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BYU footballhad an automatic berth to theCollege Football Playoffsitting in front of itself when it arrived at AT&T Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 6 forthe Big 12 championship game.

However, the 11th-ranked Cougars were unable to grab that ticket, asthey lost 34-7 to No. 6 Texas Tech(No. 4 in CFP rankings) to drop to 11-2 on the season.

Following the loss,BYU wide receiver Parker Kingstonoffered an emphatic answer to the CFP selection committee on why the Cougars should still make the field at 11-2, which included a jab at the SEC and ESPN, which owns the broadcast rights to the CFP and theSEC.

"... What's the point of going to a Big 12 championship when it's going to hurt us (and) our College Football Playoff chances. I hope the committee realizes it. They are all biased towards ESPN and the SEC," Kingston told BYUtv Sports Nation following the Big 12 championship game. "It is what it is. If we don't get put in, we will be there next year."

CFP predictions:Live bracket projections for 12-team field

BYU's CFP pitch after Texas Tech loss:'Who's played the best team in the country twice? We have'

BYU Wide Receiver Parker Kingston shares his thoughts on the CFP situation 😤pic.twitter.com/zggtiGT8wF

— BYUtv Sports Nation (@BYUSportsNation)December 6, 2025

The Cougars were outplayed and outmatched by theRed Raidersfor the second time this season in Saturday's Big 12 title game. After driving down the field for a touchdown on its opening drive of the game, BYU was unable to score for the remainder of the game.

Texas Tech's defense came up with four takeaways and a turnover on downs in BYU's final seven drives of the second half. The Cougars finished with just 200 total yards of offense compared to the Red Raiders' 374 yards.

BYU entered Week 15 on the wrong side of the bubble as the 11th-ranked team in the penultimate CFP top 25 rankings: The No. 11 and 12 seeds will go to two of the five highest-ranked conference champions, meaning BYU's only way to the CFP entering the day was to become a conference champion.

As noted by Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark in a news conference before the game, no Power Four team with an 11-1 record had ever finished outside the top 10 in the CFP rankings entering championship week until the committee ranked BYU 11th in the penultimate rankings.

Using the penultimate CFP rankings, the SEC is projected to have five of the 12 spots in the CFP field, which is the most by any Power Four conference.

Kingston wasn't the only member of BYU's program to give a last-minute pitch to the committee, asBYU coach Kalani Sitake offered his two centsin his postgame news conference as well.

"If you look at what Texas Tech's done, they're the best team in the country for a reason," Sitake. "I'm not on the playoff committee, but I can tell you one thing: Who's played the best team in the country twice? We have."

When do new CFP rankings come out?

The Cougars will learn whether they made the 12-team field as an at-large or not at noon ET on Sunday, Dec. 7 when the official 12-team CFP bracket is released.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:BYU's Parker Kingston says CFP committee is 'biased' toward ESPN, SEC

It's unclear if Deshaun Watson will see any game action this season afterbeing designated to return to practice this week, but we know where he'll be next season.

The Cleveland Browns are planning to keep the former Pro Bowl quarterback on their roster for next season according toESPNandNFL Network, confirminga report from cleveland.com on Tuesdaythat he'll be on the 2026 roster barring "something unforeseen."

Next season is the last one on Watson's fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract, or at least the final one in which he'll be obligated to play for the team. After that come the void years.

PerOverTheCap, Watson will carry an $80.7 million cap hit for 2026, the largest number in the history of the NFL. Still it's preferable to the $131.2 million in dead money they would incur by cutting him loose before June 1. If they cut him after June 1, they would still save zero money against the cap.

Watson hasn't played in a game since rupturing his Achilles tendon on Oct. 20, 2024. After undergoing surgery,he re-ruptured it in January, putting his 2025 season in jeopardy. He has now been designated to return after spending the season on the PUP list, which means he needs to be activated or placed on season-ending injured reserve over the next three weeks.

Per NFL Network, the plan with Watson returning to practice isn't so much activating him as it is getting him back into football shape ahead of the offseason. It's reportedly possible he could join the 53-man roster and serve as backup quarterback, but it's unlikely.

With Watson out, the Browns have started Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, and the result has been a 3-9 record with neither player posting great numbers. Sanders is slated to get his third start of the season Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.

