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SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Chattanooga coach Russ Huesman feels the Southern Conference took an unwarranted hit on its reputation a few years back, one it is ready to wipe away with a stable, improving league.The SoCon had been one of the countrys best Football Championship Subdivision leagues since college football split into Division I and Division I-AA more than three decades ago. Yet after FCS powers Appalachian State and Georgia Southern left the league to move up three years ago, Huesman thought few took the conference as seriously as before.Absolutely ridiculous, he said. Weve gotten a bad rap for a few years now.Expect that to change, Huesman said.His Mocs were picked to win a fourth straight SoCon football title by league coaches and media at the leagues preseason gathering Wednesday.Theres no doubt the league saw an overhaul in recent seasons. Georgia Southern reached the NCAA playoffs 11 times and won two national championships during their two decades in the league. Appalachian State was in 16 NCAA playoffs and won three straight FCS titles from 2005-07.The last time both Georgia Southern and Appalachian State made the playoffs in 2012 was also the last time the SoCon had three teams in the NCAA tournament. East Tennessee, Mercer and VMI -- whove combined for zero playoff appearances. VMI has not had a winning record since 1981. East Tennessee restarted football last fall after an absence of 11 years while Mercer went even longer between teams (no football from 1942 to 2012) before restoring the program.The changes may have cost the SoCon in the selection room. Western Carolina, at 7-4, was on the bubble last year for the 24-team field but was ultimately left out.Catamounts coach Mark Speir thought his team had done enough to get in, but ultimately let a bunch of men in Indianapolis decide whether we get to play anymore.Southern Conference commissioner John Iamarino understands the reluctance to buy into the leagues recent changes. He thinks time and stability will ultimate sway doubters about the SoCons power.When youre worried about realignment issues, it makes it harder on the coaches to recruit, Iamarino said. Weve got two programs that are very young and its just going to take some time to be successful.Maybe not that much time, said Western Carolinas Speir, who has spent all but three of his 26 football seasons coaching in the Southern Conference.From top to bottom, this league is as strong as its ever been, he said.Newbie Mercer toppled league champion Chattanooga last season while the Citadel returned to the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 1992, including a FBS victory over South Carolina of the Southeastern Conference.The Citadel was picked second to Chattanooga in coach and media voting. The rest of the coachs picks were Samford third, then Western Carolina, Mercer, Wofford, Furman, VMI and East Tennessee. The media selected Western Carolina third, then Mercer, Samford, Wofford, Furman, VMI and East Tennessee.Western Carolina running back Detrez Newsome was named the leagues preseason offensive player of the year while Chattanooga defensive lineman Keionta Davis got picked for player of the year honors on the other side of the ball.Huesman said his team is ready to contend with a strong league and build on what its done in recent seasons. An emphasis for improvement is in the playoffs, where the Mocs lost in the second round the past two seasons, and against FBS opponents, which Huesman said is where he and other SoCon teams can most strongly debunk the idea the SoCon has slipped.He pointed to the Citadels win over South Carolina and Furmans takedown of UCF last season as evidence that the conference is robust and ready to rumble with anyone in college football.I think thats going to help the league moving forward, he said. New Orleans Saints Pro Shop . Scott Kazmir allowed four hits in seven shutout innings, Michael Brantley hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning and the Indians maintained their hold on an AL wild-card spot with a 4-1 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night. Cheap Saints Jerseys . -- Gus Malzahn finally had his day in Fayetteville. https://www.saintsjerseyssale.com/ . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. Wholesale Saints Jerseys . To the surprise of many, it isnt the Wolverines but their in-state rivals the Michigan State Spartans. New Orleans Saints Gear . John Lucas, signed as a mentor for rookie Trey Burke, showed he can score if required, scoring 12 points of his 16 points in the second quarter as Utah built an 18-point lead. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Undefeated, uncatchable, unquestionably the best.Usain Bolt bid a blazing-fast farewell to Rio de Janeiro, and probably the Olympics altogether, Friday night with yet another anchor leg for the ages. He turned a close 4x100 relay race against Japan and the United States into a runaway, helping Jamaica cross the line in 37.27 seconds.With the victory, Bolt won his ninth career Olympic medal and completed a triple-triple, with three gold medals at three consecutive Olympics.There you go, Bolt said. Im the greatest.The U.S. finished the race third but endured yet another relay debacle; the Americans were disqualified because it was ruled that leadoff runner Mike Rodgers passed the baton to Justin Gatlin outside the exchange zone.?Canada was elevated to the bronze-medal position in a national-record 37.64 seconds, trailing silver medalist Japan.USA