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Before the BCS championship game, the football Web site National Football Post declared -- via sources close to NFP -- that Sam Bradford was as good as gone to the NFL, barring injury, after the Sooners' game against Florida.

This story was blast e-mailed out to, presumably, many people (I got it twice from their PR firm, Gravitas). I wrote about it on FanHouse, MJD discussed it on Yahoo!, it was mentioned as a jinx at Deadspin, and Matt Hinton linked it up three times, to name a few of the higher profile places it was mentioned. And that's just for starters, in terms of pub that NFP pulled from the story.

At the time, I also made somewhat of a snarky analogy to Stephen Curry starting against Duke, because the likelihood of Bradford leaving seemed to obvious to ignore. But then he stayed. And suddenly, NFP's post about Bradford bouncing completely disappeared, leaving only what looks to be a 404 type of page error.

Look, let's get one thing straight right up front: The University of Iowa did not just discover that Ed Podolak, its longtime radio analyst, liked a good party. Mike Hlas of the Cedar Rapids Gazette confirms that Podolak's good-time proclivities were an open secret in the Hawkeye Nation. So if you think Ed Podolak was forced into retirement because the University didn't like the pictures floating around the internet, please know that it goes deeper than that.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Podolak had to go. While many people are dubious that Podolak actually retired, Hlas says Podolak left of his own volition. That, unfortunately, is what makes an already sad story a little sadder.

Like the majority of college football fans, I am in favor of a playoff. While nobody has come up with the perfect solution to this BCS madness, anything is better than ending the year with four good teams (Florida, Utah, Texas and USC) winning their bowl games and ending their season with either one or no losses.

So yes, the BCS needs to be tweaked. I think that is a truth that most would agree on. What doesn't need to happen? Congress spending time debating the issue, but according to Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), that's exactly what they'll be doing.

Congress spending time on the BCS issue -- like they did with the performance-enhancing drug talks of 2006 -- seems ill-timed. While I thought it was a waste of time back in '06, at least there were a few truths with the baseball talks:

When the NCAA football season ends, the NFL draft really starts heating up -- Beanie Wells declared today that he was peacing out on life as a Buckeye and going to collect cash as a pro. Yesterday it was rumored that Sam Bradford would be leaving school early as well. Now, the same people (NFP) that claimed Bradford was gone are reporting that Michael Crabtree and Jeremy Maclin, wide receivers from Texas Tech and Missouri, respectively, will be entering the NFL Draft as well.

Trusted sources close to the National Football Post have just informed me that Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree, Ohio State running back Beanie Wells and Missouri wide receiver Jeremy Maclin all intend to declare for the 2009 NFL Draft in the very near future.

Now, as you can see, they were correct on Beanie Wells bouncing early. Given that information, I'm going to refrain from using a similar (and somewhat sarcastic) analogy to the one I inked yesterday about their Bradford claim.

Instead, I'm going to point out that both Crabtree and Maclin would be expected top 10-15 selections in the NFL Draft, and now is a pretty good time for them to consider becoming financially set for the rest of their lives.

Sam Bradford has racked up about every award possible in his sophomore season as Oklahoma Sooners quarterback. And on Thursday night, he'll go up against Florida and Tim Tebow for the national championship. If the Sooners win (or even lose, actually) there's a pretty good chance he'll enter the NFL Draft.

National Football Post is claiming that there's no real "chance" about it though, reporting today that Bradford is as good as gone.

Sources close to the National Football Post have told us that Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, barring an injury in Thursday night's BCS National Championship game against Florida, will declare for the NFL Draft. The 6-foot-4, 218-pound sophomore and Heisman Trophy winner threw for 4,464 yards and 48 touchdowns with only 6 interceptions in leading the Sooners to the Big 12 championship and a 12-1 record.

Now, not to knock NFP here, but "sources close to [them] ..." is a touch vague. For instance, examine the following claim: "Sources close to Will Brinson have told him that Stephen Curry will start against Duke tonight."

In case you don't see what I'm getting at: Curry is really good. He is playing Duke. He is very, very likely to start. So, there are a string of facts that lead to a conclusion that seems almost inevitable. Much like Bradford taking his won't-ever-be-higher draft stock and parlaying it into millions and millions of dollars.

Rey Maualuga moved to number one in the blogosphere's collective heart recently when he did a little shimmy-shake behind Erin Andrews. It was baller and hysterical all at the same time. Well, not so fast, my friends. Turns out Donna Lopiano, a former CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation, didn't think so.

"[Maualuga is] my first-round pick for 'offensive' player of the year" and his dance behind Andrews "another example of a narcissistic, high-profile athlete believing that any behavior, no matter how inappropriate, is acceptable because of his status. For those who would laugh off, celebrate or enable this behavior, think twice. Ms. Andrews could be your sister, daughter or wife."