Watson figures to compete with the rookie duo next season, and it's possible Cleveland uses one of its two first-round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft on a quarterback. Any productivity the franchise gets from Watson will be a pleasant surprise at this point, but it will definitely be dealing with the cost of the worst contract in NFL history for some time.

Deshaun Watson's contract is a deserved nightmare for the Browns

When the Browns traded for Watson and gave him the most guaranteed money in the history of the NFL, despite sexual misconduct accusations against him from more than 20 women, they figured they would at least be getting a star quarterback after decades of languishing at the position.

Instead, they received only further embarrassment, as Watson still has yet to play more than seven games in a season for them. He holds a 9-10 record since joining Cleveland, with numbers that have only gotten worse with age.

Rather than become contenders, the Browns haven't won a single playoff game since acquiring Watson. And here's the punchline: The worst parts of Watson's contract haven't even kicked in yet.

Via OverTheCap, Watson's salary cap numbers with the Browns have been $9.4 million in 2022, $19.1 million in 2023, $27.9 million in 2024 and $36 million this year. By the standards of an NFL starting quarterback, those are reasonable numbers.

Next year, it's that record $80.7 million, though cleveland.com reports his fourth contract restructure will push some of that money to 2030. For now,due to a contract restructure that spread out his dead money, he still has three void years with numbers of $27.1 million in 2027, $18.1 million in 2028 and $8 million in 2029.

Cleveland might have Watson on its roster for 2026, but it appears it will have him on its cap sheet through 2031. Disaster doesn't even begin to describe it.

The ACC's nightmare is nearing reality. The conference could completely miss out on theCollege Football Playoff.

Duke beat No. 17 Virginia 27-20 in overtimeon Saturday night in the ACC championship game for the Blue Devils' first conference title since 1962. But with Duke at 8-5 and highly unlikely to be ranked in Sunday's College Football Playoff rankings, there's a realistic scenario that no ACC team will make the 12-team field.

The playoff is made up of the five highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large teams. Duke was unranked in Tuesday's rankings and behind the highest-ranked teams in the Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC. Additionally, American Conference winner Tulane and Sun Belt winner James Madison were ranked. They're going to stay ranked too.

With those five conferences set to take the automatic berths, the ACC's lone hope hinges on the grace of the committee.No. 9 Alabama lost to No. 3 Georgia in the SEC title gameandNo. 11 BYU lost to No. 4 Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game. Will that be enough for No. 12 Miami to move into the top 10 in the rankings to secure an at-large berth for the ACC? Or will Miami — which beat Notre Dame in Week 2 — jump ahead of the No. 10 Fighting Irish for that last at-large spot even though neither team played on Saturday?

When the 12-team playoff was created, it was hard to envision one of the four power conferences missing out on the playoff entirely. The only plausible scenario was basically what has played out in the ACC so far this season. The conference may not have a team good enough to make it as an at-large and the conference champion was an unlikely team who had a brutal time outside of ACC play.

Duke went 6-2 in the ACC but 1-3 outside the conference. The Blue Devils lost to Illinois, Tulane and UConn in non-conference play but won a five-way tie for second behind Virginia thanks to the winning percentage of the team's opponents. Duke's opponents had a better conference record than the teams that SMU, Miami, Pitt and Georgia Tech all played. Those four teams were all tied with Duke for second.

Miami lost to Louisville and SMU in conference play. Georgia Tech lost to NC State and Pitt in the final month of the season. A win in any of those four games by the Hurricanes or Yellow Jackets would have saved the ACC from this potential scenario.

Duke coach Manny Diaz said after the game that his team was a playoff-caliber team. But it's hard to envision the committee thinking the same thing.

"They don't have wins like this. They don't have a win against a team like that...@DukeFOOTBALLis a playoff team." 🏆@Coach_MannyDiaz's final message to the@CFBPlayoffCommittee.pic.twitter.com/s3Av1y1r1P

— ACC Football (@ACCFootball)December 7, 2025

How Duke won

Virginia (10-3) tied the game with 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter on a great catch by Eli Wood after he was pushed out of bounds.

But Duke opened overtime with a fourth-down touchdown of its own on a pass from Darian Mensah to Jeremiah Hasley, and a roughing-the-passer penalty on the play put the Cavaliers on their own 40-yard line to start the drive instead of at the 25.

