COLUMBUS — Max Klesmit scored all of his 18 points in the second half as No. 15 Wisconsin won its fifth straight, rallying to beat Ohio State, 71-60, on Wednesday night.

A 3-pointer from Klesmit put Wisconsin up by 1 with 5:16 left. The defense kept the clamps on Ohio State as Klesmit kept shooting, scoring nine of the last 14 points for the Badgers (12-3, 4-0 Big Ten).

AJ Storr had 15 of his 17 points in the first half for the Badgers, the only undefeated team left in the Big Ten.

Jamison Battle had another impressive performance for Ohio State (12-4, 2-3), pacing the Buckeyes with 18 points. Bruce Thornton had 13 despite missing his last four shots. The Buckeyes have lost two straight.

The Buckeyes led most of the first half by as many as seven points. Back-to-back 3-pointers by John Blackwell and Connor Essegian put the Badgers up 35-33 at the break.

BIG PICTURE

Wisconsin: Steven Crowl, the Badgers 7-footer, was slowed by a left knee contusion suffered in practice. Scoreless in the first half, Crowl finished with five points and six rebounds. Still, the Badgers had too much depth for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State: The Buckeyes just couldn’t overcome Klesmit’s second-half surge.

UP NEXT

Wisconsin: Hosts Northwestern on Saturday.

Ohio State: At Michigan on Monday.

PHOENIX — NCAA President Charlie Baker says Michigan won the national championship “fair and square” and defended his decision to inform the school and the Big Ten during the season that the association’s enforcement staff was investigating allegations of an in-person scouting and sign-stealing scheme.

The top-ranked Wolverines beat No. 2 Washington to win the College Football Playoff on Monday night, capping a perfect season, the back half of which was shadowed by the NCAA investigation and led to the Big Ten’s three-game suspension of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.

In a meeting with reporters, Baker explained why the NCAA took the unusual step of informing parties involved in the investigation last October.

“We were approached by a third party, who said they had evidence that Michigan was involved in a very comprehensive and unusual sign-stealing scheme,” Baker said late Tuesday. That party was told they needed to come in person to NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis to present evidence to enforcement staff as part of a vetting process.

“They did and they showed it to our infractions people and it was very compelling,” Baker said, giving no details of the third party’s identity.

Baker said because of the potential to impact the outcome of games, the NCAA decided to contact the Big Ten and Michigan and share the first pieces of what it had received from the third party.

The Big Ten then informed schools that had played Michigan and schools that were still left on Michigan’s schedule. Soon after the news leaked to the media and the Big Ten and Michigan both publicly acknowledged the investigation. Harbaugh, who is facing unresolved NCAA violations in a separate case tied to recruiting, has denied any knowledge or involvement in impermissible scouting of opponents and he again declared his program innocent of wrongdoing after beating the Huskies.

Baker said he was confident the NCAA did not leak any information to the media about the investigation.

“I don’t regret doing it because sitting on that information, I think we would have put everyone, including Michigan, in an awful place,” Baker said. “As it was, it was out in the public domain. And people either made adjustments or didn’t. And at the end of the day, no one believes at this point that Michigan didn’t win the national title fair and square. So, I think we did the right thing.”

The NCAA sign-stealing investigation is likely to last many more months. Michigan has not yet received a notice of allegations from the NCAA, formally detailing the accusations, and will have 90 days to respond once it does. A hearing in front of the infractions committee would need to be scheduled after that.

“We do have a series of discussions going on with the infractions folks about whether or not we can’t do some things to speed up the pace of our investigations,” Baker said. “Because certainly in a case like this you’d like to be able to move a lot more quickly.”

Potentially complicating the Michigan situation is the uncertainty of Harbaugh’s future with the Wolverines. Harbaugh has said repeatedly he had no involvement of any sign-stealing operation, which involved people allegedly being sent to games involving Michigan opponents to video record signals coming in from the sideline.

Records from other Big Ten schools show former Michigan recruiting analyst Connor Stalions bought tickets to numerous games involving future opponents. Stalions was first placed on leave by the school and then later resigned.

Baker would not speculate on a timetable for the Michigan case or on whether the NCAA would potentially share the findings of its investigation with any NFL team interested in hiring Harbaugh.

