ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) – Michigan added Arkansas, Brigham Young and Hawaii to its future football schedules on Tuesday.

Notre Dame opted out of scheduled 2015-17 games last month against Michigan ahead of a previously scheduled break in the rivalry during the 2018-19 seasons. The Wolverines essentially replaced two matchups with the Fighting Irish with a game against BYU in 2015 and against Hawaii the next season, leaving a spot to fill in 2017.

Michigan will play the Razorbacks at home in 2018 and on the road the next year. The two teams have met only once, in the 1998 Citrus Bowl.

The Wolverines finished their 2015 schedule by adding BYU and the 2016 slate with games against Hawaii, Miami (Ohio) and Ball State, where Brady Hoke played football a
nd was a first-time head coach.

NORMAN — Oklahoma and Nebraska have agreed “in principle” to a home-and-home series beginning in a game on Owen Field in 2021 — the 50th anniversary of the “Game of the Century” — the Omaha World-Herald reported Monday.

Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne said the contracts aren’t signed yet, but that should just be a formality.

Sources told the newspaper that the first game would be played in 2021, with OU making a return trip to Lincoln, Neb., the next year.

The 1971 “Game of the Century” in Norman was won by Nebraska, 35-31. That year, Osborne was Nebraska’s offensive coordinator; Barry Switzer held the same position for Oklahoma.

Both Osborne and Switzer became head coaches at their respective schools in 1973, and went on to meet 17 times, with Switzer’s teams winning 12 of those contests.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Air Force’s Alicia Leipprandt scored a game-high 18 points and Dymond James added 17 more as the Falcons turned back Chadron State in an exhibition game 83-57 Monday night.

The Eagles hung tough with the Division I foe, especially in the first half when they trailed just 44-35 after the opening 20 minutes.

Due to some nagging injuries, only seven players saw time on the court for Chadron State. Jazmin Lopez led the Eagles with 14 points and nine rebounds but she received plenty of help. Both Kattie Ranta and Hattie Guzman scored 12 points and Dallas Shaw chipped in nine.

Ranta also had nine boards, while Guzman and Shaw finished with eight.

For the game, CSC hit 17 of 47 from the field (36 percent) and Air Force connected on 34 of 79 (43 percent).

The Falcons did much of their scoring damage off turnovers, scoring 35 points thanks to 33 CSC turnovers and they outscored the Eagles 46-14 in the paint.

Chadron State will host its regular season opener Sunday against Montana State University-Billings. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.

CSC        35 22 – 57
AF           44 39 – 83

Alex Helmbrecht, Sports Information Director

 

The Western Nebraska Community College men’s basketball team showed just how explosive of an offensive team they will be this season after going 1-1 at a tournament in Gillette, Wyo., over the weekend while averaging 101 points in the two games.

The Cougars defeat Gillette College 98-78 on Friday and the fall to Sheridan College 107-104 in overtime on Saturday to open the 2012 season. The Cougars lit up the scoreboard individually as well. Willie Mangum, the freshman from Richmond, Virg., led all scorers against Sheridan with 39 points.

Mangum is now third in the nation in scoring with a 30 per game average. Mangum also had 21 points in the Gillette win. Mangum has nailed 14 3-pointers so far this season, including 9 of 17 in the Sheridan loss.

Mangum, who was the second-leading scorer in Virginia last year, said it isn’t a surprise that this team is scoring points. What they need to do better is play defense.

“We have played better than we have in the past weeks, but we could have played a lot better,” Mangum, the 6-foot-1 guard, said. “It is just proven that when we score a lot, we also need to play better defense. We are getting better and better every week. I am not surprised at all with our offense because we can shoot and we have a lot of scorers and big men.”

Magnum said this team can go a long ways after what he saw of the team in the first two games.

“We can go far because we have a great team,” he said. “Once we come together and start gelling, we will be good. We have improved every week since playing in the gym. We started out slow in the first jamboree, then the next jamboree we were winning and the next jamboree we went undefeated. We kept improving and this coming up game will be a big test for the whole team.”

Scoring is not a problem for either the team or Magnum. In fact, Magnum said scoring is something he loves to do. And, when he isn’t scoring, he loves dishing off the ball to his teammates to get them points.

“At my high school, I was always the leading scorer where I averaged 29 points,” he said. “Saturday I was just in a rhythm. I was knocking down all my shots and I felt confident. It felt good to get the 39 points, but we lost so it really didn’t matter.”

Magnum said the strength of his game is scoring.

