Cut to three years ago- New Year’s Day. The Boise State Broncos, then overwhelmingly America’s favorite bunch of overachieving college boys, took to the field- and a green one at that- far away from the cozy, colorful confines of Boise, Idaho, and a lot closer to football legitimacy. Armed with more tricks than the Silly Rabbit himself, head coach Chris Petersen unleashed an onslaught of Madden-like video game calls, leaving Bob Stoops and the Sooners dumbfounded.

Almost immediately, fans jumped on the Bronco bandwagon quicker than the rise and fall of Jared Zabransky’s career- the Boise quarterback that fateful night. That New Year’s Day, America’s sports bars erupted in a collective cheer, Boise running back Ian Johnson proposed to his then girlfriend on live television- she said yes- and the mustache-toting redhead, Zabransky, found himself seated comfortably in video game immortality, his face planted on the cover of EA Sports’ NCAA Football 08’.

Cut to today- Not much has changed since the Broncos sent Glendale, Arizona, into an orange and blue frenzy three years ago. The heroes, Zabransky and Johnson, have since graduated and left the program in good hands. In fitting fashion, the Broncos continue to pummel every team on their schedule, neutral field and all. Stoops still has his Sooners in the national title hunt virtually every year, Glendale still hosts the annual Fiesta Bowl, and America still has an N’SYNC-like infatuation with the Boys of the Blue Turf.

Unfortunately, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, and the boys wore out their welcome with the American public. Boise faces the same fate. The college football community told Boise to win, and win big. They have done both. The College Gameday crew told Boise to beat the big boys- away from the blue turf. They have done both. This is how we have arrived at today’s crossroads, the Boise bandwagon a little less full, and the American public a little more annoyed with this pest of a football team who refuses to do the unthinkable- lose.

The next time Chris Petersen calls your school to try and set up a game- on your field in front of your fans- respect the man, and the Broncos, for their undying confidence. When the BCS dangles them at number three, unwilling to nudge them into the top two, Boise smiles, laughs, and hits the blue turf to get better. What happens next is comical. Each fall Saturday, the Boise State Broncos dawn their blue uniforms, lace up their blue-stained cleats, smile, laugh, and hit the blue turf, ready to hit you in the mouth.

The Broncos react after stunning the Sooners in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl

Am I the only one that thinks Lane Kiffin would be a perfect profile for an E! True Hollywood Story? This guy actually has to go out of his way to stay out of the national headlines. Kiffin’s name sees more eyes than an optometrist.

Wouldn’t you know he was back at it again this week?

Forget about all of the tabloid drama surrounding the USC athletic program right now. As if it wasn’t hard enough for Kiffin to deal with a significant scholarship reduction, a 2-year postseason ban, and the departure of arguably his most heralded recruit, the Trojan head coach reminds everyone that he does, indeed, have way too much time on his hands.

Earlier this week Kiffin contacted his former team, the Tennessee Volunteers, about the possibility of kicking off the 2011 season in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. Now, let’s put this into perspective. I’ll remind that you that it was just a year ago when Kiffin took the job at Tennessee, promising to turn things around immediately, starting with a Gainesville beat down of the Gators and former quarterback Tim Tebow. Of course, as most of these introductory press-conference promises go, Tennessee lost to the Gators.

A few months later, Kiffin bolted to USC, leaving the Vols team, athletic program and fans feeling used and betrayed.

Imagine calling an ex-girlfriend that you yourself had thrown to the curb, asking her if she’d like to catch a movie with you and your new love interest. Oh, and you might also mention she may be horribly humiliated as well. Can’t understand why she would decline, right?

It’s hard to imagine that Tennessee brass even entertained that phone call. I’m sure some expletives were thrown Lane’s way, but it’s not as if he can’t take a verbal beating- and we have Raiders owner Al Davis to thank for that.

