One would think Congress would get the lesson that spending valuable time investigating trivialities like sports is a waste of the public's time. It's not like the public has fully embraced the drawn-out inquest into Barry Bonds and Rogers Clemens, Senator Arlen Specter's crusade against the Patriots, and so on.
Three members of Congress want the Justice Department to investigate whether the Bowl Championship Series is an illegal enterprise.
Representatives Neil Abercrombie, Democrat of Hawaii; Lynn Westmoreland, Republican of Georgia; and Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, introduced a resolution saying the B.C.S. restricts trade because only the largest universities compete in its games. The resolution would require the Justice Department's antitrust division to investigate if the B.C.S. violates federal law.
The measure, if it passes, would put Congress on record as supporting a postseason playoff.
Hawaii? Check. Idaho? Check. Georgia? Check. No pandering going on here! Hilariously stupid quote of the month goes to Hawaii Democrat Neil Abercrombie:
"Who elected these N.C.A.A. people?" Abercrombie said at a news conference Thursday on Capitol Hill while gripping a souvenir University of Hawaii football. "Who are they to decide who competes for the championship?"
Never let facts get in the way of a good time folks! Imagine, private - not public like Congress - interests such as the NCAA determining how their own organizations are run? This is apparently scary stuff for the closet fascist the great people of Hawaii have elected. Best of all Abercrombie doesn't appear to realize that "those NCAA people" aren't deciding who competes for college football's championship, nor should they. It's in the hands of the institutions and the conferences themselves.
Check out this video documenting the school's decrepit athletic facilities ("In the locker room there are missing ceiling tiles, broken soap dispensers and inoperable fire alarms. In the weight room you'll find damaged Olympic weights, cracked upholstery on machines and broken equipment.")
The funny part is that even though the Warriors won the WAC this year, they've still got Boise State on the brain. Whatever, at least they're finally allocating some money to address the situation. I'm guessing that's the only reason cameras were allowed to show the mess in the first place, now that Hawaii can stand up and say "change is coming".
Peterson told the paper that he has been contacted by one school--but was not interested--and would not say whether that was in addition to the interest from Westwood.
The difference in cost of living should be enough to make someone like Petersen want to stay in Boise, where a $850,000 salary would be the equivalent of more than $1.5 million in Los Angeles.
Spurning the advances of former Bruin Rick Neuheisel, UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero has narrowed his list of candidates for the football head coaching job to three.
According to both localpapers, the next football coach in Westwood will be Boise State's Chris Petersen, Texas Tech's Mike Leach or the NFL Network's Steve Mariucci. Petersen is said to be the favorite, but the notoriously stingy University may opt for Mariucci, as he has no contract that needs to be bought out.
There's only one little problem: Guerrero has yet to dump current head coach Karl Dorrell. In fact, Dorrell is quoted in the University's official press release regarding the Las Vegas Bowl, saying, "UCLA is extremely happy to be playing in the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl." I guess he has a point, because the way this season went, Dorrell should be happy to be in a bowl at all!
Given his 5-1 record against Dorrell, it should come as little surprise that USC coach Pete Carroll is coming across as Karl's greatest fan, imploring fans and the University to, "Give him a friggin' break."
In beating Boise State 39-27, Hawaii . . . beat Boise State. The Broncos had a half-decade monopoly on WAC Championships snapped thanks to tonight's defeat. It was a good run, but crappy truisms and rationalizations speak thusly: all great things come to an end.
So pop that pineapple bubbly Hawaii fans, you're the new king of the neighborhood. Oh, and try dismantling Washington next week while you're at it. If you want a shot at a BCS game you'll need to put on a hell of a demonstration.
And where else but the Western Athletic Conference? God Bless the WAC!
This baby went to four overtimes and merited nearly three minutes of precious airtime on SportsCenter so you know it's good. There's the usual Boise State trickeration inside, as well as a tour-de-force overtime performance by both teams who were nearly scoring at will (several first-play and second-play touchdowns).
Only when Nevada was sacked on a mandatory two-point conversion attempt did this beautiful little game end with Boise State victorious by the score of 69 to 67.
Be sure and read the first half live blog ... ESPN broadcasters love to dance. They just flashed video of Lou Holtz doing some crazy dance, then Rece Davis joining him. Earlier, Craig James was dancing all weird in the booth. Not to go all Peyton Manning on you guys, but "alright, now stop that. Seriously, stop."
