Texas Christian

In a setback for the hopes of college football's mid-major conferences, No. 10 Texas Christian lost its first game last night, falling to Southern Mississippi, 40-28. The Horned Frogs didn't go easily, rebounding from a 31-6 deficit to close within 34-28 with three minutes to go. A fumble by quarterback Brandon Hassell ended their hopes. The loss dropped the Horned Frogs to 10-1 (7-1 in Conference USA) and left Oklahoma as the nation's only undefeated team. The Golden Eagles, who got three touchdown passes from Dustin Almond, are 8-3 and 7-0.

Sandora Irvin scored 13 points and grabbed 17 rebounds to lead No. 18 Texas Christian to a 76-44 rout of Tulane in Fort Worth, Texas, last night. Ebony Shaw also had 13 points for TCU (17-4, 6-2 Conference USA). The Frogs never trailed, outscoring the Green Wave by 40-16 in the paint. They also outscored Tulane by 23-2 on the fastbreak. Delacey Joseph scored 14 points for Tulane (8-13, 1-7). She was the only Green Wave player in double digits. In the region Penn 73, Harvard 72 - Katie Kilker made one of two free throws with 5.8 seconds left to give the Quakers (10-6, 4-0)

DeMarco Murray ran for two touchdowns, Ryan Broyles returned a punt 88 yards for a score, and Oklahoma (7-5, 5-3 Big 12) knocked No. 11 Oklahoma State (9-3, 6-2) out of contention for its first appearance in the Bowl Championship Series with a 27-0 thumping yesterday in Norman. The Cowboys' loss greatly increases the chances of either Penn State or Iowa landing a berth in a BCS bowl game. With representatives of the Fiesta and Orange bowls watching, Oklahoma State fell completely flat.

Alabama (14-0) Texas (13-1) Florida (13-1) Boise State (14-0) Cincinnati (12-1) Texas Christian (12-1) Ohio State (11-2) Iowa (11-2) Penn State (11-2) Oregon (10-3)

Corey Santee scored 26 points to lead Texas Christian past Western Michigan in overtime last night, 78-76, in a second-round game at Kalamazoo, Mich. TCU (21-13) will play the winner of tomorrow night's game between Maryland and Davidson in the semifinals. In another NIT game: At Nashville, Tenn., Corey Smith hit a layup as time expired to lift Vanderbilt past Wichita State, 65-63, in a second-round game. Vanderbilt (20-13) will play at Memphis tomorrow night.

Seimone Augustus scored 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting as third-ranked Louisiana State routed Florida Atlantic last night, 88-55, in the Tigers' home opener in Baton Rouge, La. Augustus shot 7 of 8 for 14 first-half points to help LSU (3-0) open an 11-0 lead in the first 3 1/2 minutes. LSU held a 46-29 advantage at halftime. Temeka Johnson, LSU's 5-foot-3 point guard and a preseason all-Southeastern Conference selection, got her fourth career double-double with 12 points and a team high of 11 assists.

Jose Olivero made a three-pointer with six seconds left and ended with 23 points to help Lehigh (4-3) salvage a 60-57 victory over Columbia (1-3) after the Mountain Hawks blew a 15-point second-half lead last night in New York. St. Peter's 80, Loyola, Md. 66 - Nicholas Shane scored 23 points to lead St. Peter's (3-1) past Loyola, Md. (0-6) in Baltimore. Texas Christian 84, Stephen F. Austin 62 - Marcus Shropshire scored a career-high 17 points to lead Texas Christian (2-4)

Michigan's Garde Thompson scored a career-high 33 points - 27 on three- point shots - to help offset a school-record 50 points by Navy's David Robinson as the Wolverines claimed a 97-82 victory over the Midshipmen last night in an NCAA East Region first-round game in Charlotte, N.C. Robinson, who hit 22 of 37 shots from the field, posted the most points in an NCAA tournament game since Notre Dame's Austin Carr had 52 against Texas Christian in...

Temple senior forward Craig Williams has transferred to Texas Christian, according to the Horned Frogs' website. Williams, a 6-9, 240-pounder, redshirted last season with the Owls after suffering a preseason foot injury. He will be eligible this season for TCU. The native of Christiansted, St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, played 61 games over three seasons with Temple, starting 13 times. As a sophomore in 2008-09, he averaged 5.3 points and 3.0 rebounds. As a junior, he averaged 3.8 points and 1.8 rebounds.

AFC EAST BUFFALO A- Round, Number, Position, College   1, 3, Marcel Dareus, DT, Alabama 2, 34, Aaron Williams, DB, Texas 3, 68, Kelvin Sheppard, LB, Louisiana State 4, 100, Da'Norris Searcy, DB, North Carolina 4, 122, Chris Hairston, T, Clemson 5, 133, Johnny White, RB, North Carolina 6, 169, Chris White, LB, Mississippi State 7, 206, Justin Rogers, DB, Richmond...

Alabama (14-0) Texas (13-1) Florida (13-1) Boise State (14-0) Cincinnati (12-1) Texas Christian (12-1) Ohio State (11-2) Iowa (11-2) Penn State (11-2) Oregon (10-3)

Greg Monroe had 24 points and 15 rebounds - both career highs - to lead No. 15 Georgetown to a 72-65 victory over No. 22 Butler last night in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden. Monroe, last season's Big East rookie of the year, recorded his third double-double of the season as the Hoyas (7-0) used their size advantage to control the paint at both ends. Georgetown finished with a 43-30 rebound advantage, outscored the Bulldogs (6-3) by 30-16 inside, and held Butler forward Matt Howard to nine points on 1-of-9 shooting.

DeMarco Murray ran for two touchdowns, Ryan Broyles returned a punt 88 yards for a score, and Oklahoma (7-5, 5-3 Big 12) knocked No. 11 Oklahoma State (9-3, 6-2) out of contention for its first appearance in the Bowl Championship Series with a 27-0 thumping yesterday in Norman. The Cowboys' loss greatly increases the chances of either Penn State or Iowa landing a berth in a BCS bowl game. With representatives of the Fiesta and Orange bowls watching, Oklahoma State fell completely flat.

Texas moved past Alabama, from third to second, in the latest Bowl Championship Series standings. Which means basically nothing. As long as Texas remains unbeaten, it is going to play in the national-title game. Regardless of where it stands in relation to Florida and/or Alabama, because one of those teams has to lose. Anyway, Texas won big at Oklahoma State, while Alabama was idle. If Alabama looks good against Louisiana State this week, don't be surprised if they switch positions again.

Perhaps the biggest news in the second BCS standings is that Iowa moved from sixth to fourth, despite dropping from seventh to eighth in the Harris poll, one of two votes that are used in this formula. The Hawkeyes did, however, go from from third to first in computer average, are are first in five of those six rankings. Never underestimate the value of a last-play win at Michigan State. What that means, of course, remains anyone's guess at this juncture. Not shockingly, Florida, Alabama and Texas maintained their hold on your top three spots.

It doesn't matter who is No. 1 in mid-October. What counts is who are first and second come Dec. 6. In the first 11 years of the BCS, the top two teams in the opening standings have made it to your national championship game just once. Those were Southern Cal and Texas, in 2005. In all, 10 of the 22 teams that were 1 or 2 in those first standings made it to the ultimate stage. So . . . It should come as no shock that Florida and Alabama are 1-2 in this season's initial BCS standings, which were released yesterday.