No. 21 Utah Utes to play in Las Vegas Bowl

No. 21 Utah will try to extend the longest bowl winning streak in the nation to 10 at the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 22.

The Utes earned the trip after pulling off wild, comeback wins over San Diego State and BYU to close out the regular season at 10-2. This will be Utah's final game as a member of the Mountain West Conference as the Utes join the Pac-12 next year.

Utah' opponent in the Las Vegas bowl has yet to be announced, but Nevada is a possible candidate should it beat Louisiana Tech on Saturday. There has also been speculation that Boise State could end up in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Utah is 2-0 in the event, having won the 1999 Las Vegas Bowl over Fresno State, 17-16, and the 2001 edition over Southern California by a score of 10-6.

TCU DESERVES TITLE SHOT

TCU Head coach Gary Patterson has his players' full attention with only one game standing between them and back-to-back undefeated seasons.

Following his team’s throttling of the Utes back on Nov. 6, TCU head coach Gary Patterson said he won’t campaign for the Horned Frogs to be included in the BCS national championship game until they beat their final two opponents.

After his highly touted team narrowly avoided a disastrous defeat to San Diego State on Saturday, Patterson better start preparing his soap box speech. The only team standing in TCU’s way of back-to-back undefeated regular seasons is the woeful New Mexico Lobos.

TCU currently sits at number three in the Bowl Championship Series rankings, behind Oregon and Auburn and one spot ahead of Boise State. All four teams remain undefeated and are poised to make their case to be included in the title game. Patterson may be able to wait until after Thanksgiving to give his stump speech, but the rest of the country isn’t that patient. We all want to know now: Are the Horned Frogs talented enough to play in, and perhaps win, the national championship?

Absolutely. Forget what you’ve heard about their numbers being inflated because they play in the Mountain West. Last year’s squad broke through to a BCS game for the first time in school history; this year’s team is even better. Just ask the Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham.

“This TCU team is easily, hands down, the best team we've played since I've been here. That includes Alabama,” said Whittingham.

Despite the loss of All-American defensive end Jerry Hughes, the defense has actually improved. The Frogs bolster the number one ranked defense in the country, allowing only 215 yards and an astounding 8.5 points per game. One stretch in October saw TCU shut out their opponents for nearly 11 straight quarters – not even the media anointed BCS-busting darling Boise State Broncos have done that.

Though the Frogs made their national reputation with that type of defense, quarterback Andy Dalton leads an offense that’s ranked in the top ten. The senior from Katy, Tex. has won more games than any other quarterback in school history and more than likely will highly considered for the Heisman Trophy at the end of the season.

But with all that talent on both sides of the football, will they get the chance to prove how talented they truly are?

If Oregon and Auburn each win their remaining games then the answer is no. The Ducks and Tigers would play in the national title game and the Horned Frogs would head to a BCS bowl for the second straight year – which is odd to think of as a consolation prize, but it is.

TCU must hope for a loss from one of those teams. Auburn seems like the most likely candidate, with controversy swirling around their star quarterback and a tougher schedule to close the regular season. The Tigers play at Alabama this upcoming Saturday and they will have to play an upstart South Carolina team in the SEC championship game.

But there’s a darker, more uncontrollable, scenario. TCU closes the season with little TV attention and no marquee matchups. Boise State plays two more nationally televised games in a row, including one against a Top 25 team. If the Broncos run the table with the whole country watching, that could be enough for them to move past TCU in the polls. Style points count, and because of the bowl system, the NCAA is littered with teams that deserved a shot but found themselves on the outside looking in (think Auburn in 2004).

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE THERE'S FIRE

Head coach Gene Chizik has been frustrated with the accusations swirling around his star quarterback.

Gene Chizik can't deny it any longer. His Heisman worthy quarterback may have cost him not only a shot at a National Championship, but an entire season of solid SEC wins and possible post-season restrictions if he and his father are found guilty of the alledged money seeking deals with Mississippi State University.

In an interview today on Dallas radio station KESN-FM, former Mississippi State player Kenny Rogers accused the father of Auburn quarterback Cam Newton of seeking upwards of $180,000 in exchange for Newton signing a letter of intent to play football at Mississippi State.

During his comments, Rogers, who is accused of soliciting payment on behalf of Cecil Newton, added that he had sought such financial compensation for Newton from former Mississippi State football player and current booster Bill Bell.

