West Virginia

AN ALLEGHENY County prosecutor said that a West Virginia mother showed "an extreme indifference to the value of human life" when she tried to suffocate her infant at a local hospital and several times in her Boone County home last year. Rachel Nelson, 23, of Costa, who appeared for a preliminary hearing Wednesday in an Allegheny County Jail jumpsuit, was held for trial. She has been charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. She is accused of trying to suffocate her then- 4-month-old son at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and in her home last fall.

NEW YORK - If the Eagles decide to address their uncertain quarterback situation in April's draft, the two passers who endured steady snowfall at Yankee Stadium in Saturday's Pinstripe Bowl will be closely evaluated. West Virginia's Geno Smith, who might be the top quarterback in the draft, faced Syracuse's Ryan Nassib, a West Chester native whose stock has risen and could also be taken early. But if Smith and Nassib represented two of the best draft-eligible quarterbacks, Saturday's 38-14 Syracuse victory only advanced the perception that this is a weak year for signal-callers.

% of               Obama   Romney    State vote   Obama   Pct.   Romney   Pct.   Electors   Electors    Alabama 99   790,503   38   1,248,564   61   0   9    Alaska 99   90,743   42   120,329   55   0   3    Arizona 99   713,858   43   902,831   55   0   11    Arkansas 98   390,245   37   640,075   61   0   6    ...

The jockeying over the second slot in the BCS standings behind Alabama continues on Saturday with two of the contenders playing ranked teams. Kansas State, currently in second place, hosts high-scoring Oklahoma State (No. 24 in the BCS rankings) and fourth-rated Oregon visits No. 17 Southern California. Notre Dame, ranked third and fresh off its dismantling of Oklahoma, has a relative breather at home against Pittsburgh. One must feel a bit sorry for the Ducks, who were looking forward to engaging a top-ranked Southern Cal team to give their computer ranking a boost.

WHEN OHIO STATE quarterback Braxton Miller first was hurt in Saturday's game against Purdue, he didn't know what to think. He'd never before been thrown down on his head and neck. "I didn't know what it was," he said of his injury. "I was just a little bit dizzy from the hit, whiplash. So they sent me to the hospital to see what it was. " Tests determined that Miller, a sophomore who ranks among the top rushers in the nation, did not have a concussion or any other serious injury.

The West Virginia-Kansas State game was supposed to be a matchup of top-five teams with national championship implications, let alone Big 12 title implications, until the Texas Tech Red Raiders threw a giant sombrero in those plans. Kansas State goes into Morgantown on Saturday with a pretty good blueprint for success. The difficulty is in trying to follow it. "There might be philosophical thoughts in regards to how you defend [West Virginia quarterback] Geno Smith and how you function on special teams that you say, 'Maybe within our own schemes, we can do something,' " said Kansas State coach Bill Snyder, who should be facing an ornery group of Mountaineers.

NEW YORK - I had to look it up. Would Larry Brown be at Wednesday's Big East media day? That would be a layup, writing about the Brooklyn native and former 76ers coach, now 72 years old, returning to his hometown representing the Mustangs of Southern Methodist. Larry, you commuting down there from the Main Line? LB wasn't here. SMU doesn't join the Big East until next year. Villanova coach Jay Wright said he was interviewed at the Pavilion in the offseason - "I looked up, we have a big banner with all the [Big East]

After a 19-3 victory over Connecticut, Rutgers moved up two spots to No. 20 in the Associated Press poll and to No. 19 in the USA Today poll on Sunday. "I think it's fun for the fans, fun for the media and good for the school, but it really has no effect on what we do," Scarlet Knights coach Kyle Flood said during a a conference call with reporters. South Carolina, Florida and West Virginia moved into the top five of the AP poll after a Saturday on which nine top-25 teams lost.

The numbers for West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith leap off a stat sheet in 3D: four games, 1,826 yards passing, 83.4 percent completion rate, 20 touchdowns, zero interceptions. When he takes to the field for the Mountaineers' first-ever Big 12 road game Saturday night at Texas, his 656-yard, eight-touchdown performance of last week against Baylor will be an extremely distant memory. "Got to focus on Texas," he said in an Associated Press article. "We don't take wins into the next week.