thursday night

Welcome to the BCS Buster playoffs. When No. 11 TCU visits No. 10 Utah on Thursday night, the winner is assured of staying alive for at least another week in the Bowl Championship Series sweepstakes.

The loser can start making other postseason plans. "It's everything you want. It's what you coach for," TCU coach Gary Patterson said.

Game 2 of the World Series was a thud on television. The Tampa Bays Rays ' 4-2 victory Thursday night received an 8.1 fast national rating and 13 share on Fox, the network said Friday.

South Florida just doesn't have a whole lot of success when it's ranked in the Top Ten. Last year, the Bulls rose to No. 2 in the country only to lose three straight games and drop out of the Big East title picture.

On Thursday night, LeSean McCoy ran for two touchdowns and Bill Stull threw for another as Pittsburgh beat the 10th-ranked Bulls 26-21 on Thursday night.

Freshman Jacquizz Rodgers ran for 186 yards and two touchdowns, and Oregon State built an early lead and held on for a 27-21 upset victory over top-ranked Southern California on Thursday night.

The Beavers (2-2, 1-1 Pacific-10) also upset USC at Reser Stadium in 2006. This time, Oregon State took a 21-0 lead in the first half, then capitalized on a late turnover.

South Carolina began the season in style with a rout of N.C. State. See who else started with a win in Thursday night's action.

President Bush is eagerly awaiting the start of the Summer Olympics, making history as the first president to attend this world athletic competition on foreign soil.

But his arrival in Beijing Thursday night on the eve of the opening of the games came amid an atmosphere of tension with China's leaders over his high-profile speech in Thailand exhorting the growing world power to grant more freedom...

In their comeback season, the Celtics saved the biggest one of all for the NBA finals. Boston rallied from a 24-point deficit and beat the Los Angeles Lakers 97-91 on Thursday night to take a commanding 3-1 lead in this history-rich series and move within one victory of a 17th championship that seemed impossible a year ago.

The Los Angeles Lakers led the Boston Celtics 35-14 after the first quarter of Game 4 of the NBA finals on Thursday night -- the biggest deficit after 12 minutes in the history of the league's championship series.

The previous record was a 36-16 lead that Los Angeles took in Game 6 of the 1970 finals against the New York Knicks.