Bowl game schedule today: Previewing the four college football matchups on Jan. 2

With 2026 now officially underway, thecollege football seasonis nearly at its end. But before we wrap things up in the Bowl Subdivision with next week'sCollege Football Playoff semifinalsand the subsequent title game, we have one more full day of bowl games to enjoy.

If it's big-name programs you want, Friday's lineup might not appeal to you. But the slate does feature a couple of squads inthe US LBM Coaches Poll, as well as some of the nation's premier academic institutions. One of the prime-time contests will hopefully live up to our placement in the bowl rankings – several of which, we freely admit, were wildly off the mark. Here are the Friday bowl offerings.

Armed Forces Bowl: Texas State vs. Rice

Time/TV:1 p.m. ET, ESPN in Fort Worth, Texas.

Why watch:The last full day of the bowl season kicks off with a pair of Lone Star State squads without much shared history. These same two teams did, however, square off in the First Responder Bowl two years ago, with theBobcatstaking a 45-21 decision. The 2025 campaign wasn't a huge success for either program, but both should enjoy this opportunity. Unfortunately, Owls starting QB Chase Jenkins and backup Drew Devillier have announced plans to transfer, meaning either Lucas Scheerhorn or Patrick Crayton Jr., both little-used freshmen, will be pressed into service. The Bobcats should have most of their primary contributors, including QB Brad Jackson and WRs Beau Sparks and Chris Dawn.

Why it could disappoint:Texas State generates a ton of long scoring plays, and the Owls tend to give them up. That certainly looks ominous from a competitive standpoint.

Best of bowl season: Mascots, trophies, celebrations, Gatorade baths

Liberty Bowl: No. 25 Navy vs. Cincinnati

Time/TV:4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN in Memphis, Tenn.

Why watch:With a double-digit win season and the Commander in Chief's Trophy secured, the Midshipmen have one more goal to attain, a Top 25 ranking to finish the campaign. The Bearcats briefly cracked the poll themselves this fall before closing the year on a four-game skid. Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby is in the portal, so the start will go to Brady Lichtenberg, who has attempted just six passes but completed four of them. Navy QB Blake Horvath will look to close out his outstanding career on a high note, with help as usual from RB Alex Tecza and SB Eli Heidenreich.

Why it could disappoint:It shouldn't. Even with most of its regular lineup, Navy doesn't usually win with wide margins but by executing better in the details. Expect a close one here.

Duke's Mayo Bowl: Wake Forest vs. Mississippi State

Time/TV:8 p.m. ET, ESPN in Charlotte, N.C.

Why watch:Year one in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, under Jake Dickert unquestionably exceeded expectations. TheDemon Deaconsnow look to close out the year by giving their new head coach a mayo bath. TheBulldogsmanaged just one victory in SEC play but were within a score on a couple other occasions. Wake QB Robby Ashford wasn't always an accurate passer but usually got the ball where it needed to go. He will be without draft-bound RB Demond Claiborne and breakout WR Chris Barnes who is in the portal. The Mississippi State offense will be in the hands of freshman Kamario Taylor, who didn't have much luck in his Egg Bowl start against Ole Miss but does have some speedy weapons at his disposal.

Why it could disappoint:Wake's most significant strides this fall were on the defensive side, which was demonstrably not the case for the Bulldogs. Miss State could win a shootout, so it might behoove the Deacons to moderate the tempo.

Holiday Bowl: No. 20 Arizona vs. SMU

Time/TV:8 p.m. ET, Fox in San Diego.

Why watch:The non-playoff bowl calendar closes in – usually – sunny San Diego, where the Wildcats and Mustangs could put on an offensive show. Both teams should have most of their top producers participating. Arizona QB Noah Fifita threw for 2,963 yards and 26 TDs, with WR Kris Hutson serving as primary target and RB Ismail Mahdi leading the ground game. SMU counters with QB Kevin Jennings, who also has 26 scoring tosses but twice as many picks with 10 on the season. He spreads the ball well, but TE Matthew Hibner is a valuable weapon in the red zone.

Why it could disappoint:We hope this one delivers the goods, but both teams have opportunistic defenses that thrive on takeaways. It might get away if those occur early, as happened to SMU in last year's playoff appearance.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:College football bowl games today schedule features four matchups

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Bowl game schedule today: Previewing the four college football matchups on Jan. 2

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Russia puts death toll from Ukrainian strike on occupied village at 27. Kyiv rejects accusation

Russian authorities said Friday that the death toll from a Ukrainian drone strike they said struck a café in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine's Kherson region rose to 27 people. Kyiv denied attacking civilian targets.

Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman of Russia's main criminal investigation agency, the Investigative Committee, said in a statement that a Ukrainian drone strike on a café and hotel in the village of Khorly, where at least 100 civilians were celebrating New Year's Eve overnight into Thursday, killed 27 people, including two minors. A total of 31, including five minors, were hospitalized with injuries.

A criminal probe on the charges of carrying out an act of terrorism has been opened, Petrenko said.

Kyiv denied attacking civilians. Spokesman of Ukraine's General Staff, Dmytro Lykhovii, told Ukraine's public broadcaster Suspilne on Thursday that Ukrainian forces "adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law" and "carry out strikes exclusively against Russian military targets, facilities of the Russian fuel and energy sector, and other lawful targets."

Lykhovii said that General Staff has published an explicit list of targets that the Ukrainian army struck on the night of New Year's Eve. The list did not include strikes on occupied parts of the Kherson region.

Lykhovii noted that Russia has repeatedly used disinformation and false statements to disrupt the ongoing peace negotiations.

The Associated Press could not independently verify claims made about the attack.

Russia's accusations against Ukraine come amid a U.S.-led diplomatic push to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine. Earlier this week, Moscow alleged that Kyiv launched a long-range drone attack against a residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in northwestern Russia overnight from Sunday to Monday.

Kyiv has called the allegations of an attack on Putin's residence a ruse to derail ongoing peace negotiations, which have ramped up in recent weeks on both sides of the Atlantic.

In his New Year's address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a peace deal was "90% ready" but warned that the remaining 10%, believed to include key sticking points such as territory, would "determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live."

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said Wednesday that he, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's son-in-law andadviser Jared Kushnerhad a "productive call" with the national security advisers of Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine "to discussadvancing the next stepsin the European peace process."

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia conducted what local authorities called "one of the most massive" drone attacks at Zaporizhzhia overnight.

At least nine Russian drones struck the city, damaging dozens of residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure, head of the regional administration, Ivan Fedorov, wrote on Telegram on Friday. There were no casualties, the official said.

Overall, Russia fired 116 long-range drones at Ukraine last night, according to Ukraine's Air Force, which said that 86 drones were intercepted, while 27 more have reached their targets.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported Friday that its air defenses intercepted 64 Ukrainian drones overnight over multiple Russian regions.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia's Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, on Friday also accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out a missile strike on the city of Belgorod. Two women were hospitalized with injuries, Gladkov said. The strike shattered windows in multiple residential buildings and damaged an unspecified "commercial" facility and a number of cars, according to the official.

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Russia puts death toll from Ukrainian strike on occupied village at 27. Kyiv rejects accusation

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On Today's Date: Chicago's Second Heaviest Snowstorm Rang In 1999

A major snowstorm isn't in the cards to welcome 2026.

But on Jan. 2, 1999, 27 years ago today, parts of the upper Midwest and eastern Canada were in the throes of a blizzard that would dump up to 28 inches of snow in Lower Michigan.

In Chicago, what was already a disruptive snowstorm was boosted by winds flowing off Lake Michigan, enhancing snowfall and gusting up to 50 mph, producing blizzard conditions along the lakeshore.

O'Hare Airport totaled 21.6 inches of snow from Jan. 1-3, its second heaviest snowstorm on record behind only the historic Jan. 26-27, 1967, blizzard's 23-inch total. The 18.6 inches that fell on Jan. 2, alone, remains the city's heaviest calendar-day snowfall on record.

While this storm was spread out over several days of a holiday weekend, its impacts were disruptive. For the first time, Chicago's Lake Shore Drive was shut down by the storm. Hundreds of flights were canceled throughout the region, including 300 flights at both Midway and O'Hare Airports.

The storm was immediately followed by an Arctic cold outbreak that set the all-time cold record for the state of Illinois (minus 36 degrees in Congerville) on Jan. 5, according to the University of Wisconsin. Incidentally, thatstate record was topped 20 years laterduring the late January 2019 outbreak.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him onBluesky,X (formerly Twitter)andFacebook.

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On Today's Date: Chicago's Second Heaviest Snowstorm Rang In 1999

A major snowstorm isn't in the cards to welcome 2026. But on Jan. 2, 1999, 27 years ago today, parts of the upper Midwest and easter...

