Ohio State

tops AP poll

NEW YORK (AP) –Ohio State is back at No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll ahead of No. 2 Penn State and No. 3 LSU, which was joined this week by No. 5 Miami in the top five.

Florida State is back in the poll for the first time in a year at No. 14 and Alabama plummeted to its lowest ranking in 17 seasons at No. 21. The defending national champion Buckeyes received 55 of 66 first-place votes.

They are No. 1 in a regular-season poll for the first time since 2015. Preseason No. 1 Texas dropped to seventh.

Sabalenka returns

to semifinals

NEW YORK (AP) — Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka has returned to the U.S. Open semifinals without hitting a ball in the quarterfinals.

The No. 1-ranked Sabalenka was supposed to play Marketa Voundrousova on Tuesday night. But Vondrousova withdrew from the match with an injured knee.

The U.S. Tennis Association announced the walkover about two hours before the match was supposed to begin. Sabalenka now will meet No. 4 Jessica Pegula in the semifinals on Thursday. That is a rematch of last year’s championship match at Flushing Meadows, which Sabalenka won in straight sets.

Carlos Alcaraz

beats Lehecka

NEW YORK (AP) — Carlos Alcaraz finger-wagged the crowd, beat Jiri Lehecka to the net and cruised his way into the semifinals at the U.S. Open. The second-seeded Spaniard beat Lehecka 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Next up for Alcaraz is either American Taylor Fritz or four-time U.S. Open champion Novak Djokovic. On the women’s side, Jessica Pegula is two wins away from her first major championship after beating Barbora Krejcikova in straight sets to reach the semifinals. Pegula hadn’t gotten past the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam tournament until her trip to the final at the U.S. Open a year ago, when she lost to Aryna Sabalenka, who’s her semifinal opponent.

Jets downplay

facing Rodgers

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Sauce Gardner and Aaron Rodgers are set to face off as opponents on Sunday after being teammates with the New York Jets the past two years. Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers will take on the Jets at MetLife Stadium in Week 1 of the NFL season.

Several Jets players tried to downplay the matchup with Rodgers, with Gardner saying Tuesday he’s preparing like it’s any other game. But Justin Fields, who replaced Rodgers in New York after playing last year in Pittsburgh, acknowledged that it all makes for a crazy storyline.