, keeps a keyboard in his room and loves to sing.
Music is a huge part of his life, perhaps only topped by basketball.
And in Golson's spare time, he plays quarterback for Notre Dame.
"He's pretty good at his hobby," Notre Dame offensive coordinator Chuck Martin said. "This being his hobby."
Golson's biggest game — and biggest opportunity — awaits Monday night when the top-ranked Fighting Irish (12-0) take on No. 2 Alabama (12-1) for the BCS national title. Golson's season started with him winning a competition to be the quarterback for a then-unranked team, and now he's got the chance to lead Notre Dame back to the top of college football.
Or in musical vernacular, to be ND's maestro.
"It is a big stage," Golson said. "I don't ride the wave too much. I'm kind of just focused on what's played between the yard lines, what's played on the field. Can't really focus on everything that's off the field because that's out of my control."
A redshirt freshman, Golson didn't play last season, instead running the scout team. He won starter job entering this season, yet even when he was picked to be under center as Notre Dame opened the season in Ireland against Navy, there was some question about how long he would actually be able to keep his spot.
Golson had all the answers. His numbers aren't catchy — 11 passing touchdowns in 11 appearances — but his record is unblemished, 10-0 as a starter.
"I think he understood more of what our coaches wanted from him," Notre Dame tight end Tyler Eifert said. "When they would coach him up on something, he kind of better understood that as the year went on."
One of the major issues Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly had with the Irish offense a year ago was its penchant for turning the ball over.
Golson rarely dealt with that problem.
Poised more often than not, Golson has only five interceptions in 282 attempts this season. He averages 191 passing yards per game — only 79th-best in the nation — but he's not necessarily asked to win games with wild throwing sprees, either. Kelly's mandate was simply for his quarterback to avoid the big mistake that would lose games.
So far, so good.
"First-ever college game in Dublin, Ireland, first-ever home game against Purdue, road game primetime Michigan State, night game at Notre Dame against Michigan, on the road at Oklahoma, on the road at USC, coming off the bench ... take any other quarterback this year and try to figure out if they've gone through as much as Everett Golson," Martin said. "To me it's not even close. Not even close."
It goes deeper than the experiences of 2012.
In Golson's mind, not getting a chance to play in 2011 may have been more significant in pushing his development along.
"I think me being put back on the scout team, it was just really a humbling experience for me," Golson said. "Coming in, I thought I was ready to play or had that confidence that I was ready to play, but it wasn't that way for me. I think being put back on the scout team, like I said, really humbled me, made me kind of reassess myself."
Even the Crimson Tide can see that.
When Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart first started breaking down tape of the Irish, he predictably watched every play of every game several times. And by the end of that film study, Smart knew the Golson who started the season isn't remotely close to the player who now is tasked with running the Irish offense.
"You can't give the guy the ability to run all around and make plays, yet that's what he's going to do, so it's who's got the greater will to contain and keep him in the pocket," Smart said. "So it's a tough thing. The guy is going to scramble. He's going to be a better, quicker athlete than the people we have up front."
The thing the Irish rave about most when talking about Golson is his confidence.
Even when things were tough at times this season — particularly the game against Pittsburgh when Notre Dame trailed 20-6 entering the fourth quarter, then won 29-26 on his touchdown run in the third overtime — Golson continually showed he can do the job.
"He's a very important part of our offense and he's a big playmaker," Notre Dame offensive lineman Zack Martin said. "Any time we can take a hit off of him, it's going to be big. He's a playmaker. He makes plays."
If that happens Monday, Golson may make football's equivalent of beautiful music.
"The race is not given to the swift or the strong ... but it's given to the one that endures to the end," Golson said. "We're obviously the underdogs coming into this game. ... Alabama has, like I said, a great defense, great team, bigger, faster, stronger. But it's really about who's going to endure to the end.

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Will coming playoff finally take down the SEC?

