Friday, May 9, 2008.

The disparity between BCS and non-BCS schools in the NCAA's hammer this week over Academic Performance Rates got me thinking: is there a process of natural selection at work? After all, of the 37 football programs hit with NCAA penalties Tuesday, only six were from BCS conferences. In a New York Times story on the subject, San Jose State coach Dick Tomey, whose team lost nine scholarships and four weekly hours of practice this season, called it "class warfare" as smaller colleges try to keep pace financially to help academics. "There's such a difference between the BCS schools and those who are not," Tomey said in the Times. "I don't think it's an intended difference, but it highlights financial things like not being able to throw money at the problem and solve it very quickly."

So that begs the question: if the resources aren't there to solve the problem, and there are tons of empty seats at games, is that school meant to be Division I-A (er, the Football Bowl Subdivision)? I mean really. The NCAA has allowed so much expansion in I-A, and many of those universities are set up to fail. They're allowed to average only 15,000 fans a game--and even if they don't, it never gets to a sanction stage. A school just creatively counts "tickets sold", and it's out of the woods. But there are never enough tickets sold at the 15,000-per-game level to generate enough revenue to compete on a long-term basis. Nobody at the NCAA wants to tell Tomey that maybe I-A isn't meant to be, though. Especially the WAC. That would be disastrous for the conference.

Now the Boise Burn get to see if their stellar defense can hold up in one of af2's most hostile environments. The Burn face the undefeated Spokane Shock tomorrow night, with over 10,000 expected in Veterans Arena. Amazingly, the Shock have been home for only one game this season, and they drew 10,659 for that one. The Burn bring af2's No. 1 defense, which has allowed only 14 points in each of the past two games. That's good at any level of football--in arena ball, it borders on earthshaking. That defense has spawned a lot of points at the other end. For instance, Boise is middle-of-the-pack in total offense but is No. 5 in the league in scoring at 54 points per game.

I don't think it makes any difference to local football fans, because the game has become an staple of the holidays here. But the Roady's Humanitarian Bowl did not get a good TV slot from ESPN this year. The game moves from a cozy afternoon spot on New Year's Eve--on a holiday Monday--to December 30, on a Tuesday. At least it's in the afternoon, with a 2:30 kickoff, and it's an exclusive national TV window. The WAC hosts the ACC for the fifth consecutive year and sixth in the last seven. Hopefully it's not the last, as there could be more movement after this season in bowl affiliations.

This is traditionally "watch list" season for college football's myriad of postseason awards. Two years ago, for example, Boise State was finding Korey Hall on the Rotary Lombardi, Lott Trophy, and Bronco Nagurski watch lists, Andrew Browning on the Outland Trophy list, and Jared Zabransky on the Maxwell Award list. No BSU players are being watched yet, but Idaho center Adam Korby has been named to the watch list for the Rimington Trophy, given annually to the nation's top center. Korby will be a senior this season and has started all 35 games of his Vandal career. This is the third straight year he's been on the Rimington list.

Davey Hamilton is chompin' at the bit in Indianapolis today. Indy 500 practice was rained out for the second straight day yesterday at the Brickyard, and tomorrow is Pole Day, where the fastest 11 cars get into the field and the front row is set for the May 25 race. It's important that Hamilton gets more practice time in--he's with a new team at Vision Racing, and they've been tweaking and experimenting with his car to find its maximum performance level. He topped the 221 miles-per-hour mark his last time out on Tuesday, but he needs more.

Boise State takes on Cal tomorrow morning in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on USC's home courts in Los Angeles. The Broncos have had 10 days to get healthy, or at least healthier. Clancy Shields and Piotr Dilaj have used the down time to heal after the surgeries they had last month. BSU is also looking to heal from the shock of the semifinals loss to Hawaii in the WAC Tournament--an upset of the Bears would be the tonic for them. In the meantime, the Bronco women are in Nashville to face Kentucky today in the first round at Vanderbilt.

The University of British Columbia had never lost a postseason game at Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver, but last night the College of Idaho squashed the streak with a 3-0 victory in the first round of the NAIA Region I Tournament. Jake Bottari spun a complete game shutout for the Coyotes, with a two-run bloop single in the bottom of the seventh by former Borah standout Dane McGrady doing the offensive damage. Now, oh boy--the Yotes get to face Lewis-Clark State today. But it is a double-elimination tournament. Meanwhile, Northwest Nazarene closes out its season this weekend with a pair of doubleheaders against Central Washington at Vail Field. There's no postseason play for the Crusaders, but they'll finish with their first winning season in 25 years--they go in at 29-21.

This Day In Sports...May 9, 1918, 90 years ago today:

A Boston Red Sox pitcher has five hits but takes the loss in a 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Washington Senators. His name was Babe Ruth, and the next season he would give up pitching to become an everyday outfielder and hitter. Ruth clubbed a then-staggering 29 home runs for the Red Sox in 1919--then was traded to the Yankees, and you know what happened from then on. In Boston, the trade became the "Curse of the Bambino", finally extinguished with the Red Sox World Series title in 2004.

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB's Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 1350 KTIK/The Ticket. He also handles color commentary on KTVB's telecasts of Boise State football.)

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