r to free agency, it deserves compensation for having developed the talent. The co

What went down in the fourth week of college soccer? The aim each week is to bring you five stories that defined the week in college soccer or help navigate the long road to the Womens College Cup.And sometimes to point out goals like this.South Alabama takes down No. 1 Florida StateWhat a difference a year makes. When South Alabama played Florida State in the second round of the NCAA tournament a year ago, the Jaguars trailed by a goal after 116 seconds. They trailed by four goals after barely 10 minutes. A 5-0 loss appeared, in the end, almost merciful.So on the surface, South Alabamas 1-0 win over top-ranked Florida State that began the past week seems like one of the more surprising results in recent memory. After all, no one in a Seminoles uniform had lost to an opponent other than Duke, Florida, UCLA or Virginia, the only teams to beat Florida State since 2012. And on a day that saw the Seminoles outshoot South Alabama 28-3 and force Jaguars goalkeeper Justice Stanford to make eight saves, the whole thing might come off as an anomaly, a hiccup in the normally smooth order of college soccer.Yet over the past decade, Florida States nonconference losses usually proved indicators of the quality of opposition. And if South Alabama was fortuitous to win the day on the strength of Charde Hannahs first-half goal, the program doesnt look much like a fluke in the long run. Led by Hannah, the Jaguars this season returned their six leading scorers from a team that went 18-3-2 a season ago. They won at Ole Miss on Sunday. Even their losses so far this season, in double overtime at both Auburn and Mississippi State, hardly constitute meaningful regression.That Florida State has plenty to offer was clear in a 3-0 win over No. 17 Connecticut later in the week (although goals were again hard to find in Sundays 1-0 overtime win against Troy). So while the names make the Labor Day stunner sound like the upset of the season, hindsight may once again prove it nothing more than the Seminoles stumbling against a very good opponent.Georgetown (and the country) serves notice to ACCFrom an exhibition a week ago against the under-20 national team from Papua New Guinea, not a noted power, to a 3-2 upset against No. 3 Virginia, it was quite a seven days for Georgetown. And that despite ceding the favorite two goals before Sundays game was even 10 minutes old.Yet by halftime, on the strength of goals from Taylor Pak, Amanda Carolan and Rachel Corboz (her seventh in as many games), Georgetown had surged ahead to stay.Virginia hadnt lost a regular-season nonconference game since the 2012 season, let alone surrendered a two-goal lead, but there may be a lesson in that. Florida State lost. Duke lost at home. Notre Dame came away from an admittedly difficult Bay Area trip with two draws but no wins, and North Carolina soundly lost the finale of its California road trip at USC.Granted, North Carolina also won at UCLA. Florida State beat Connecticut. Notre Dame had reason to be proud of Sundays draw. And with the ACC season starting this week, the league is still the best bet in the country in which to catch a quality game. But not the only place this year.Stanfords ascension runs aground ... for nowStanford couldnt quite complete a perfect weekend that would have made No. 1 a foregone conclusion. By most accounting, the second-ranked Cardinal enjoyed a productive weekend with a commanding 4-1 win over No. 10 Minnesota and a 2-2 draw with No. 20 Notre Dame. But a world-class free kick from Notre Dame freshman Jennifer Westendorf, a low line drive that might still be traveling if not for the net, highlighted a second half that disrupted what had been a smooth Stanford operation through one and a half games.No matter what the polls say Monday, Stanford has the means to be No. 1 when it matters, because there may not be another team that can match what the Cardinal have in the middle of the field with All-American Andi Sullivan and freshman Tierna Davidson. Sullivan scored her own highlight-reel free kick against Minnesota, while Davidson scored her first career goal, but its the control they exert in all the space from box to box that marked much of the weekend.West Virginia makes its case for No. 1Like Stanford, No. 4 West Virginia showcased a concentration of talent in one area of the field that could well lead a team to a national championship. But in the case of the Mountaineers, it was the all-Canadian back line that so impressively put its imprint on a 3-1 win at No. 6 Duke.That starts, of course, with Kadeisha Buchanan. Even on a day that took a physical toll on the World Cup and Olympic veteran -- Buchanan was in the middle of several collisions and was briefly forced to the sideline in the second half with what looked like a leg injury -- she stood out on a field with plenty of talent. But it isnt just Buchanan. Left back Amandine Pierre-Louise scored the first goal after a long run forward with the ball and a strike from distance, but she and right back Ashley Lawrence, another Canadian international more familiar in a midfield role, effectively pinned down Duke with their ability to not only defend in wide space but attack out of it.South Florida snowbirds roll onFlorida State lost. Virginia lost. Stanford tied. Heck, even George Washington lost to Liberty on Sunday. It wasnt a great week for maintaining perfection, as in unbeaten and untied records. But it wasnt a complete bust. Central Michigan, UC Santa Barbara and Wake Forest each won two games to maintain perfect starts. Now 7-0-0, Central Michigan already has more wins than it did the entire 2015 season. Or the 2014 season. A year after she led the team with four goals, sophomore Alexis Pelafas is vying for the national lead with nine goals in six appearances.Best of the unbeaten and