Making Tuesday Fun Since 2006!
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--- ESPN's Bruce Feldman lists the schools with the toughest nonconference schedules.

Interesting Did-You-Know:

Before moving into coaching, [first-year Florida International coach] Mario Cristobal turned down a job with the Secret Service.

Also: Friday Mailbag.  It's dominated by Les Miles and SEC vs. USC/Pac-10 talk.  Also some talk on ECU's containment of West Virginia last year, Avery Atkins' death, Alabama's secondary recruiting violations and EA Sports NCAA Football '08 commercials.

--- ESPN's Mark Schlabach lists the easiest schedules of 2007.

Also: the best games of 2007.

Also: Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon is spending the summer on the diamond.

Stupid analogy alert:

Oregon senior Dennis Dixon, the Ducks' projected starting quarterback this fall, is trying to hit left-handed pitchers in Florida this summer, instead of trying to hit receivers on campus.

Ducks coach Mike Bellotti isn't happy about it.

"I think he'd be better served, in my situation, reading defenses rather than reading curveballs," Bellotti said.

Reading curveballs?

There's also a list of other possible two-sport stars in college football embedded in the article.

--- Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel unveils the "Celebrity Crush".

It's Jordana Spiro, I guessed wrong last week.  Other Mailbag items: some strainge and hideous playoff concept involving geographic "divisions" that feed into a 32-team playoff, Matt Stafford's development at Georgia, a reader's theory about quarterbacks and championships, the two-headed quarterback system and muted excitement about Texas Tech's season.

Also: Les Miles talk ("USC and LSU have to play for the national championship this season.  It is no longer possible to envision any other satisfying conclusion").

It's highly unlikely Miles would actually concern himself with the possibility of his team being edged out of the national title game six months in advance. No coach in the country would ever presume his team will get that far -- not when they're busy freaking out about their shrinking depth at right tackle or the backup cornerback's summer-school grades.

So what, then, was the motivation behind his unexpected boisterousness? Here's a guess: He's covering his butt.

Yep. That's right. Miles' comments were one big excuse-in-the-making. He's seen the prognostications. He knows the experts are projecting a USC-LSU matchup. He knows his fans are foaming at the mouth for just such an outcome. And he's trying to diffuse those expectations -- and temper the possible letdown -- by saying, "Hey, I'd love to play USC, too, but if they get there and we don't, it's because we had to play Florida while they got to play Stanford."

You can read it between the lines in this follow-up comment to the Baton Rouge Advocate: "To say that the only achievement and the only positive ending is with one game and one game's ending, that's near-sighted, and that's a long way away."

Well, here's one person who's not letting you off the hook so easily, Les. You and your people have laid down the gauntlet, so now, you better make this thing happen. If the Trojans hold up their end of the bargain and reach the Superdome, we better see some purple and gold on that other sideline.

You worked up the crowd, coach -- now give 'em what they want.

--- Sports Illustrated's Cory McCartney tries to tell West Virginia freshman tailback Noel Devine's story.

"He's had some stumbles but what people don't see about Noel Devine is that he's a great, great kid," said Ken Burns, the North Fort Myers assistant principal who was a central figure in helping Devine qualify academically for college. "Once you really get to know him you just fall in love with him."

--- CBS SportsLine's Dennis Dodd takes a look at the start-up AAFL.

--- The Sporting News' Matt Hayes says Hawaii's weak schedule is not its fault.

So this is what it has come to. Not only does Hawaii have to beg teams to play in paradise, it has to sweeten the deal with three-quarters of a million dollars.

And still no takers.

The Pac-10 takes a little heat as well, although USC and Oregon State both paid visits to the Islands in the last two years.  Maybe I'm crazy but a visit to Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial alone should be reason enough to trek to Hawaii.

Also: Inside Dish.  The SEC may not pursue its own TV network, Kansas State's offensive coordinator is walking on eggshells and Stephen Garcia may or may not have a shot at playing as a true freshman at South Carolina.

--- The Sporting News' Tom Dienhart continues his list-making with the top 40 players from the Big 12, Big East, SEC, Big Ten and Pac-10.

--- CSTV's Trev Alberts answers his mailbag.  You know things aren't so hot for the Big 12 lately when people are asking questions like this:

Which conference is better, the Big 12 North or the Mountain West?

Also in the mailbag: the Pac-10 beyond USC and choosing between Pat White or Darren McFadden.

I'm a huge Pat White fan and he has added value being a quarterback, but that being said, McFadden could be one of those generational/transformative type players.  It's hard to pass him up.

--- CSTV's Brian Jones contributes an ACC breakdown.

--- Yahoo! Sports' Terry Bowden is down with the 21^st century in urging the NCAA not to ban text messaging.

We can't turn back the hands of time and just ignore that there continually are going to be changes in the way we communicate. I didn't own a cell phone 25 years ago, but we wouldn't think of banning their use. I had never been on the Internet 15 years ago, but we couldn't live without it today in the recruiting process. Banning text messaging was a knee-jerk reaction to a "not so new" technology, and we need to go back and treat it like we have everything else and merely add some reasonable limitations to its use. …

In the same entry: Mark Richt's radical no-kickoffs proposal.

Also: Terry's "Sweet 16" rankings.

--- Rivals.com's Olin Buchanan opens the Mailbag after an intro about the strange mix of generosity and ferocity within the LSU fan base.

That's just another example of how Louisianans are quick to extend a hand in friendship.

But if you suggest the LSU Tigers shared the 2003 national championship with Southern California, those same friendly people would rather extend a fist in the mouth.

That's a sore subject down there. LSU fans waited 45 years between national championships, and once they got one they didn't want to share.

It matters not to them that USC was voted national champion by the Associated Press.

Inside the Mailbag: the likelihood of LSU playing USC for the championship this year, choosing Missouri or Nebraska in the Big 12 North, Texas A&M's hopes of breaking through the Texas/Oklahoma blockade, Kentucky's hopes in '07, a hidden frosh to watch for in the ACC, the Mountain West as underrated and whether to believe the hype at Florida State.

--- The Birmingham News' Ray Melick examines the Big Ten Network and what it means for the SEC's future TV plans. 

--- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Tony Barnhart finally returns to his blog with an early SEC East outlook.

--- The Mobile Register's Paul Finebaum says the national press hopes new Alabama coach Nick Saban fails.

I went to Feldman because of a blog he had written about Saban recently in relation to pressure on the Tide coach and his glacial relationship with many in the media: "I can't think of a coach who the media would love to see fail more than Saban," Feldman wrote.

It struck me because of its radioactive honesty. Most scribes at least try to hide behind objectivity.

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