“I was the second leading scorer in Virginia in the Top 20 scorers in the nation, so I can score,” he said. “I can get to the rim, I can shoot, and I am a good distributor, too. I can also pass the ball. I just want to win.”

After opening with a 1-1 record, the road doesn’t get any easier as they will travel to Levelland, Texas, to face the defending national champions South Plains College on Tuesday. South Plains enters the contest at 2-0 after beating Ranger College 97-90 and Monterrey tech 95-33 at the Odessa Classic.

Mangum said playing this tough early-season schedule will pay off later in the season.

“It will be exciting because they are No. 1,” he said. “We have to bounce back and if we beat this No. 1 team, it will put Western Nebraska on the map.”

This past weekend definitely was a positive sign for a young Cougar team that returns just two players that saw action last season in Tahir Little and Sebastian Suarez. Suarez, however, is sidelined with two broken wrists after a fall in a scrimmage game in October.

After the South Plains contest, the Cougars continue playing defending Region IX champions as they take on the College of Southern Idaho and Salt Lake Community College in a Region 9/18 challenge in Casper, Wyo., this weekend.

“It is good that we are playing the best teams because we want to play the best,” he said. “To be the best, you have to play the best and beat the best.”

Junior quarterback Taylor Martinez was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for the fourth time this season, the conference announced on Monday. He shared the weekly award with Indiana wide receiver Cody Latimer.

The award was the fourth weekly Big Ten honor for Martinez this season and the sixth conference player-of-the-week award of his career, including five Big Ten honors. Martinez’s four selections this season tie for the second most in a single season in Big Ten history.

A native of Corona, Calif., Martinez was honored after guiding Nebraska on a fourth-quarter comeback at Michigan State on Saturday. Facing one of the nation’s best defenses, Martinez ran for a touchdown and threw for a touchdown in the final seven minutes to rally the Huskers to a 28-24 win that kept Nebraska tied atop the Legends Division standings. Martinez ran for a 35-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to three and then threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Jamal Turner with six seconds remaining.

Martinez ran for 205 yards against a Spartan defense that entered the contest allowing an average of only 91.2 yards per game. By halftime, Martinez had already gained more rushing yards against Michigan State than any other player this season and at game’s end, Martinez had run for more yards himself than the Spartans had allowed any team to gain this season. Martinez also ran for a pair of touchdowns, scoring on a 71-yard run in the second quarter and a 35-yard run in the fourth quarter. In addition to the 205 yards rushing, Martinez threw for 160 yards and two touchdowns.

With 365 yards of total offense against Michigan State, Martinez himself posted more total yards than nine of MSU’s 10 opponents this season. His big day also made him Nebraska’s career total offense leader with 8,166 yards, as he passed 2001 Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch’s total of 7,915 yards.

Most importantly, Martinez guided the Huskers to their third come-from-behind victory of the conference season, as Nebraska erased a double-digit second-half deficit for the third time in Big Ten play. Two weeks after leading Nebraska to the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in school history at Northwestern, Martinez did it again on the road, leading NU to the fifth-largest fourth-quarterback comeback at Michigan State.

Rounding out the list of Big Ten weekly honorees were Ohio State’s Ryan Shazier (defensive player of the week) and Bri’onte Dunn (freshman of the week) and Michigan State’s Mike Sadler (special teams player of the week).

Nathan Ross and Ashley Riesen are the Chadron State College Athletes of the Week.

Ross had a big day in the Eagles’ 45-20 win at Fort Lewis Saturday. The junior wide receiver from San Diego had six receptions for 130 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also returned a kick 42 yards.

Riesen was the top female cross country runner for the Eagles at the South Central Region Championships Saturday in Denver. She led the CSC runners with a time of 24:05 to finish in 44th place.

Alex Helmbrecht, Sports Information Director

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) – Kansas State coach Bill Snyder is hopeful injured quarterback Collin Klein will be available for next Saturday’s game at TCU.

The Heisman Trophy candidate was hurt during the third quarter of the No. 3 Wildcats’ 44-30 victory over Oklahoma State on Saturday. Snyder did not discuss the nature or severity of the injury, but all indications point toward a possible concussion.

Klein lay on the turf for several seconds after scoring his 50th career rushing touchdown. He spent several minutes talking with trainers before his helmet was taken away, which usually signals that a player has sustained some type of head injury.

When asked about Klein on Monday, Snyder replied: “Seems fine to me.” And when asked whether he’ll play against the Horned Frogs, Snyder said: “Hope so.”