Greg Cote’s Hot Button Top 10: Jimmy Butler suspension, Dolphins playoff shot, CFP semifinals & more

GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (JANUARY 5): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US THIS WEEK: Happy New Year, all! (Can you still say that, or too late?) Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 notes column brings you what’s on our minds, locally and nationally but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s big, weird, damnable, funny or otherwise worth needling, as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to the 88th edition of your HB10:

1. HEAT: Jimmy Butler wants out, is suspended, and an era is ending: Miami lost 136-100 to a bad Utah team Saturday night, the Heat sixth-worst home loss in franchise history in the first game of Jimmy Butler’s seven-game suspension. Miami is is 17-16 entering a six-game Western road swing beginning Monday. “I want to see me get my joy back from playing basketball,” Butler had said Thursday. “I’m happy here — off the court. But I want to be back to someone dominant. I want to hoop and I want to help this team win. Right now, I’m not doing that.” Does Butler believe he can get his joy back while remaining on the Heat’s roster? “Probably not.” That got him suspended for conduct detrimental to the team and Miami will entertain trade offers prior to the Feb. 6 league deadline.

2. DOLPHINS: Tua expected out again; Miami’s last-day playoff shot put at 18.7 percent: It’s Broncos, Dolphins or Bengals for the final AFC wild-card playoff spot. Denver must only win Sunday (over a Patrick Mahomes-less K.C.) to make it, and ESPN analytics put the Broncos’ likelihood at 67.1%. Miami gets in with a win Sunday only if Denver loses, and the Dolphins’ chance of that double happening is put at 18.7%. Cincy by winning Saturday night must still have DEN and MIA both lose to get in, the Bengals’ chance of that happening put at 14.2%.

3. COLLEGE FOOTBALL: CFP semifinals = 4 major programs, all hungry: Miami’s Orange Bowl game gets Notre Dame vs. Penn State Thursday. The Cotton Bowl gets Ohio State vs. Texas Friday -- a home game for Longhorns. The Irish (1 1/2 points) and Buckeyes (6) are small betting favorites. Both semifinals have a combined 10 national titles: Notre Dame 8, Ohio State 6, Texas 4, Penn State 2. But the Cotton teams have won fairly recently, both since 2005, while neither Orange team has won it all since the 1980s. Hungry programs, big matchups -- and not a top four seed among ’em, verifying the crapshoot of rankings.

4. WNBA: Unrivaled league’s odd rollout in Miami nears start: Unrivaled is a de facto three-month WNBA offseason league born to generate income to allow players to not have to compete overseas. Inaugural season of 3-on-3 hoops has six teams and 36 players -- impressive stars with the glaring exception of Caitlin Clark, who declined aggressive, desperate overtures. Season starts Jan. 17 with all games in Miami not in an arena but in a “custom-built facility” that seats only 850 at a studio in Medley, a Miami suburb. Weird, right? League launches as made-for-TV thing (TNT, truTV, streaming on Max), not fan-driven. One imagines/hopes that if Unrivaled hits it will graduate to legit arenas. For now: Welcome! Love, Miami (er, Medley).

5. NFL: Final Sunday settles last two of 14 playoff spots: In the NFC, Tampa Bay wins NFC South and final playoff spot with a win, or with an Atlanta loss. Falcons win division with a win only if Bucs lose. (Detroit and Minnesota are both in but their Sunday night finale will decide the division champ.) In the AFC, Denver earns the final wild-card spot with a win, Miami gets in with a win if Denver loses, and Cincinnati gets in only if Denver and Miami both lose.

6. GOLF: PGA Tour, Tiger, Rory debut Team Golf this week: The PGA Tour-blessed TGL (Tomorrow’s Golf League) rols out this Tuesday inside a 250,000-square foot arena with a 64x53-foot screen, a rotating green and 1,500 spectators able to watch an entire (virtual) golf match in their seats. The venture devised by stars Tiger Woods and Rory Mcilroy was intended to launch a year ago but a storm wrecked the building. Six four-man reams are playing led by Tiger’s Jupiter Links and Rory’s Boston Commons teams.

7. MEDIA: ESPN dropped ball before delayed Sugar Bowl telecast: ESPN missed a bigger-than-sports moment by failing to air the national anthem or moment of silence prior to the Notre Dame-Georgia Sugar Bowl in the College Football Playoff. It was the time for that. The game was postponed one day after the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack on Bourbon Street killed 14 New Year’s revelers and left dozens injured one mile from the game site. TV viewers deserved that moment. America did.

8. NFL: Miami suffers Pro Bowl shutout. These two should-a made it: Miami was one of only four NFL teams (Jets, Titans, Saints) with zero Pro Bowl selections. Lions had the most with seven and Vikings and Eagles had six apiece. The two Dolphins who got screwed: TE Jonnu Smith, who should have made it ahead of Chiefs’ habit-choice Travis Kelce, and DL Zach Sieler, who was voted team MVP and deserved to be one of six DE/DT picks. Fins DL Calais Campbell and ILB Jordyn Brooks also merited consideration.

9. PANTHERS: Cats continue to defy ‘Stanley Cup hangover’: Florida is 24-16 after Friday night’s 3-2 shootout home win over Pittsburgh on Anton Lundell’s shot. Cats keep defying the so-called ‘Stanley Cup hangover that would have league champs slogging through a letdown season. Panthers are back on the hard white Monday in Colorado.

10. MEDIA: S.I.’s Sportsperson of the Year misses again: Sports Illustrated a year ago named Colorado football coach Deion Sanders its Sportsperson of the Year. His team finished 4-8. The choice was properly vilified on social media. This time S.I. got it closer to right by selecting Olympic gymnast Simone Biles. A solid choice. But not the right one. Time magazine nailed it by naming Caitlin Clark, whose arrival in the WNBA lifted a league and led a year of catapulting advancement in women’s sports.

THE LIST: CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY OF CFP FINAL FOUR: The College Football Playoff semifinal teams have won a combined 20 recognized national championships -- but none lately. Title history of the final four:

Championships School Most recent (head coach then)

8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 1988 (Lou Holtz)

6 Ohio State Buckeyes 2014 (Urban Meyer)

4 Texas Longhorns 2005 (Mack Brown)

2 Penn State Nittany Lions 1986 (Joe Paterno)

Note: Recognized national championships are in the poll era (1936-present) and awarded by Associated Press or coaches’ polls, BCS or CFP. Notre Dame’s eight are second-most to Alabama’s 13.

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