But if Tennessee could beat Kiffin and the Trojans, think about the payoff for the Vols? The only problem- Kiffin’s team won’t play in a truly meaningful game for the next two years because of the postseason ban. Sure, you could argue every game is meaningful. But let’s be honest. If you’re not going to a bowl, theoretically the games are meaningless.

But, all things being equal, I don’t think the Vols could beat the Trojans even if the USC boys woke up on a Saturday morning following an LA all-nighter with Vince and the Entourage boys. Let alone when Kiffin’s livelihood is on the line.

Had I fielded that phone call from Kiffin, I’d re-read him Al Davis’ letter until he hung up. Then I’d have Tim Tebow call him back and threaten a 40 day,  40 night flood on the USC campus.

I, for one, am already tired of hearing about the looming Pangea-like convergence of multiple NCAA powerhouse conferences. What’s even more upsetting, the inevitable realignment hasn’t even started. The NCAA is playing Jenga here, and no one has even removed the first block. Yet, almost on a daily basis we are force fed the same propaganda that conference commissioners and university presidents have been spitting at the media. More teams means more exposure. More exposure means more money. And frankly, more money in the hands of those pulling the strings makes the casual fan weary. Fear not Big 12 Pac-10 invitee fan, it wouldn’t be so bad.

To the casual fan, an unprecedented realignment might not directly impact us, per say. I, a Texas Tech senior, will still take my place in the student section on Saturdays, though it might be a little hard to “get up” for a mid-afternoon thrashing of Washington State- our new Pac-16 conference-mate. I’ll still mark my calendar for a showdown with Texas, a Lubbock-style beating of Oklahoma, and a heated rivalry with A&M. I’ll look towards each week, each game, with the same type of enthusiasm as before, though I may not understand just quite how a school in the wide-open cotton fields of West Texas, nestled more than 1,000 miles from the Pacific Ocean, was deemed geographically worthy of inclusion in a “Pacific” conference.

And yet, when the darkness falls on West Texas on a cool, crisp fall Saturday night, I’ll be in front of the TV at 9 p.m. ready for a sunny, 7 p.m. kickoff at California-Berkeley. A Pac-16 wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for us fans, our passion would remain unchanged, though the same couldn’t be said about our sleeping habits. At the end of the day, a Red Raider is a Red Raider, a Trojan is a Trojan, no matter where he watches the game. Unless, however, that man is Lane Kiffin, in which case we have to make an exception due to his recent propensity to switch jobs. But Lane, just like the rest of us, pours his heart and soul into his team. A few thousand miles and an awkward time change isn’t going to keep us from watching.

I know I wouldn’t be able to contain myself if I was able to watch Texas’ mascot Bevo run out onto the field in Eugene, Oregon, to a bewildered duck-crazed crowd, looking on as if this unfamiliar beast had been resurrected from a John Wayne film. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s reality TV. Could you imagine the family feud between the Stoops brothers, Bob at Oklahoma, and Mike at Arizona, playing for family bragging rights?

The possibilities are endless. In fact, given the chance, I’d be happy to take Mr. Kiffin to the Buddy Holly Museum when the Trojans come to town. What, with the number of teams in the Pangea-16, a trip to Lubbock might be only once every few years. We had better live it up a little bit.

I figure I’ll finally tackle the topic that most of you are surprised I haven’t addressed thus far, baseball. I’ve been a baseball nut my whole life, and the game has taken me from miniscule t-ball fields to a spot on the 2007-2008 Texas Tech baseball team. I’ve played ball in the tropical sweatbox that is Florida, the blistering 118-degree heat of Pheonix, Arizona, the majestic mountains of Colorado, and even a historical field in Joplin, Missouri, where Micky Mantle once ran the bases. Needless to say, the game has done a lot for me over the years, and is primarily responsible for my overly obsessive, albeit completely natural, obsession with the St. Louis Cardinals. I’d compare my love affair with the Cardinals to that of current iPhone junkies- if anything happened to either, we’d be lost. Nevertheless, there isn’t an app for die-hard, room decorating, message-board reading, memorabilia collecting junkies like myself. We fanatics are a breed of our own.

