From All Over

1. The NCAA finally hears SoCal's case in the whole Reggie Bush matter today. Once the case is heard, there will be a 4-6 week deliberation before announcing the findings. My favorite part is this quote: "the key question NCAA officials will try to answer is: How much did the school know?" Really? How much did the school know? About as much as every SEC school does about all their players...except maybe Vandy. Maybe.

2. Expansion - The Big Ten has been at the center of the expansion rumor whirlwind for months now, but isn't making a decision for 12-18 months. Whatever they choose to do will, despite nay-saying B10 haters, redefine college football. The Texas story was fun while it lasted and Pitt seemed as sure as thing as any, but we're really not anywhere close to a firm decision.

The PAC-10 on the other hand, could have a decision made by the fall. The Buffs are not as much PAC as they are MTN, but it would be a solid addition. Who goes with Colorado, though? The PAC-10 is one of the neatest put-together conferences in any sport: 10 teams total, including 5 natural rivalries in 4 states. Colorado State is the only team you can bring in with the Buffs to continue this trend, so the paradigm will certainly change, as the Rams are not quite the caliber program being sought.

3. Is anyone following the Winter Olympics?

4. How many AQ leagues should we have? If the BCS decides, upon re-evaluating the deal, that the MWC should be included, does that mean the Big East gets the boot? Or, should we just add a 7th conference to the Auto-qualifiers? I'd vote to just add the MWC, or boot the BE and keep both out. But, if the BCS is scared of including the MWC because they'd have to lose the BE, let's do a head to head comparison.

First, the standings:

Mountain West Standings

TEAM	CONF	OVERALL
TCU	8-0	12-1
Brigham Young	7-1	11-2
Utah	6-2	10-3
Air Force	5-3	8-5
Wyoming	4-4	7-6
UNLV	3-5	5-7
San Diego State	2-6	4-8
New Mexico	1-7	1-11
Colorado State	0-8	3-9

Big East Standings

TEAM	CONF	OVERALL
Cincinnati	7-0	12-1
Pittsburgh	5-2	10-3
West Virginia	5-2	9-4
Rutgers	3-4	9-4
Connecticut	3-4	8-5
South Florida	3-4	8-5
Louisville	1-6	4-8
Syracuse	1-6	4-8

The MWC has an extra team, so in fairness, we'll shoot the gap of the bottom three and drop New Mexico. After that, do a simple conference match-up and see what you think. I'm honestly curious who you think would win. Mine looks like this:

1. TCU over Cincy
2. Pitt over BYU
3. Utah over WVU
4. Air Force over Rutgers
5. UCon over Wyoming
6. SoFla over UNLV
7. Louisville over SDSU
8. Colorado St. over Syracuse

That's 4-4. Now, the MWC took 3 of the top 4 match-ups, so if you want to use that and pick them, cool, I get it. But, I'm honestly pretty shaky on that TCU pick...

5. Baseball's right around the corner. I'm admittedly not a huge MLB fan, but I do try to follow Georgia baseball and drop some From the Dugouts updates when I can. So, stay tuned. Or, if we can get Aroo to do it, that'd be great. Because, while this is my geo-socio-political soapbox at times, not his, he sure as fuck knows baseball better than I do.