Here's your wakeup call -- a combination of newsworthy andor interesting tidbits -- for Monday, November 12:
AUTO RACING
Brad Keselowski would rather not have relied on Jimmie Johnson's misfortune for victory Sunday at Phoenix, but in any case he's now on the brink of his first Sprint Cup championship. (AP)
BASEBALL
The Yankees are confident that Mariano Rivera, Hiroki Kuroda and Andy Pettitte will be back in 2013. (NBC's Hardball Talk)
Meanwhile, Davey Johnson has already decided to return to Washington. (AP)
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
San Diego State was gone with the wind -- har, har -- on the USS Midway against Syracuse. (AP)
Larry Brown starts coaching job No. 14 with a victory. (AP)
Now that's defense: Florida holds Alabama State to nine points in the first half en route to an 84-35 victory. (AP)
The UConn women win their 17th consecutive opener rather decisively, 103-39 over the College of Charleston. (AP)
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Sure enough, Alabama's loss Saturday puts Kansas State and Oregon in the Nos. 1 and 2 spots in the BCS rankings. (AP)
And the AP poll, too, only their positions are reversed. (AP)
Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that a few folks were claiming the Tide could beat some of the NFL's bottom feeders? (AP)
Two games away from its first-ever BCS title game, Kansas State is in tight, take-it-one-day-at-a-time mode. (AP)
But at Notre Dame, Brian Kelly wants to know: Why not us? (AP)
Meanwhile, the conference commissioners continue to plan the BCS' demise. (AP)
Mike Leach is on the hot seat at Washington State thanks to some explosive charges by wide receiver Marquess Wilson. (AP)
HOCKEY
NHL assistant honcho Bill Daly explains the league's hard-line stance on the contract issues that apparently have scuttled this latest round of negotiations . . . and perhaps the season. (NBC's Pro Hockey Talk)
Canadiens farmhand Blake Geoffrion, grandson of former Montreal star Bernie Geoffrion, is expected to make a full recovery from a skull fracture suffered in an AHL game Friday night. (AP)
PRO BASKETBALL
All the Phil Jackson talk was just that -- talk -- as the Lakers hire Mike D'Antoni as their new coach. (NBC's Pro Basketball Talk)
Maybe they should have kept Bernie Bickerstaff in the big chair. (AP)
Magic Johnson is shedding no tears over Mike Brown's departure, that's for sure. (Pro Basketball Talk)
As for Brown, he apparently drowned his sorrows after his firing at a nearby Chick-Fil-A. (Pro Basketball Talk)
Confronting one of San Antonio's announcers -- yes, announcers -- in a hostile manner is going to cost Sacramento's DeMarcus Cousins two games and 70,500. (AP)
PRO FOOTBALL
Mercury Morris' moment in the sun is over for another year: The Saints hand the Falcons their first loss. (AP)
Bad day for quarterbacks in the NFL: Concussions claim Jay Cutler . . . (AP)
. . . Michael Vick . . . (AP)
. . . and Alex Wilson. (AP)
Vick's job, though, will be waiting for him when he gets healthy, despite Philadelphia's five straight losses. (CSN Philly)
Tim Dobbins, whose hit concussed Cutler, says he shouldn't be fined because Cutler "ran into me." (CSN Chicago)
Texans defensive line coach Bill Kollar in a Chicago hospital because of blood clots that doctors discovered after he complained of shortness of breath. (CSN Houston)
Ties have become so rare in the NFL that the 49ers aren't sure how they should feel after their 24-24 standoff with the Rams. (CSN Bay Area)
And a bizarre tie it was. (NBC's Pro Football Talk)
The Giants' annual November swoon is on. (AP)
Eli Manning's been "dreadful" the last few weeks, but he insists it's not anything physical. (Pro Football Talk)
As for the Jets, they've been swooning all year. And it continued yesterday. (AP)
This is a recording: Mark Sanchez is our quarterback. This is a recording. (Pro Football Talk)
Some of the Raiders said all the right thinks, but a few of them admitted how they really felt about the Ravens scoring a touchdown off a fake field goal with a 41-17 lead in Baltimore's 55-20 rout of Oakland. (CSN Bay Area)