this morning on "early today," pole position. now that gop front-runner herman cain is out of the presidential race, who is surging? pricey pileup, a chain reaction crash of sports cars that may be one of the most costly on record. and shiver me timber. pirates show off their skills in the national walk the plank pirates show off their skills in the national walk the plank contest. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning, welcome to our viewers across the nation, including the pacific time zone. i'm aditi roy. today we begin with courting cain. now that herman cain's presidential campaign has collapsed, his one-time

republican rivals are competing for his support. cain's camp denies reports he will back former house speaker and current front-runner, newt gingrich today, in what could be a big endorsement in an already volatile race. tracie potts joins us from washington. >> we're still weeks away from iowa, anything could happen. but even without that endorsement, newt gingrich has a strong lead. a poll shows newt gingrich leading iowa with 26%. the apparent beneficiary of tea party conservatives defecting from herman cain. but the party chairman says, it's not over. >> i think it's going to be up to the voters in iowa and new hampshire and south carolina and florida. >> reporter: mitt romney is in second place with 18% and drawing fire from rick santorum, who has got a third of romney's support in iowa. about still thinks he can win. >> there's no question that mitt has moved.

the question is, what's the sincerity of the move and whether he could be trusted. >> reporter: michele bachmann is also hopeful. >> a lot of herman cain supporters have been calling our office and coming to our side. >> reporter: but it's ron paul moving up fast, now third with 17%, almost tied with romney. paul calls himself the tortoise in this race. >> we've had the flavors of the month up and down, you know, so far in this campaign. i'd like to think of myself as the flavor of the decade. >> reporter: with just weeks to go, iowa still up in the air with a strong leader, but many voters still undecided. also undecided, who will get the cain endorsement for sure. will it happen today? will it go to newt gingrich? several candidates are trying to meet with him this week. aditi? >> thank you so much. as many as a dozen people are recuperating after revelry turned to raucous after saturday's big 12 football championship game between oklahoma state and the university of oklahoma.

nbc's francis coe reports. as saturday, the bedlam series. rival football game between the university of oklahoma and oklahoma state turned into just that, bedlam. thousands of osu fans poured on to the field to celebrate the win that guaranteed the cowboys the big 12 championship. >> all the event staff tried to line up and stop us. but it was like there was the entire student section. so there was no way they were going to. >> i've never been packed into one area and getting pushed and shoved and all over the place. people were so excite >> reporter: but it's all the excitement, as many as a dozen people were injured. one person fell over a wall, plunging 15 feet on to concrete. >> he wouldn't wake up. people were surrounding him and trying to get people off of him. >> reporter: the most seriously injured were air lifted to an oklahoma city hospital. while others, some suffering from broken bones were hauled away by ambulances. >> i was scared that this guy just died and i had a lot of things going through my head and i was terrified and kind of wanted to cry in the middle of all the excitement.

>> reporter: revelry for the osu cowboys, ranked third in the nation, nraed by a celebration gone out of control. in the nation's capital, more than two dozen occupy d.c. protesters were arrested after refusing to take down what u.s. park police called an unsafe wooden structure. in a park located two blocks from the white house, defiant protesters ignored a warning to dismantle the barn-like structure built without a permit. by sunday afternoon, officers on horseback had taped off the area. and surrounded the two-story structure. a total of 31 people were taken into custody, including six protesters who had to be removed with a cherry picker. now here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. a historic massachusetts home older than the united states itself is in shambles after an out of control vehicle ripped right through it. the car crashed through a wall

of the 258-year-old house before coming to a stop inside the living room. police say the driver will likely be charged. the home was built 23 years before the united states declared independence. a florida highway was briefly transformed into a landing strip. engine trouble forced a pilot to make an emergency landing on interstate 295. fortunately no injuries were reported. the pilot was able to guide the small plane in without collide, any vehicles. and tis the season for a good run. thousands of st. nicks hit the ground running for chicago's third annual santa hustle. each runner was given a hat, beard and t-shirt for the event. all proceeds were donated to a homeless charity. a band of swashbuckling pirate impersonators showed off their prowess and acting skills at the national walk the plank national championship. competitors were judged on their pleas for mercy, plank walking style and costumes.