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Saudi warplanes strike UAE-backed separatists in southern Yemen

ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Saudi warplanes have reportedly struck on Fridayforces in southern Yemenbacked by the United Arab Emirates, a separatist leader says. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

This comes as a Saudi-led operation attempts to take over camps of the Southern Transitional Council, or STC, in the governorate of Haramout that borders Saudi Arabia.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAErose after the STC moved last month into Yemen's governorates of Hadramout and Mahra and seized an oil-rich region. The move pushed out forces affiliated with the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces, a group aligned with the coalition in fighting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

Meanwhile, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen accused the head of the STC of blocking a Saudi mediation delegation from landing in the southern city of Aden.

Strikes on Hamdrmout

The STC deputy and former Hamdrmout governor, Ahmed bin Breik, said in a statement that the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces advanced toward the camps, but the separatists refused to withdraw, apparently leading to the airstrikes.

Salem al-Khanbashi, the governor of Hadramout who was chosen Friday by Yemen's internationally recognized government to command the Saudi-led forces in the province, called the current operation "peaceful."

"This operation is not a declaration of war and does not seek escalation," al-Khanbashi said in a speech aired on state media. "This is a responsible pre-emptive measure to remove weapons and prevent chaos and the camps from being used to undermine the security in Hadramout," he added.

The Saudi-led coalition now demands the withdrawal of STC forces from the two governorates as part of de-escalation efforts. The STC has so far refused to hand over its weapons and camps.

Escalating tensions

In his post on X, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed al-Jaber, said the kingdom had tried "all efforts with STC" for weeks "to stop the escalation" and to urge the separatists to leaveHadramout and Mahra,only to be faced with "continued intransigence and rejection from Aidarous al-Zubaidi," the STC head.

Al-Jaber said the latest development was not permitting the Saudi delegation's jet to land in Aden, despite having agreed on its arrival with some STC leaders to find a solution that serves "everyone and the public interest."

Yemen's transport ministry, aligned with STC, said Saudi Arabia imposed on Thursdayrequirements mandatingthat flights to and from Aden International Airport undergo inspection in Jeddah. The ministry expressed "shock" and denounced the decision. There was no confirmation from Saudi authorities.

ِA spokesperson with the transport ministry told The Associated Press late Thursday that all flights from and to the UAE were suspended until Saudi Arabia reverses these reported measures.

Yemen has been engulfed in a civil war for more than a decade, with the Houthis controlling much of the northern regions, while a Saudi-UAE-backed coalition supports the internationally recognized government in the south. However, the UAE also helps the southern separatists who call for South Yemen to secede once again from Yemen. Those aligned with the council have increasingly flown the flag of South Yemen, which was a separate country from 1967-1990.

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.

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Saudi warplanes strike UAE-backed separatists in southern Yemen

ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Saudi warplanes have reportedly struck on Fridayforces in southern Yemenbacked by the United Arab Emir...

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Kawhi Leonard's 45 points with bloodied nose lead Clippers to 6th straight win, 118-101 over Jazz

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Kawhi Leonard scored 45 points, James Harden added 20 and the Los Angeles Clippers recovered from blowing a 21-point lead to beat the Utah Jazz 118-101 on Thursday night, extending their winning streak to a season-best six games.

Leonard was the only Clippers starter on the floor for much of the fourth quarter. He singlehandedly matched Utah's points in the period (20), with blood on his nose from what appeared to be a scratch.

Los Angeles hit seven straight 3-pointers, with Leonard making four, to pull away. Nicolas Batum finished with 14 points and went 4 of 6 from 3-point range.

The Jazz rallied despite being without three starters. They were led by reserve Kyle Anderson with 22 points — his first 20-point game in nearly three years — and Brice Sensabaugh with 20. Anderson's eight rebounds were a season high. Cody Williams had 18 points, while Isaiah Collier added 16 points and 10 assists.

The game was tied six times in the third period, when Utah took its first lead.

The Clippers outscored Utah 28-7 to start the game. The Jazz missed their first six shots and had one rebound in the first six minutes.

Utah outscored the Clippers 33-22 in the second — when Leonard scored LA's first nine points — to trail 53-50 at halftime.

Utah played without Keyonte George (illness), Lauri Markkanen (knee) and Jusuf Nurkic (toe). The Jazz have dropped six of eight.

The Jazz had 58 points in the paint and their bench outscored the Clippers' reserves 51-40.

Jazz: Visit the Golden State Warriors on Saturday.

Clippers: Host the Boston Celtics on Saturday.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/NBA

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Kawhi Leonard's 45 points with bloodied nose lead Clippers to 6th straight win, 118-101 over Jazz

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Kawhi Leonard scored 45 points, James Harden added 20 and the Los Angeles Clippers recovered fro...

