Texas

Two of college football's most storied programs vie for the Bowl Championship Series national title tonight at 8:38 on channels 2 and 7. For the No. 1 Crimson Tide, led by Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, right, it would be the first championship since 1992; the No. 2 Longhorns, led by two-time Heisman finalist Colt McCoy, last won in 2005. For matchups and X-factors, see PG 10

Since his freshman year, Emmanuel Toney has told anyone at Annapolis Area Christian School who would listen that he planned on playing college basketball at a Division I school in Texas. Now that the 6-foot-2, 185-pound combo guard is a Texas A&M-Corpus Christi commitment, life has felt “kind of surreal.” “My recruitment was going slow for awhile,” said Toney, who pledged to the Islanders last month. “I had some looks, DII and DIII, and a couple DI. And then this year, it was just like, I don't want to say a miracle, but my hard work paid off. [The coaches]

Maryland has agreed to a home-and-home football series with Texas, the school announced today. The Terps will travel to Austin on Sept. 2, 2017, while the Longhorns will head to College Park for a Sept. 1, 2018 date. Both games will be season openers. Texas holds a 3-0 series advantage over the Terps. The last meeting between the programs was in the 1978 Sun Bowl.

Antonio Barton had only a handful of Division I basketball programs interested in him three years ago coming out Notre Dame Prep in Massachusetts, where he spent a post-grad year after playing his senior season at Lake Clifton. When Barton announced his intentions to leave Memphis last month and finish his college career elsewhere, the 6-2 point guard from Baltimore said that some two dozen schools contacted him about transferring. Barton, who reportedly has narrowed his list down to four schools, said last week that he expects to make his decision Sunday.

Constellation Energy Group has completed the $365 million purchase of two natural gas generation facilities in Texas, the company announced Tuesday. The Colorado Bend Energy Center, a 550-megawatt facility near Wharton, Texas, and the Quail Run Energy Center, a 550-megawatt facility near Odessa, gives Constellation a physical presence in Texas, where the Baltimore-based corporation sells power in wholesale and retail markets. Company executives had announced in February plans to use $1 billion in cash balances to purchase additional generation facilities in areas where it sells more load than it produces.

Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group has agreed to sell a natural gas plant in west Texas to a municipal utility company in the state, contingent on the purchaser obtaining financing through the sale of municipal bonds, the company announced late Thursday. High Plains Diversified Energy Corporation, the utility of the West Texas Municipal Power Agency, would pay $185.3 million for the 550-megawatt Quail Run plant near Odessa if the sale goes through. The Quail Run plant was one of two Texas plants acquired by Constellation in May but the facility's location is far from the company's retail and wholesale customers and growth opportunities, said Kathleen W. Hyle, the company's senior vice president.

The NCAA has given Maryland and Texas a one-year reprieve from a new rule that limits off-campus football recruiting by a coach designated as the head coach-in-waiting. That will allow Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin and Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp to fully participate in the spring evaluation period in April and May. The new rule says coaches "publicly designated" to be the next head coach are bound by the same recruiting rules as the current head coach.

Long live the new king Don Markus Baltimore Sun Texas remained in the Big 12 for the same reason it considered jumping to the Pac-10. Money and greed were deep in the heart of this decision, evidenced by the fact that the country's most well-endowed public university stands to make between $20 million and $25 million in television revenue. In doing so, Texas showed that it, not Notre Dame, is the new king. It was a good move for the Longhorns but an even better move for college football.

In its first New Year's Eve game in 14 years, No. 13 Texas wanted to end 2010 on a high note. The Longhorns did just that. Jordan Hamilton hit five 3-pointers and scored 24 points to help host Texas beat Coppin State, 95-75, on Friday. Tristan Thompson scored a career-high 22 points and pulled down nine rebounds for the Longhorns (11-2). "I thought we broke out today, and we wanted to end 2010 right," Texas guard J'Covan Brown said. "We've got to bring that to the next part of the season.

No team has been able to cling to No. 1 very long this season. But no team has fallen harder since being ranked at the top than Texas. The No. 9 Longhorns entered Monday's game against Oklahoma State having dropped three of their last four after starting the season 17-0. Thud. Or maybe it's more of a whiff. The Longhorns might be modeling themselves after the NCAA runner-up Memphis team from two seasons ago that never could make a free throw. Texas owns the top scoring offense in the Big 12, averaging 85.3 points, is the top rebounding team with 44.3 per game and has the third-best shooting defense, holding opponents to 38.5 percent shooting.

