No. 12 Ball State fumbled the ball away four times and Buffalo scored off each turnover, routing the previously unbeaten Cardinals 42-24 Friday night in the Mid-American Conference championship game at Detroit.
Ball State (12-1) finished the regular season undefeated for the first time since 1949 but entered the game without much of a shot to break into the Bowl Championship Series because it trailed Utah in the standings.
Buffalo returned fumbles 92 and 74 yards on consecutive drives late in the third quarter to take a 28-17 lead. The Bulls (8-5) won their first MAC title.
Buffalo athletic director Warde Manuel said the school accepted an invitation to play in Toronto's International Bowl on Jan. 3.
Coaching roundup • Mississippi coach Houston Nutt, who turned around a moribund Ole Miss program, agreed to a contract extension that will keep him in Oxford until 2012. Amid speculation Nutt was a candidate for the Auburn vacancy, several reports pegged his new salary at around $2.5 million.
• Texas Tech offered coach Mike Leach a five-year, $12.1 million contract extension. Under the deal, Leach would make $5.1 million in the remaining two years of his current contract, up from $5 million. Athletic director Gerald Myers said the extension would pay Leach $7 million over the final three years.
• Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy received a new seven-year contract that will pay him $15.7 million. Gundy is 27-22 in four seasons at his alma mater and, with a bowl victory, the No. 14 Cowboys (9-3, 5-3 Big 12) would finish with 10 wins for only the fourth time.
USC to wear home jerseys Southern Cal plans to wear its cardinal home jerseys when it visits UCLA today, reviving a tradition in the crosstown rivalry but violating an NCAA rule. Both teams wore their home uniforms when the L.A. Coliseum was their mutual home. Because NCAA bylaws require visiting teams to wear white, the rules violation will cost Southern Cal a timeout.
