Sports news and scores from Thursday December 31, 1981

`Sports headlines for Thursday December 31, 1981:`

Cowboys Give Halas Permission To Talk With Aide Mike Ditka
Browns Looking To Acquire NFL Rights To Cousineau
West Virginia Defeats Florida In Peach Bowl, 26-6
All The Excitment Comes Early As Michgan Tops UCLA In Bluebonnet Bowl
Bad Start Finishes Kansas In Hall Of Fame Bowl Loss To Mississippi State

Top-20 scores:

#16 Michigan 33, #19 UCLA 14 (Bluebonnet Bowl)

Other scores:

Mississippi State 10, Kansas 0 (Hall of Fame Classic)
West Virginia 26, Florida 6 (Peach Bowl)

Associated Press Top 20 for this week (poll of Dec. 2):

1 Clemson (63) 11-0 1351 2 Georgia (1) 9-1 1255 3 Alabama 9-1-1 1188 4 Nebraska (1) 9-2 1104 5 Southern Methodist (1) 10-1 1050 6 Texas 9-1-1 959 7 Penn State (1) 9-2 918 8 Southern California 9-2 844 9 Miami (Florida) (1) 9-2 827 10 Pittsburgh 10-1 796 11 North Carolina 9-2 653 12 Washington 9-2 614 13 Iowa 8-3 537 14 Brigham Young 10-2 397 15 Ohio State 8-3 364 16 Michigan 8-3 284 17 Arizona State 9-2 280 18 Southern Mississippi 9-1-1 278 19 UCLA 7-3-1 190 20 Washington State 8-2-1 132

NCAA football standings as of this date