Football

NIU passes Fresno State in BCS standings — Northern Illinois moved ahead of Fresno State in the BCS standings and up to No. 14 as the Huskies and Bulldogs jockey to be the last BCS buster. NIU jumped two spots Sunday and Fresno State slipped one to 16th. The top three teams in the BCS standings were unchanged: Alabama, Florida State and Ohio State — the remaining undefeated teams in BCS automatic qualifying conferences. With a loss to Arizona on Saturday, Oregon dropped to 13th. The other major college unbeatens, Northern Illinois and Fresno State, are fighting for one automatic bid. They have to finish in the top 12 of the last BCS standings, which comes out Dec. 8, or finish in the top 16 while ranking ahead of an AQ-conference champion. Central Florida is in position to win the American Athletic Conference auto-bid, but is 19th in the latest standings. Northern Illinois reached the BCS last season by being ranked ahead of the champion of the Big East. The Huskies then lost to Florida State in the Orange Bowl. Jordan Lynch and Northern Illinois overtook Derek Carr and Fresno State this week on the strength of better computer ratings. NIU is seventh in the computer ratings, while coming in 17th in the Harris poll and 20th in the USA Today coaches’ poll. Fresno State is 13th in each poll, but 17th in the computers.

Motor sports

Vettel wins Brazilian GP — Sebastian Vettel won Formula One’s season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday in Sao Paulo, matching Michael Schumacher’s record of 13 victories in a year and equaling the nine consecutive wins of Alberto Ascari. Vettel’s Red Bull teammate Mark Webber was second in his final F1 race. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was third. Vettel, who had already wrapped up a fourth straight F1 title, was overtaken by Nico Rosberg of Mercedes at the start but regained the lead on the second lap and cruised to his second victory in Brazil, and 39th of his career. He crossed the line 10.4 seconds in front of Webber. Jenson Button was fourth for McLaren’s best finish of the season. Rosberg was fifth and Mexico’s Sergio Perez finished sixth after starting 19th in his final race with McLaren.

Winter sports

Ski jump final ends after one heat — Defending World Cup champion Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria refused to compete at the opening individual ski jumping event of the season Sunday in protest against a decision to go ahead with the competition in windy conditions in Klingenthal, Germany. Schlierenzauer and Anders Bardal of Norway left the tower after the start of the competition had been delayed by two hours and then interrupted several times. The jury decided to stop the competition after one heat, leaving Poland’s Krzysztof Biegun as the winner with a jump of 142.5 meters and 135.8 points. Andreas Wellinger of Germany was second at 132 meters and 132.8 points. Jurij Tepes of Slovenia finished third at 131.4 points for a jump of 134.5 meters. Taku Takeuchi of Japan was fourth.

— From wire reports