now for a look at your national and regional weather, here is nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. good morning. >> good morning and welcome, i'm now convinced that there's a national championship for just about everything. >> how do you judge someone's plank-walking skills? who knows. >> but you and i will be judges next year, we'll take the flight down to the keys and volunteer our services. good morning, everyone, what a winter it's been up in alaska. i mean we had a huge superstorm about a month ago, a couple of weeks ago and then this weekend, last night and overnight hours, the huge storm has moved up through alaska. we had hurricane-force winds near anchorage. now we have winter storm warnings in areas that don't usually see a lot of heavy snow this time of year. up around interior alaska. the storm system blew right through, very intense winds, still kind of windy out there, at least the heavy snow is ending, around fairbanks, a good glaze of ice. so plenty of cold in barrow, alaska, the anchorage, 31, not

bad, but the rain will still move up the coast around juneau. as far as much of the west, the inner mountain west, not bad from the rockies southward, as far as snow is concerned. but it is bitterly cold in many areas. some of the cold air has made its way to idaho all the way now towards the coast. temperature 20 in boise. it feels like the middle of winter. seattle at 31, it's a chilly morning even here for many areas of california. so the cold air, is located mostly now in the west. and temperatures even with sunshine today will struggle in california, 50s and 60s. that's a look at your nationalyy into southern arizona. it's chilly in the west, but thankfully no stormy weather heading your way.

all eyes on europe this week, stocks to watch on wall street and even for italian politics, right now things are pretty confused, your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. they're cute, cuddly, and this weekend, they fizzled at the box office. coming up, the bcs title game is set. tiger finally wins and a coach ices his own kicker. you're watching "early today." early today is brought to you by thermacare heat wraps.

good morning, and welcome back to "early today." here are some of your top headlines this morning. pentagon officials are denying claims by iran that it shot down a u.s. spy drone, which is now in possession of iran's armed forces. u.s. officials admit the military lost remote control of the drone as it flew a surveillance mission along the iran/afghanistan border. newly released satellite

images show an iranian missile base was nearly flattened three weeks ago. intelligence officials tell "the new york times" the accidental blast is a major setback for iran's most advanced long range missile program. russian voters have dealt vladimir putin's party a heavy blow by cutting its parliamentary majority in an election that indicates growing unease with his political domination. latest results show putin's united russia struggling to win half the votes. european monitors say election violations have been committed. a former miss usa has been arrested on a drunken driving charge near detroit. an attorney for rima fakih whose reign ended in june says she'll take full responsibility and wants to apologize to everybody she let down. police in japan say a 14-car chain reaction crash smashed eight ferraris, a lamborghini and three mercedes worth $3.8

million. officials say the luxury car officianods were traveling well beyond the speed limb. >> and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,019 after falling less than a point on friday. the s&p was down a fraction, but the nasdaq gained just over one. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei gained just over 50 points. while in hong kong, the hang seng inched up 139. most traders can't remember the last time they saw a week like this one. the biggest single factor driving stocks daily this week will be news and events in europe. european and eu leaders will meet friday. wall street and the rest of the financial world hope a powerful plan with concrete solutions emerges. wall street doesn't necessarily expect a new fully written treaty, but a firm blueprint come out of the summit is seen as a must. today, german chancellor angela merkel meets french president nicholas sarkozy will to prepare for the summit.

to try to come up with tougher european rules to allow for an intervention when a member nation's budget becomes unstable. and timothy geithner will be meeting with officials throughout europe ahead of the summit. thursday, the european central bank is widely expected to cut rates by 0.25%. back here at home, friday's job numbers were stellar. unemployment finally fell below the stubborn 9% mark, dip ing to 8.6%. watch western digital today. shares spiked friday on company expectations of better quarterly sales. keep an eye out for s.a.p. over the weekend, it announced it's buying success factors for $3.4 billion, the latest move in an escalating rivalry between s.a.p. and oracle. finally, how confusing are things in italy? a canadian professor who left italy 28 years ago was mistakenly named next junior minister for agriculture. who plays who for all the marbles in college football, a

huge free agent deal in baseball, and the packers are beaten. plus, for the first time in two years, tiger woods tastes victory. we have a lot of rain and cold air in the middle of the country. where is it heading next? you're watching "early today."

good morning.

if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, it's not perfect, but until they think of something better, the bcs rankings decide who plays for college football's national championship. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. the final bcs rankings are out. lsu remains number one, taking on second ranked alabama in the bcs title game. oklahoma state, stanford and oregon round out the top five. the packers remain perfect, but the giants didn't go down without a fight. trailing by eight. under two minutes to play. eli manning to hakeem nicks in the end zone and they get the two-point conversion and the game was died. aaron rodgers drove the packers down the field. mason crosby nailed the game winner. as time expired. packers improve to 12-0 with a 38-35 win. tim tebow did it again, rallied the broncos against the vikes, punched in a two-point conversion to tie the game in the fourth. matt prater hit a chip shot for