Naturally, we appreciate the little things about the game- the smell of freshly cut grass, the dirt stain from our unsuccessful romp towards home plate, the aroma of a ballpark hotdog, and unusually straight foul lines. My transition from college baseball player to everyday fan has only deepened my love for the game. And while most of my summer days are spent meticulously checking scores, I’d like to think my obsession with baseball has rubbed off on a few others. That is, I hope my fanatical perspective has brought a newfound respect to the game of baseball for those who have all but written it off as a dull, boring waste of time. Where else in sports can you fail seven out of ten times and still be considered successful? I don’t expect to change minds or drastically alter opinions here. Rather, all I would do is ask you to pay attention to the upcoming NCAA college baseball tournament.

In all of my cross-country baseball travels, I have never been fortunate enough to visit Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, the site of the NCAA College World Series, but I know enough about the place to respect the tradition. Moreover, this year will be the last for Rosenblatt to host the CWS. Even the casual fan can appreciate history. As a sports-loving society, we tend to revere those places that have had an impact on the game as a whole. While I won’t pretend to particularly care for all sports, I think that I understand what certain venues have done for each respective sport. Hallowed ground is hallowed ground, no matter the reason it came to be labeled in such a fashion. You may not fully understand the Field of Dreams, or its significance to baseball fans around the globe, but there’s a reason its for-sale announcement was the first story on my Yahoo! Homepage.

Now, I’m not Ray Kinsella, and I sure as hell don’t want to jam baseball down your throat, but we fanatics want others to see what we see in the game of baseball. When I walk into a big-league stadium, the playing surface looks more like a work of art than a baseball field. An old, tattered glove conjures up black-and-white images of the all-time greats. The crack of the ball against a maple bat reminds me of springtime, and an emphatic called third strike still sends a shot of adrenaline through my body. Maybe it isn’t so much my obsession with the Cardinals, but rather, my obsession for the game of baseball. And like me, millions of others feel the same way.

If my passion for the game hasn’t rubbed off on anyone, I don’t know how I would take that. I guess this little outpouring is my way of bringing the essence of baseball to you. While this rambling might make you turn more from the game, I’d hope you at least respect its tradition and gamesmanship. When you turn on the TV in the next few weeks, and eight of college baseball’s best teams duke it out one last time at Rosenblatt, look at each player’s face. Look at all the smiles in the stands. If you watch long enough, you just might understand how a fanatic sees the game.

Brady Quinn and Jimmy Clausen were both fantastic Notre Dame quarterbacks. Both set school records. But now, both have sat through the first round of an NFL draft longer than expected, much like a couple of delinquent students waiting to enter the principal’s office. Unfortunately, neither heard their name called. Now one day after Thursday’s first ever primetime NFL draft, all sports talk is focused on the surprising slide of Clausen to the second round or beyond, which brings me to the point of this article. Do the media play too large of a role in the NFL draft? Lost in the statistics, combine measures, and talents, do we forget these young men are great people?

In my opinion, ESPN analysts like Mel Kiper and Todd McShay do a great job dissecting players and their abilities. Nevertheless, Kiper and McShay start their coverage months before the draft, slotting players and scrutinizing their every move. From a distance, I think the casual fan tends to forget about the player as a person. Rather, we have been conditioned by the media to see these players as dollar signs. We talk about the talent level, the intangibles, the physical aspects, but we hardly ever step back and remind ourselves that these are 21-23 year-old young men.

Nowadays, the draft has become a glamorous media magnet. Networks spend countless hours, dollars, and man power to make sure they cover every angle, every possible scenario. At the same time, however, I think they almost dehumanize the players. For example, now one day removed from the first round of the 2010 NFL draft, I find myself almost feeling sorry for Jimmy Clausen. But why? While the rest of the country wonders how Charlie Weis’ NFL-ready project slipped out of the first round, it is not that hard to understand. Teams have certain needs. Teams pass up on other players in order to fill other needs. It is not because Jimmy Clausen is a bad person. Because of the intense media scrutiny, we act like a fall to the second round is almost a bad thing.

