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Interceptions seem to come in bunches for Alabamas Minkah Fitzpatrick. All five of his career picks have come in two of his 20 games, and hes returned three for touchdowns.Fitzpatrick on Saturday against Arkansas joined Cincinnatis Mike Tyson as the only FBS players to pick off three passes in a game this season.Last year Fitzpatrick had both of his interceptions against Texas A&M, returning them for scores of 33 and 55 yards.Saturday, Fitzpatrick ran back his third interception of the game 100 yards for a touchdown , with his third career pick-six tying the Alabama record.Teammate Tim Williams returned a fumble 23 yards for a TD against the Razorbacks, and the Crimson Tide now has nine defensive touchdowns this season. Ohio State is second with four.A look at other statistical feats this past weekend:---TOP RUSHERSSan Diego States Donnel Pumphrey continues to lead the nation in rushing by a large margin after carrying 31 times for 141 yards against UNLV. Pumphrey is averaging 178.2 yards a game, nearly 30 more than second-place DOnta Foreman of Texas.There were five 200-yard performances Saturday: Kent State Nick Holley, 24 carries for 224 yards against Buffalo; Oregon States Ryan Nall , 14 for 221 against California; Texas A&Ms Treyveon Williams, 28 for 217 against Tennessee; Oklahomas Samaje Perine, 35 for 214 against Texas; and Penn States Saquon Barkley, 31 for 202 against Maryland.THE BALLS A FLYINThe two longest punts in the nation occurred in the same game. Bowling Greens Joe Davidson got off a 79-yarder in the third quarter that was downed at the Ohio 10-yard line. In the fourth quarter, Ohios Michael Farkas boomed a 74-yarder that was downed at the BG 2.RED-FACED SCARLET KNIGHTSFirst-year coach Chris Ashs Rutgers team had the misfortune of facing back-to-back games against top-five opponents in Ohio State and Michigan, and the combined score marked the worst consecutive shutout losses for a school thats been playing football since 1869.The Scarlet Knights 78-0 loss to Michigan came a week after their 58-0 loss to Ohio State. Saturdays beat-down was Rutgers most lopsided since an 82-0 loss to Princeton in 1888. The 136 points allowed were the most in consecutive games since West Virginia and Pittsburgh won by a combined 122-7 in 2001.WHOO WEE, LEEWake Forest linebacker Marquel Lee established a national high with 5.5 tackles for loss against Syracuse. Lee finished with a career-high 15 tackles, including 12 solo stops.The senior led a dominating performance that saw the Demon Deacons record 11 tackles for loss with five sacks.RUNNIN ROADRUNNERSUTSAs Jarveon Williams broke the nations longest run from scrimmage when he went 92 yards for a touchdown in a 55-32 win over Southern Mississippi .Williams and Jalen Rhodes each went over 100 yards as the Roadrunners rushed for 339 yards and had 532 yards in total offense, both school records. The Roadrunners averaged 11.3 yards per play, also a program record, and scored their most points against an FBS opponent.---Online:AP college football website: http://collegefootball.ap.orgRob Ramage Avalanche Jersey . Ivanovic was leading 7-5, 1-0 when Hantuchova withdrew after falling 0-40 behind in the second game. The match started slowly for Ivanovic, who surrendered her first two serves as Hantuchova took a 5-3 lead. Philipp Grubauer Jersey . 9. Price, heading to the 2014 Olympics for Canada, was named the First Star after posting wins in three starts with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .971 save percentage. http://www.hockeyavalanche.com/authentic-ian-cole-avalanche-jersey/ . -- Derrick Rose shook off poor shooting early to hit clutch shots late and Carlos Boozer had 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 104-95 preseason victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. Paul Kariya Jersey . - Blake Griffin had 30 points and 12 rebounds, J. Adam Foote Avalanche Jersey . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie.Whilst our governing bodies continually tinker with formats, a common perception which holds true right across the North American sporting landscape: All-Star Games are meaningless and are bereft of substance or relevancy. Time now for a serious rethink. What occurred at Sporting Park Wednesday night was so much more than a lopsided game. When MLS announced Sporting KC would host this seasons All Star Game in early January we didnt even know who the opponent would be. With what we know now it is not an exaggeration to state we are in the initial throes of a tipping point for Major League Soccer, one whose origins are traced back to January 2007. David Beckham was the game changer then and injected an accelerated pathway of unprecedented growth both on and off the pitch for a league which came into being as a requirement of FIFA awarding the 1994 World Cup Finals to the U.S. He may have left the MLS pitch but Beckhams legacy on the league can only be truly measured following the full passage of time. The 2013 All-Star Game may have come and gone but the events and news which started as soon as MLS entire stakeholder group began arriving in Kansas last Sunday and on through to well after they had all departed will ripple and flow through MLS forever more. It all got going Tuesday afternoon when one of the leagues charter franchises - the Columbus Crew - was sold for a record price. According to Forbes that figure now sits at $68 million. The original price paid for the Crew back in 1995 by one of MLS founding investors Lamar Hunt was a mere $5 