Gays aren’t the only new couples in California. USC and the Coliseum have patched up their differences and worked out a deal to keep the Trojans playing at the Coliseum for another 25 years, about the same time Coach Carroll will be ready to retire.

The ACC and Pac-10 have the least despicable non-conference schedules in college football. And when you consider that the Pac-10 plays a nine-game, true round-robin in conference, their schedules are the most respectable by a mile.

Which conference has the cupcake-iest schedules? The Big Ten, of course. Though the SEC and Big 12 are nipping at its heels.

Every Day Should Be Saturday is running a contest that gives all you college sports fans an opportunity to help the victims of the recent spate of disasters — the Burma cyclone, the China earthquake, the Midwest tornadoes — while simultaneously showing your team pride. Here’s how it works:

1) Make a donation online to the American Red Cross, CARE, or the International Rescue Committee.

2) Email the donation confirmation to kevin@fanblogs.com and state your team affiliation by 8pm EDT on Wednesday, May 14th.

3) Results will be displayed at Every Day Should Be Saturday and Fanblogs throughout the week, with the final results shown by Thursday, May 15th.

4) The winning school will have its colors displayed at EDSBS and logo/mascot shown on every page at Fanblogs.

Things are looking dismal in the current standings for both USC and Notre Dame. Neither school shows up in the Top 10, and in fact, if EDSBS is counting ND as part of the "Big East" for purposes of their conference standings, it appears that zero dollars have been donated by fans of either school. (The Pac-10 and Big East are tied for last place with $0.)

So, pony up, Irish and Trojan fans! We can’t let freakin’ Michigan — in first place with $1,000 — win this thing.

As if Reggiegate wasn’t bad enough, now one-and-done Trojan basketball star O.J. Mayo is accused of taking cash and gifts while at USC.

Ugh.

P.S. Pat Forde asks: “So you take the Bush allegations, add a side of Mayo and ask the question: Has there ever been a more textbook definition of ‘lack of institutional control’?” He goes on:

If all the allegations stand up, USC athletic director Mike Garrett and the Inspector Clouseaus who comprise his compliance staff must lose their jobs over these serial embarrassments, or the school has no credibility whatsoever. When USC’s two highest-profile sports both have star players allegedly on the brazen take from agents, somebody needs to answer for it. A lot of somebodies.

I would tend to agree with that. Fire Mike Brey Garrett?

Kristy and I are at the Rockies-Cardinals game at Coors Field. We -- and our beers -- have a great view from the first row of Section L306 in right field. Go Rockies! (They lead 2-1, and I'm wearing my Rocky Top shirt.)

UPDATE: We had a great time, but alas, the Rockies lost, 6-5.

I expected commenters on my blog to pick up on the Hillary Clinton-Eight Belles analogy in the wake of the horse’s second-place Kentucky Derby finish (behind, ahem, “Big Brown”) and tragic post-race death. And it figures that Wonkette would also pick up the story, and give it a headline like “Hillary’s Horse Dies Embarrassingly.” But I’m a little surprised to see Time’s Mark Halperin discussing it — with an unmistakable air of amusement — on his widely read election-news clearinghouse, The Page:

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP
Hillary Clinton enthusiastically picked a filly named Eight Belles to win the Kentucky Derby and compared herself to the horse. Eight Belles finished second. The winner was the favorite, Big Brown. Eight Belles collapsed immediately after crossing the finish line, and was euthanized shortly thereafter.

Er, well, yes. However, I think we can all agree, Obama and Clinton supporters alike, that whoever finishes second in the Democratic presidential race, we all sincerely hope they aren’t, um, euthanized immediately after the deciding delegate vote is cast.

(On the other hand, I suppose if Hillary were to merely break an ankle during, say, a balloon fiasco following Obama’s victory, that would complete the analogy without anyone dying — since humans aren’t generally “put down” after breaking limbs. If they were, a certain South Bend tennis net would have been my undoing!)

Anyway, The Huffington Post has more.

Um, and R.I.P., Eight Belles. Election-related snickering aside, it really is quite sad.

The Kentucky Derby is about to begin. I’m rooting for Denis of Cork because of his Irish-sounding name and Notre Dame connection. My second choice is Smooth Air, because of ESPN’s sappy human-interest story about 70-year-old trainer Bennie Stutts. Go Denny & Bennie!

Once again, I’ll miss Dave Johnson’s call. “And down the stretch they come!”

