Reporters' Notebooks

Paul Newberry, Pine Bluff Commercial: Southeastern Conference teams rarely venture from home for nonconference games or play teams from other Bowl Championship Series leagues. To put it bluntly, they've scheduled a bunch of patsies, a factor that should be taken into account at bowl time.

Ron Bellamy, Eugene Register-Guard: Oregon receiver Jaison Williams has apologized for printing an expletive on one of his gloves, a two-word message that was visible in a photograph published in Sunday’s Register-Guard. ... Anybody have a copy of the photo? Please send it to us: dawizofodds (at) aol.com.

Sports By Brooks: Oregon quarterback and Heisman contender Dennis Dixon is taking one class this semester: Billiards.

Chip Scoggins, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Just to clear things up, Minnesota was prepared for Illinois' no-huddle offense, right? Ah, yeah, that's what we thought.

Brent Schrotenboer and Nick Canepa, San Diego Union-Tribune: The San Diego State faculty senate unanimously voted down a controversial and symbolic proposed resolution that called for abolishing the Aztecs' football team. Did this entire exercise do more harm than good?

Brandon George, Dallas Morning News: Texas Tech's Mike Leach has a solution to kicker Alex Trlica's struggles with field goals: "He will probably have to get more consistent, otherwise we have to go for it on fourth down all the time. It's as easy as that."

Scott Wolf, L.A. Daily News: Was that USC's Pete Carroll yelling at California's DeSean Jackson during last season's game?

Robert Kuwada, Orange County Register: Osaar Rasshan, who will start for UCLA on Saturday against Arizona State, will be the third quarterback to start for the Bruins.

Blue-Gray Sky: A breakdown (with video) of how Navy surgically took apart Notre Dame's defense. Terrific work here and highly recommended.

Sandra McKee, Baltimore Sun: Navy's victory over Notre Dame has only increased the speculation that coach Paul Johnson will be lured away by another team this offseason.

Troy Phillips, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: An investigation by North Texas has cleared coach Todd Dodge and his staff of any discriminatory behavior.

Phill Casaus, Albuquerque Tribune: Colorado has effectively shut down its recruiting border with New Mexico. Only two Colorado residents are on New Mexico's roster and they haven't been assigned jersey numbers.

Lonnie White, Los Angeles Times: Louisiana State might be 8-1, but the official record in Las Vegas has the Tigers at a mere 4-5.

Cakes Rock the Party: Breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of the Bowl Championship Series contenders.

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