Local time where you're at. ("Where you're at"?)

This week’s edition of the Perfect Football Weekend&#153 begins with the revelation that – surprise, surprise! – not all college football players are in it for the education.

A former sports agent told Sports Illustrated he paid college football players early in his career, and several of them confirmed it to the magazine.

In the Oct. 18 edition, Josh Luchs said he paid more than 30 players from 1990 to ’96, including many who didn’t sign with him.

He said quarterback Ryan Leaf, the second pick in the 1998 draft who famously flopped in the pros, took more than $10,000, most of which he voluntarily paid back after signing with another agent. Leaf declined to comment on specific allegations.

Luchs told the magazine he also paid first-round picks Jamir Miller and Chris Mims. Miller, a linebacker from UCLA taken 10th by the Cardinals in 1994, declined comment. Mims, a defensive lineman from Tennessee taken 23rd by the Chargers in 1992, died in 2008.

I have just one question:&#160 When are you gonna name “orange” names?&#160 If you know what I mean?

On to the football.&#160 My Arlington Heights Yellow Jackets have four games left on the regular schedule, and three of them scare me – beginning with the one tonight against the Southwest Rebels.

MERLIN:&#160 You mean Southwest Raiders, my liege.

VENOMOUS:&#160 What have I told you about that, Wizard?

MERLIN:&#160 (ulp) Aye, sir.

Anyway, the Rebels are 4-2, losing one to perennial 4A power Everman, and the other to Western Hills (another team that’s gonna scare me going forward).&#160 This isn’t going to be 69-3 against North Side – bank on that.

Saturday finds Bob Stoopes and the sixth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners on a second straight week of break.

KORRIOTH:&#160 Wait a minute.&#160 They’re playing this week, aren’t they?

T-BONE MCMANX:&#160 Yeah, don’t they have…lessee here…Iowa State at home?

VENOMOUS:&#160 Like I said, gentlemen.

KORRIOTH, T-BONE (in unison):&#160 Oh.

OU’s a 24-point favorite here.&#160 And they’ll cover if they don’t fall asleep from boredom and suffer yet another fourth-quarter meltdown.

Someone in Vegas must be smoking something.&#160 18th-ranked Bucky gets the honor&#160 (*cough*) of hosting top-ranked Ohio State at Camp Randall.

Things just don’t get any easier for this bunch, do they?

But what’s puzzling about this is that OSU is only a 4&#189-point road warrior here.&#160 Either Vegas thinks the Badgers are better than their ranking indicates…or that the Buckeyes aren’t that good – which, if that’s&#160 the case, why are they top-ranked, hm?

Whatever.

Gary Patterson and his fourth-ranked Texas Christian Horned Frogs have the second game of their three-game homestand against the Mormons Cougars of BigamYU.&#160 This is the swan song for BigamYU, as they’re leaving the Mountain West conference to go…independent.&#160 The “Notre Dame of the West”, they’re calling themselves.

Good luck with that independent schedule, Mormons.&#160 You’ve been throttled by Air Force, chewed up by Nevada and buried by Utah State.&#160 Not exactly the class of Division I-A, although Air Force is pretty good this year.&#160 Prob’ly not one of the smartest things the Latter Day Saints ever did.

The Frogs are favored by 29.&#160 Think it’ll be closer, but BYU shouldn’t give ’em that much trouble.

And the marquee game this week is Revenge Time in Nebraska.&#160 Bo Pelini and his fifth-ranked Cornhuskers host the TU Shortd…uh, Stumpies (&#160&#160) in what I’m sure more than a few call the One-Second Bowl&#153.

Bo, for his part, says that the past is past:

“When I first looked up I thought about the next play. I look up and see zeroes on the clock and you think you won for a second,” he said. “Obviously, they said they were going to review it. At that point my focus was on trying to block the field goal. That didn’t happen. You ride a real roller coaster real quick. In the end, they got the call right. You look back and you understand you didn’t make enough plays to win the game.

We had our opportunities. We talk about the margin of error being so small, and that game showed it.”

Don’t believe it.&#160 They’re pointing to this game up in Lincoln.&#160 And TU is gonna find out that Hell hath no fury like a Husker scorned.&#160 (Vegas has the Huskers at minus-9&#189, BTW)

And on Sunday, the Dallas C’girlz will go to their first 1-4 start since 1989, as they travel to Minne-haha to take on Brett “Pants On The Ground” Favre and the ViQueens.

Wonder if we can get Jenn Steger to suit up for the game?&#160

Dallas is a 2-point road dog, meaning as long as they keep it under a 16-point beating, we’ll count it.&#160 But I wouldn’t bet on it.&#160 Hell, Randy Moss will outscore ’em by that much by his lonesome.

We’re back Monday for the recap.&#160 In the meantime, as always…stay safe, HDD.

Notice: compact(): Undefined variable: limits in /home/sysop284/domains/spatulacitybbs.net/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php on line 853

Notice: compact(): Undefined variable: groupby in /home/sysop284/domains/spatulacitybbs.net/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php on line 853

Notice: Theme without comments.php is deprecated since version 3.0.0 with no alternative available. Please include a comments.php template in your theme. in /home/sysop284/domains/spatulacitybbs.net/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 4027