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Ohio State climbed to No. 1 in this week’s AP poll, LSU and Miami moved into the top five, and FSU jumped into the rankings after upsetting Alabama, which plummeted to its lowest spot in 17 seasons.
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Notes:
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The defending national champion Buckeyes are at the top of a regular-season poll for the first time since November 2015.
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Texas’ fall to No. 7 was the biggest for a preseason No. 1 since Auburn dropped to No. 8 after losing their 1984 opener.
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LSU has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 3 in 2012, and Miami has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 5 in 2004.
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South Carolina is in the top 10 in the regular season for the first time since it was No. 8 in December 2013.
Musical chairs: Only three teams in the Top 25 are in the same spot they held in the preseason poll following a high-stakes Week 1 slate that saw four top-10 teams lose.
Since the formation of the NFL, the task of officiating games has fallen entirely to stripe-shirted humans. Now, with AI and motion-capture technology leaping forward, the NFL is exploring how to remove human error from the officiating process.
From Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Eisenberg:
The push to modernize began with finding a replacement for the antiquated chain gang. Starting this fall, the NFL will no longer use two orange posts connected by 10 yards of chain to measure if a team got a first down or not.
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After officials manually spot the ball, high-definition cameras installed at every stadium will track its precise location relative to the line to gain, saving time and improving accuracy.
Optical tracking technology that captures the movements of athletes and the football in real time could allow the NFL to automate more officiating decisions in the near future.
The league has begun looking into whether the Sony Hawk-Eye optical tracking system can calculate where the football should be spotted if a punt sails out of bounds, NFL VP of football technology Rama Ravindranathan told Yahoo Sports.
Other possible uses for optical tracking, according to Ravindranathan, include determining whether a player has thrown a backward pass, identifying illegal formation or illegal man downfield penalties or assessing if a QB has left the pocket on potential intentional grounding calls.
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Those, in Ravindranathan’s words, are “super aspirational” goals. Then there’s the challenge that Ravindranathan describes as even more “complicated.”
Fans have long clamored for technology to precisely determine where the ball should be spotted, and many believe the league is “overdue” to make that change.
So if there are six high-resolution Hawk-Eye cameras tracking the football at every NFL stadium and a coin-sized chip in every football transmitting data on its location, why hasn’t the league implemented a real-time automated ball-spotting system yet?
The roadblock, Ravindranathan says, is “the very nature of football.” Tracking the location of the football is not enough.
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Any system would have to accurately detect the location of the football at the precise moment that the ball carrier’s knee or forearm touches the ground or an official blows his whistle to signal forward progress has been stopped. And it would have to communicate its conclusion to on-field referees almost instantly.
“The technology isn’t quite there yet,” former NFL VP of officiating Dean Blandino told Yahoo Sports. “That’s the next technological iteration that we’ve got to figure out.”
Carlos Alcaraz cruised past Jiří Lehečka, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, to reach his third straight major semifinal. He’s now won 44 of his last 46 matches and has dropped just one service game (and no sets) all tournament.
Novak Djokovic defeated Taylor Fritz, 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, to reach his 53rd Grand Slam semifinal, breaking a tie with Chris Evert for the most all-time. With Fritz eliminated, the 22-year major drought for American men will now officially extend to at least 2026.
Jessica Pegula advanced to her second straight U.S. Open semifinal with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Barbora Krejčíková, and she has still not lost a set in New York. Next up: top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, who advanced after her opponent withdrew due to injury.
Venus Williams waved goodbye after losing alongside Leylah Fernandez in the doubles quarterfinals. Was this farewell? The 45-year-old legend didn’t completely close the door on one more comeback.
Aroldis Chapman’s ERA is down to 1.00 after going 16 straight appearances — a span of 46 straight batters — without allowing a hit. The Red Sox rewarded their 37-year-old closer on Sunday with a $13.3 million contract for next season.
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McLaren was reportedly on the brink of folding in 2020. Five years later, the F1 team’s majority owners have purchased the 30% stake they didn’t own at a $5 billion valuation, making McLaren one of the world’s most valuable sports organizations.
Iga Świątek, 24, is the youngest woman to reach the quarterfinals at all four Grand Slams in the same year since Maria Sharapova in 2005. She faces Amanda Anisimova this afternoon for a spot in the U.S. Open semis.
Shohei Ohtani hit the 100th home run of his Dodgers career on Tuesday, and it left his bat at 120 mph, making it one of the hardest-hit home runs in recorded MLB history.
🎾 U.S. Open, Day 11 | 11:30am ET, ESPN
The men’s and women’s quarterfinals conclude today.
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Men: No. 8 Alex de Minaur, seeking his first Grand Slam quarterfinal victory in six tries, takes on No. 25 Félix Auger-Aliassime (11:30am), who reached the semis here back in 2021; No. 1 Jannik Sinner faces No. 10 Lorenzo Musetti in a battle of Italians (8:10pm).
Women: No. 2 Iga Świątek and No. 8 Amanda Anisimova (1:10pm) play in a rematch of their lopsided Wimbledon final (Świątek won, 6-0, 6-0); No. 11 Karolína Muchová seeks her third straight U.S. Open semifinal berth against No. 23 Naomi Osaka (7pm), who last reached a major semifinal in 2021.
More to watch:
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⚾️ MLB: Yankees at Astros (8:10pm, Prime) … Will Warren (8-6, 4.30 ERA) vs. Jason Alexander (4-1, 4.61 ERA).
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🏀 EuroBasket: Group Stage (2:15pm, DAZN) … Nikola Jokić leads Serbia against Turkey in their group stage finale.
Question: Which active NFL franchise has the best regular-season winning percentage?
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Hint: They’ve won 2 Super Bowls.
Answer at the bottom.
To celebrate 28 years of Yahoo Fantasy Football, we launched a new Fantasy feature for 28 straight days in August.
Catch up on all the new features, and draft your team today! The NFL season kicks off tomorrow.
Trivia answer: Ravens (.574 win percentage; 268 wins, 199 losses, 1 tie)
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