Since this is a serious matter, I'm not going to make the seemingly requisite "Erin Andrews as my wife" blogger joke. You know how I know it's serious? Rey even apologized (Go on. Kiss it.) according to a statement from USC.

"The situation was addressed immediately," the statement said. "Rey both e-mailed and spoke to Erin and apologized to her. He realized he made a mistake and used poor judgment. He deeply regrets his actions."

I see the inherent sexism that could be pulled out of this little stunt, but I also kind of tend to think that Andrews would (and probably did) laugh this whole thing off. That being said, it's still pretty awkward anytime a football player pulls off a sexist-related act on the field towards a female reporter, so, yeah, this is probably how it should have worked out.

Jeff Jagodzinksi, the current head coach of Boston College's football team, is, according to the Boston Globe, about to get fired at a press conference today because he chose to interview with the New York Jets, despite the team's insistence that he would lose his job for such an action. Even if they do not actually can Jago, there's still going to be a press conference to "discuss [the] football team and its coach." Update: They did indeed fire Jagodzinski.

Jeff Jagodzinski will be fired as the Boston College football coach this morning in a meeting with athletic director Gene DeFillippo, according to sources close to the program.

After meeting with the New York Jets yesterday in New Jersey regarding their opening for a head coach, Jagodzinski called DeFilippo last night, setting up a face-to-face meeting this morning. They will finalize the details of his termination in the meeting. Jagodzinski has three years remaining on the contract.

This isn't that huge of a surprise, I suppose; you can only have so many publicly scrutinized people playing a game of chicken before someone gets in a wreck.

At the same time though, it was a pretty bold move on Jagodzinksi's part to pull on the interview if he wasn't completely confident he would get the job. That being said, Gene DiFilippo only comes off looking worse if the outcome is termination, so he should probably be able to land on his feet elsewhere soon enough if the Jets gig doesn't come through.

The obvious joke from day one was that super-recruit Robert Marve might as well have pulled a Joe Theisman (sorry, ma- rhymes with "Heisman" or "Thighs Man" now) and switched over the "r" and "v" in his last name- couldn't hurt amongst the Peter Kings of the world. From the looks of things so far, however, he's already performing at a Favre-like level when it comes to off-season drama.

First came the last-second signing day switcheroo where the Alabama native spurned the Crimson Tide for the Hurricanes. And two years later, with the departure of OC Patrick Nix and the promotion of Jacory Harris to 2009's clear cut starter at QB, Marve has sought a transfer from the U. But Randy Shannon isn't making it easy- according to Marve's father at the outset, Shannon put an embargo on all other SEC and ACC programs as well as any other in-state school (27 in all). Which would be pretty crappy enough, but in a clarification as to why Pa Marve was so ticked off, as it turns out, he has recently been dealing with prostate cancer as well as the separation from his wife.

Former Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron, most recently a defensive line coach with the New Orleans Saints, has accepted a position on Lane Kiffin's staff at Tennessee. He had mulled competing offers from LSU and Tennessee, both with big money dangled in front of him.

The LSU offer was reportedly worth $500k, while Tennessee reeled him in with that shiny $850k offer.

Being that his former employ was in the NFL, Ed Werder style gossip soon followed.

Apparently, some within the organization felt Orgeron was more focused on his coaching future than his current job, and Payton grew tired of Orgeron juggling phone calls from LSU and Tennessee.

The source also suggested that [Saints' coach Sean] Payton was not very pleased with the progress of the defensive line under Orgeron even before the LSU-Tennessee tug-of-war began, and he is looking forward to the opportunity to bring in a veteran defensive line coach with NFL experience.

Meeeeowwwwwwww. This isn't all that surprising, we are talking about the gossipy NFL here where if somebody isn't ticked at something they might as well stop breathing.

Mel Kiper is renowned for making excellent calls about the future potential of college players in the NFL. Okay, not really, but he gets paid a lot of money to yell a lot, bob his hair and randomly guess whether or not people will succeed at the next level while using words like "MOTOR" and "UPSIDE" and "POTENTIABILITYNESS".

And recently, he was earning a paycheck by dogging Tim Tebow, stating that he would be better off as a tight end in the NFL. (Which amounts to your standard "Sell more viewers!" ESPN controversial statement, nothing more, nothing less.)

So things got a little awkward when Tebow appears on Kiper's radio show recently and called Hair out on air. Transcription courtesy of CFT.

"You tell me this," Tebow said to Kiper during the radio exchange. "What do you think I need to do to be an NFL quarterback? You tell me that."

Unfortunately, Kiper didn't give Tebow a direct answer to his direct question.

"You're just too good with the ball in your hands not to think, Could he be Frank Wycheck? Could he be Chris Cooley? That's why," Kiper said. "You're too good, doing what you do, Tim, running with the football."

[...]To which Tebow replied, "The quarterback has the ball in his hands every play."

Really though, what Kiper is saying makes total sense. Mainly because quarterbacks, under NFL rules, are not allowed to run with the football in their hands. Sigh.