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Ole Miss-Georgia Sugar Bowl thriller ends with delayed celebrations as officials demand last second be played

Ole Misshad to delay the celebration for their 39-34 Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia multiple times on Thursday night.

After kicking a go-ahead field goal with six seconds left, Ole Miss was awarded a safety on its final kickoff when Georgia's return team tried a cross-field lateral that hit the pylon. Players and coaches began to rush the field in celebration, before having to return to the sideline as officialsdemanded Georgiakick off with one second remaining.

Georgia then recovered an onside kick, falling on the ball to preserve the final second. Ole Miss players and coaches again began to celebrate, believing the game had ended there.

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Ole Miss Head coach Pete Golding was even doused in a Gatorade bath. However, officials again demanded the final second be played, and stadium staff even began to push the winner's stage onto the field, before having to push it back to clear space for the final play.

Georgia ran one more play in which they executed numerous laterals before the play fizzled after dozens of seconds, before Ole Miss could finally celebrate their CFP victory.

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The win sent Ole Miss (13-1, CFP No. 6 seed) on to asemifinal against Miamiin the Fiesta Bowl next Thursday.

Kicking off on the heels of two lopsided CFP quarterfinals at the Orange and Rose bowls, the Sugar Bowl provided drama until the end.

Former Espn Star Blasts Ole Miss After Pete Golding Revealed As Lane Kiffin's Chosen Successor

After seeing a 21-12 halftime lead turn into a 34-24 deficit with 9:02 to play,Georgia (12-2, CFP No. 3 seed)rallied to tie it, first driving for Gunner Stockton's 18-yard TD pass to Zachariah Branch before Peyton Woodring's short field goal tied it with 55 seconds left in regulation.

Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss responded by setting up the winning kick with a 40-yard pass to De'Zhaun Stribling on third down from Mississippi's own 30-yard line. A few plays later, kicker Lucas Carneiro, who'd already broken Sugar Bowl records with field goals of 55 and 56 yards, hit from 47 and sprinted triumphantly toward the Ole Miss sideline as the Rebels jubilantly swarmed around him.

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Harrison Wallace III caught nine passed for 156 yards and one TD, Stribling finished with seven catches for 122 yards, Kewan Lacy rushed for 98 yards and two TDs, and the Rebels outgained the Bulldogs 473 yards to 343.

Stockton passed for 203 yards and one touchdown, and also ran for two scores.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Follow Fox News Digital'ssports coverage on X, and subscribe tothe Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Original article source:Ole Miss-Georgia Sugar Bowl thriller ends with delayed celebrations as officials demand last second be played

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Ole Miss-Georgia Sugar Bowl thriller ends with delayed celebrations as officials demand last second be played

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A legendary coach retired. Two years later, Nick Saban's influence still rules college football.

Hours before a College Football Playoff quarterfinal began Thursday, 74-year-old Nick Saban sat on an ESPN stage constructed inside the Rose Bowl, in the corner of an end zone, in Pasadena, California.

Since Saban retired from Alabama in 2024, having won more national championships than any coach in college football's modern era, and began working as a television commentator, his perspective on game days has changed.

But as the playoff's results have proven, his influence on what takes place between the lines remains as strong as ever.

Miami, Oregon, Indiana and Ole Miss are the last four teams standing in the College Football Playoff, and all have one thing in common: Their head coaches once worked for Saban.

Led by Mario Cristobal, Miami soundly defeated reigning national champion Ohio State in a playoff quarterfinal Wednesday. In the semifinals next week the Hurricanes will face Ole Miss, where former Alabama defensive coordinator Pete Golding was promoted to the top job last month — only after another former Saban assistant left the school.

In the other semifinal, Oregon, whose coach, Dan Lanning, spent 2015 as an Alabama graduate assistant, will face Indiana, led by coach Curt Cignetti, a member of Saban's first Alabama staff from 2007 to 2011.

Even if Ole Miss had lost, the playoff's semifinals would have been represented by all-former Saban assistants, anyway, because their opponent was Georgia, whose coach, Kirby Smart, was Saban's longest-tenured coordinator at Alabama.

Famous for his difficult-to-impress demeanor, high standards and competitiveness — heonce complainedthat winning one national title had cost him a week on the recruiting trail — Saban created and obsessively followed a "process" to team-building, in which no detail was too small. The principles that earned Saban one title at LSU and six more at Alabama rubbed off on his assistants.

