Bye Bye Boise State Blues

Boise State got its big wish this past off-season, they graduated from playing the "Little Sisters of the Poorer" (the WAC) to just the "Little Sisters of the Poor" (the Mountain West).

But its acceptance into the Mountain West brethren will cost Boise its camouflaged fashion.

The Broncos blue uniforms on the ugly Smurf Turf, where they have won 63 straight regular-season games, must go.

The prohibition only applies to Boise State, one of a handful of teams to color coordinate its uniforms with its turf, and was part of the school's agreement to join the MWC.

MWC commissioner Craig Thompson called the blue-on-blue motif a 'competitive advantage.'

While San Diego State's coach Rocky Long pointed out the blue field forces players to "track the ball differently."

"I think they ought to get rid of that blue turf. I think it's unfair," Long said back in April.

It's a breathe of fresh air that the conference is calling Boise's bluff, and it will at some point cost the Broncos a couple home wins.

But this news it not all good news.

By doing away with blue uni's for conference home games, the Broncos will have to use a combination of colors, which could include its orange-on-orange assault on the eyeballs.

The Broncos fashion blitz is only going to get worse.

Nebraska "Husked" Helping Athletes Learn

College football is ready to kick off a new season, but it's probably not ready for reform.

From Columbus to Auburn, Chapel Hill to Coral Gables, scandal is hitting major programs like the plague.

NCAA investigators might be more interested in a couple tarnished early season matchups than the fans. The luster is off the Oregon-LSU game at Cowboys Stadium. And Ohio State at Miami is in a league of its own weeks later.

But the scandal that popped up this summer that was most amusing: Nebraska was trying to help its student athletes learn.

Despite a commitment to learn, it's against NCAA rules to provide textbooks beyond required reading.

So because Cornhuskers athletes got about $60 for "recommended" textbooks, the university had to self-report to the NCAA and fined itself $28,000.

We'll know if the hammer will come down harder on Nebraska in October, but it's ridiculous that they are even in this position.

Fighting for the 'Fighting Sioux'

The long arm of the NCAA has been busy this year.

With allegations surfacing that 72 Miami Hurricanes were showered in cash and other impermissible gifts, eight major football programs have landed in trouble.

But instead of moving with its full force to clean up college football, the NCAA is still crusading to banish nicknames that are "abusive and hostile" and politically incorrect.

That's why North Dakota's Board of Higher Education decided to retire the Fighting Sioux moniker last week.

They did so to avoid NCAA sanctions in their attempt to move to Division I, which would include refusal to let UND host postseason NCAA tournaments and a ban on uniforms depicting the logo.

The problem with the NCAA ax aimed at nicknames, is that the organization only deemed American Indian specific mascots as "abusive and hostile" while ignoring plenty of other equally offensive mascots.

In a matter of minutes a laundry list can be generated of schools with "hostile" nicknames, which are not limited to: the Crusaders, which brings up medieval religious violence; Cowboys, associated with conquering the West; and the Fighting Irish, another national caricature which brings up notions of drunkenness.

While there's certainly a difference between "Redskins" and say "Seminoles," seems like a silly ban to just go after the Indian nicknames.

The University of North Dakota could have kept the 'Sioux' name but dropped the 'Fighting' under NCAA rules, if two Sioux tribes agreed on the name, but they couldn't.

Dropping the 'Fight' may have bolstered UND's chances to keep the moniker. Chief Sitting Bull was a great warrior, but also a spiritual leader, something "Fighting Sioux" doesn't exactly represent.

Regardless, you can chalk another victory up for the NCAA and its rules, but shouldn't they really be worried about other issues.

The Spud Bowl Is Happening

College football is right around the corner. The next crop of players are starting to report back to campus for training camp.

The extremely arbitrary, and way too meaningful, preseason polls are being unveiled.

And when the season kicks off, there will undoubtedly be an excessive amount of criticism over the BCS and college football's bowl system.

But one bit of news this week makes bowl games all the more awesome: there's going to be a spud bowl.

That's right. The Humanitarian Bowl, played on Boise State's ugly Smurf Turf, has been renamed after Idaho's claim to fame -- the potato.