UPDATE: Big Brown (the favorite, and Obama’s third-place pick) won the Derby. But the big story is the tragedy that befell second-place finisher Eight Belles (the filly, and Hillary’s pick). Eight Belles suffered a devastating injury, and had to be euthanized immediately after the race. Denis of Cork (my pick) finished third.

The Kentucky Derby is today, Saturday. Post time is 6:04 PM Eastern.

Alas, my vision of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton making dueling appearances at the racetrack — in anticipation of the Kentucky primary, two weeks and three days hence — will not be fulfilled. But Chelsea Clinton will be there! And Hillary did briefly don a Derby hat during a visit to Louisville on Thursday.

Well, it looks better on her than it would on Barack, I suppose. :)

Meanwhile, both candidates have announced their Derby picks, taking the concept of the political “horse race” beyond the metaphorical. Obama is picking Colonel John to finish first, Pyro to finish second, and Big Brown to finish third. Clinton has only announced her first-place choice: Eight Belles, the lone filly in the race. Heh. Girl power!

[Warning: All of the links below are at least marginally SFW, in that they contain no actual nudity. However, some contain scantily clad women, suggestive material, etc., so depending on your situation and location, you may want to steer clear.]

The Arizona State cheerleading squad survived the uniformed ex-cheerleader in a porn movie scandal, but apparently the specter of six current cheerleaders in their underwear, baring their not-quite-naked bodies on the Internets for all to see, was too much for the university to handle:

[T]he cheerleading squad that performed at Arizona State football and basketball games has been eliminated. Arizona State will instead have “spirit squads” that will be led by the band director.

Why the change? It’s not entirely clear, but the Fox TV affiliate in Phoenix suggests that it’s because TheDirty.com posted photos of Arizona State cheerleaders in their underwear.

More on this story — including the photo — after the jump.

(more…)

I mentioned yesterday that college football’s powers-that-be have once again decided, in their infinite wisdom, that the BCS is just fine & dandy, and playoffs r teh suxx0rs. But I missed this detail: the NCAA has certified two new bowl games, bringing the total to 34.  Because, as AOL Fanhouse says, "that’s what the nation really wanted."

This means a total of 68 teams will be goin’ bowling. Last year, 71 teams finished with records of 6-6 or better. We’re seriously getting into the territory where, in a given season, there might not be enough bowl-eligible teams to fill out all the slots. I expect we’ll soon see a rule change allowing in teams with 5-7 records if there aren’t enough .500-or-better teams available. (Remember, 6-6 teams have only been allowed in for the last two years, and that change coincided with the expansion from 28 to 32 bowls.)

In any event, 34 bowls means that more than 57 percent of all Division I-A teams will be playing in the postseason. Remember when a bowl bid was actually a meaningful reward for a good year?

Anyway, the new kids on the block are the
Congressional Bowl in Washington, D.C., and the St. Petersburg Bowl in
St. Petersburg, Florida. Mercifully, a 35th bowl — the Rocky Mountain Bowl in Salt Lake City, which would have pitted the fifth-place Mountain West team against the fourth-place WAC team — was rejected.

The St. Petersburg Bowl is still in need of a corporate sponsorship, which gives me an idea. If every college football fan who supports a playoff, and hates the endless proliferation of meaningless bowls between 6-6 teams, were to donate, say, $5, couldn’t we make these folks a sponsorship offer they couldn’t refuse — and force them to name their bowl something like the "Utterly Meaningless St. Petersburg Bowl" or the "St. Petersburg Bowl Brought To You By Shameless Greed" or the "Let’s Have A Freakin’ Playoff Already St. Petersburg Bowl" or the "F***-the-BCS St. Petersburg Bowl"? Cuz that’d be sweet.

Meanwhile, another AOL Fanhouse blogger wonders how on earth USC lost two games (and played poorly in a bunch of other games) each of the last two seasons, given that seven former Trojans were drafted during the first two rounds of the NFL Draft last weekend — which continues a trend of Trojan dominance on Draft Day. It’s a fair question.

I know that I have personally been guilty of being overly critical of some college athletes about their performance on the field of play.  Someone’s not giving full effort, a step too slow, or otherwise just not putting it all out there on the floor for their team and their fans.

Here’s a story that should make everyone check that attitude for a minute.

Tennessee’s preseason All-America guard, Chris Lofton, started off the 2007-08 season in an absolute funk.  He wasn’t scoring, his play seemed a bit lackluster, and couldn’t hit a three to save his life.