Track & Field said early Saturday morning that it had appealed the decision.It marked the ninth time since 1995 that the U.S. men have been disqualified or failed to get the baton around at the Olympics or world championships.Hell, we already did the victory lap, and then when we talked to TV, they told us, said Tyson Gay, who ran the third leg for the Americans. They said Justin got the stick before the zone. Hes saying he didnt. Hopefully we can appeal.Gatlin called the incident a twilight zone, a nightmare -- all that hard work just crumbles.I believe in my guys, man, he said. I just hate that it happened to us in this fashion.Japan, which had the lead going into the final baton change, finished 0.33 seconds behind Jamaica.Undaunted despite running in the lane beside Bolt, Aska Cambridge anchored Japan in an Asian record time of 37.60. It topped the bronze medal from the team of 2008 -- the first men from Japan to win an Olympic track medal in a sprinting event.It was really, really fantastic, and its just so nice to be part of it, said the 23-year-old Cambridge, who has a Japanese mother and a Jamaican father. I may have Jamaican blood, but I was brought up in Japan and trained in Japan.Canadas Andre de Grasse, who won silver in the 200 meters and bronze in the 100, said his team had seen the Americans disqualified before, most recently at last years world championships.Last year we were fourth, and U.S. got DQd and we got a medal, he said. I told them all to wait around. You dont know what can happen. Its tricky. Sometimes it just doesnt take just speed.Still, he hadnt been expecting such big things from the silver medalists.Japan probably surprised us a little bit, de Grasse said. We didnt expect to see them up there. But congrats to them as well.Gatlin has won five medals in his career, including a gold in the 100 meters at the 2004 Athens Games. At age 34, he said he wasnt willing to call this the end of his Olympic career.I never said this was my last Olympics, he said. This has made me hungry for the world championships next year.?Bolt hasnt botched a relay handoff in any major championship since he started running them in 2007. Its easier when you know youre the fastest man out there.Bolts record in Olympic finals: nine races, nine wins. Nobody has done that before, and nobody is on the horizon to do it again soon.As expected, Bolt said he doesnt plan to compete again in the Olympiics.ddddddddddddIm sorry, guys, said Bolt, who has a vacation on tap next. But this is the last one.Along with Bolt for his final trip down the track were Nickel Ashmeade, training partner Yohan Blake and the Jamaican elder statesman, former world-record holder Asafa Powell.My team came through for me tonight, Bolt said. As long as we got the baton round, it was never in doubt.When Bolt received the yellow baton from Ashmeade for his final run down the straightaway, he was even, maybe a step behind, Japans Cambridge and Trayvon Bromell of the United States.That lasted about four steps.With 70 meters to go, it was all over. Bolt looked at the clock, same as he did when he finished the 200-meter victory the night before. No world record, but he still owns that one too -- 36.84 seconds, set four years ago at the London Games.I am just relieved, Bolt said. Its happened. I am just happy, proud of myself. Its come true. The pressure is real. I look at it as an accomplishment.Counting all the preliminaries, finals and his approximately nine-second blast down the stretch in Fridays race, Bolt has spent 325 seconds, a tad less than 5? minutes, running on the track at the Olympics since he made his debut in Beijing eight years ago.Every tick of the clock has been a treasure. While he might not close things out with 23 golds, the number Michael Phelps left Rio with earlier this week, its hard to argue there is anybody more successful, electric or important to his sport and the Olympics themselves.The anchor sport of the Olympics has been mired, especially over the past year, in a cesspool of doping, cheating and bad characters.When Bolts on the track, everyone forgets.A great sprinter, said Gay, who once upon a time was Bolts biggest challenger. Nine gold medals, words cant even describe what hes done for the sport.So much of that is because the show isnt over when hes through running. After crossing the line for his finale, Bolt pumped his fist in the air, slowed down and took off his famous gold spikes. He huddled with his teammates, and they prayed. Then, a final, luxurious ring around the track.Ill stay up late tonight, Bolt said when asked how he would celebrate.But before he left the track, his partners peeled off from the victory lap. With the stadium emptying, Bolt kneeled down, brought his hands out to his sides and soaked in one last burst of applause. Then he kissed the track and slapped his hand on the number 3 painted at the starting line.As in three Olympics, three races at each, three gold medals each time.He could have just as easily slapped the number 1. That would need no explanation.After his news conference ended in the wee hours, Bolt came back onto the track with most of the lights in the stadium having already been turned off.Bolt took a couple throws of the javelin, the last one going about 50 meters.He posed for some pictures afterward, with the javelin -- which he requested a formal measurement of -- still stuck in the Olympic Stadium turf.Bolts final throw would have earned him a sixth-place finish at this years Jamaican national championships.Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. ' ' '