the victory. tebow has doubters, but you can't knock his record. he is 6-1 as a starter. broncos won it, 35-32. jason garrett iced his own kicker. he was worried the cowboys wouldn't get the play off in time so he called the time-out as dan bailey kicked a 49 yarder for a win. the field goal was wiped out. bailey had to do it all over again. you know what happened? he missed. on to overtime, steven hawkings iced the cowboys, caught a short pass in the flats, zig-zagged 52 yards and there's the game winning score. arizona shocked dallas with a 19-13 win in over time. cam newton has another win to his record. three touchdowns running against the bucs, setting an nfl single-season mark for running touchdowns. panthers won it, 38-19. a quick baseball note, miami marlins have signed jose reyes to a monster six year $111 deal. reyes won the national batting title last year. finally, nearly two years after his life took a turn for the worst, tiger woods finally won a tournament to beat zach johnson by a stroke. tiger's first win in 26

tournaments. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. who is doing super bowl's halftime show and who may be doing time for what they got caught doing this weekend? your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, if you believe hard enough, santa can make all dreams come true, right? we have proof, coming up. you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today" on this monday morning, temperatures are chilly, definitely the hats and the winter coats for the kids today, probably yourself, too. we'll warm up a little bit in southern california, maybe 66 in l.a. but it's a cool morning and most areas will see winter-like temperatures. not too much snow or anything. really new mexico is the only problem spot for that. as we go towards tomorrow, a very quiet weather pet earn. temperatures still chilly. we mentioned earlier, alaska is the place where all the stormy weather has been. if you're watching us on kntv, nbc 11 in california's bay area, in san francisco, an up-close and personal experience with live reindeer, at the california academy of sciences, your pacific event of the day. >> great place to be. now here's a look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. it was quiet at the notoriously slow post-thanksgiving box office, but much too quiet for one particular film. "the muppets" had been expected

to finish on top, with anywhere from the high teens to $20 million range, but it only managed $11 million and second place. that left the door wide open for the twilight saga, "breaking dawn part one" to remain the number one film for the third straight weekend with just under $17 million. elsewhere, it's official. madonna will perform at halftime in february's super bowl in indianapolis. brooke muller had a bad weekend. sheen's ex was arrested for assaulting a woman in a colorado bar and then police reportedly found cocaine in her purse. she posted an $11,000 bond. finally, last night, all washington showed up for the kennedy center honors. paying tribute to actress meryl streep, saxophonist sonny rollins, cellist yo-yo ma, and singer neil diamond. very classy.

what a star-studded event. do you have a favorite neil diamond song? >> not off the top of my head. and this comes to us from wpxi, pittsburgh, pennsylvania where one boy visited the expert on making christmas wishes come true. chris went to see santa claus about the number one gift on his christmas list. he asked for his father to come home from afghanistan. moments later, the 5-year-old got just what he wanted. after nine months away, sergeant john smurbeck and his son had an forgettable reunion. >> santa is great. this is "early today" just your first stop of the day on your nbc station.

one children's hospital in argentina recycles to benefit both the environment and the children they serve. it took only eight hours for hospital staff to set a new world record, collecting 26 million bottle tops weighing more than 91 tons. for 12 years, the hospital has these recycling to raise funds. this year, the bottle tops will be sold to buy a mobile blood donation unit. in china, heated things up in a traditional sports contest, the performers did everything from walking on fire to tossing it around, playing a game that somewhat resembles basketball. some wowed the crowds by jumping on glass. others climbed pillars using only knives. many are being seen by the crowd

for the very first time. bartenders all around the world competed in poland. and the drinks were flying, it's called flare bartending. dazzling the clientele. juggle ing all while preparing drinks. bartenders were judged on their flashy technique and their interaction with the audience and of course, taste was important as well. >> it reminds me of that movie "cocktail." time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. the u.s. postal service will detail actions it will take starting next spring in an effort to trim an estimated $3 billion in costs. next-day delivery will likely be eliminated, threatening to slow the time it takes to deliver check payments and periodicals. nasa will reveal discoveries made by a planet-hunting space telescope hunting for planets.

and on this day in 1782, president martin van buren was born, the first president born in the nation the united states. all day long, you can stay on top of the very latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc. and tonight be sure to watch brian williams with nbc "nightly news." and, finally, here's a look at what's coming up later this morning on the "today" show. donald trump weighs in on the remaining republican presidential candidates as they scramble to win his endorsement. and harry connick junior talks about balancing his music and upcoming broadway show and the release of a new children's christmas book. now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports and more. thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. the day today on your nbc station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com