Michigan is still embroiled in a separate NCAA case involving football recruiting infractions and Harbaugh failing to be forthright with investigators. The school received a notice of allegations on that case in December. Michigan self-imposed a three-game suspension on Harbaugh at the beginning of this season, trying to mitigate future penalties after an attempt to settle the matter was rejected by the NCAA Committee on Infractions.

Baker did not attend the College Football Playoff championship game in Houston, but said he watched and found Michigan to be “clearly the better team.”

“I said before that part of the reason I thought it was important to talk to the Big Ten and to Michigan about this was it might affect the outcome of games,” Baker said “And I don’t believe at the end of the season it did. And I think that’s important.”

HOUSTON — The College Football Playoff championship was quite the stage for Washington and Michigan to get reacquainted with each other.

The top-ranked Wolverines won the national championship with a 34-13 victory over the Huskies on Monday night.

Starting next season, they will compete against each other for Big Ten titles every year.

“I imagine all the Big Ten folks in Chicago in the office, they’re sitting like a rat in a cheese factory right now for sure,” said Washington co-defensive coordinator William Inge, who was a graduate assistant at Iowa and assistant at Indiana for seven years.

The Big Ten’s coast-to-coast expansion began in the summer of 2022 when it voted in Southern California and UCLA beginning in 2024. The Pac-12’s demolition was assured just over a year later when it failed to land a lucrative media rights contract. Oregon and Washington in August accepted invitations from the Big Ten and four other Pac-12 schools bolted to the Big 12.

“The Big Ten goes into 2024 with the national championship. We can write that now,” Big Ten Network analyst Gerry DiNardo said.

Washington and Michigan had met 13 times previously, most recently in 2021, and are scheduled to play a regular-season game in Seattle on Oct. 5. The Wolverines have bragging rights at least for now.

DiNardo, the head coach at Indiana from 2002-04, said the entry of Washington and the other three schools comes at a fortuitous time.

The Huskies are the team of the moment, but Oregon, USC and UCLA traditionally have been the biggest brands on the West Coast.

“We’re taking on four teams that potentially are as good as they’ve been in recent years,” DiNardo said. “It’s not an obvious marriage, but never has there been a better time for this crossover to happen.”

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said he was a fan of the Pac-12 and has mixed feelings about its breakdown.

“How fitting that they’ve had a heck of a run as a conference this year and then one of their teams get to the championship,” he said. “There are a lot of people from the Pac-12 excited to see how they go out. And then for the Big Ten to look into their future … It’s just weird to think this will be a conference game next year.

“I’m from that early ’90s era,” he added. “I remember these teams playing in the Rose Bowl back-to-back years. We’re all going to have to go through it to get used to it.”

Herbstreit said even though he’s excited about the prospects for an 18-team Big Ten, he also is apprehensive. The Big Ten will have no divisions starting in 2024, meaning the top two teams will meet in the conference championship game, and the College Football Playoff will go from four to 12 teams.

All that expansion, Herbstreit said, could water down the Big Ten’s most famous rivalry — Ohio State-Michigan. In the 10 years of the East-West alignment, the winner of “The Game,” as it’s known, reached the conference title game.

Herbstreit, who played quarterback for the Buckeyes from 1989-92, said Ohio State and Michigan could meet multiple times over a month if the Big Ten power structure remains the same. Conceivably, he said, the teams’ regular-season game the last Saturday of November could be followed by a rematch the next week in Indianapolis.

“How could it not take away from the last game in November?” Herbstreit said. “Not to say Ohio State and Michigan will do it every year. But if they play, and then again a week later, that’s bizarre. And then what if they match up a third time in the playoff? It’s part of this new world we have to get used to.”

Michigan receiver Cornelius Johnson shared Herbstreit’s concern about the rivalry.

“Used to be you’d play that game, and that would be basically the championship right then and there,” he said. “Now you get it adjusted, it’s going to be like an NFL-type of schedule with the playoffs.”

As a fan, he said, he liked the Pac-12 and the four-team playoff. He also said he understood greater revenue potential was the impetus for the changes.

