The Wiz of Odds

Reporters Notebooks

Pete Thamel, New York Times: The Pacific 10 Conference announced that Larry Scott, the chief executive and chairman of the WTA, would become the league's new commissioner on July 1, replacing Tom Hansen. Perhaps Scott’s biggest strengths — television and marketing — matches the Pac-10's greatest weakness. "I've picked up on the sense that some people feel that the Pac-10 may not be boxing at their appropriate weight, so to speak," Scott said of the league's television deal.

Harvey Araton, New York Times: The specter of losing as many as 14 victories from his grand total of 382 has moved Bobby Bowden to accuse the NCAA of "killing a flea with a hammer." If he believes that institutional classroom cheating is an insect on the face of big-time college football, it is time for Bowden, 79, to flee Florida State.

Jeff Barker, Baltimore Sun: Maryland has promised to pay offensive coordinator James Franklin $1 million if he is not named to succeed Ralph Friedgen as head coach, according to a copy of Franklin's agreement with the university. Friedgen's contract expires Jan. 2, 2012. If Friedgen remained after that, Franklin could either remain as offensive coordinator or resign and collect $1 million.

Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports.com: The spring top 25, with an explanation why the Iowa Hawkeyes are not included.

Tim Stephens, College Gridiron 365: When a coalition led by Tulane President Scott Cowen in 2004 won better access to college football’s Bowl Championship Series, was the price of their victory actually the BCSification of basketball?

Bill Beckner, Jr., Valley News Dispatch: Receiver Toney Clemons, the cousin of Steve Breaston, has been released from his scholarship and will transfer from Michigan.

Joseph Person, Miami Herald: Florida begins spring practice on Wednesday, with expectations for another national championship chiseled in stone.

Looking for a Job? Try a College Town

Amid troubling economic times and a national unemployment rate of 8.5%, perhaps it's time to go back to college — at least a college town.

Of 10 metropolitan areas with unemployment below 4% as of January, five of them are considered college towns. One is Morgantown, home of the West Virginia Mountaineers, where the unemployment rate is only 3.9%.

The university has about 260 job openings, according to Margaret Phillips, vice president of human relations at WVU. "We're hurting for people, especially to fill our computer and technical positions," she said.

Reporters Notebooks

Jonathan Tamari, Philadelphia Inquirer: Raymond Lesniak, a New Jersey state senator, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Justice Department that seeks to overturn a U.S. ban on sports betting. Sports betting is legal in Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon. Only Nevada and Montana currently offer it and Delaware is looking to add sports betting in time for the 2009 NFL season.

Barry Jackson, Miami Herald: Florida has rejected another pitch from Miami for more frequent games. After playing last fall in Gainesville, the teams do not meet again until 2013 in Miami. Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley denied a report the Gators wanted out of the 2013 game. ... Miami also announced it will not play Florida International in any revenue sport anytime soon — a result of the 2006 brawl between the teams.

Terry Hutchens, Indianapolis Star: Kellen Lewis, who was Indiana's quarterback the past three seasons, has been moved to receiver. Ben Chappell is the new starter.

Todd Porter, Canton Repository: Is Ohio State's Jim Tressel considering some variation of a Wildcat offense or even more work with the pistol formation in an effort to make quarterback Terrelle Pryor more comfortable? "You have to figure out what your guys do best," Tressel said.

Randy Peterson, Des Moines Register: New Iowa State offensive coordinator Tom Herman, a member of Mensa International, promises the Cyclones' attack will be "spread out and up-tempo."

Evan Woodbery, Mobile Press-Register: Gene Chizik will hang a whistle around his neck and be a coach — not a recruiter, staff-builder or handshaker — when Auburn opens spring drills Tuesday.

Wonderlic: Stafford (38), Nicks (11)

Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford scored 38 out of 50 on the Wonderlic test at the recent NFL combine, while North Carolina receiver Hakeem Nicks struggled with an 11, according Dan Pompei of the Chicago Tribune.

Two other quarterbacks also did well. USC's Mark Sanchez scored a 28 and Kansas State's Josh Freeman 27.

Outside of Jeremy Maclin of Missouri, who scored 25, several top receiver prospects joined Nicks in the low-score category. Michael Crabtree of Texas Tech had a 15, Darrius Heyward-Bey of Maryland 14 and Percy Harvin of Florida 12.

Pompei writes: "The test result is particularly interesting in the case of Harvin, who will have more learning to do than the others based on the offense he played in at Florida and the fact he could be used in multiple roles."

Reporters Notebooks

Chad Lawhorn, Lawrence Journal-World: City commissioners on Tuesday will take up a proposal to change the name of a portion of Missouri Street to Fambrough Drive, in honor of former Kansas coach and eternal Missouri hater Don Fambrough. Commissioner Boog Highberger opposes the idea. "The idea that we hate Missouri and we're going to change the name of the street because of that, just seems wrong. The idea of changing the name of a street for a sports rivalry seems really petty and childish to me."

Ray Melick, Birmingham News: The NCAA basketball tournament is lucrative, but it's no Bowl Championship Series. According to NCAA records, for a five-year period from 2002 to 2007, the Southeastern Conference received an average $11.5 million per year from NCAA tournament money. During that same five-year period, the SEC picked up an average $17.8 million per year from its BCS share — and that does not include the non-BCS bowl revenue the SEC also took in.

Associated Press: The licensing agent for the University of Missouri has contacted the Harrisburg School District, saying the southeastern South Dakota school's tiger logo is "confusingly similar" to the Missouri tiger.

Kyle Ringo, Boulder Daily Camera: Colorado linebacker Lynn Katoa's brief and troubled time in the program could come to an end as soon as the completion of the spring semester.

John Heuser, Ann Arbor News: Michigan is beefing up its spring game activities, with a goal of drawing 40,000 fans to Michigan Stadium on April 11.

Reporters Notebooks

Tom Hoffarth, Farther Off the Wall: Pete Arbogast, the play-by-play announcer for radio broadcasts of USC games, made an appearance on an online sex show and talked about his favorite position and why performance matters more than size.

Ray Melick, Birmingham News: Are coaches punching loopholes in NCAA rules with graduate assistants?

Jonathan Okanes, Bear Talk: Three people were near the top of Tightwad Hill late Thursday afternoon taking a peek at California’s spring practice. The trio was spotted by security and one of them, standing at the top of the stadium rim with a bullhorn, ordered the onlookers to move along.

Dan Patrick: UCLA's Rick Neuheisel warns about the dangers of filling out an NCAA tournament bracket. He now prefers ponds to pools.

Lance Vaillancourt, Boulder Daily Camera: A rule violation by Colorado’s athletic department more than three years ago recently resulted in a $50,000 windfall for Boulder’s Habitat for Humanity office — thanks to a sharp-eyed newspaper reader.

Michael Rothstein, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: Notre Dame's Crewcut Charlie Weis said he plans to leave the press box and coach from the field this season.

Charles Robinson, Yahoo! Sports: A look at the top 10 college football factories and some of their raw NFL placement numbers.