untied, however, is No. 14 South Florida. With a roster that reads like one of those most often associated with the team in Tallahassee (Ghana, Iceland, Jamaica, Mexico and Norway represented), USF is 7-0-0 and hasnt allowed a goal the past two weeks. The best import of all for Canadian-born coach Denise Schilte-Brown at the moment is one of her own, freshman and Quebec product Evelyne Viens coming off a four-goal weekend. Tim Frazier Jersey . After the whistle, Thornton skated the length of the ice, pulled Orpik to the ice from behind and punched him in the face several times. Jameer Nelson Pistons Jersey . LOUIS -- Valtteri Filppula assisted on three of Tampa Bays four goals, and the Lightning beat the St. https://www.pistonsrookiesshop.com/Dennis-Rodman-City-Edition-Jersey/ . Coach Tom Thibodeau says the former MVP will probably start travelling with the team in the next few weeks. Rose tore the meniscus in his right knee at Portland in November and was ruled out for the remainder of the season by the Bulls. Jerry Stackhouse Pistons Jersey . The injury bothered Bledsoe in the Suns victory over the Clippers on Monday and he sat out the teams home loss to Memphis on Thursday night. Reggie Jackson Jersey . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. This story appears in ESPN The Magazines Dec. 12 issue. Subscribe today!The elation of the World Series is now behind us, and thus begins the season when every player joins the same team against an opponent that happens to pay them. Major League Baseball is on a tenuous 21-year streak of labor peace since the beginning of the last work stoppage, when the 1994 strike devastated the sport, destroyed the Montreal Expos and paved the way for the steroid era. Uncomfortable truths, all, but truths nevertheless.The truths of the negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement (the current one expires Dec. 1) arent necessarily heroic from the selfish eye of the fan, who couldnt care less about labor unless a lockout or a strike looms. Its players vs. owners, millions vs. billions. There dont appear to be any apocalyptic issues that would stop the game, but that doesnt mean a work stoppage wont occur.The issues that would radically shape baseball for the better-determining once and for all whether the game continues down its path of everyday interleague play and, if so, whether it adds the DH to the National League or abolishes it in the American-are likely not on the table. Nor is the nonstarter of shortening the season to accommodate the increase of playoff teams (which has reduced the necessity of a 162-game season) and to avoid bad postseason weather. What is on the table is, in a sense, climate change. Baseball has slowly been trying to turn its culture closer to footballs-look at how the commissioners office has pushed for more power (see: Alex Rodriguez being suspended for a full season in 2014 during the Biogenesis scandal without failing a drug test), and witness the primacy of baseballs odious qualifying offer, which, although it might survive the negotiations, shouldnt.On its face, the qualifying offer -- which can be extended to eligible free agents who have been with a team for the entire previous season -- seems to work for everyone. It mimics the NFLs franchise tag with one major exception: Unlike NFL players, MLB players can reject it -- and they have, roundly, over its four-year existence. In football, not one of the 27 quarterbacks in the Hall of Fame was ever a healthy, in-prime unrestricted free agent. In baseball, a player who has accepted the qualifying offer would earn $17.2?million for the 2017 season and wouldd get to become an unrestricted free agent after.dddddddddddd The player makes a lot of money and puts off free agency for a year. The team, meanwhile, doesnt have to compete for its own player but isnt tied to a long-term contract. A win-win, right?Wrong. Since the inception of the new system in 2012, 64 qualifying offers have been made by teams, with only five accepted. This year Neil Walker of the Mets and Jeremy Hellickson of the Phillies accepted. The other eight players offered this year did not, aware of their worth on the open market. Yoenis Cespedes, for example, rejected the Mets qualifying offer, knowing full well some team will likely commit to him for more than one year; in turn, the Mets will receive a draft pick from whatever team signs him.The qualifying offer isnt destroying baseball, but its not helping either because it continues to expose old wounds. The sport is a $10?billion industry and yet, 41 years and untold profits later, ownership still hasnt been willing to accept the concept of player movement without some form of compensation in return. The philosophy behind free agent compensation has always been specious: that if a team loses a player to free agency, it deserves compensation for having developed the talent. The counter is more sensible: Baseball controls a drafted player until he hits six years of service time. Then that player should be free to join the marketplace to shop his services, the debt to his club paid.The gap between MLB philosophy and reality is wide. The qualifying offer is really designed to dampen free agency and depress salaries, to give teams pause before signing free agents because they dont want to lose the draft picks attached to signing one. On the other side, it discourages teams from retaining their own players with long-term deals and encourages them to acquire draft picks. A team, for example, that needs Cespedes might not sign him because it doesnt want to give up compensation, which means not doing what it takes to win. Winning, in fact, often falls a distant second to making and saving money. The pursuit of the World Series is the summer game. That game is over, giving way to the winter game: owners vs. players battling over money and control. ' ' '