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UPI NewsTrack Sports

Florida, Alabama top initial BCS poll

IRVING, Texas, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- SEC powers Florida and Alabama were ranked 1-2 Sunday in the season's first BCS college football poll.

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The 6-0 Gators, who escaped with a 23-20 home win over Arkansas Saturday, compiled a BCS average of .9886 to .9526 for the Crimson Tide (7-0), who were 20-6 winners over South Carolina.

"You look across the country right now, every game, every snap, every quarter matters," Coach Urban Meyer said on his television show before word of the Gators' No. 1 BCS standing reached him.

Texas (6-0) is No. 3 following its 16-13 win over Big 12 arch-rival Oklahoma. The Longhorns have a .8911 average.

Boise State (6-0) is fourth with an average of .8083 and Cincinnati (6-0) is fifth at .7870.

Iowa (7-0), Southern California (5-1), Texas Christian (6-0), LSU (5-1) and Miami-Florida (5-1) round out the Top 10.

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The BCS poll is computed by averaging the percentage totals of the Harris Interactive poll, USA Today poll and computer rankings.


UConn footballer dies in campus stabbing

STORRS, Conn., Oct. 18 (UPI) -- A University of Connecticut football player died Sunday after being stabbed on the Storrs, Conn., campus, authorities said.

The Connecticut State Police major crime unit and UConn police said two people were stabbed just after 12:30 a.m. near the center of the university campus. Multiple sources told The Hartford (Conn.) Courant that Jasper Howard, a starting cornerback on the UConn football team, died after being airlifted to a nearby hospital.

Police told the newspaper the second person in the incident, who was not identified, was treated and released from a hospital. The Courant said an altercation between two groups of people unfolded outside a school-sponsored dance.

An emergency alert posted on the University of Connecticut's Web site said the perpetrator was still at large.

Howard, who was from Miami, made 11 tackles and forced a key fumble in Saturday's 38-25 Huskies win over Louisville.


Webber wins race, Button takes F1 title

SAO PAULO, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Renault's Mark Webber won Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix but Jenson Button clinched the Formula One championship with a fifth-place finish.

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The race was held in rainy weather at Sao Paulo.

Webber took the lead ahead of pole-winner Rubens Barrichello (Brawn GP Mercedes), a Sao Paulo native, after the first round of pit stops, and then easily beat Poland's Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) and England's Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes), last season's F1 champion.

Button steadily went through the field to finish fifth and built an insurmountable 15-point lead over Sebastian Vettel, He is 17 ahead of Barrichello, who suffered a punctured left-front tire and finished eighth.

"Twenty-one years ago, I jumped into a car and I loved winning," Button said. "I never expected to be world champion."

Webber won his second F1 race, while Ross Brawn won the season's constructors' title.


Davydenko tops Nadal for Shanghai trophy

SHANGHAI, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Russian Nikolay Davydenko beat top-seed Rafael Nadal in straight sets in the Shanghai ATP Masters final Sunday, his fourth title of the year.

Davydenko, who was seeded No. 6, scored a 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 victory over the Spaniard and collected $616,500.

"I think a little bit was luck, but mostly I was playing very well today," Davydenko said.

The win was Davydenko's 18th on the tour. He has a 3-4 career record against Nadal.

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Davydenko also won events in Germany, Croatia and Malaysia this year.

"I don't like to lose, but I had my chances," said Nadal, a former world No. 1 with 36 ATP wins. "He beat me. He played ... very good match. Just congratulate him, because he deserved the victory."

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