Bell, president of Bell-Mac roofing company in Santa Rosa Beac, Fla., has since confirmed that that Cecil Newton indeed placed a price on his son’s services as a college football quarterback.

From Pat Forde, Mark Schlabach and Chris Low on ESPN.com late Thursday:

Rogers said that on Nov. 28, 2009, he and Cecil Newton followed each other out of Starkville, Miss., after the Ole Miss-Mississippi State game. He said Newton asked him: “What do you think is going to happen? You think it’s going to go through?”
Rogers said he was referred to a Mississippi State booster named Bill Bell. Rogers said he left Bell a message telling him he was with Cecil Newton, who wanted to know if the deal was going to happen.
Bell, when contacted Thursday night by ESPN.com, confirmed Cecil Newton did ask for money in exchange for Cam Newton signing with Mississippi State. Bell said he was contacted by the NCAA about the matter and spoke to an investigator earlier this week.
“That’s all I want to say about it at this point,” Bell said.
Bell, a Florida resident, was an offensive lineman at Mississippi State in the early 1980s and played with Rogers.

An SEC school administrative source who wished to remain anonymous has since confirmed to me that the message Bell received from Rogers, allegedly on behalf of Cecil Newton, was forwarded by Bell to NCAA investigators.

On the subject of Cam Newton’s eligibility for the remainder of the season, NCAA rules stipulate that it is up to the school - in this case Auburn - to determine if a student-athlete is currently eligible for intercollegiate competition.

Late Thursday Stacey Osburn, an NCAA spokeswoman, told the New York Times that if Auburn allowed Newton to play despite knowing that he committed NCAA violatons, the school could be “subject to harsher penalties down the road.”

BIG EAST LOOKING TO ADD 2 FOOTBALL TEAMS



Big East presidents agreed in a meeting on Tuesday that it would be in their best interests to increase Big East football membership from eight to 10 members, the conference said.


"Today, our Board of Directors affirmed a set of key strategic initiatives, including expansion, designed to enhance membership stability and maximize our value," Big East commissioner John Marinatto said in a statement.


Marinatto said the conference will refrain from commenting further on the expansion process.


League sources indicated to ESPN.com Big East reporter Brian Bennett that TCU and Central Florida are the top possible outside candidates, along with Villanova. The Big East would prefer to bring in schools as football-only members so as to not add to the 16-team basketball alignment. The question for TCU is whether the Horned Frogs would be willing to join only for football, since the Mountain West likely would not allow them to stay in that conference for other sports. The issue for UCF is possible opposition from potential rival South Florida.


The conference informed Villanova shortly before Labor Day that it wanted to add the Wildcats for football. Villanova currently plays in the Colonial Athletic Association in FCS and is ranked third in the FCS coaches' poll. Villanova won a national championship last year and is considering a move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision. If it does, that will fill one of the Big East's spots.


"Our football evaluation is ongoing," Villanova AD Vince Nicastro told The Associated Press. "We are moving forward as quickly as we can, but not at the expense of being absolutely thorough. We still don't have a specific decision date, but it is likely to be resolved some time during this academic year."


Villanova, which made the Final Four in 2009, has been part of the Big East basketball conference since 1980.


The Wildcats have played at the second-tier level since 1985 and rejected an earlier offer to join the Big East in 1997. Connecticut accepted an invitation that season to start the process to move up to what was known as Division I-A.


Sources told Bennett that "all the usual suspects" were discussed at Tuesday's meeting, and that the league has been researching potential new members for months. Former Big East member Temple is a possible backup plan if Villanova decides not to move up because the Owls play in an NFL stadium (Lincoln Financial Field) and have a home for their other teams in the Atlantic 10. Houston is further down the list, while Memphis is not being seriously considered at this time.


While Texas schools like Houston and TCU seem like an odd fit geographically, their inclusion would allow the Big East to tap into huge television markets, as well as fertile recruiting territory.


The Big East is currently the smallest BCS football conference. Officials did not say how expansion would affect the 16-team basketball alignment.


The move raises the idea that expansion could lead to a split between basketball-only schools and the football members. Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Rutgers, Louisville, West Virginia, USF, Connecticut and Cincinnati all play football.


Non-football members such as Villanova also include St. John's, Seton Hall, Marquette, DePaul, Providence and Notre Dame.

UTES TO PLAY IN PAC-12 SOUTHERN CONFERENCE

The Pac-10 Conference made it official after a unanimous vote by league presidents on Thursday, assigning the Utah Utes to its new South Division for football and announcing an unprecedented plan for equal revenue distribution.