Look at it this way. Clausen will still be playing NFL football. He will still most likely be a successful quarterback. How many kids can say that? At the end of the day, Clausen will be an NFL quarterback just like his predecessor Brady Quinn. Behind the interviews and prepared answers, Clausen is a just another kid looking to realize his childhood dream. As for the media, I’ll tell you it’s not all about X’s and O’s. With the amount of money these players will command once drafted, it would be nice to hear a little more about the type of people they have become. Ultimately, their football skills have gotten them to this point. But in most cases, these young men are an example to all of us. You, the media, shouldn’t forget that.

Is parity good for college athletics?

The simple answer is “Yes, why couldn’t it be good?” That’s exactly my feeling. Equal playing fields make for more interesting seasons, no matter the sport. For example, thousands watched Northern Iowa take out the “Dream Team” that was the 2010 Kansas Jayhawks. Similarly, countless brackets were busted when George Mason stormed the Final Four in 2006. On the gridiron, Appalachian State broke into “The Big House” in 2007 and sent the college football word spinning upside down when they demolished the Wolverines. These are the kind of games you remember watching. But do the moneymakers of college athletics, commissioners, athletic directors, and boosters enjoy it as much as the casual fan?

Chances are unless you’re the commissioner of the Sun-Belt, WCC, MAC, or any other mid-major conference, the answer is probably no. Now, at the same time, the brass at the top of the power conferences will look into the camera and tell the public equal competition is great; it makes their athletic teams better. Nevertheless, I have a hard time believing the A.D. at Michigan was singing the praises of Appalachian State following arguably one of the biggest upsets in college football history. You can try to convince me otherwise, but I doubt Bill Self and the rest of this year’s Jayhawks slept easily knowing their early exit was good for the game.

Here is a little side note to consider: There seems to be an inverse relationship between the fans and the moneymaking executives backing these big time universities. The more “Northern Iowa’s” we have, the more people pay attention to college athletics. By the same token, every time a mid-major takes down one of these behemoths, more athletic directors start to cringe. For example, take a look at Boise State football the past few years. Once considered a less than powerful force, the Broncos now can’t find teams that want to play them. Boise coach Chris Pederson has publicly stated that his team would be willing to play all their games on the road if it meant playing quality opponents. Now, that might be a bit of a stretch, but the man said it. Even after this proclamation, other teams are still shying away from the Broncos. No A.D. would want to face the boosters if his team could potentially fall to the lesser Broncos, right? After all, it’s their job on the line. If it were up to them, I’m sure they’d take an undefeated season every year if it meant sacrificing the parity of college sports.

But can a team be too good? Could being basically unbeatable be bad for college sports? Take a look at the feel-good Connecticut women’s basketball team. As I write this article, I believe they have won something like 75 straight games, which is unheard of in today’s sports atmosphere. Earlier this week, UConn coach Geno Auriemma said there won’t be an even playing field in women’s college basketball until women’s coaches are held to the same standards as their male counterparts. That is, until athletic directors, school administrators, and fans demand consistent success from them, like they do in the men’s game. Take it as you will, but to me this sounded like a bored Geno Auriemma. That being said, I highly doubt the man is sick of winning, but just the other night his team beat Temple by 50+ points in the NCAA tournament. Can you blame the man for wanting to stay awake on the bench? Personally, I find myself tuning out of UConn’s televised games because I already know the end result. I’m sure others are doing the same thing.

The debate will rage on, but we probably won’t ever be able to put an end to this one. Some small school, somewhere, will always have the heart and desire to take down an NCAA giant. More often than not, our power conferences will continue to put up numbers and claim NCAA titles. But as long as those potential upsets lurk, the big boys will continue to cringe.

Northern Iowa’s Jordan Eglseder dunks against Michigan State