Did that field position play into Virginia's thought process? The Cavaliers went with a trick play to start its drive and QB Chandler Morris was intercepted by Duke's Luke Mergott to end the game.

Mensah finished the game 19-of-25 passing for 196 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. He came to Duke from Tulane — a team that's in the College Football Playoff after winning the American Conference — and threw 30 touchdowns over the 2025 season.

Morris was 21-of-40 passing for 216 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Virginia outgained the Blue Devils on Saturday night but they couldn't capture their overtime magic for a fourth time in 2025. Virginia entered the ACC title game 3-0 in overtime games with wins over Florida State, Louisville and North Carolina.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Saturdaydefended the Sept. 2 strikeon survivors of an initial U.S. military attack on an alleged drug boat.

Hegseth made the remarks at the Reagan National Defense Forum during a conversation with Fox News correspondent Lucas Y. Tomlinson. He told Tomlinson that he had left the room after the first strike and before the second-strike order was given but said that he would have made the same decision.

"A couple hours later [after moving on], I was told, hey, there had to be a re-attack, because there were a couple folks who could still be in the fight," Hegseth told Tomlinson. "Access to radios. There was a link-up point of another potential boat. Drugs were still there. They were actively interacting with them."

"I said, Roger, sounds good," Hegseth said.

On Sept. 2, the U.S. military struck a boat twice that the Trump administration alleged was carrying drugs, a U.S. official and a source familiar with the Pentagon's actions previously told NBC News. Two survivors remained after the first strike, the official said, and the second strike killed them.

"From what I understood then and what I understand now, I fully support that strike," he told Tomlinson. "I would have made the same call myself. Those who were involved in 20 years of conflict, Iraq and Afghanistan or elsewhere, know that re-attacks and re-strikes of combatants on the battlefield happen often."

Hegseth would not say definitively whether the Department of Defense would release video of the Sept. 2 strike.

"We're reviewing it [the video] right now to make sure sources, methods, I mean it's an ongoing operation," he said. "We've got operators out there doing this right now. So whatever we were to decide to release we'd have to be very responsible about, so we're reviewing that right now."

Asked whether Hegseth at any time said everyone on board should be killed, the Secretary of Defense said he did not.

"It's just patently ridiculous," he said. "It's meant to create a cartoon of me in the decisions that we make and how we make them. Just ridiculous."

President Donald Trump and the White House have publiclydefended Hegseth, with Trump saying that Hegseth did not order the second strike.

Thesecond strike has prompted concernsfrom some over whether there was a directive to kill survivors who were unable to fight back, which could constitute a violation of international law.

NBC Newsreported Saturdaythat Adm. Frank "Mitch" Bradley told lawmakers that Hegseth ordered the strike to kill all 11 people on the boat because they were on an internal list of narco-terrorists who U.S. intelligence and military officials determined could be lethally targeted.

An order to kill people on a list of targets is not forbidden under U.S. and international law, unlike a "no quarter order," which is an illegal military directive to kill all enemy combatants and show no mercy, even if they surrender or are gravely injured.

Bradley was asked in a Congressional briefing this week whether Hegseth gave a no quarter order, according to a U.S. official and a second person with knowledge of the briefing, and he replied that he was not given such an order and would not have followed one if it had been given.

An administration official said in a written statement that, "As with all such actions, a uniformed JAG provided advice and counsel every step of the way" with regard to the Sept. 2 strike.

There have been at least 22 strikes on alleged drug boats, and at least 86 people have been killed. The Trump administration has produced no evidence supporting its allegations about the boats, the people on board or their cargo.

The United States will mark the 84th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Sunday, Dec. 7, as the number of Americans belonging to "the Greatest Generation" who lived through World War II diminishes.

The attack on Dec. 7, 1941, killed 2,403 service members, and civilians were killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor, according to the National Park Service. Five of the eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships stationed at the base were sunk or severely damaged. More than 200 aircraft were destroyed –according to History.com.

The bombing led the U.S. to declare war on Japan the next day, when then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Dec. 7, 1941, would be "a date which will live in infamy."

The U.S. defeated Japan in August 1945, days after launching atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Here is a look at some of the photos from that fateful Sunday morning.

Dec. 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor attack in photos

From the network:Eyewitness account of Pearl Harbor attack as 84th anniversary approaches

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Pearl Harbor attack in photos. The day that lives in 'infamy'