The Pelicans host the Memphis Grizzlies tonight as they get back to action after a couple of days off for first Christmas. New Orleans last game was Saturday, a 106 to 104 loss to the Houston Rockets. On December 13th, New Orleans hosted Memphis and blew a big halftime lead and lost to the Grizzlies. Currently, New Orleans is 17-13 and in fourth place in the Western Conference.

The LSU football team leaves today for Tampa where they’ll play Wisconsin in the Reliaquest Bowl on New Year’s Day. The Tigers will have Joe Sloan and Cortez Hankton serve as co-offensive coordinators as Mike Denbrock has left the program to rejoin the Notre Dame coaching staff.

The Saints get back to work today. They have slim playoff chances with two regular season games left. New Orleans must win its final two games, including Sunday’s home’s game against Tampa Bay and then the Black and Gold will need the Bucs to lose to Carolina in the regular season finale. Sunday’s game kicks off at noon in the Dome.

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On New Year’s Day night, New Orleans will host a College football playoff semifinal game as Texas will battle Washington.

Next year the college football playoff will expand to 12 teams and for the first two years of the new format, the Sugar Bowl will be a quarterfinal game. So it’s unknown when New Orleans will next host a college football national championship or semifinal game. Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley says the Sugar Bowl is working hard to land a final four match-up or national title game…
Cut 14 (14) “…we’re at.”
The other semifinal matchup is Alabama versus Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

Lafayette Christian quarterback JuJuan Joseph has been named the Class Four-A most outstanding player of the year. The LSU signee threw for 3,597 yards and 41 touchdowns and rushed for 1,497 yards and 25 scores. Evangel defensive end Gabriel Reliford, also an LSU signee, is the defneisve player of the year. After leading Opelousas to its first state championship, Jimmy Zachery is the Class 4a Coach of the year.