“I thought it was perfectly fine the way it is,” he said. “They switched it up. The fact they did, you’ve got to roll with it. I’m excited to see how it plays out with everything new going on. It’s going to be weird getting adjusted to. There’s never been that many changes from one year to the next.”

The College Football Playoff delayed reducing the number of spots reserved for conference champions from six to five in the upcoming 12-team format on Jan. 8, though the change is expected to be in place next season.

CFP Board of Managers chairman Mark Keenum, the president of Mississippi State, said the Pac-12 representative, Washington State president Kirk Schulz, requested the delay. Keenum said he expected the board to circle back on the issue in a few weeks.

“I’d be shocked if we weren’t a 5-7 playoff for this coming football season,” Keenum said.

For now, the playoff format for the next two years has spots reserved for six conference champions and six at-large selections. The expected change to five spots for champions and seven at-large spots was prompted by a wave of conference realignment and the state of the Pac-12, which will lose 10 of its 12 members to other Power Five leagues this summer.

Oregon State and Washington State plan to keep the Pac-12 running as a two-team conference next year as they try to rebuild the league. The Beavers and Cougars have a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West in place for next season.

“They’re going through some issues legal issues that they’re working on right now,” Keenum said, without providing details. “They want to get all their issues resolved.”

With only nine full major college football conferences in place for next season — and one fewer Power Five conference than when expansion was first agreed upon — the CFP management committee agreed to recommend changing the original 6-6 format to a 5-7 model.

While the presidents didn’t vote on the 5-7 change they did endorse a proposal that for a conference to have a champion eligible for one of those five spots, it needs to have at least eight members. The only one of the nine major conferences that won’t have that many next year will be the Pac-12.

The CFP board is comprised of conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director.

Media deal

Keenum said the CFP hopes to have a new media agreement in place soon. The expanded format for the next two years requires a new deal for the extra four games added to a system that currently includes three playoff games and four of the so-called New Year’s Six bowls.

The quarterfinals that will be played for the first time after the 2024 season are additional inventory not covered by the current CFP TV deal with ESPN, which has two remaining seasons.

An entirely new media rights agreement is needed for the College Football Playoff for 2026 and beyond.

“We had our (media) consultants meet with us and talk to us today. They did not get into specifics,” Keenum said. “We need to get this resolved. We’re playing the new 12-team playoff this year and we need to get a media deal done.”

CFP threats

CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock said the threats directed at him and members of the selection committee after Florida State was left out of the playoff with a perfect record led to the CFP arranging for extra security for some members.

Hancock said committee members received not just threats on social media, but calls and emails sent to them threatening their homes and personal safety.

“We’ve been in contact with the FBI. Some of it was really unfortunate,” Hancock said.

Revenue sharing

Left undecided was a revenue distribution issue that for now just involves SMU, which is leaving the American Athletic Conference to join the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024.

Revenue distribution in the 12-team format will guarantee each school a set amount: $6 million for Power Five schools and $1 million for schools in so-called Group of Five conferences.

The commissioners have not yet agreed whether SMU should receive a full Power Five share for the next two years and whether a moratorium should be placed on full shares for schools moving up beyond 2026.

Reneau scored nine points in an 11-2 run, capped by his 3-pointer, that made it 48-all with 12 minutes to play. He made a layup and followed about 30 seconds later with an alley-oop dunk that give Indiana a 10-point lead with 3:34 left. Jamison Battle answered with a 3, Felix Okpara made two free throws and then layup, but missed a free throw before Battle grabbed the offensive rebound. Roddy Gayle Jr. made a layup to cap a 9-1 run that cut Ohio State’s deficit to 67-65 with 1:44 left but Reneau answered with a basket 29 seconds later and Johnson made 2 of 4 from the free-throw line the closing seconds to cap the scoring.

Battle had 17 points and nine rebounds for Ohio State (12-3, 2-2 Big Ten), which had its four-game win streak snapped. Zed Key added 11 points. Okpara grabbed 15 rebounds to go with six points.

Indiana (11-4, 3-1) rebounded from an 86-70 loss at Nebraska. The Hoosiers were outrebounded 49-27 — including 22-7 on the offensive glass — but committed a season-low four turnovers and tied the season best with eight steals.