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Roy Kramer remembers all the fretting when the Southeastern Conference launched its own championship game two decades ago.
"Especially from the coaches," the former SEC commissioner said Friday, chuckling a bit at those long-ago discussions. "They were convinced that would be the end of everything and we would never win another national championship."
It sure didn't work out that way, of course.
The SEC has ruled like no other conference.
Just around the corner is another momentous change to shake up the college football landscape, spurred in part by the dominance down South. Undoubtedly, there are plenty of folks in the rest of the country hoping the four-team national playoff, which starts in 2014, will make it tougher for the SEC to pile up trophies.
Kramer, for one, doesn't expect much of an impact, just as splitting into East and West brackets and tacking on an extra game between the division champs back in 1992 has done little to damage the SEC's national title prospects.
"The SEC could very well end up with three of the four playoff teams in any given year," Kramer told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his retirement home near Chattanooga, Tenn. "I don't know that a playoff will significantly reduce the possibility of winning a national title. Some may believe that, but I'm not convinced it reduces the chances at all."
This much is clear: The current system is owned by the SEC.
The conference is riding an unprecedented streak of six straight national titles, and No. 2 Alabama is favored to make it seven in a row Monday night when the Crimson Tide takes on top-ranked Notre Dame in the next-to-last BCS championship game.
For better or worse, just about every major conference has followed the SEC's lead from way back in 1992 — adding news teams, starting their own title games — but the juggernaut that began it all appears more firmly entrenched than ever.
Over the last 20 seasons, the league has won nine national titles; no other conference has claimed more than four during that span. And the SEC has pitched a shutout since the 2006 season, divvying up six titles among four schools (Florida, Alabama, LSU and Auburn) while the rest of the country looked on enviously, wondering just what it had to do to break the stranglehold.
Last season, when the BCS produced an all-SEC matchup in the title game, the rest of the country screamed uncle.
Or, more accurately, playoff.
Suddenly, everyone jumped on board for what amounts to a true postseason system, albeit with not as many teams as the biggest supporters of the P-word would like.
Kramer has no doubt that Alabama's 21-0 victory over LSU in the 2012 title game accelerated the demands for a playoff among the other conferences — even though current SEC commissioner Mike Slive had proposed what is largely the same four-team format several years ago, only to be quickly shot down.
"I don't think there's any question that the added interest in trying to expand the field to some degree, to go from two to four teams, was influenced by what happened a year ago when two teams from the same conference played in the championship game," Kramer said. "That brought a significant amount of attention to it and perhaps brought on a willingness by more people to take a look at this process."
If the four-team playoff had been in place this season — and using the BCS standings as a selection guide — the SEC would have claimed half the field anyway. Florida finished third in the rankings, while No. 4 Oregon presumably would have been the other team, surely creating plenty of howls from teams such as Kansas State and Stanford (sound familiar?).
But the playoff is still a couple of years away. Heck, the powers-that-be are still trying to hammer out all the details. In the meantime, Notre Dame has set its sights on ending the SEC's dominance this season without the assistance of an extra round, having built a team around defense and a good running game — kind of like a northern version of Alabama.
Despite a perfect record (12-0) and No. 1 ranking, the Fighting Irish know what they're up against. So do the oddsmakers, who started Alabama as a 7½-point favorite and pushed it up to 9½ when the bets flowed in on the Crimson Tide.
"Obviously, the SEC has been very dominant in the national title game," Notre Dame safety Matthias Farley said.
But the conference doesn't appear quite as strong as past years, with some truly wretched teams at the bottom of the standings (Auburn, Tennessee and Kentucky) and a perception that even Alabama — despite positioning itself for a third national title in four years — isn't quite as strong after losing a bunch of top players to the NFL.
The SEC split its first six bowl games, the most notable result being Florida's ugly 33-23 loss to Big East champion Louisville in the Sugar Bowl.
"If you've watched the bowl games to this point, the SEC has lost to some other teams," said Farley, sounding a bit more confident about the Irish's chances. "You just have to be better than the other team on that given day, not all the time."
Alabama is mindful of the SEC's championship streak, but keeping it alive is not a major motivational factor. Rest assured, the Tide won't be passing around the trophy to all its fellow schools should it win another.
"Certainly we take a lot of pride in our conference. We feel like we play in the best conference in America," said Barrett Jones, Alabama's All-American center. "But we don't think about it that much. The coaches don't get up at the podium and say, 'OK, let's go win one for the SEC.' We're trying to win this for us."
Jones, a senior, will be long gone by the time a playoff finally comes on line. But, like Kramer, he figures the SEC will do just fine no matter what system is put in place. The region just has too many built-in advantages: passionate (if sometimes overzealous) fans; less competition from professional sports than other regions; some of the nation's top coaches; a seemingly limitless supply of high school talent right in its own backyard.
"If you look back at the past few years, two (SEC) teams probably would've gotten in a lot of years," Jones said. "That gives you a good chance to still win a national championship. I think the playoff system will be a good thing for the SEC."
Kramer doesn't support a playoff — he's one of those who believes college football is heading down a dangerous path that will severely damage the significance of the regular season — but he doesn't see the SEC giving up its dominant position anytime soon.
Just remember what happened when the SEC went to its own version of the playoff.
"It's really worked to our advantage," Kramer said.