If the state of Texas executes Duane Buck, it'll be because he is black. Well, mainly it will be because in 1995, he shot his ex-girlfriend, Debra Gardner, and her friend, Kenneth Butler, to death at Gardner's Houston home, and also wounded his own stepsister, Phyllis Taylor. But it will also be because he's black. In Texas, they have this rule: a jury contemplating the death penalty must evaluate the likelihood a defendant poses a future danger to the community. Jurors in Mr. Buck's trial were told he poses said danger because he is a black man. Mind you, this came from a defense witness, whose ultimate finding was that Mr. Buck himself represented little danger.

Few Americans are on the road more than the manager of a major league baseball team. But Buck Showalter, the Orioles' famously persevering manager, rarely stays put even in the offseason, when he's canvassing the country for new talent. After all, being stagnant would never have earned him two American League Manager of the Year awards or helped him turn around the Orioles' 14-year stretch of losing seasons. His most recent motivator? "When we [the Orioles] were leaking a little oil in mid-season (2012)

In my reading and listening about the fertilizer plant fire and explosion in West, Texas, I have noticed a dearth of comments about the dangers faced by first responders ("Obama to honor firefighters killed in Texas fertilizer blast," April 24). One of the purposes of the various federal and local chemical reporting requirements is to provide nearby fire companies with information for protecting themselves and for appropriate methods of reacting to an incident. That knowledge, buttressed by fire company inspections of nearby plants, can save lives.

Here is an item that I have been anticipating. Rep. Bill Flores, a Texas Republican, was being interviewed on TV the day after the explosion of the fertilizer plant which is located in the district he represents. He said in that interview he was pleased to report that he has been assured that the federal government will supply all assets needed to help that community in Texas. Good job, congressman. But here is the thing. Rep. Flores voted against federal aid for the victims of Hurricane Sandy last year!

The Orioles have decided to take advantage of a new rule that allows for the hiring of a seventh coach. Former big league catcher Einar Diaz, who was ticketed to be the field coach at Bowie, will now be an assistant major league coach, helping hitting coach Jim Presley as well as other members of Showalter's staff. “I've had Einar as a player [with the Texas Rangers in 2003],” Showalter said. “Einar is just a solid human being. He'll fit in real well to the clubhouse, pretty seamless.” Showalter said one of the most important things about Diaz is that he's a good batting practice pitcher, something needed with the departure of last year's third-base coach DeMarlo Hale.

Texas Roadhouse of Fallston announced recently it has formed a partnership with the Upper Chesapeake Health Foundation in support of The Senator Bob Hooper House, Harford County's first residential hospice facility. Texas Roadhouse will be donating entrees and providing food service to an estimated 750 guests who will be in attendance for the 14th annual Upper Chesapeake Hospice Regatta planned for June in Havre de Grace. The restaurant is committed to making a positive impact by providing all food at free for this year's Hospice Regatta.

ARLINGTON, Texas - A couple of wisecracking Orioles couldn't help themselves when they watched Tommy Hunter against the dugout railing shaking hands with members of the Texas media or Chris Davis and Omar Quintanilla chatting with Rangers fans in the stands. "Cut the cord," one player coughed into his glove. "You're an Oriole now," another one jabbed. Traveling to Texas is as much a homecoming as it is another tough road trip for the Orioles these days. Six Orioles on the 25-man roster - Davis, Hunter, Quintanilla, Darren O'Day , Taylor Teagarden and Pedro Strop - played for the Rangers at one point.

The media was talking to coach Randy Edsall today about future Maryland schedules. Here's what we know about future Terps opponents: 2013: UConn, West Virginia, Clemson, Wake Forest, N.C. State, Florida State, Boston College, Virginia, Virginia Tech, UNC 2014: West Virginia, Clemson, Wake Forest, N.C. State, Florida State, Boston College, Virginia, Duke, Virginia Tech Here are some future opponents: Texas (2017, 2018),...

Joshua Polanowski was one of the first to go. He drove south in his 15-year-old GMC pickup truck, leaving behind freezing cold and a forever-closed steel mill for a balmy winter and a choice of manufacturing jobs. Forrest and Lacey Martin followed with their two daughters and pair of cats. Goodbye, Maryland. Hello, Texas. The demise of Sparrows Point and its 2,000 jobs last year has forced many life-changing decisions. For a small but growing number of workers, that change is an out-of-state address.

The self-professed leader of the Maryland-based prison gang Dead Man Inc. was sentenced to life in prison Monday after threatening to withdraw his guilty plea, according to federal prosecutors.  The plea agreement will spare James Sweeney, 35, a possible death sentence in a separate case in which he was charged with killing a fellow inmate. The former Locust Point resident, who is being held in federal prison in Texas, admitted under the agreement that he was a leader of Dead Man Inc. and that he ordered "hits for hire in order to raise money and also to enable white prisoners to retaliate against black gangs" in Maryland, court records show.