It’s Boise St, not BYU, with a bye

Boise State received the fourth and final bye in Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff rankings, leaving BYU out of that mix and placing the Big 12 alongside the SEC on the list of power conferences with a gripe. Undefeated Oregon received top billing once again, delivered by the committee a few hours after Big Ten number crunchers ran through tiebreaker scenarios and realized the Ducks had clinched a spot in the conference title game no matter what happens between now and December. Ohio State stayed at No. 2, one spot ahead of Southeastern Conference co-leader Texas. Miami of the Atlantic Coast Conference was ranked eighth but gets the third seed and a bye that goes to the top four ranked conference leaders. And likewise, Boise State was ranked 12th by the committee but was slotted into that fourth and final bye. BYU was ranked 14th, but gets the last spot in the 12-team bracket as the fifth-best conference leader. That bumps out No. 11 Tennessee, which lost to Georgia last week and now takes the place the SEC’s Bulldogs held last week: first team out. There are three more weeks of rankings to go, culminating with the reveal on Dec. 8 that sets the bracket for college football’s first 12-team playoff.

An emotional day for retiring Nadal

Rafael Nadal bit his lower lip and his reddened eyes welled with tears as he stood alongside his Davis Cup teammates for Spain’s national anthem Tuesday before what he — and everyone — knew might be the last match of his career. Hours after Nadal’s 6-4, 6-4 loss to Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands in Malaga, Spain, the evening did turn out to represent the 22-time Grand Slam champion’s farewell to professional tennis, because the Dutch eliminated the Spaniards in the quarterfinals. The 38-year-old Nadal said beforehand that his feelings would need to be put on hold, that this week was about attempting to claim one last title for his country, not about pondering his impending retirement, which he had announced last month would come after this event. But he acknowledged after playing that the moment got to him, that “the emotions were difficult to manage,” and that he felt nerves out there amid the roars of an adoring, sign- and flag-toting crowd that mostly showed up for one player and one player only.

Pulisic nets 2 in US win vs. Jamaica

Mauricio Pochettino had a message for American players after a 5-2 aggregate win over Jamaica gave the three-time defending champion United States a berth in the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals. “My advice is look after yourself. We need to be a stronger in March,” Pochettino said. “We need to be desperate to arrive to March and to be all together. That is a sign that we improve a lot and then we start to feel that we are a real group of people, that we are going to fight for something special.” Christian Pulisic scored twice in the first half, Tim Weah got a goal in his return to the U.S. national team from a red card and the Americans beat Jamaica 4-2 in the quarterfinal second leg on Monday night in St. Louis. “We came out really hot,” Pulisic said. “We should definitely feel good after these results. We’re obviously learning a lot of new things obviously with the new coach.” Pochettino has led the team in two windows since replacing Gregg Berhalter following first-round elimination at the Copa America. The Americans also qualified for next year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup. —AP