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BCS Championship: Tale of the tape

Everything about the BCS championship between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama seems larger than life.
Not only do these schools stand among the best ever in college football, they also lead the pack in celebrating that success and in investing for the future.
If ever college football presented a heavyweight event it's the Fighting Irish against the Crimson Tide.
So here, then, is a tale of the tape for Monday's marquee matchup in Miami.
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— FOOTBALL BUILDING
ALABAMA: The Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility, named for the current athletic director, has a 20,000-square-foot strength and conditioning center — which is soon to be replaced — plus aquatic rehabilitation pools. The building also houses athletic administrators and the football offices.
NOTRE DAME: The Guglielmino Athletics Complex, named after the booster who funded it, has a 25,000-square-foot health and fitness center, meeting rooms and the football offices. Plus, the Morse Recruiting lounge with championship banners for Notre Dame's "11 consensus national championships."
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— TROPHIES
ALABAMA: The "Hall of Champions" overlooks the lobby on the second floor of the athletic facility. It has trophy cases for the Crimson Tide's 14 national champions — including a spot where 'Bama is hoping 2012 can be added — and a large case for the 23 Southeastern Conference title teams. Prominently perched on a marble pedestal is Mark Ingram's 2009 Heisman Trophy, the program's first.
NOTRE DAME: The lobby of the Gug, as the athletics complex is called, is basically one of college football's largest trophy cases. The first thing visitors see is Notre Dame's last national championship trophy, the coaches' trophy the Irish received after the 1988 season. To the left, across the wall are seven Heisman Trophies. No other school has won more.
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— WEIGHT ROOM
ALABAMA: A new weight room is nearly completed. Trustees approved the $9.1 million, 34,495-square-foot, two-story strength and conditioning facility in August that will connect the athletic building and the indoor practice facility. It's expected to be ready in early February.
NOTRE DAME: The football players work out at the Haggar Fitness Center in the Gug. It features more than 250 pieces of weight training equipment, six flat-screen TVs and a sound system, and it's available to all Notre Dame athletes.
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— STATUES
ALABAMA: Coach Nick Saban's towering likeness stands next to Bryant-Denny Stadium, offering a good spot for fan pictures on game day. The 9-foot statue is one of five honoring Tide football coaches who have won national titles, joining Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Paul W. "Bear" Bryant and Gene Stallings in the Walk of Champions plaza. It was unveiled in the spring of 2011, 15 months after 'Bama won the 2009 championship.
NOTRE DAME: Walk around Notre Dame Stadium and at each entrance you'll find a statue of one of its championship-winning coaches. Knute Rockne's guards the north tunnel, facing Touchdown Jesus. Dan Devine is at Gate A. Ara Parseghian is at Gate B. Frank Leahy is at Gate C. Lou Holtz is at Gate D.
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— MASCOTS
ALABAMA: Tradition holds that the Tide's elephant mascot dates to 1930 when Atlanta Journal sports writer Everett Strupper wrote that a fan called out: "Hold your horses, the elephants are coming." The "Red Elephant" nickname for the linemen stuck. The Big Al mascot made his official debut in the 1979 Sugar Bowl, when Alabama claimed its second straight national title with a win over Penn State. A game-saving goal line stand stole some of Big Al's thunder.
NOTRE DAME: The Leprechaun became the official mascot of the Fighting Irish in 1965, though four years earlier a student first donned the costume and roamed the sidelines. Leprechaun tryouts consist of a five-minute mock pep rally, an interview with a local media personality, responding to game situations, answering Notre Dame trivia, dancing an Irish jig, and doing 50 push-ups.
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— KEEPING IN STEP
ALABAMA: The Crimsonettes, a group of energetic dancers, entertain crowds at various sporting events. They're chosen based on dancing skills, physical fitness and the ability to learn the group routine, according to the school's Web site.
NOTRE DAME: The Irish Guard. Formed in 1949 as a part of the University of Notre Dame Marching Band, the guards wear a uniform of traditional Scottish kilt and Notre Dame tartan. To the top of the shako, a guard stands 7-feet tall, and the game-day inspection of the Guard usually draws a crowd — though not for the same reasons the Crimsonettes do.
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— SLOGANS