Well, the facts were really that he was battling to actually save his life. 

Diagnosed with testicular cancer following a random NCAA drug screen after the 2006-07 season, he fought a private battle with the cancer, with only the closest of the close among his family and friends knowing what he was going through.

Meanwhile, local sports fans and commentators were critical to varying degrees about Lofton’s performance.  There were calls for him to be benched along with wild speculation about what his problems on the floor were.

I just think that this is a good opportunity to remind everyone that college athletes are young kids, from divergent backgrounds, with any number of personal problems that can impact their play.  So, before you take time to bash someone on a message board, call in to a talk show, or otherwise express an opinion without all the facts, slow down and take Chris Lofton’s situation to heart.

Remember Barack Obama’s pick-up game with the North Carolina Tar Heels? Well, technically speaking, it violated NCAA rules. But for once, the NCAA is taking a sensible line: “This was a unique situation and not an NCAA issue,” said a spokesman. “It certainly was a great opportunity for the student-athletes to interact with a presidential candidate.”

Well, everybody who matters, anyway.

Barack Obama shot some hoops with the North Carolina Tar Heels yesterday. "You guys are leaving the next president of the United States wide
open," Roy Williams jokingly yelled at his players at one point.

No word on whether Williams was wearing a Hillary sticker at the time. ;)

The Connecticut legislature reached a compromise with UConn that will allow the university’s football team to schedule a six-year series against Notre Dame, even though none of the games will be played in Connecticut. The Irish balked at playing at the Huskies’ 40,000-seat home stadium, Rentschler Field in East Hartford, insisting instead that UConn’s "home" games played in larger stadiums elsewhere, most likely in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and/or New York. However, Connecticut lawmakers were unimpressed with the idea of UConn outsourcing its home games to other states. In the words of State Rep. Michael Christ,
D-East Hartford, who proposed an earlier bill that would have
required UConn to play all its home games at Rentschler, "Many of us felt we already had a beautiful facility in
Connecticut and it was built for UConn."

The newly announced deal requires UConn to play six home games at Rentschler Field each year, "as long as the NCAA rules permit a
12-game season and permits a team to use one Football Championship
Subdivision win per season as a bowl-eligible win." It also reduces the length of the series between UConn and Notre Dame from ten years to six. "I
believe we have crafted a reasonable solution," said Christ, who added that he hopes UConn can persuade the Irish to play at
Rentschler Field in the future. (Ha! Fat chance.)

The series will start in the 2011 season and go through 2017.  The three home games for the Irish will, of course, be played at Notre Dame Stadium.  The deal still needs to be approved by Notre Dame and venue officials.  Connecticut and Notre Dame already have a separate deal to play next season in South Bend.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN:  Rep. Christ wrote a scathing op-ed about this topic last week in the Hartford Courant. My dad suggested the headline, "Christ to Notre Dame: Screw you." Heh.

Anyway, here’s an excerpt:

Loyal Husky fans flock with family and friends to Rentschler for every home
game, rain or shine, in support of their beloved team. There are hundreds of
stadium workers who depend on a game day payday from parking cars, working
concessions and post-game clean-up. Many local school bands and clubs as well as
charities also use games to bolster fundraising. Should all those benefits move
to Massachusetts? I say no!

If Rentschler Field is too confining for the
Leprechaun army the Fighting Irish deploy each week, how come the similar
capacity stadium of the Boston College Eagles (formerly of the Big East) is not
too small? That series alternates between South Bend and Chestnut Hill,
Mass. …

There is no question Notre Dame will remain the "Wal-Mart" of college football as long as it is able to keep its national television
network deal. However, UConn officials can come out of this looking like heroes
both here in Connecticut and nationally by saying "no thanks." They could brag
that no one, not even the legendary Notre Dame, can tell Connecticut where to
play its home games. Even if the Fighting Leprechauns, after a few more years of
two-win seasons, do eventually find their television revenue dried up and are
forced to finally join a conference, it is very possible that the Irish will
abandon their pseudo Big East affiliation and join the Big 10 anyway.

Ahem. It was a three-win season, thank you very much.

Incidentally, to answer the question posed by the title, I will, of course, root for Notre Dame, my alma mater. But as I said in comments, "if I had to pick one game (other than USC) for ND to lose, it would be
the UConn game. Imagine what a huge win that would be for the Huskies
program."

That said: Gooooo Irish! Beeeeeat Huskies! :)