SPORTS FOLDEROL

  Weekend Stuff … college football, mostly: THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT … from the song of the same name we give you  CURT CIGNETTI , whose 4th-ranked, defending national champion Indiana Hoosiers beat Minnesota 23-16 despite enough mistakes to last a lifetime … not the least of which was one by the coach himself ... for not using No. 2 kicking specialist  PADDIE McATEER sooner… For it was the transfer from Troy State who booted a 60-yard field goal – his longest ever, by far – on the last snap of regulation to force overtime … matching one a few minutes earlier from the same distance by arguably the Big Ten’s best kicker, New Mexico transfer  LUKE DRZEWIEDKI , who enrolled at Minnesota in August and had made his last 25 field goal attempts (longest active streak in the nation) coming into this one. So it was no surprise he made it 26 straight … and that, with 19 seconds left in regulation, seemingly had given the Gophers probably their biggest all-time upset … after Cignet...

  Of All Things: WHAT’S LEFT … for those pathetic losers in the WNBA who are doing their best to overcome all the interest in women’s  hoops built by  CAITLIN CLARK ’s arrival? … Now both  teams in the league finals are leaving the floor prior to the  National Anthem … returning as soon as it is over. Introducing a segment he called “They’ve got gripes with the  stars and stripes,” late-night talk show host/comedian  GREG  GUTFELD  said, “Protesting the anthem has been common  practice for many WNBA teams for years … The league’s rule  book says players, coaches and trainers must stand and line up  for the anthem but nobody enforces it … so they get up and  leave when they play the Star-Spangled Banner … just like  when men leave a bar when the WNBA is on.” SPEAKING OF WHICH … You’ve got to believe that  eventually the NBA’s legion of fans will become weary of  such nonsense and find other, more satisfying, ...

YEA! … BOO!! (Briefly told): YEA! JMU … no, not because it’s moving up in the college  football world, leaving the Sun Belt Conference for the more- competitive American Conference … but because the one-time  all-women’s institution is rapidly becoming the modern-day Cradle of Coaches  … Surely you’ve noticed what   CURT  CIGNET T I   has done at Indiana and what  BOB CHESNEY is doing in his first season at UCLA, both win-starved  programsprior to the arrival of the James Madison  graduates  … Somewhere in the great beyond  DR. RONALD CARRIER  smiling … for it was “Uncle Ron” as JMU president (1971-98)  who was most responsible for turning a small college in out-of- the-way Harrisonburg, Va., into a major, well-known university  … by concentrating on athletics. BOO! Triple-A golf … Even though it is second only to the  game’s major leagues and loaded with “stars of tomorrow,”  how in the world can anyone tak...