Sugar Bowl

Notre Dame fired Charlie Weis, Florida State pushed Bobby Bowden down retirement's elevator shaft, a Florida defender needs a public defender after being charged with a SUI (snoozing under the influence) and Tiger Woods ran into a tree and then a lot more. We're not sure how this week's end could be more exciting than this week's beginning, but here's the setup: College football's last regular-season stand begins Thursday night with Oregon State at Oregon, with the winner going to the Jan. 1 Rose Bowl.

There has been little drama at the top of the college football world this season. For the sixth straight week, Florida, Alabama and Texas held the top three spots in the Bowl Championship Series standings released Sunday. The Gators (11-0) remained No. 1, the same position they have held since the first BCS standings Oct. 18. Alabama (11-0) is No. 2 and Texas (11-0) third. The top seven teams remained unchanged once again, but it is the top three that essentially control their destinies in the race for the national championship.

Utah is the best of the BCS busters. Brian Johnson threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns, and the No. 7 Utes upset fourth-ranked Alabama, 31-17, in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans last night to finish 13-0. With the victory, Utah became the first team from a non-Bowl Championship Series conference to win two BCS bowls. The Utes beat Pittsburgh in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl. Johnson's pinpoint passing led Utah to a 21-0 first-quarter lead, and the Utes refused to wilt when Alabama pulled to 21-17 early in the second half.

So Congress has gotten worked up about steroids in baseball. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania became involved in the NFL's Spygate. And legislators from the state of Washington are trying to stop the possible move of the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City. So why should anyone be surprised that three members of the U.S. House of Representatives want to pass a resolution to have the Justice Department look into college football's Bowl Championship Series system to see whether it violates federal laws.

Presenting the last sports media notes of the year, with the reminder that, though one size is supposed to fit all, you can try to exchange the column if you have saved your receipt: So the NFL has gone from dipping its toe into the waters of taking over game telecasts to trying to wade in deeper. Fortunately for all of us, the water was still too cold. Or, more accurately, too hot. No one got too worked up last year when the NFL Network started carrying regular-season games, but the rumbles of discontent grew louder this season because of a marquee matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys and tomorrow's New England Patriots-New York Giants game.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The stark difference between the star-studded 2006 NFL draft class and this year's group of college talent can probably best be viewed through the prism of the game's most important position. A year ago, three quarterbacks were seen as potential franchise-savers and, surprisingly, all three - the Tennessee Titans' Vince Young, the Arizona Cardinals' Matt Leinart and the Denver Broncos' Jay Cutler - ended their rookie seasons as starters. This year, the early favorite as the top quarterback, JaMarcus Russell, was designated so mainly on the strength of his Sugar Bowl game, in which he led LSU's 41-14 rout of Notre Dame, completing 21-of-34 passes for 332 yards and two touchdowns.

Yesterday Music City Bowl -- Virginia 34, Minnesota 31 Sun Bowl -- UCLA 50, Northwestern 38 Independence Bowl -- Missouri 38, South Carolina 31 Peach Bowl -- LSU 40, Miami 3 Thursday Emerald Bowl -- Utah 38, Georgia Tech 10 Holiday Bowl -- Oklahoma 17, Oregon 14 Today Meineke Bowl -- South Florida (6-5) vs. N.C. State (6-5), 11 a.m. (ESPN2). Line: N.C. State by 3 1/2 . Liberty Bowl -- Fresno State (8-4) vs. Tulsa (8-4), 1 (ESPN). Line: Fresno State by 7. Houston Bowl -- TCU (10-1) vs. Iowa State (7-4)

College football's annual end-of-season mess known as the Bowl Championship Series teetered on the verge of total chaos late Saturday night in Los Angeles. Order eventually prevailed, as did top-ranked Southern California with a wild, 50-42 victory over No. 16 Fresno State at the Coliseum. But here's a thought to fuel a little controversy that typically surrounds the BCS at this time of year: Do the Bulldogs deserve a BCS invitation? It's unlikely Fresno State can jump into the top six, as Utah did last season.

WE'VE ALWAYS needed an isthmus of sin to offset the tedium of existence or even the desolation of piety, and New Orleans has provided and provided without apology, bless it. Its reign as the ideal site for big-time sports events has fit snugly, what with big-time sports events, like New Orleans, providing such fertile study of sin. To us, New Orleans has beckoned. You want to hold a teeming monument to human corruption and give it a cute little name such as "Final Four"? Great. Come here.

MIAMI - Any debate about this season's college football national championship ended quickly last night at Pro Player Stadium. Amid a flurry of Oklahoma turnovers and Southern Cal touchdowns in the second quarter of the Orange Bowl, the season-long filibuster on the Bowl Championship Series rankings suddenly became a moot point. Or, for the top-ranked Trojans, lots of points. Turning a bunch of bumbles and fumbles by the Sooners into nearly immediate scores, USC (13-0) embarrassed Oklahoma by taking a 28-point halftime lead and cruising to a 55-19 victory.