NCAA Football Pac 10

It is really never news when the Oregon Ducks get new uniforms. The Nike fashion template seemingly has variations, alternative jerseys, subtle changes and hundreds of different combinations. So, the announcement of new uniforms being unveiled should have been met with a collective yawn.

It's the claim by Oregon that this is only the "fifth edition of Oregon's football uniform evolution" since 1996 that seems highly implausible.

Yet according to the Ducks, this is truth as long as you only consider the significant changes. Then the timeline goes 1996 Cotton Bowl, the 1999 season, 2003 and then 2006. Things like last year's duck feathers on the shoulders apparently don't count in the way Oregon defines new uniforms in their evolution.

The new uniforms -- which still includes duck feathers as an option -- are again of the mix-and-match combo scheme loved by Oregon and Nike. Between the pants, helmets and jersey choices, there will be some 80 different uniform combinations.

According to the press release, the new uniforms weigh in nearly 25% less than the prior models. They will fit closer. Expect them to have a real slimming effect on the linemen.

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

There's an unnerving, repetitive theme to the first four items in this week's FanHouse Walk -- lawyers. Maybe its just the offseason or an odd week, but they seem to be everywhere related to college football right now. Today's headliner finds Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum threatening the NCAA and its president Myles Brand with a $1,000 fine or even jail time if it doesn't make public documents related to its confidential investigation into Florida State athletics.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim selected Washington quarterback and summer collegiate baseball player Jake Locker in the 10th round of the amateur player draft Wednesday, and the former Pac-10 freshman of the year said he would be interested in signing with the club.

Locker, who hit .273 in 10 games with the Bellingham Bells of the West Coast Baseball League last summer, is slated as the Huskies' starting quarterback. He has maintained football is his primary focus.

"Definitely," he said when asked about the possibility of signing in a teleconference. "If we can come to an agreement about a contract in terms - it's something that I'm looking into now. But again, they understand that it would probably be a couple of years before I was playing baseball anyway."

Nick Montana, the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana, has given an oral commitment to the University of Washington, his Oaks Christian High School coach, Bill Redell, told FanHouse.

Montana, who is listed at 6-feet-1, 180 pounds, is ranked the No. 13 quarterback in the class of 2010 by Scout.com and gives new Washington coach Steve Sarkisian a potential program-changing quarterback. Montana threw for 33 touchdowns and seven interceptions as a junior and possesses many of the same skills as his famous father, according to Redell.

"He can run, he's got tremendous feet, he's got great timing on his passes," Redell said. "He's got great touch on the ball. He's got great leadership ability. He's the type of kid who can throw on the run, like his dad could."

Mike Stoops was on the proverbial hot seat before last season. After all, his Arizona Wildcats bumbled to a 17-29 mark in his first four seasons in Tucson. Fans were impatient and the pressure was beating on Stoops like the unrelenting desert sun. Stoops, whose brother Bob is the head coach at Oklahoma, finally found on-field success in 2008, leading UA to a 31-21 Las Vegas Bowl victory over favored Brigham Young, securing his job and giving the once downtrodden a program a boost.

Arizona has a chance to consistently compete with the second tier teams in the Pac-10 -- there is one top-tier team, USC -- and perhaps challenge the Trojans with some consistent recruiting classes fueled by the bowl win.

Every Monday during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.

Rap, Rap, Rapping At The Door -- Bad news is best delivered on Friday, so no surprise when it was discovered that in the new BCS contract the Rose Bowl must fill one of its slots to a non-BCS team (think Boise State or Utah) if it loses either the Big 10 or Pac-10 champion to the BCS championship game.

There are the Rose Bowl haters out there snarking away on this, but I think its another sad day for college football. Everyone bemoans the USC/Illinois type matchups in Pasadena, but I still find it fresh and what the Rose Bowl is all about. The various Miami/Nebraka, Texas/Michigan, USC/Texas type matchups were all enjoyable, but something has never felt right about them.

Pity the poor Pac-10; its revenues are barely half of the SEC, Big Ten, and, shudder, the ACC.

As a result, the Pac-10 is exploring a route that has already made it rain on the SEC and the Big Ten, starting their own network. The Big Ten started their own network in conjunction with FOX and netted $66 million from the network last year. Rather than start their own network, the SEC partnered with CBS and ESPN. Beginning this year the SEC will bring in -- wait for it -- $205 million a year just from television rights. Why does that matter? The Pac-10 conference had revenues of just $88.78 million in 2007. Yep, by 2009, the SEC will triple the Pac-10 in sports revenue. That's a huge deal in the arm's race that is major collegiate sports.

Fortunately, as a lover of all things college football, I'm here to help the Pac-10 ensure their network is a hit. How do we do that? Programming, baby, it's all about the programming.

Christmas decorations begin in late August, and now the ClayNation Hypesman Watch (CHW) is here in the first week of May. It's part of a new term, I just coined: Heisman Creep. (And it has nothing to do with Maurice Clarett). We're going to try something radical here, every other week or so we'll drop in and give you a top 10 list for Heisman candidates. Even though most of them are finishing their spring finals right about now. The goal is to ridicule the Heisman obsession, keep us entertained, and write about the Heisman in a way no one else is.

And, plainly, it's never too early to start debating the most over-hyped award this side of a kindergarten valedictorian.

A couple months ago, Steven Threet decided to leave Michigan. The quarterback started eight games for the Wolverines a year ago, but was obviously not a good fit for new coach Rich Rodriguez and the spread offense he brought from West Virginia.

Threet took his time looking over his options, and he found some potential suitors who still ran some sort of pro-style offense.

College Football Spring Storylines 2009 looks at the key developments and big news from spring ball.

Since 2002, the Pac-10 has been derisively called USC and the nine dwarves. Its more than a little unfair, but that's the prevailing wisdom. Although the conference is consistently among the deepest and most competitive around, USC's monopolized that top spot. Any chance of that changing this year begins with decisions those programs make this spring.