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The AP Top 25 has been around since 1936. Who votes and how does it work?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:46 GMT

The Associated Press college football poll started in 1936, the brainchild of former sports editor Alan J. Gould.The number of teams ranked, the number of voters on the panel and how the ballots are tabulated has fluctuated over the years, but no organization has been ranking teams and naming a major college football national champion longer than the AP. It has been the Top 10, Top 20 and, since 1989, the Top 25.Here is how it works:WHO ARE THE VOTERS?AP Top 25 voters are writers and broadcasters who cover college football for organizations that are members of the AP.AP employees do not vote, but they do choose the voters. In recent years, the number of voters has been around 63, and they come from all over the country.Every state with a Bowl Subdivision school is represented by at least one voter, and the total of number of voters from each state increases with the number of FBS teams. There are also four spots reserved for national voters.HOW DO THEY VOTE?There was a time when vot...

No. 15 Ole Miss visits No. 13 Alabama in Week 4 headliner in the Southeastern Conference

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:46 GMT

Things to watch in Week 4 of the Southeastern Conference:GAME OF THE WEEKNo. 15 Mississippi (3-0) at No. 13 Alabama (2-1) in the SEC opener for both teams. Any matchup of potential SEC West contenders is big, but this game is magnified by the Crimson Tide’s evident vulnerability the past two weeks. Jalen Milroe is back as Alabama’s No. 1 quarterback. The Rebels counter with Jaxson Dart, who has been one of the league’s top quarterbacks over the first few Saturdays. The two teams have met 12 times when both were ranked and Alabama holds a 9-3 advantage in those games. The Tide has won the last seven meetings but barely held on 30-24 last season. Ole Miss and Auburn are the only West Division teams still unbeaten.SECOND-BEST MATCHUPArkansas (2-1, 0-0 SEC) at No. 12 LSU (2-1, 1-0). KJ Jefferson versus Jayden Daniels is reason enough to watch this game. Daniels is second in the SEC with 976 passing yards and eight touchdowns while also topping the Tigers with 157 rushi...

No. 4 Florida State at Clemson and No. 17 North Carolina at Pitt headline Week 4 in ACC

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:46 GMT

Here are things to watch in the Atlantic Coast Conference in Week 4:GAME OF THE WEEKNo. 4 Florida State (3-0, 1-0 ACC) at Clemson (2-1, 0-1). The Seminoles have perhaps the young season’s best win in defeating LSU in their opener and now look to end just about all hope Clemson has at contending for titles this season. Florida State has not beaten Clemson since 2014, a string of seven losses and watched the Tigers take control of the league with seven ACC titles in the past eight years. Clemson was picked this summer as favorites to win the crown again, but Florida State can stamp itself as the league favorite with its first victory in Death Valley since 2013 when Jameis Winston led the program to its last national title. Jordan Travis has experience and talent at quarterback for the Seminoles and is surrounded by dynamic playmakers. Clemson has worked to steady its flustered, mistake-prone offense from its opening loss at Duke under sophomore passer Cade Klubnik, who is making...

2 children killed, 7 injured in Aurora house fire

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:46 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Two people died and several others were injured in an Aurora house fire late Wednesday night.Aurora Fire Rescue responded to a fire at a multi-story, single-family home in the 2800 block of South Oakland Circle at 11:30 p.m. The neighborhood is north of Cherry Creek Reservoir.When crews arrived at the home, they found nine people inside. All nine residents were taken to local hospitals. Iraqi refugee killed in carjacking sought ‘freedom from violence’ in the US FOX31's Lisa D'Souza spoke with the public information officer on scene and learned that two children were killed as a result of the fire. According to the officer, the victims were a 1 and 9-year-old girl. Four other children remain in critical condition, two adults were treated at the hospital and released and one child was also treated and released. Aurora Fire Rescue was also able to safely rescue a dog.Crews said the fire was quickly brought under control, and crews did not find any other victims insid...

Opening statements begin in Davonte Barnes’ murder case following 2021 banquet hall mass shooting

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:46 GMT

The long-awaited trial in the aftermath of the 2021 banquet hall mass shooting will commence with opening statements on Thursday in the case against Davonte Barnes.The incident unfolded on May 30, 2021, at the El Mula Banquet Hall located at 7630 NW 186th St., leaving the Miami community in shock and mourning. Desmond Owens and Clayton Dillard III lost their lives in the horrific incident, while Shankquia Lechelle Peterson later succumbed to her injuries at the hospital.The case took a twist when a second suspect, Warneric Buckner, was initially charged with the shootings. However, the proceedings against Buckner were abruptly dropped by prosecutors after they determined that Miami-Dade homicide detectives had violated his right to remain silent following his request for an attorney.Barnes was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and 21 counts of attempted first-degree murder.Please check back on WSVN.com and 7News for more details on this developing story.