ALABAMA: Roll Tide, Roll Tide. "Yea Alabama" was written by the editor of the student newspaper, The Rammer-Jammer, in a contest that followed a win over Washington in the 1926 Rose Bowl. The lyrics include: "You're Dixie's football pride, Crimson Tide! Yea, Alabama! Drown 'em Tide!" The ending call "Roll Tide, Roll Tide" was added later.
NOTRE DAME: Wake Up the Echoes. The "Victory March" was first performed at Notre Dame on Easter Sunday on 1909. Not until 10 years later did it start being played at athletic events. The second verse starts: "Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame, Wake up the echoes cheering her name."
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— INTEGRATION
ALABAMA: John Mitchell became the first African-American to play for the Crimson Tide in 1971 after he transferred from junior college for his final two seasons. He was an All-American defensive end as a senior in 1972. Mitchell is now assistant head coach and defensive line coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he's coached the linemen since 1994. He started his career as Bear Bryant's defensive line coach in 1973 and became the Southeastern Conference's first black defensive coordinator at LSU in 1990. Bryant assistant Jerry Claiborne later said that a 1970 game with Southern California and star Sam Cunningham caught Bryant's attention and "did more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King did in 20 years."
NOTRE DAME: Defensive lineman Wayne Edmonds, from rural Pennsylvania, became the first African-American to earn a monogram on the football team in 1953. He and Richard Washington were the first black student-athletes to play in a game. The 1953 team went undefeated, a season when Georgia Tech refused to play Notre Dame at home because of the black players on the Fighting Irish and the game was moved to South Bend.
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— CAMPUS SHRINE
ALABAMA: If there's not necessarily a "Touchdown Jesus" equivalent, there is Denny Chimes, where the football team captains get to leave their indelible marks. The base of the tower displays hand and foot impressions of each captain from Tide teams since the 1940s.
NOTRE DAME: The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes is one-seventh the size of the French shrine where the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette in 1858. Visitors pass by peacefully, light candles and say prayers — probably a few for a Fighting Irish victory.
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— FIRST NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
ALABAMA: 'Bama headed West in 1925 to capture the program's first national championship with a 20-19 win over Washington in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. — the same place Saban won his first with the Tide. The 1925 squad went 10-0 and outscored opponents 297-26, and seven organizations declared Alabama the nation's best team.
NOTRE DAME: In 1924, it was Notre Dame that capped an undefeated season in the Rose Bowl by beating Pop Warner's Stanford team for the national championship. The first of three for Knute Rockne, and 11 that Notre Dame claims. The Fighting Irish haven't played in the Rose Bowl since.
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— BEST WALK-ON
ALABAMA: Carson Tinker received a scholarship before this season but was already one of college football's most well-known walk-ons and long snappers, though for a tragic reason. His girlfriend, Ashley Harrison, was killed by a tornado when she and Tinker were thrown about 50 yards from the closet where they had huddled. Tinker has persevered and become a fan favorite with nearly 27,000 followers on Twitter.
NOTRE DAME: Rudy Ruettiger, the ultimate underdog story. He overcame a learning disability to get accepted to Notre Dame, then at 5-foot-6 and 165 pounds he made the Fighting Irish scout team. He got on the field for three plays, and had a sack on the final play of his final game. Hollywood got hold of the story, added a little melodrama, and turned it into a sports movie classic.
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— BEST QUARTERBACK
ALABAMA: Joe Namath came to Tuscaloosa from Beaver Falls, Pa., and was a 1964 All-American for the Tide team that was named national champion by some organizations. Then, of course, he became an unforgettable pro football star who guaranteed his New York Jets would upset Baltimore in the 1969 Super Bowl — before making good on it. Bart Starr, another Hall of Famer, and Kenny Stabler also went on to terrific pro careers.
NOTRE DAME: Joe Montana, another western Pennsylvania kid who grew up to become an all-time great quarterback, came to Notre Dame in 1974. In his sophomore season, he gained a reputation as the comeback kid, coming off the bench to lead the Fighting Irish from behind to beat North Carolina and Air Force. He capped his career with another remarkable comeback victory against Houston in the 1979 Cotton Bowl, then went on to win four Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers.