"It was real important part of my journey," Cignetti told reporters this week, before Indiana's 38-3 quarterfinal demolition of Alabama, Saban's old program, on Thursday.

"Learned a lot from Coach Saban in terms of organization, standards, stopping complacency," Cignetti said. "I wouldn't be where I am today without my time under Nick."

An education like no other

Cristobal had already been a head coach by the time he worked as Alabama's offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator from 2013 to 2016. Yet receiving what heonce describedas a "football PhD" under Saban reshaped how Cristobal thought about leading a program.

The Crimson Tide won one championship and played for another during Cristobal's time on staff, and when he became Oregon's coach in 2018, Cristobalexplicitly modeledevery detail of the team's offseason — from how they lifted weights, to how he defined staffers' job descriptions — off of his experience at Alabama.

His time in Tuscaloosa has carried over to Miami, too.

"That's how you win games this time of year when you can dominate the line of scrimmage and your guys have done that tremendously," Saban told Cristobalduring ESPN's "College GameDay"on Thursday, the morning after Miami's win.

"Well, I mean, it was one of greatest lessons under you at Alabama, right?" Cristobal replied. "You used to tell us all the time, 'Mass kicks a--.'"

Ole Miss's matchup with Georgia was the clearest illustration of Saban's continued influence over the sport, two years after he left the sidelines. When Lane Kiffin was deciding whether to remain as the coach at Ole Miss or bolt for LSU a month ago,he called Saban, his old boss at Alabama, for advice.

"So, there's the reason I'm here," Kiffin said during his introductory news conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

To replace Kiffin, Ole Miss immediately promoted Golding, who while working as Saban's defensive coordinator from 2018 to 2022 hadrecruited with the pitch,"Hey, I work for the greatest coach of all-time."

Then Golding, in his second game as head coach, pulled the upset on higher-seeded Georgia and Smart.

Beating Alabama using lessons from Alabama

Lanning spent 2015 as a graduate assistant at Alabama before eventually working for Smart at Georgia. Lanning has said he was struck by Saban's willingness to take input from anyone with a good idea, regardless of their place on his staff's hierarchy, and how strictly he kept to a daily routine.

That could make Saban feel "robotic,"Lanning said last year. But his boss was also adaptable enough to change his style to incorporate successful trends.

"There are a lot of people that have come from (Saban's coaching) tree, some have had a lot of success and some have not," Lanning said. " I feel like the ones that maybe haven't had as much success, they tried to be Nick. You know, Nick was Nick. You know, Nick, Coach Saban was himself every day.

"And that's something I appreciate and learned from him that whenever you get your opportunity, you've got to be you. But you've got to be the definition of consistency if you want to last in this profession."

Saban had a long history with Cignetti when he hired him in 2007 as Alabama's receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. Cignetti's father, Frank, was the coach at West Virginia when he hired Saban as an assistant in 1978. By 2009, Alabama won its first national title in 17 years thanks to recruits Cignetti helped land.

When Cignetti left Alabama in 2011 to become a head coach at a school in Division II, two rungs lower on the NCAA ladder and a world away from Alabama's prestige, Saban has said he thought Cignetti was making a career mistake. But Cignetti won quickly there and worked his way up the ladder by replicating quick turnarounds at his next three schools, too, before landing at Indiana in 2024.

As a school in the NCAA's four most-powerful conferences, it was a big opportunity — but also a historically difficult job. The Hoosiers entered this season with the most losses in the history of the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision, and hadn't won a postseason game since 1991.

Yet Thursday, from his sideline perch in Pasadena, Saban watched Cignetti's team hand Alabama, 38-3, its most lopsided postseason loss in school history to continue one of the most remarkable coaching feats in college football history. The victory was both emphatic and symbolic as a longtime college football "have-not" physically and strategically dominated a Crimson Tide program that has long epitomized championships. After Saban's 2024 retirement Alabama chose as his successor Kalen DeBoer, a highly successful coach — but not a Saban disciple.

"I probably think about (working for Saban) every single day, to be quite honest, because it had such a big impact in my growth and development," Cignetti said this week.

"I think philosophically, the program that we run here is probably a lot more the same than different than Alabama," he said. "There's probably not a day that goes by where I don't draw from those experiences."

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A legendary coach retired. Two years later, Nick Saban's influence still rules college football.

Hours before a College Football Playoff quarterfinal began Thursday, 74-year-old Nick Saban sat on an ESPN stage constructed inside the Ros...

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