Johnson was fouled as he hit 3-pointer and converted the four-point play with 47 seconds left in the first half and made two free throws 38 seconds later to give Indiana a one-point lead. Zed Key answered with two free throws to make it 37-36 at halftime, Okpara opened the second half with a dunk, Gayle followed with a three-point play and Battle hit a 3 to stretch the lead to nine with 18 minutes remaining.

Ohio State plays host to No. 21 Wisconsin on Wednesday. Indiana visits Rutgers on Tuesday.

Howard made the announcement on his social media channels.

Howard has one season of eligibility remaining after he went 12-5 as a starter for the Wildcats, leading them past TCU in the 2022 Big 12 title game and helping them reach the Pop-Tarts Bowl this past season. But with Kansas State expected to turn over its offense to five-star prospect Avery Johnson, who led the Wildcats to a victory in the bowl game, Howard announced he was entering the transfer portal and considered Miami and Southern California before settling on Ohio State.

He also considered declaring for the NFL draft before deciding to spend a year with the Buckeyes.

Howard has prototypical NFL size at 6-foot-5, 240-plus pounds, and along with a strong arm and the ability to run. He also gives Ohio State some experience, having started 27 games and thrown for 5,786 yards and 48 touchdowns during his career.

The Buckeyes missed out on the College Football Playoff following their regular-season loss to Michigan, landing them in the Cotton Bowl. McCord’s decision to transfer forced them to start Devin Brown against Missouri, and he left in the second quarter with a sprained ankle, forcing Lincoln Kienholz to play the rest of the way in a 14-3 loss.

Johnson threw for 178 yards and two scores, ran for 71 yards and another TD and was voted the MVP of the Pop-Tarts Bowl for helping the Wildcats to a 28-19 victory over North Carolina State.

Thornton sank 9 of 15 shots and added seven assists for the Buckeyes (12-2, 2-1 Big Ten Conference), who have won four in a row while improving to 8-0 all-time at home against the Scarlet Knights (8-5, 0-2). Battle made 8 of 12 shots, including 6 of 9 from 3-point range. Battle, a transfer from Big Ten foe Minnesota, has made 42 shots from beyond the arc, tops in the conference. Roddy Gayle Jr. scored all 11 of his points in the second half and grabbed seven rebounds.

Derek Simpson scored 23 on 9-for-16 shooting with two 3-pointers and eight rebounds for Rutgers. Noah Fernandes had 17 points, while Mawot Mag scored 11. Aundre Hyatt pitched in with nine points and 10 rebounds.

Battle hit his first six shots, five of them from 3-point range, and scored 17, Thornton sank his first five shots with both of his 3-pointers and scored 15 to lead Ohio State to a 45-32 lead at halftime. The Buckeyes shot 53% from the floor and made 9 of 15 from beyond the arc in building the 13-point lead. Simpson had 11 points and Fernandes scored 10 as the pair accounted for all but 11 first-half points for the Scarlet Knights, who trailed by as many as 17.

Gayle’s layup gave Ohio State a 58-46 lead with 12:15 remaining. Rutgers whittled away at the lead until back-to-back baskets from Simpson and Mag pulled the Scarlet Knights within 67-66 with 3:20 left.

Evan Mahaffey answered with a jumper for the Buckeyes after Thornton snagged the rebound off his own missed 3-pointer and Gayle followed with a 3-pointer after a Scarlet Knights turnover to push the lead to six. Fernandes and Simpson buried 3-pointers in the final 1:14 for Rutgers, but Thornton and Gayle both went 2 for 2 at the foul line to preserve the victory.

Up next

Ohio State: The Buckeyes travel to play Indiana on Jan. 6.

Rutgers: The Scarlet Knights stay on the road and face Iowa on Jan. 6.

HOUSTON — As Houston prepares to host the College Football Playoff title game for the first time when No. 1 Michigan faces No. 2 Washington on Jan. 8, CFP executive director Bill Hancock believes the city will factor into future playoff games when the new contract is signed.

Though the playoffs will expand from four teams to 12 next season, the next two seasons’ sites already have been chosen under the previous contract.

After that, other bowls could be chosen to host quarterfinal, semifinal and championship games, but Hancock said they haven’t done much work on that yet.