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Complete Auto Loans Announces 25 New Approvals for Consumers Needing Bad Credit Auto Loans Financing

Complete Auto Loans is happy to announce 25 new approvals for consumers needing bad credit auto loans financing.

Seattle, Wa (PRWEB) January 08, 2013
For most consumers, taking advantage of a great deal or opportunity is great anytime. With yearly specials and discounts in full bloom, Complete Auto Loans is happy to announce even more approvals for car owners needing financing for bad credit auto loans.
Drivers aren’t always able to get approval for the new or used vehicle they need. Those who haven’t, are simply going to http://www.completeautoloans.com/auto-financing/ and getting approved for the vehicle they need for their budget.
Because CAL is providing more financing than ever for bad credit auto loans, drivers are getting the vehicle they need. This is a great way to help make the road safer for everyone driving.
Not only are drivers getting reliable vehicles, they are also finding a new or used car or truck that fits best and provides good functionality. This is making it possible for consumers to help take care of whatever household or work needs they have. Complete Auto Loans is making the whole application process easy by allowing drivers to focus on getting the vehicle that is right for them – rather than just focus on trying to get approved for an auto loan.
Consumers going to http://www.completeautoloans.com/bad-credit-auto-loans/ are finding it easier than ever to use the simple approval auto loan form. They are just visiting the site, and receiving approval for the next car or truck that they need – and all from the ease of their own computer. Getting financing for bad credit auto loans is as simple as completing the online form provided for auto loans.
Because drivers can experience issues with reliability with their vehicle, financing for an auto loan works out well for upgrading to good transportation. Sometimes a car or truck just needs to be updated, or is no longer useful and getting a good vehicle is helping drivers keep moving forward.
With Complete Auto Loans providing even more bad credit auto loans, the year is bringing even more good news. Drivers no longer have to wait in long lines, or even traffic. They are simply going online to http://www.completeautoloans.com and getting financing for the bad credit auto loans they need.

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FAXAGE Online Fax Provider Now Has Office 2013 Support

Onlinefaxguide.com updates its FAXAGE info and pages to include Office 2013 Support, which was recently added to this value-leader in online faxing.

(PRWEB) January 08, 2013
Onlinefaxguide.com, a comprehensive online fax services comparison guide, recently updated its FAXAGE info and pages to include the addition of Microsoft Office 2013. FAXAGE, a value-leader among online fax providers, now integrates Office 2013, as well as older versions (Office 2003, 2007 and 2010) into their services and operations.
This integration is very significant because it quickly allows FAXAGE users to immediately start faxing with a system they may be already familiar with using in the work environment. Now clients, besides using regular email, website account and other API faxing mechanisms - can use the 'Internet Fax Service' feature found in Microsoft Office.
"We are excited to offer these features to our clients and potential clients," says Christian Watts of FAXAGE. "Our Microsoft Office integration capability allows us to further lower the learning curve and help our clients to become more productive more quickly."
It simply makes FAXAGE easier to use, especially for those companies or workers, who are not familiar with using an online fax service. Keep in mind, just as email has revolutionized how business is done; online or Internet fax has truly revolutionized how modern day faxing is done. It has provided another method of sending information, one which is completely portable/mobile and where workers are no longer limited to the old traditional fax machine in the office.
FAXAGE, run by EC Data Systems Inc. and located in Denver, has always been considered one of the pioneers of this new "paperless" way of faxing. The addition of Microsoft Office integration will only make this online fax service provider much more attractive to potential clients.
Onlinefaxguide.com was created in 2006 to give both individuals and companies a handy online comparison guide to all the different fax providers. For further information on FAXAGE and Online Fax Services in general, please visit our main site: http://www.onlinefaxguide.com. Or view/read our extensive interview with Christian Watts about FAXAGE here: http://www.onlinefaxguide.com/faxage_interview_christian_watts.htm All products/companies mentioned above are registered trademarks of their respective owners and companies.

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