The Utes, however, still will not receive a full share under that agreement until 2014-15, league commissioner Larry Scott confirmed.

“Nothing has changed in terms of our agreement with Utah,” Scott said.

While the rest of the schools will equally share the league’s revenue starting in 2012, the Utes will receive only an increasingly partial share for the first three years of the agreement. If league revenue dips below $170 million in any year, both USC and UCLA will receive an extra $2 million payout, officials 

said.

The league also announced that its football title game will be played at the site of the division champion with the best conference record, and that teams will play a nine-game schedule that includes five games against divisional opponents and four games against teams from the other division.

However, in an effort to maintain longtime rivalries between the four California schools, USC and UCLA will be assured of playing Cal and Stanford each year. That means Cal and Stanford will play only two opponents from the Pac-12 South each year, reducing the frequency with which they will play the Utes.

Scott also said the league continues to examine starting its own television network, and that men’s and women’s basketball teams will play an 18-game schedule with no divisions.

Each team’s schedule will include a home-and-home series with its traditional rival - the Utes and Colorado will be considered rivals and travel partners, for scheduling purposes - a rotating home-and-home series with six teams and a rotating single-game with the remaining four teams.

'COLLEGE GAMEDAY' IN UTAH ONCE AGAIN??



So, what are the odds that ESPN will bring “College GameDay” to Salt Lake City on Nov. 6 for the Utah-TCU game?

 

Well, it’s not a sure thing. But it’s not a bad bet, either.

 According to a spokesman for ESPN, the Utes-Horned Frogs showdown is one of several games under consideration to host the Nov. 6 edition of “College GameDay.”

Clearly, we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. ESPN won’t decide where to take its traveling roadshow until Sunday, Oct. 31.

And, clearly, whether Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Chris Fowler make the trek to Utah all depends on how the Utes and the Horned Frogs fare in the next few weeks. Both teams will be favored in their games between now and then, although both will have to beat No. 23 Air Force.

It’s a virtual certainty that if neither Mountain West Conference team loses, they will both be in the top 10 by Nov. 6. And that day there’s only one other possible matchup that could be anywhere near as attractive — current No. 12 Arkansas at No. 10 South Carolina.

(And Arkansas could lose at No. 7 Auburn this week.)

The only other game on Nov. 6 that features two teams currently in the rankings is No. 17 Arizona at No. 14 Stanford. On that date, no other team ranked by the AP this week is scheduled to face an opponent with fewer than two losses already.

There’s some precedent here. “GameDay” made it's first appearance in the state of Utah for the BYU-at-Utah game in November 2004. The popular saturday college football host show was in Provo a year ago for the TCU-at-BYU game. And then in Fort Worth three weeks later for the Utah-at-TCU game.

SI ARTICLE HAS TIES TO UTAH

The Utes were mentioned in the recent Sports Illustrated article about an agent, Josh Luchs, who admits he paid dozens of college football players. He mentions in the section 'Raising the Stakes' he could recruit the west coast well but didn't go after Utah players because the agent he was working with, Gary Wichard, who had an 'in' at Utah.

Wichard represented brothers Kevin Dyson, the 16th pick in the 1998 draft, and Andre Dyson, the 60th pick in the 2001 draft.

According to the article, Wichard told Luchs he didn't recruit players by partying with them or paying them and there are no mentions of the Dyson brothers being paid, but there are plenty of other big names mentioned in the article who were supposedly paid by Luchs.
It's going to be interesting to see how this story plays out and what the ramifications are at both the pro and college level.

For what it is worth, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham is about as paranoid when it comes to agents as he is to the media. Agents aren't even allowed at pro day anymore. I know some agents see the ban as a huge inconvenience, but when stories like this break, I'm sure fans are grateful for Whittingham's strict stance.

A GRAND ENTRANCE



Halladay retired Brandon Phillips on a tapper in front of the plate to end it. Catcher Carlos Ruiz pounced on the ball, getting down on his knee as the ball rolled near Phillips' bat, and made a strong throw for the final out.

Tip your cap to Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies ... only the second pitcher in MLB post season history to throw a no hitter. And by the way, it was the first post season game he ever pitched in.

SAN FRANCISCO: PRETENDERS NOT CONTENDERS

49ers head coach Mike Singletary could potentially be jobless if his underachieving team continues to struggle entering divisional play. Singletary fired his offensive coordinator last week and is already looking to let go of other coaches.

