Roundup: Washington's secondary is a major key in CFP semis

Just a day away from the College Football Playoff semis now, and Jon Solomon of CBS Sports believes that Washington’s secondary has to step up against Alabama in order for the Dawgs to have a chance to pull this one out.

A great season came to a close with two blowout losses for Colorado football, as the Buffs were routed by Oklahoma State 38-8 in the Alamo Bowl Thursday night in San Antonio (BuffZone.com). Still, nobody expected the Buffs to go 10-4 and play in the Pac-12 Football Championship Game this year. Great season for Mike MacIntyre and Co.

Back at it again, our Alex Espinoza whips up this feature on USC inside linebackers Michael Hutchings and Cameron Smith, guys he calls the anchors of the Trojan defense. Just a few days away from the Rose Bowl against Penn State.

Jon Wilner provides us with this Stanford-North Carolina Sun Bowl preview. The Cardinal is looking for its fifth 10-win season in the last six years.

Former Arizona Wildcat Craig Victor was kicked off the LSU men’s basketball team Thursday for an unspecified violation of team rules, notes Bruce Pascoe. Victor transferred from Arizona to LSU two years ago.

Rusty Simmons features Cal men’s basketball point guard Charlie Moore. Small guy from Chicago… Jerome Randle 2.0 perhaps? He’s certainly putting up those kinda numbers thus far.

From Wednesday – Danny Moran reports that Tres Tinkle is likely more than a week away from returning to action for Oregon State men’s basketball. Tinkle broke his right wrist on Nov. 25 against Fresno State and hasn’t played since.

Here’s a little UCLA-Oregon State men’s basketball game capsule from the Los Angeles Daily News. The Bruins are looking to get back on the right track after their first loss of the season at Oregon Wednesday night.

The Salt Lake Tribune gives us a look ahead at Utah women’s basketball’s trip to the LA schools this weekend. The undefeated Utes will certainly have to earn it against No. 10 UCLA and USC.

Catch a glimpse of Arizona State men’s basketball coach Bobby Hurley talking about program building in this “All Access” preview. The Sun Devils open conference play at Stanford Friday night.

Trying to move on from the Holiday Bowl, CougCenter looks ahead to the 2017 Washington State football season. Plenty of talent returning to the Palouse, yo.

Andrew Nemec of The Oregonian/OregonLive gives us the "skinny" on Oregon football signee Jordon Scott, a 345-pound defensive tackle from Florida.