Forgive me if I’m a bit worried about this little tidbit: CollegeFootballNews.com has made their bowl predictions and they picked USC vs Auburn in the BCS championship game.  Auburn hasn’t played too well in recent years when they have a target painted on their back - think about 2003.

From CollegeFootballNews.com:

Oklahoma star quarterback Rhett Bomar and offensive guard J.D. Quinn were dismissed from the team for violating NCAA rules by taking too much money for too little work at a Norman, Oklahoma car dealership.

So what does Oklahoma do now?

Considered the favorite to win the Big 12 title by many, or at least the front-runner along with Texas, OU has to scramble to find someone ready to take over the offense. Bomar was just starting to come into his own and was expected to take a big leap up in production and leadership this season when he got nailed for his transgressions. The backup situation was sketchy at best, but the hope was for all the inexperienced talent to get time to work in the system behind Bomar. Now several unknowns have to be ready for prime time, the young receiving corps has to be sharp from day one, and the biggest unknown before the Bomar incident, the offensive line, won’t have time to learn how to pass block.

If Oklahoma has any hope of playing for the national title, it either needs to find another year of eligibility for Jason White, Josh Heupel, or J.C. Watts, or it has to hope someone can do more than just hand off to star running back Adrian Peterson.

Option 1: Joey Halzle, Sophomore
The JUCO transfer enrolled early and looked good enough to be a solid number two man, and now he’ll get a crash as the starter. He struggled this spring once the OU defense turned the heat up and still could use more time in the system to be even close to strong enough to be an adequate fill-in for Bomar. He’s tall and very fast.

Option 2: Paul Thompson, Senior
The starter going into the 2005 season, Thompson will forever be known as the quarterback who lost the home opener against TCU. He moved to receiver with the emergence of Bomar and caught 11 passes for 106 yards, but he’s back in the mix at quarterback with good size and tremendous speed.

Option 3: Sam Bradford, Freshman
With good speed and great size at 6-5 and 200 pounds, Bradford is an athletic recruit who’ll get a crash course in the offense once he gets in the practice mix. He threw for 2,422 yards and 19 touchdowns last year as an Oklahoma high school all-star.

What does this mean for Oklahoma and the national landscape: It might change everything in the Big 12 race. Oklahoma and Texas are each good enough to win the national title with the winner in the Red River Rivalry to potentially be in great shape if the Longhorns can get by Ohio State in the second week of the season. Besides Adrian Peterson, the one area OU had a big advantage over Texas was at quarterback thanks to the experience of Bomar. That’s gone. Now, not only does Texas appear to be the favorite to win the Big 12 title, Oklahoma’s September 16^th date at Oregon looks even more dangerous.

I really didn’t want to see Auburn University on the Drudge Report for this:

AU Investigates Complaints That Athletes Got Preferential Treatment

For Some Athletes, Courses With No Classes

Personally, I can’t believe that Organic Gardening (taught by Dr. James Brown, a.k.a. The Godfather of Soil), which was (is?) a perennial favorite of the football players, never caused problems.  I took it for fun and I’ll just say it wasn’t the most strenuous course I took - grades seemed to be largely attendance based.

Now there’s a headline you’ve never heard.

The World Cup championship game is set with France taking on Italy in Berlin on this Sunday (July 9th).  Expect the turnout for Les Blues to be heavy.  Both teams are playing very well and earned their spots in the final match.  I have never been a big Zinedine Zidane fan, but his last two matches have made me a believer.  He has been amazing and has singlehandedly controled both games.

Prediction: France 2, Italy 1.

DWM.  I’ll let you figure out the acronym.

Eddie Griffin of the Minnesota Timberwolves was involved in a crash in late March and allegedly was:

• Under the influence of alcohol
• Watching porn
• Masturbating
• Driving without a license

After the crash he was videotaped offering to buy the owner of the damaged car “any new car or truck, but not a Bentley.”

And David Stern thought he could clean up the NBA with a dress code!

I had no idea the NHL was even playing.

If a team wins the Stanley Cup and no one knows it, did they really win?

Apparently the Universities of Florida and Georgia think that renaming their annual football game from "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" to something less symbolic of actual college student exploits is a good idea.

Maybe UGA thinks it should be the "You Kicked Our Butt Again, But We'll Be Better In One Or Two Years" game.  For those of you who are unaware, Georgia fans claim every year that they are one or two years from greatness.  That year just never materializes.

Florida fans were still too drunk or hungover to have an opinion.