Howdy folks, one CFP Semifinal down, one to go. Be honest was that an aggressive use of “Howdy” there? Might turn that into a 2025 thing, but then again, might not. Big day last night for both the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and well as Sidney Crosby! We’ll dive into both of those stories, as well as give you one of Pink Floyd’s greatest in today’s Daily Stump!

The Rundown:

🏀 Sidney Crosby Climbs All-Time Points List!

🏈 CFP Semifinal Breakdown! Notre Dame advances!

🐢 A quote by an all-time LEGEND!

🐿️ Who would you say is the GLUE GUY between Alvin, Simon, and Theodore?

Today’s Poll🧠

Results to the post will be revealed tomorrow!

On This Day…

🏈 On this day in 1992, there was “THE CATCH“! The San Francisco 49ers faced off against the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL Championship. The Niners were down with a minute to go. This was until Dwight Clark caught a FINGERTIP TD ball from Joe Montana with 58 seconds left in the game.

This catch has gone down as one of the greatest in league history because of the stakes. You’ve definitely seen it but here’s THE CLIP!

Today’s Stump Story…

🏈 The Fighting Irish Will Be Playing For A National Championship!

A tale of two halves! But the Irish advance to the National Championship! Does this make the 12-team playoff a success? Highlights HERE

If you tuned in to last night’s Orange Bowl, you watched a tale of two halves. The storyline going in was an even mat

chup where someone had to win the big one. Penn State hasn’t one ‘the big one’ in what seems like forever, and Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame team has had this feeling of waiting for the other shoe to fall off. Something had to give!

Outside of one TD drive for Penn State in the first half, the first 30 minutes of ball were not for the faint of heart. It looked like it was going to be a slow game all the way through when Penn State took a 10-3 lead into the half. I wish I was a fly on the wall for those two halftime speeches, because the fellas came out JUICED for the second half, on both sides!

We had 5 TDs in the second half! 4 of which came in the fourth! The two teams exchanged haymakers for a shot to fight for a National Championship. It was a tie ball game with under a minute to go, and with Notre Dame punting the ball the game seem primed to go into OT.

…That was until disaster struck for Penn State. QB Drew Allar threw what was his worst decision in a month with under a minute to go. An interception on their own side of the field which set up Notre Dame for the game-winning Field Goal! It was an absolutely stunning turn events that happened within a blink of an eye.

Notre Dame will now be in the Championship in their third year under Coach Freeman. They will await the winner of today’s matchup between Ohio State and Texas. Just going to say this; a Notre Dame-Ohio State National Championship would be storybook!

People still complained about this year’s 12-team playoff, and some of the nags were warranted. There were byes, and ‘easy paths’ and more teams left out, but now we have our last few teams. With the Northern Illinois loss that ND suffered early in the season, and they shocking loss against Michigan for Ohio State, who knows if these teams would have been in the 4-team playoff, and now they are in the Final 3! How bout them apples?

The Fighting Irish advance! Two games of college football left!

Quick Hitters

🏈 CFP Playoff Semifinal! After a slow first half, the energy picked up as Notre Dame defeated Penn State, 27-24, on a game-winning field goal! It was a Drew Allar late-game interception that sealed the deal! Check out our Stump Story for all the deets!

🏒 Last night Sidney Crosby moved into 9th all-time on the NHL’s All-Time Points list! 1 goal and 2 assists in the Penguins 5-3 win over the Oilers brought him to 1,642 career points! Unreal stuff from Sid the Kid!

🏈 Lots of news out of the Raider camp! After firing Head Coach Antonio Pierce, they have now also fired GM Tom Telesco after 1 year. On top of this they have now scheduled an interview with Pete Carroll for their head coaching vacancy! Some guys just can’t stay away from it! The league just seems like it would be better with Pete Carroll in the league! We’ll see what happens.

Other News:

• 🏈 Carson Beck enters transfer portal after a season that hurt his draft stock!

• ⛳️ We’ve got GOLF! Here’s the Sony Open LEADERBOARD!

• 🏀 Lakers-Hornets postpone game amidst wildfires!

Top Performers:

• 🏒 Sidney Crosby (PIT): 1 goal, 2 assists

• 🏀 Darius Garland (CLE): 40 points, 9 assists, 2 steals 

• 🏀 Cade Cunningham (DET): 32 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds

• 🏈Marcus Freeman (ND): Reaches Natty in YEAR 3 at Notre Dame!

Stump Favorites

🏈Skip through the first half of this…but wow!

🏀 Can you believe these are the top 2 seeds?!?!

💯 Full Scoreboards: MLB, Soccer, PGA, NFL, WNBA, NCAAF, NHL

Today’s Slate

*All times are ET*

🏈CFP Semifinal: (6) Ohio State vs (3) Texas (7:30 PM ET)

🏀 NBA: Bucks @ Magic (7:00 PM ET), Warriors @ Pacers (7:00 PM ET), Thunder @ Knicks (7:30 PM ET), full schedule

🏀 NCAAW: Nothing to report, full schedule

🏀 NCAAM: (22) UCLA @ Maryland (8:00 PM ET), full schedule

🏒 NHL: Canucks @ Hurricanes (7:00 PM ET), Sharks @ UTAH (9:00 PM ET), full schedule

⚽️ Soccer: FA Cup - Aston Villa vs West Ham United (3:00 PM ET); Bundesliga: Borussia Dortmund vs Bayer Leverkusen (2:30 PM ET), full schedule

Can’t thank you enough for sticking to the end of this thing we call The Daily Stump. If you know anybody who might want this bit of daily sports news in their life, send them this link, it would go a long way. Appreciate the hell out of you all…

Trees get chopped. Stumps hold strong 💪