“We really haven’t started talking very much about what’s to come,” Hancock told The Associated Press on Jan. 3. “We go to Atlanta and then Miami after that, and after that we’re not sure, but I would expect Houston to have a long-term presence with CFP because they have everything we need.”

This is the 10th year of the CFP and the title game has been played in a different stadium each year. Houston has been trying to get the game for years and organizers hope to host it again in the not-too-distant future.

“We will definitely bid again,” Houston Sports Authority CEO Janis Burke said. “We started in 2016 really talking to them and telling them about our intent of wanting to do the best championship game ever. Our organization built the stadiums, and then our job transferred into filling those stadiums with big mega events. And I’m really happy that we’ve been able to do that and really put Houston on the map as this great sports town that knows how to host these big mega events in a great way and really take it to a new level.”

Though this is the first time Houston has hosted the college football championship game, the city has welcomed many other big events in recent years. The NCAA Final Four was held in the city last year and in 2016, and Houston hosted the Super Bowl in 2017. In two years, Houston will be one of the cities where the FIFA World Cup will be played.

There is some concern that when the new contract is signed in the expanded playoff system, the bowls that traditionally have hosted the biggest games might lose their spots or have fewer opportunities to host the top games.

Hancock wasn’t ready to discuss that possibility Jan. 3, but he said the changing landscape of not only the playoffs but college football in general will continue to alter how bowl games are viewed.

“I think we have to look at bowl games differently,” he said. “Certainly players, as we all know, have opted out. Some have gone, some have declared for the NFL, some have gone into the transfer portal. And I think that it’s a fact and a new day.”

He doesn’t like that some around college football have started calling the non-playoff bowl games ‘exhibition games.’”

“I’m not sure I would subscribe to that,” he said. “But on the other hand, what have they always been? Opportunities to go and enjoy yourself at the end of the season. I’m bullish on the future of the bowl games because even with CFP they’ve held up great. Still drawing fans and still drawing television viewers and still providing opportunities for young people.”

Gayle made 11 of 21 from the field, 7 of 10 from the free-throw line and finished with seven rebounds and six assists. Bruce Thornton scored six of his 11 points after regulation for Ohio State (11-2).

Battle hit a 3-pointer to open the scoring in OT and, after RaeQuan Battle made a tip-in for the Mountaineers on the other end, Gayle sank another 3 to give Ohio State a 71-67 lead with 3:25 to play. RaeQuan Battle threw down a dunk, but Bruce Thornton scored all the Buckeyes’ points in a 6-2 spurt that gave them a six-point lead with two minutes remaining.

West Virginia interim coach Josh Eilert was called for a technical foul for arguing a no-call on a missed 3-point shot by RaeQuan Battle. After Gayle missed both free throws, Battle stole the ball and went the other way for a dunk to make it 78-75 with 50 seconds remaining. Gayle missed a 3, Evan Mahaffey grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled but went 0 for 2 from the free-throw line. WVU’s Kerr Kriisa missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 11 seconds to play and the Buckeyes held on.

RaeQuan Battle, who picked up two early fouls and played just seven first-half minutes, led West Virginia (5-8) with 24 points, 10 rebounds and three steals. Noah Farrakhan scored 19 points and Quinn Slazinski finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.

Farrakhan missed a 3-point shot but Pat Suemnick grabbed the offensive rebound and his putback cut West Virginia’s deficit to 65-63 with 1:14 to play. Jamison Battle missed a clean look from 3 on the other end and Farrakhan found Suemnick for a layup to tie it with 29 second left. The Buckeyes moved the ball to the front court and called its final timeout with 18 remaining before Gayle left a contested fade-away jumper as time in regulation expired.

West Virginia’s Josiah Harris (Richmond Heights) played 20 minutes, scored five points and grabbed six rebounds. Seth Wilson (Lorain) played three minutes.

Ohio State returns to Big Ten play on Jan. 3 when the Buckeyes play host to Rutgers. West Virginia plays its first true road contest of the season on Jan. 6, when the Mountaineers open their Big 12 slate at No. 3 Houston.

ARLINGTON, Texas — All-America running back Cody Schrader bulled through two defenders to open the fourth quarter with ninth-ranked Missouri’s first score in the Cotton Bowl.