The last place people expected to find the San Francisco 49ers in the first four weeks of the NFL season was last place.

That's exactly where the National Football Conference West preseason favorites reside, even behind rookie quarterback Sam Bradford and his St. Louis Rams. Keeping company with such doghouse NFL teams as the Browns, Bills, Lions and Panthers seems disappointing for a franchise that was supposedly resurrecting itself into a championship contender.

Maybe the Niners will turn it around and surge to the top of a division where the champion just might finish with eight victories-after all, the rest of the division is historically weak enough to pull off such an enormous turnaround. Or maybe they will continue to underachieve, because there are some deeply rooted problems in San Francisco.

After the Niners' third loss of the season, head coach Mike Singletary remained optimistic, with it still being early in the season, that the team could still turn it around before it was too late. But San Francisco again shot itself in the foot in week four with too many turnovers, bringing the Niners to 0-4 in 2010.

All four of the 0-4 teams in the NFL have major issues, but none had the expectations placed on them that the 49ers did. Not even close.

If 49ers fans are confused by this pitiful start, then they are clueless as to what has unfolded before them. There's confusion on the sideline, in the huddle and in the locker room. The chaos is everywhere and it's obvious to anyone who has watched one quarter of any given San Francisco game. On second thought, all they have to do is watch how their head coach conducts himself leaving the field. After the heart breaking loss to the Falcons, Singletary skipped the traditional post game handshake with Falcons head man Mike Smith. The '9ers have had communication problems, whether in play-calling, getting defenders lined up properly or even when making coaching decisions. Something as basic as having the correct number of players on the field has been an issue at times for Singletary's team.

San Francisco is No. 27 running the ball, which might be understandable if Frank Gore was sidelined, but he's fine. There's been little running room because of inconsistent blocking and too much emphasis on the pass, where the line also has struggled. Former Ute quarterback Alex Smith has a 66.1 quarterback rating with eight sacks, seven interceptions and only three touchdowns. The Niners rank second to last in the entire league in scoring.

Defensively, the Niners have a beast in All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis. But they've forced only three turnovers, given up an average of 26 points per game and allowed nearly 336 yards of total offense. 

To complicate the problems, Singletary fired offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye last week, paving the way for an unprecedented seventh offensive coordinator the first six years of Smith's young career. Firing coaches will not make a difference-besides, Singletary's own job could be on the line if the 49ers don't right the ship next week when they host the Mike Vick-less Philadelphia Eagles.

At this point, firing staff and readjusting your entire offensive scheme is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic-there's no point.

PEDs WILL TARNISH THE GREATEST OF LEGACIES

Tour De France Champion Alberto Contador of Spain faces a barrage of cameras at the start of a press conference Thursday in Pinto, Spain.

Sports fans seem to forget a basic fundamental about being a fan - they are more passionate about their favorite sport and team than the players that step out onto the field or court. After all, the word fan is an abbreviation for fanatic. It’s the deeply rooted “love of the game” that drives grown men to paint their faces and go topless in sub zero weather.

Fans tend to believe that loyalty to the team and an appreciation for the history of the game still exists among most of the athletes they praise. They tell themselves that sports are still pure, even though the medicine cabinets of their beloved athletes are packed with syringes, pills, and creams - all designed to boost performance.

I have yet to meet a fan, or any person, who doesn’t love the Lance Armstrong story. Lance is the All-American boy from Texas who overcame the grim testicular cancer diagnosis of his doctors to win the grueling Tour de France an unprecedented seven consecutive times. Each year he pedaled to victory, he beat his former French team who year earlier turned their backs on him while he literally was staring death in the face. It’s a great story, right? I have no doubt that it will eventually become a blockbuster movie one day, however, let’s examine the facts and reality of what Lance has accomplished.

First and foremost, cycling is perhaps the “dirtiest” sport in the entire world. I am not aware of any other sport in the world (outside of the Olympic Games) that drug testers are in full force every day of competition. With that in mind, consider who Lance beat out on each one of his victories. Every legitimate contender that was a threat to Lance’s incredible streak of Tour victories failed at least one drug test. It happened again today with 2010 Tour champion Alberto Contador. In other words, we are telling ourselves that every cyclist but Lance was cheating. Do you actually believe that every elite rider in those races was on a performance enhancing drug (PED), but the guy who was winning year after year was not? Lance wasn’t doing it el natural and the evidence that he was on PEDs is mounting at an alarming pace.

The odds are stacked against him unfortunately.