million. Even if you throw in the approximate $30 million cost of constructing Crew Stadium, the original soccer-specific stadium built in the MLS era, that sale price represents a greater than six-fold Return on Investment. Not a shabby return no matter what metric you deploy or measure it against. No irony was lost in the fact that the news came with Kansas City as the backdrop, another of the charter franchises which was owned and operated by Lamar Hunt and the Hunt Sports Group. Though news of the sale may not have budged the mainstream needle, that collective shoulder shrug was surely replaced with wide-eyed amazement following the news which came during the interval of Wednesdays so-termed showpiece event. Ordinarily at the MLS Cup or the All-Star Game, Don Garbers halftime broadcast appearance is bereft of substance – a mere photo opportunity sans the baby kissing. Not anymore. Garbers main purpose during his appearance on ESPN Wednesday night - an appearance that was ultimately broadcast in well over 100 countries - was to advise a waiting world of Agenda Item Number One from that days Board of Governors meeting. Expansion. The needle moving type. One which will result in 24 teams taking to MLS pitches across North America for the start of the 2020 season. Major League Soccer on a scale not rationally believable when you consider just a short decade ago contraction was on everyones minds as both Florida-based franchises were sacrificed for the common long term good. Contraction bought the number of franchises at the time to just 10. The same number there was when MLS kicked off in 1996. The decision to contract was one the league had fretted anxiously over. It was not exactly the best message to be sending as at this exact time MLS was desperately short of hard cash, splashing about blindly in their search for broadcast and partnership deals. Whispers the league was on its last throes got louder after having already racked up over $250 million in debt and losses over these inttervening years.dddddddddddd That contraction now has a very legitimate chance of coming full circle. Flavio Augusto da Silva, the Brazilian owner of Orlando Soccer Club wants to bring Major League Soccer back to Florida. Orlando, who currently play in USL Pro, were invited to make a presentation during Wednesday mornings Board of Governors meeting. Adding fuel to the Florida fire is a widely held belief David Beckham will finally exercise his option to purchase an MLS franchise and will call Miami home. This was the destination Barcelona had in mind for the 2011 expansion. Ultimately that cycle resulted in the Whitecaps and Portland winning out. The Bolivian telecommunications billionaire Marcelo Claure who originally partnered with Barcelona and whose empire is headquartered in Miami is Beckhams dance partner. With the league fully aware of the immense values stemming from localized football rivalries and if we take their 2011 expansion business model into account, one can safely presume two of those four franchises will be located in the snowbird state. Considering the aggregate values returned to the league by the three Canadian clubs the migration and emigration of Canadians to Florida is likely not a point lost on the increasingly efficient league accountants based in Manhattan. Where, then, will the remaining two franchises be located? Well, forget speculating for now. Having already made a career legacy out of it - the master of flushing MLS prospects out of that very same woodwork goal posts and crossbars are made of - Don Garber must be grinning like a Cheshire Cat at the prospects line-up which will over time line up two-abreast outside his office door. They say bad news occurs in groups of three. Well this week for MLS the opposite has occurred. The third piece of good news stems from a random sighting, at a random US airport, by a random MLS Seattle supporter. The subject of that sighting, however, was anything but random. As the football world held its collective breath and obsessively fixated over a certain Tottenham Hotspur player unbeknown to all, it was another Spurs player quietly slipped away from training camp. Destination: Heathrow Airport. ESPN broke the news late Friday evening that Clint Dempsey - the U.S. captain still very much in the prime of his career - would be signing with the Sounders. Its not so much MLS Prodigal Son returning to a league he left back in 2007, but more a case - as we are now in the midst of a World Cup cycle – of one of the greatest footballers to emerge from the U.S. being convinced that MLS is on a football journey he very much wants to be part of after successfully exporting himself to one of world footballs best leagues. Seattle is reported to be paying Dempsey more than Beckhams base salary over a four-year term, with a total outlay running north of $40 million once the transfer fee has been factored in. This is MLS were talking about… a league where you could have purchased all 10 franchises for $50 million back in 1996. According to many, the Seattle Sounders unimaginable and unquantifiable success in large part is down to the fact the Emerald City is deemed the counter-culture capital of America. By 2020 MLS will be the counter-culture capital of world football. Over to you, FIFA. You can reach and follow Noel Butler at: Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca @TheSoccerNoel Tune into TSN 690 Monday evening at 6:00pm et - when we will speak with ESPNs Doug McIntyre about Clint Dempseys return to Major League Soccer. Also available at TSN.ca/Montreal ' ' '