Football shake ups, basketball scraps

If any of you get Time Magazine, go ahead and skip the 10 Questions with Andy Roddick. The guy comes across like a pompous ass.

Onward:

1. Football is blowing up in Utah. BYU and Utah are both found in the AP Top 25 and the USA Today Poll. Football there is growing in popularity, and the explosion of two programs allows for the creation and expansion of a rivalry. Nothing like an in-state rival to boost team spirit and ticket sales (just look at the Duke UNC game, Florida and Florida State, Kentucky and Louisville, Memphis and Tennessee, etc etc etc…and yes I realize some of these are more basketball than football, but that’s where my mind is right now).

2. The Alamo Bowl is getting an upgrade. It currently matches the 4/5 team from the Big Ten with the 4/5 team from the Big Twelve, but starting in 2010, it’ll match the 2 team from the Pac-Ten with…well, that part is still in negotiations, but the Alamo Bowl is talking to the Big 12 to put up the other half of that match up. While it’ll mean more travel for Pac-10 fans (San Antonio is a ways away from San Diego), this should be a great match up.

3. Pittsburgh has a bit of a worry on its hands: forward Gilbert Brown has been suspended from games this fall due to academic issues. He will be eligible to play again December 20. Brown played a large role last season, and it’ll be interesting to see how Pitt adapts to no longer having him on the roster.

4. SEC, and especially UK, fans – if you want to read a fairly interesting and often times very exciting preview of the upcoming basketball season, check this out. After reading that, and hearing all summer how great Wall and Bledsoe are, I am even more pumped for the season to start.