Believe the facts and don’t lie to yourself because it’s a heart warming, fairytale story – Lance cheated. It will be years before a trial or decision is finalized to determine the fate of his records and titles, but that day will eventually come. Just don’t be shocked when it’s proven that he was doping.

.

Baseball was the first sport to truly expose the rampant use of PEDs and it always seems to be the one sport that can never escape the link to the drugs. No sports records are more hallowed and respected than baseball’s, which is why the public and Congress are so quick to add another player’s name to the long list of cheaters that were part of the infamous Steroid Era in baseball.

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Raphael Palmeiro and other legends of America’s pastime have had their legacies marred with a permanent black eye after they refused to accept the indisputable evidence that they were using PEDs. A few smart players like Andy Pettite and Mark McGwire have stepped forward, admitted their mistakes, and moved on with their lives. Their names no longer grace the dockets of Congressional investigative hearings.

It’s the pride and arrogance of Bonds and Clemens that will forever change the way we look at not only their individual accomplishments on the field, but the legacy that their era left behind for the young players in the big leagues who are playing clean. Ball players have put themselves in a guilty until proven innocent position. Did Rickey Henderson steal all those bases with a little boost or was he clean? Did Cal Ripken Jr. earn the title of Iron Man by his own toughness and grit or by the tip of a syringe? We may never know the legitimacy of any of the records set within the last thirty years.

That’s the reality of being a sports fanatic in the 21^st century, you care much more about the purity of the sport than the players you cheer on to victory.

UTES REMAIN UNTESTED

It’s hard to believe that one third of the 2010 college football season is in the record books. It blew by faster than a Shaky Smithson punt return, but it’s had less flair than Jordan Wynn’s mustache.

We know the Utes can score efficiently and quickly. We know who the starting quarterback is. We know that the backup is just as he is. We know that the goal line defense is nearly perfect. We know that the special teams play gets better every quarter of every game. We know that the coaches out-prep and out-scheme the opposing coaching staffs. However, what we don’t know is if the Utes are really any good this season.

The Utes have won their last three games by an average of 41 points. That grabs the attention of poll voters and bowl committees, but two of those victories were over New Mexico and UNLV, who were ranked No 3. and No. 9 in ESPN.com’s Bottom 10 of College Football. The two pitiful teams met Saturday in Las Vegas in what some national college football blogs labeled as the “Boredom Bowl.” The Utes’ dominance over one-win San Jose State, whose sole victory came against Division I-AA Southern Utah, was another yawner and by midway through the second quarter I was more interested in the other games around the country than the game being played in Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Like a 100m race between Usain Bolt and I, it was over before it began.

The first half of the season has been a Sunday stroll around the neighborhood for the Utes. They are making the most of it by racking up style votes for big win margins, after all coach Kyle Whittingham has repeatedly said, you can only play your schedule and make the best of it. But didn’t we create the schedule? Granted nobody knew that the bottom teams of the Mountain West Conference were more like pee-wee football teams than collegiate squads.

Those anemic offenses and vulnerable defenses have made the Utes look as dominating as their BCS busting seasons, and maybe they are just as good, but they have yet to play any elite team that will test their skill and swagger. Nobody knew that preseason ranked No.15 Pittsburgh, who was picked by experts to dominate the rest of the Big East Conference and merit a BCS Bowl invitation, would fall off the map following their season opening loss to Utah on Sept. 9th either.

Following this week’s bye, Utah will be served up three more softballs to crush out of the ballpark. Iowa State has three wins to their record - against schools that have better agricultural programs than football teams. Utah should handily beat Iowa State, Colorado State (No. 8 ESPN.com Bottom 10), and Wyoming before the season really begins on Oct. 30^th when the Utes will take on an impressive Air Force team in Colorado Springs. It should be noted that the Falcons are flying high this season and will more than likely be nationally ranked by the end of October. They not only throttled BYU but nearly upset the Oklahoma Sooners in a thrilling 27-24 loss in Norman.

The final weeks of this season, Utah will play TCU (AP No. 5), Notre Dame, San Diego State, and BYU. Considering what happened Saturday in Provo, BYU will be the easiest game during that stretch, especially since the Holy War game will be play at Rice-Eccles this year.

If the Utes deserve a Top 15 ranking they will earn it by winning against high caliber talent and elite coaching, like they will see the second half of the season. But the first half has been more like a casual stroll than an exciting race to the finish – which is why it has passed so quickly. There hasn’t been any opposition.