Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . .
Imagine the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association coming up with its own Bowl Championship Series to determine a champion. In the Northern 4A, the BCS conference (the Northern 4A Big Eight) would include Reed, McQueen, Bishop Manogue, Reno, Galena, Spanish Springs, North Valleys and Damonte Ranch because all those schools are from Reno or Sparks and are either large or have fancy new facilities. The other conference, the Northern 4A WAC, would consist of schools either not in Reno or Sparks or without fancy new facilities: South Tahoe, Hug, Fallon, Carson, Douglas, Wooster and Elko. The Northern 4A WAC could never compete for the regional title even though two or three of them in any given year (like Carson, Douglas and Hug this year) could beat anybody in the area on a given night. Carson and Douglas, imagine if you were Boise State or TCU in college football. Do you think you could just accept not having a legitimate chance at a championship? Why does the NCAA accept it?
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By now we shouldn't be surprised by anything the BCS comes up with on a weekly basis. But this past week, well, the BCS outdid itself. Who, exactly, believes the Iowa Hawkeyes are the fourth best team in the nation? OK, other than Hayden Fry, Kurt Warner, Dan Gable and the Kinsella family from Field of Dreams? The Hawkeyes have a bunch of fraud victories against a bunch of fraud teams while playing in a fraud conference. That all adds up to the No. 4 ranking, according to the BCS. Should the fourth best team in the nation have four victories by three points or less (two of which came against powerful Northern Iowa and Arkansas State) midway through the season?
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The BCS, though, does exactly what it was designed to do. It was created by the big-money conferences with the sole purpose of (surprise, surprise) protecting the big-money conferences. That's why Iowa is No. 4 this morning and TCU is 6th, Boise State is 7th and Cincinnati is 8th. Iowa goes up two spots in the standings after getting lucky and barely beating a mediocre Michigan State team, 15-13, on the final play of the game. Boise State drops three spots after destroying Hawaii by 52 points and Cincinnati drops three spots after clobbering Louisville by 31. That's BCS mathematics, folks. Just don't forget to put a big fat dollar sign to left of your answer.
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New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez eats a hot dog on the sidelines and the nation goes crazy. What else are you supposed to do in Oakland during a Raiders' game? Sanchez could have taken that hot dog with him out onto the field, strapped on one of those helmets with the drink holders on the side and still whip the Raiders. It won't be long before opposing teams start playing video games on the sidelines to pass the time during Raiders games.
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The San Francisco 49ers sure made a loss look like a victory last week, didn't they? They find a new starting quarterback in Alex Smith, a new No. 1 wide receiver in Michael Crabtree and they showed heart and character in trying to battle back from a quick 21-0 deficit. That's not a bad week's worth of work, even if it did result in a loss. Don't give up on this team just yet. Wait until Smith starts throwing interceptions. Then you can move on to what the San Francisco Giants aren't doing in the off-season.
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The Nevada Wolf Pack football team simply has to beat the Hawaii Warriors this week. No excuses. Yes, I know Hawaii has beaten the Pack three consecutive times and the Warriors can throw the ball. But this Hawaii team has lost five in a row and has had to dig deep into its depth chart to seemingly find a new quarterback every two or three weeks this season. Something to keep in mind: The last Wolf Pack team to score 70 or more points in consecutive games was R.E. Courtright's 1919 team that dropped triple digits on both Pacific and the Mare Island Naval Base. Hey, I'm no Google Earth or geography expert, but I've heard rumors that Hawaii plays on an island, right?
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Wolf Pack fans can relate to Brett Favre going back to play in Green Bay this weekend. It was just 14 years ago this week (Oct. 28, 1995) that ex-Pack coach Jeff Horton brought his UNLV Rebels to Mackay Stadium to face the Pack in Reno for the first time. Now, we don't expect the Packers and Vikings to start throwing helmets and fists at each other this weekend but, hey, the combination of beer, bratwurst and Brett could make a Cheesehead lose his or her composure.