Early conclusions: Craig James is high (maybe). Boise's remote. Southern Miss can't stop basic runs like "pitch left". Boise State has the highest per capita of shopping mall Santa's. I'm missing The Office and CSI.
I'm up against it. My job here tonight is to draw eyeballs and clicks to FanHouse while writing about this Thursday night matchup between two non-BCS powerhouses. It's going to be a good one, however ...
Now stick with me here but I have a hunch - just a hunch, mind you - that the majority of you reading this (or potentially reading this) are going to be glued to something else on TV tonight. Like ... The Office season premiere, maybe?
Yeah I want to know how the Jim/Pam/Karen thing resolves itself too. I'd also like to see CSI and what happens to the abducted Sara Sidle. I hope she lives, she reminds me of someone I know and that's just heartbreaking to know she might die. And then there's other distractions I could care less for but steal my readers like Grey's Anatomy, Survivor, Earl, ER and other franchises. Dare I mention a sanitized version of Killing Me Softly, Forrest Gump, The Untouchables, CSI reruns on Spike, Beerfest, Spies Like Us and Field of Dreams?
My boss here isn't down with me waving the white flag so let's make a deal. You watch your shows, but also have the laptop handy or be near a computer to keep tabs with us over here as I update you about tonight's game. Sound good? Good. Also: don't tell me what happens in The Office or CSI. DO NOT WANT. I'm watching the game for you, remember? I've got the TiVo set, but until the game is over I'm in the dark about any other events on TV tonight so let's keep it that way.
Live Blog starts at 7:30 Eastern ~ ~ ~ Vitals, TV Info and Pregame Notes after the jump ...
Sunday College Football Hangover is a (hopefully) regular feature from a groggy FanHouse writer recovering from 16+ hours of watching as much college football as humanly possible.
The Big Story
Oklahoma dismantled mighty Miami 51-13 Saturday afternoon in steamy Norman, and they made it look easy. Effortless, in fact. Oklahoma was stout in all elements of the game: solid against the run, great against the pass, solid running the ball and spectacular through the air. It was a complete performance and combined with their 79-10 beatdown of North Texas is a sign that this team means business.
We all realize Miami is down a bit, but they still have a lot of great players, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. I expected a comfortable Sooner win yesterday, not ... that. It wasn't like Miami was making mistakes up and down the field, either. They just got beat. Down. After down. After down. In that kind of situation, credit goes to the victors as they made it happen.
What's stunning is that Oklahoma is doing all this with a light-armed redshirt freshman at quarterback. He's playing like a clone of Jason White and Josh Heupel out there, hitting all the bread-and-butter underneath stuff but also connecting on the occasional deep ball. It's death by slant pass and until somebody proves they can stop it, Oklahoma's going to continue to roll people.
USC's still No. 1 in the polls, but their lead is going to narrow rapidly here after back-to-back whompings administered by both Oklahoma and LSU. Ladies and gentlemen, we now have our "narrative" for the year and it revolves around those three teams (particularly if Oklahoma beats Texas in a few weeks).
Fourteen-game win streaks are nice. They're particularly nice at a place like Boise State and when they include miraculous and magical Fiesta Bowl wins over Oklahoma.
But that's all for naught as upstart Washington (!) has felled the Broncos today, 24 to 10.
Washington got off to a hot start, converting a pair of Boise State turnovers. The teams played evenly otherwise, but the Broncos were unable to answer with the necessary scores to catch up. So poof! goes the nation's longest winning streak. They were last defeated 27-21 on the final play in the 2005 MPC Computers Bowl by Boston College.
The Broncos' legacy is intact, though. If you watched Oregon's dismantling of Michigan today, the Ducks used not one but two "Statue of Liberty" plays with great success against the Wolverines. Wonder where tho they got that from?
As for the Huskies, they now have two more wins than anybody expected they'd have this year. The rest of the season is playing with house money, if you will. Anointed savior Jake Locker has looked solid and their emergence makes an already difficult Pac-10 all the more competitive this year.
One would think Congress would get the lesson that spending valuable time investigating trivialities like sports is a waste of the public's time. It's not like the public has fully embraced the drawn-out inquest into Barry Bonds and Rogers Clemens, Senator Arlen Specter's crusade against the Patriots, and so on.
Just minutes after 
Nothing says scrappy overachievement like winning the crown of perhaps the best non-BCS conference with 
