An NFL guy's college try

I've always wanted to do one of those Andy Rooney rants, only for the coveted Sporting News demographic of males 18-34. . . .

They hand out something called the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night. You may remember that past NFL "greats" such as Gino Torretta, Rashaan Salaam and Charlie Ward have all won the award. This year, the finalists are USC's Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush and Texas' Vince Young. Seems to me they all will be playing in this big game in Pasadena next month, so wouldn't it make sense to give the award for college football's biggest big-game playmaker after its biggest game?

So much for the Brady Quinn Heisman talk. Apparently playing only three games against teams with winning records and that final-game rally against "mighty" Stanford wasn't good enough to put him in the mix with Leinart, Bush and Young. At least Notre Dame won that all-important Independents Bowl over Navy. In contrast, their Fiesta Bowl opponent, Ohio State, played only three games against teams with losing records.

No offense to Leinart, Bush or Young, but if they didn't play for their teams, USC and Texas would have, let's see, at the most, combined for two losses? How about some love for Vanderbilt's Jay Cutler and Northwestern's Brett Basanez. Without those guys, Vandy and NU wouldn't have been on the college football map this season. The Commodores pushed Florida to two thrilling overtimes and beat Tennessee, while the Wildcats earned victories over Wisconsin and Iowa. And oh yeah, they have the whole academic thing going for them.
I'd pay to watch the backups of USC and Texas play in a "B" national title game. Even if it's called the Van Nuys Bowl.

By earning a berth in the Sugar Bowl, West Virginia is the only school to make it to the Elite Eight of basketball and football this year. Prepared to be Pittsnogled, Georgia.
What was Texas coach Mack Brown thinking in casting his coaches' poll No. 1 vote for USC? Even the President of the United States votes for himself (we think).
If the NFL had the BCS, the Colts would somehow be No. 3

Poinsettia Bowl? This only opens the door for the Mistletoe Bowl, Fruitcake Bowl and Annoying In-Laws Bowl.