On Dec. 17, the Famous Idaho Potato will kick off in Boise.

The spud bowl logo's was clearly designed to look good on top of a heinous blue field, and its' complete with sour cream and chives on the potato - um football.

Idaho's not just potatoes, but mostly.

And as a former Idahoan, I'm glad the state's biggest football game is now named for the claim to fame. After all Idaho has been the nation's largest producer of potatoes every year since 1957.

Now, where can I get a spud to eat.

Fixing MLB: Salary Cap

The Yankees would be stretched if they had to develop their own prospects.

The National Football League's biggest strength over the past decade has been the leveling of the playing field with a salary cap.

The biggest team the Dallas Cowboys has to play by the same financial rules as the Buffalo Bills.

Leveling the playing field with salary cap is one thing that would help MLB.

Unfortunately, during All-Star game festivities last month, commissioner Bug Selig crushed any hope of even entertaining a cap.

Citing Pittsburgh and Cleveland's resurgence, Selig claims the economic system in baseball has changed, and it's working. At the break, he suggested, the league had about 20 clubs who were still very much in it.

Really that number is much smaller, it's always smaller.

In the past decade there have only been four teams with a pay role outside the top half of the league to play in the World Series (Florida in '03, Colorado in '07, Tampa in '08 and Texas last year). Only one team in that group has won.

Every year, half the league really has no hope of winning a world title. League pennants are nice, but at the major league level you play to win it all.

Salary caps put a stronger emphasis on organizational identity, and it itself would help pull the Yankees and others back with the rest of the league.

Sadly, Selig seems to have bought into the idea that having the Yankees, Red Sox and other big market teams dominate October is best for baseball.

Let's be honest, who was the last prospect the Yankees actually developed into a star?

Derek Jeter comes to mind, but he's 37, and the Bronx Bombers lucked out he didn't get traded. More recently, Robinson Cano fits the shoe, but again the Yanks got lucky he's not another team.

It's been fun to see fans coming out and filling the ball parks in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. No one wants to suffer through a season with 100 losses, but they occasionally happen.

When you put a good product on the field people will come. And baseball needs a good product in 30 cities, not just eight.

The way to do that is mimic the NFL, and make all teams play by the same financial rules.

Raising the Jolly Roger

One of baseball's feel good stories of summer, near and dear to my heart, might just walk off the plank.

Two weeks ago the Pittsburgh Pirates were actually leading the NL Central. That never happens.

Then at the trade deadline, instead of shipping away the entire starting lineup, the Pirates actually added two over-the-hill bats. Derrek Lee and Ryan Ludwick are minor upgrades, but again that never happens.

Even after getting back to "normal" in recent days, a strange tide is rising along the Three Rivers.

There's hope for Pirate fans, hope that hasn't existed since 1992. Sadly that year is seared into memory.

Three outs away from a pennant, an unfortunate series of events culminated in a Barry Bonds throw that couldn't catch former Bucco Sid Bream, the slowest man in baseball, running on one leg.

After watching the NL pennant slip away the previous two years, Pittsburgh struck out.

It's been 18 years and counting since they've even sniffed at winning, until now.

Following the Pittsburgh's 2011 season, I've maintained that I'm anxiously optimistic that the organization could really be turning around.

While the tide is rising, this season success is starting to fell like a facade.

Aside from centerfielder Andrew McCutchen, who's a bona fide star, the Pirates have two serviceable young guns (Neil Walker and Jose Tabata) and not much else. Offensively it shows, they're at the bottom of the NL in just about every batting category.

Somehow pitching has been the strength of this team. But it feels like the soft-tossing starting rotation was built on a house of cards. Kevin Correia, Paul Maholm and Charlie Morton had all been surprisingly good through 95 games, but not so much recently.

Just like 1992, this season appears to have been derailed in Atlanta.

A horrendous home plate call in the 19th inning cost Pittsburgh a chance at win. Where did umpire Jerry Meals have to go at 2 a.m.? Then the next night, they again lost in extra innings.

As the Pirates fade out of the pennant and into oblivion, it's easy to overlook all their success. This team is relevant again.

I hope the Buccos can right the ship and get back on track today. Is 82 wins too much to ask this year?