Dein erstes Forum » e stadium hosting 46 events, including 10

Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan and Clemson held the top four spots in the College Football Playoff rankings for the second straight week and Washington moved up a spot to fifth this week.Wisconsin is sixth in the selection committee rankings released Tuesday night. Louisville was the team that took a big drop. The Cardinals fell from fifth to 11th after losing at Houston.Ohio State and Michigan play Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, and the loser is likely -- though not definitely -- out of the playoff race. The Wolverines would move on the Big Ten championship game by beating the Buckeyes. The Buckeyes, though, need help to reach the conference title game.Unbeaten Alabama meets Auburn on Saturday, but the Crimson Tide has already clinched a spot in the SEC title game.Clemson finishes its regular season against South Carolina and then will play in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game against either Virginia Tech or North Carolina.Washington must win at Washington State, ranked 23rd by the committee, on Friday to win the Pac-12 North and move on to the conference title game against No. 9 Colorado or No. 12 Southern California---BUCKEYES LOOKING GOODOhio State could get shut out of the Big Ten championship game if Penn State, seventh in the committees rankings, beats Michigan State on Saturday. But listening to committee chairman Kirby Hocutt it certainly sounds like the Buckeyes have separated themselves enough from Penn State that the committee is willing to overlook their loss to the Nittany Lions and the possible lack of a conference champions.The committee uses conference championships and head-to-head results to separate teams with similar resumes.But Hocutt, the athletic director of Texas Tech, said as of now the committee does not see a small gap between Ohio State and Penn State.Hocutt said committee took a lot of time ranking teams two through five, spent little time placing Wisconsin at six, and then found very little separation between Penn State and No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Colorado and No. 10 Oklahoma State.---THE BIG 12Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have set up a de facto Big 12 title game for Dec. 3, but the conference still looks shutout of the playoff without upsets in the other conferences.The Cowboys have two losses but one was against Central Michigan and it came on a last-play touchdown that was set up be an officiating error. Hocutt said the committee does not adjust the Cowboys record for the mistake, but it does consider the circumstances of the loss.The Big 12, at the very least, needs one other Power Five champion to finish with two losses to have a shot to make the playoff. But if it comes down to a bunch of teams with two losses the Big Ten seems to have a better chance to get two teams into the field than the Big 12 has to get one.---USC LURKINGThe Trojans have won seven straight games since starting 1-3, play Notre Dame on Saturday and still have a chance to be Pac-12 champions.With Sam Darnold at quarterback since game four, USC has been looked like one of the best teams in the country and it would be fascinating to see how much the committee weighs improvement over the course of the season against the full body of work if a couple of upsets clear a path for the Trojans to climb into the discussion for the final spot.---GROUP OF FIVEThere were four teams from outside Power Five conference in the committee rankings this week, the most at any point this season. The highest ranked champion from the Group of Five conferences will receive a bid to the Cotton Bowl.Boise State was best at No. 19, followed by Houston and Western Michigan. Navy was No. 24.The rankings changed but the situation is still the same as last week. Boise State cant reach the Mountain West championship game on Dec. 3 without a Wyoming loss Saturday. Houston is locked out of the American Athletic Conference title game. Navy has the AAC West clinched.That puts unbeaten Western Michigan in the best position to go to the Cotton Bowl if it wins the Mid-American Conference, but still in danger of being nudged out if Boise State wins its conference.---Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP Cheap MLB Jerseys Online . The catch: It needs a lot of money, and it needs it fast. Cheap Pittsburgh Pirates Jerseys .R. Smith realized how easily basketball can be taken from him, and he wasnt going to take his place in the NBA for granted anymore. http://www.stitchedmlbjerseys.com/ . Klitschkos management company says the bout will be the Ukrainian fighters 25th world championship fight. The 1.83-meter (6-foot) Leapai defeated the previously unbeaten Denis Boytsov in November to become the WBOs mandatory challenger. Cheap MLB Jerseys . -- Arizona knocked off some quality opponents, rolled over a few overmatched ones and grinded out victories even when things didnt go so well. Wholesale Baseball Jerseys For Sale . - The Washington Redskins have cut defensive lineman Adam Carriker and punter Sav Rocca. CARSON CITY, Nev. -- Nevada took a giant step closer to becoming home of the Raider Nation on Friday, after state lawmakers narrowly approved a hotel tax increase that would put $750 million in public money toward an NFL stadium partly funded by billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.A cadre of lobbyists for the project strained over the past week to overcome conservative anxiety over a tax increase and liberal objections to subsidizing one of the worlds richest men, eventually securing the bare minimum number of Assembly votes to hit the required two-thirds majority. Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, who views the $1.9 billion stadium as a way to ensure Las Vegas continued dominance in tourism, is expected to sign the deal Monday in Las Vegas.Raiders owner Mark Davis praised Sandoval and lawmakers in a statement.All parties have worked extremely hard to develop and approve this tremendous stadium project that will serve as a proud new home for the entire Raider Nation, he said.But its far from settled that Oaklands team will move to Las Vegas, a city thats only now ending its drought of professional sports after landing an NHL expansion team over the summer. Oakland still holds out hope that it can keep the Raiders from leaving them a second time, and a relocation needs the blessing of three-fourths of NFL team owners -- a conservative bunch thats historically shunned Las Vegas because of its legalized sports betting.Still, proponents who envision Raiders games in Sin City by 2020 will have a persuasive bargaining chip to show when NFL owners meet next week: The prospect of a sparkling, 65,000-seat domed venue close to the Las Vegas Strip, backed by $650 million from Adelson, $500 million from the Raiders and the NFL and a $750 million public investment.Its exciting, said Andy Abboud, chief lobbyist for casino mogul Adelsons Las Vegas Sands, after the financing deal passed its toughest vote on Friday. But this is really about jobs, and I think at the end of the day people saw this as a fantastic economic stimulus package.Sandoval called lawmakers into a rare special session to consider the deal, which raises a 12 percent hotel tax in the Las Vegas area by up to 1.4 percentage points to fund the stadium and a convention center expansion. Casino industry heavy-hitters from Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment urged lawmakers not to miss the game-changing business venture backed by their competitor, Adelson.Construction workers from the Laborers Union festooned the legislative building in Carson City wiith silver-and-black flags, pleading with lawmakers to give them back jobs that dried up in the recession and also threatening to sabotage the campaigns of Democrats who voted against the deal.ddddddddddddventually, the Senate voted 16-5 and the Assembly voted 28-13 for the bill. Opponents included both Republicans and Democrats, many of whom balked that the Legislature put new tax revenue toward a stadium instead of bolstering Nevadas bottom-ranking public education system and mental health services.We are funding luxury items before were taking care of our needs, said Democratic Assemblywoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson, who opposed the deal. I dont let that happen in my home and Im not going to let it happen ... in this house.The public contribution will be larger in raw dollars than for any other NFL stadium, although the publics share of the costs -- 39 percent -- is smaller than for stadiums in cities of a similar size, such as Indianapolis, Cleveland and Cincinnati.Critics pointed out that some outside economists, including Stanford professor and sports economist Roger Noll, have panned the deal as a boondoggle based on outlandish financial expectations. Defenders of the stadium say Las Vegas outsized tourism economy, with 150,000 hotel rooms and 42 million visitors each year, is just so different than other markets that are more dependent on locals.If we take the visitor component out of our economic impact model, it is negative, said economic analyst Jeremy Aguero, who helped develop the deal. He said he didnt disagree with analyses that other cities have been burned in stadium deals, but its inappropriately applied here.Proponents project 451,000 new visitors will come to Las Vegas as a result of the stadium, ushering in $620 million in economic impact. Thats based on the stadium hosting 46 events, including 10 NFL games, 6 UNLV football games and a variety of concerts, sports and other events.The deal puts $420 million toward renovating and expanding a dated convention center, which proponents say will help Las Vegas accommodate the largest conferences and keep its edge against competitors like Orlando. The two projects are projected to bring 25,000 construction jobs and 14,000 permanent jobs to the Las Vegas area.Tourists, mostly, will finance the improvements. They can expect to pay about $1.50 more per night on their hotel bill for an average-priced room on the Las Vegas Strip. ' ' '