That 7-yard touchdown run was a fitting play for the former walk-on, and finish for these Tigers, who wrapped up an 11-win season with a 14-3 win over No. 7 Ohio State on Dec. 29.

“I couldn’t have drawn it up any more perfect,” quarterback Brady Cook said. “He embodies what our team is, and what our values are and how we operate.”

In a game with almost as many total punts (16) as points, Missouri (11-2) suddenly had consecutive scoring drives of more than 90 yards after punting eight times before that. Cook threw a 7-yard TD to Luther Burden III with 5:12 left in the game.

Ohio State (11-2), which was undefeated before losing its regular-season finale to Michigan, played without two-time All-America receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. The standout junior was on the sideline, but opted out of playing. He hasn’t announced yet if he will enter the NFL draft.

The Buckeyes were already without starting quarterback Kyle McCord, who left the program earlier this month to transfer to Syracuse. Devin Brown, who took over as the starter, left the game in the middle of the second quarter with a high left ankle sprain. They finished with only 203 total yards.

After finishing 6-7 with bowl losses each of the past two years, Missouri wrapped up coach Eliah Drinkwitz’s fourth season by winning 11 games for the first time since 2014.

“I think tonight was a testament to a wilderness brotherhood. A bunch of guys that have fought through adversity their entire lives and careers,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re not bluebloods. We’re a dirty, hard-working brotherhood that loves each other, fight for each other.”

Missouri had only 120 total yards before the eight-play, 95-yard drive that ended with Schrader, the former NCAA Division II standout and walk-on who finished with 128 yards, running through two defenders for his 14th TD — and 10th consecutive game with a score. Cook had a 15-yard run before a 50-yard pass to a wide-open Marquis Johnson.

The Tigers then went 91 yards in 13 plays, including Cook converting fourth-and-1 with a 2-yard plunge, for Burden’s score.

“That’s just grit,” Cook said. “That’s a testimony to all the work this team has put in and a focus on being a gritty team. Not let adversity get you down and just go back to work.”

Brown appeared to get hurt when he was sacked on a third-down play late in the first quarter. He returned when the Buckeyes got the ball back, but true freshman Lincoln Kienholz finished the game after that.

With McCord gone, Brown took over as the starter after not playing since Oct. 21, and was 4-of-6 passing for 20 yards while getting sacked three times. Kienholz was finished 6 of 17 for 86 yards and lost a fumble while being sacked with 3:13 left.

“For Devin, I know he wanted to play in this game worse than anybody. And even after he hurt himself, he wanted to get back in there and actually did it for a series,” Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said. “It wasn’t fair for him. He couldn’t move.”

Ohio State’s only points came on Jayden Fielding’s 44-yard field goal with 3:12 left in the first quarter, and the Buckeyes punted their other six possessions before halftime. Fielding’s 48-yard attempt on the opening drive of the second half ricocheted high off the upright and back into the end zone.

The Buckeyes never reached the red zone on their 11 possessions (eight punts).

MORE ON SCRADER

Schrader had 14 carries for 68 yards in the fourth quarter, after 60 yards on 15 carries before that. He finished with a Missouri single-season record 1,627 yards rushing, surpassing Tyler Badie’s 1,604 yards in 2021. Schrader is the national leader with 125.2 yards per game.

SACK MARK

Jack Sawyer matched an Ohio State bowl record with three sacks, after the junior defensive end had only 3 1/2 in the first 12 games this season. The Buckeyes finished with six against Cook and the Tigers.

“I’m just upset about the game,” Sawyer said. “It’s tough when you don’t get the outcome you want, and I just want to give Lincoln a shoutout for stepping in there and playing with confidence in a tough spot.”

UP NEXT

Missouri expects to have Cook back for his third season as its starting quarterback, along with top receiving target Burden. The Tigers open the 2024 season Aug. 31 at home against Murray State.

Ohio State will likely have Brown, Kienholz and five-star prospect Air Noland competing for the quarterback job in the spring. There is no certainty of who will be the starter when the Buckeyes open the 2024 season at home against Akron.

THE SCORE

Missouri 14, Ohio State 3