Down The Drive, a Cincinnati Bearcats community

Quotebook: The Los Angeles Times reported that when a car driven by Oregon cornerback Cliff Harris was pulled over for allegedly cruising along at 118 mph, he was asked if he had any marijuana in the car. He responded: ``We smoked it all." Hey, end of problem!

Football's Shoeless Joe: The Associated Press said that police raided the apartment of LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson, accused of using his feet in a bar fight, and seized 49 pairs of his shoes--including the pair he was wearing.

Best pre-season laugh: After a Miami (Fla.) booster said that he had provided illicit benefits to 72 Hurricane athletes, President Donna Shalala said, ``Nationally, the academic achievements of our student-athletes are mentioned in the same breath and spirit as Notre Dame and Stanford."

And I think that the SEC has proved to not only me but everybody else that they have the strongest football-playing conference. But you know what? The ACC has proved that in basketball, and we’re not going to stop playing either of them.

And I think that the SEC has proved to not only me but everybody else that they have the strongest football-playing conference. But you know what? The ACC has proved that in basketball, and we’re not going to stop playing either of them.

Remember that in each of the past three seasons, the nation's No. 1 team has lost on Championship Saturday.

An elite team would have a better chance of going 24-0 against Boise State's slate twice (33.5 percent) than it would going 12-0 against Ohio State's slate this year (33.2 percent).

James Laurinaitis gets license to be Rams' leader on defense.

North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall today launched an investigation into possible improprieties by sports agents in the state.

Spokesman George Jeter said the department hasn't received a complaint but is responding to media reports of possible NCAA violations that may have been caused by improper contact between agents and college athletes.

"That's it, precisely," Jeter said. "The number of media reports coming out and talking about possibly things that might have happened and possibly actions by agents, or people who should be agents if they're not, [sparked the investigation]."

If Atlanta is dumb enough to be a part of building an open air stadium without a retractable roof, then the champagne corks will start popping in Birmingham. Because you can bet that they’ll figure out a way to build a ball park to get the SEC championship football game to come back (the first two games were played in Birmingham in 1992 and 1993). And you can bet that New Orleans would be putting together a bid and sprucing up the Superdome. A big part of what has made the SEC championship game one of the great success stories in sport is that weather is not a factor. Weather has been a factor for the Big 12 and the ACC and the results on those championship games has been mixed at best. The SEC, in my opinion, will not play this game in an open air stadium.

Georgia, at 8th, is the highest ranked team who didn't win a NC.

Some of you are thinking, "This is great. Someone is finally going to fix the BCS." But consider some of the federal government's greatest hits of the last ten years: The War in Iraq. The response to Hurricane Katrina. Oh, yeah, and helping the banks almost destroy the American economy.

This is avoiding the obvious point that Sen. Hatch -- who asked DOJ to look into this -- has otherwise been busy with writing paens to limited government. Apparently, regulating college football must be in the enumerated powers somewhere.