Russian soldiers deliberately kill Ukrainian kids, new film says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:46 GMT

KYIV — Russia’s army has killed more than 500 children in Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian prosecutors say.    In the new documentary “Bullet holes,” journalists from the Kyiv Independent — a Ukrainian English-language news website — tell stories of three children killed by Russian troops in Ukraine: 10-year-old Kateryna Vinarska; 12-year-old Vladyslav Mahdyk; and 15-year-old Mykhailo Ustianivsky. All three were shot dead by Russians at close range, according to Kyiv Independent reporters.Vinarska was killed by Russian soldiers as they shot at a civilian car belonging to her grandparents at a checkpoint in an occupied village in the Kharkiv region. Mahdyk was shot dead by a single Russian bullet that also wounded his older sister as the family was trying to evacuate from Russian-occupied territory in the Kyiv region. And Ustianivsky was shot in the back for running away from a Russian armored vehicle in his vill...

Poland, Ukraine ready to hold talks over grain dispute

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:46 GMT

Poland and Ukraine said they are ready to start negotiations “in the coming days” to resolve their dispute over imports of Ukrainian grain.  Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said on Thursday he and his Polish counterpart had agreed to “find a solution that takes into account the interests of both countries” after a phone conversation.“The parties confirmed the close and constructive relations that they have repeatedly demonstrated and agreed, taking this into account, to develop a variant of cooperation on export issues in the near future,” Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said in a statement.The dialogue is difficult but it has begun, said Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus after the phone call: “We are always ready to talk, but invariably the interest of the Polish farmer is the most important for us.”The talks are the first move to break a cycle of escalation that has, in less than a week, seen Poland, Hungary and Slovakia ban imp...

Boost for Rishi Sunak as Bank of England hits ‘pause’ on interest rate hikes

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:46 GMT

LONDON — Don’t speak too soon, but Rishi Sunak might just have a good story to tell on the British economy.As the Bank of England moved Thursday to halt interest rate rises after fourteen successive lifts in the cost of borrowing, it capped a better-than-expected week of news on key measures that matter to the British prime minister’s re-election chances.The BoE’s nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee voted 5-4 in favor of pausing its tightening cycle, keeping its key lending rate unchanged at 5.25 percent. Despite that, it repeated that further rate hikes may still be necessary if inflation turns out stronger than currently expected.But the move suggests the independent central Bank — which has a mandate to get inflation down to 2 percent — sees an end in sight to Britain’s protracted cost-of-living crunch, likely to be the defining issue of an election expected next year.Reacting to the news Thursday, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt — Sunak’s top finance minister — said: “We are star...

King Charles calls for climate action 24 hours after Sunak’s net zero U-turn

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:46 GMT

LONDON — Britain’s prime minister may be paring back his green pledges — but King Charles III had a different message on the global stage Thursday.In a historic speech to the French Senate, the monarch said France and the U.K. must work together in order to “answer more efficiently” the challenges posed by climate change, as he talked up the “existential” importance of the issue.His speech came less than 24 hours after U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the paring back of several policies aimed at driving down Britain’s carbon emissions to zero by 2050 — a move that was greeted with fury from opposition politicians, green activists and some business groups.Charles, noted for his outspoken views on climate change, had already called for “fighting the scourge that is climate change” in an address at the Palace of Versailles Wednesday night. He went further on Thursday, as he addressed the Senate, the upper house of parliament, in both French and En...

Former Kremlin lobbyist picked as UK Conservative candidate

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:46 GMT

LONDON — A Conservative election hopeful ran a public affairs firm which counted the Russian government and state-owned energy firm Gazprom among its clients in the 2000s.Nigel Gardner was selected for the new Harpenden and Berkhamstead parliamentary seat earlier this month.A former European Commission spokesperson, Gardner founded agency GPlus in the early 2000s before selling a majority stake to Omnicom in 2006. He retained his role working on the firm’s business strategy until his departure in late 2009.Under the Omnicom banner, GPlus and sister agency Ketchum landed a deal with the Russian government in 2006, and Gazprom in 2007. The Kremlin contract was initially focused on media work around Russia’s presidency of the G8 — seen at the time as a chance for closer cooperation with the West.A 2006 report from the Financial Times said the decision to contract the Western firms had been signed off by Russian President Vladimir Putin.Attitudes ‘were very different’Speakin...