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Bye Bye 'Bama. Alabama drops from the unbeaten ranks in college football, leaving Kansas State, Oregon and Notre Dame to battle for the top two spots.
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Happy Monday everyone, here's my Top 5 for November 12, 2012 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.

1. Quick Hits

  • Mike D'Antoni is the new coach of the L.A. Lakers.
  • And then there were none. The last NFL undefeated team, the Atlanta Falcons, were beaten in New Orleans 31-27. Houston knocked off Chicago 13-6. The Rams and 49ers played to a 24-24 tie.
  • Bye Bye 'Bama. Alabama drops from the unbeaten ranks in college football, leaving Kansas State, Oregon and Notre Dame to battle for the top two spots.
  • Spend, spend, spend. The Dodgers won the right to negotiate a contract with Korean lefty strikeout pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu. It cost them around $25.7 million just for negotiating rights.

2. Land of Oz

My! People come and go so quickly around here. Lakers coach Mike Brown was fired as Lakers coach before some people even realized the NBA season had begun. That's what you get for a 1-4 record in Hollywood. (They've won both their games since Brown's been fired.) Enter Mike D'Antoni, the former Suns and Knicks coach. The Lakers had an off-season makeover. Was it fair that Brown got no chance? Or if as Magic Johnson indicated, that Brown was the wrong choice in the first place, shouldn't the Lakers have made this move before the season? Or in reality, isn't it all about the players anyway. Do they actually pay any attention to the man behind the curtain?

3. Restitution

So now what for Bernie Fine? The Syracuse basketball assistant coach got fired in the maelstrom that followed the Penn State scandal. Now that federal authorities have dropped the case, how is Bernie made whole? Does my alma mater take care of him financially? Money won't get him his good name back, unfortunately nothing probably will.

4. Giants Rule

So we've been making a big deal about the Giants being Super Bowl and baseball champs at the same time. Top 5 subscriber Roger E. points out that the Yomiuri Giants won the Japanese World Series this year as well. Look out for the Wabash College Little Giants!

5. If I Ruled the World

When I proposed a new NFL rule to stop kvetching by wide receivers looking for pass interference calls, you had some other ideas.

P.G. I would ban the kneel at the end of the game. I would make teams actually snap the ball and run some kind of play -- handoff or pass. The kneel just seems, well, sissified, for such a macho game.

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S.N. The celebratory and gloating dance or gesture after every routine screen pass or reception has to stop.

A.O. Get rid of the stupid "icing the kicker" nonsense. It's childish and unprofessional and most of the time doesn't work.

M.R. As a Browns fan, I would like to see the "prevent-defense" outlawed!!

J.M. Instant full season suspension, without pay for any hockey player who drops his gloves. Do it again and gone for life.

Editor's Note: What's hockey?

Happy Birthday: The first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics history, Nadia Comaneci. 51.

Bonus Birthday: Actress Anne Hathaway. 30.

Today in Sports: Miami quarterback Dan Marino broke Fran Tarkenton's all time passing record of 47,003 yards. Marino now ranks second to Brett Favre. Tarkenton is sixth. 1995.

Bonus Event: The first flying trapeze act was performed by Jules Leotard. He was wearing a... oh never mind. 1859.

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