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The Recruiting Racket

The mania of college football recruiting in the South is peculiar. Like fantasy football, recruiting is an outgrowth from the game that somehow manages occasionally to supersede it. If you're not careful Feb. 7, National Signing Day for college-bound prospects, you might get the idea that winning on the field is mainly in service of wooing teenagers.

The Bitter End

Advance apologies for the personal bitterness, which does not seem to be the general sentiment immediately following the New Orleans Saints' 39-14 loss at Chicago in Sunday's NFC Championship Game, a result that sends the Bears to the Super Bowl and New Orleans into sweet retrospectives of the greatest season in franchise history. Emotions subside, bitterness wanes, cynicism yields with time, and proper perspective will arrive, at some point. Deadlines being what they are, though, this feels pretty horrible.

Instant Replay: NFL Playoffs, Saints 27, Eagles 24

Carried by the strong legs of Deuce McAllister, the New Orleans Saints march past the Philadelphia Eagles, 27-24, and into the NFC Championship for the first time in team history. Their opponent will be the winner of Sunday's Chicago-Seattle game.

Hurry Up And Wait

No one with the fortitude to support the New Orleans Saints for any appreciable amount of time is a stranger to sitting through the NFL's Wild Card Weekend with unspecific, non-wager-based rooting interest. In that sense, last weekend was typical of the first football weekend of any new year: plenty of postseason action, none of it wearing black and gold.

Instant Replay: College Football, USM 28, Ohio 7

Biloxi

Southern Miss drilled Ohio 28-7 in the GMAC Bowl on Sunday night before an ESPN TV audience and a lot of wet USM fans in Mobile. The game was really over at halftime when the Golden Eagles took a 21-0 lead.

Plucked Out

"The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game" (W. W. Norton, $24.95) would be dreadful as fiction—a Disneyfied, feel-good failure. A 15-year-old black kid from a big family in the ghetto arrives at the doorstep of an all-white evangelical Christian school. He's adopted by a rich white family; hilarity ensues.

Saban Going To Tuscaloosa

Nick Saban is leaving the Miami Dolphins to become head football coach at Alabama. Saban, who previously coached in college at Michigan State and LSU, spent two seasons with the Dolphins, compiling a record of 15-17. He will reportedly become the highest-paid coach in college football.

Eagles Set To Fly South

The Southern Miss football team returned to the practice field on Monday following a 10-day holiday break. The Golden Eagles will practice in Hattiesburg on Tuesday morning and then leave for Mobile, where they will play Ohio in the GMAC Bowl on Sunday. Unbelievably, tickets are still available. But they will be gone as soon as Jackson-area USM alums quit waffling and decide to go to Mobile for some gambling and gridiron.

2 College Games on TV Tuesday

Two state college basketball games are playing television games on Tuesday. Southern Miss hosts Auburn (6 p.m., CSS) and Mississippi State visits Missouri (7 p.m., FSN South). After that, you can watch the last half of the Orange Bowl.

Pro Hoops Returning To Jackson

Pro basketball will return to Jackson this spring. The Jackson Wildcats of the United States Basketball League will play at the Mississippi Coliseum from April through June. The Wildcats' home opener is scheduled for April 22.

NFL Instant Replay: Fred, Brett and Eli

Panthers 31, Saints 21: The Saints put false pride aside and let their reserves do most of the work. Hey, it was great to see Fast Freddie McAfee score. But how long has it been since you scored, Fred?

Bless The Beasts And The Student-Athletes

Deadspin delivers two late contenders for sports story of the year:

Johnny Fontaine Will Be Starting For Palermo Soon: Italian soccer coach gets goat's head for Christmas.

Smoot In Smash-up

Former Provine High/Hinds CC/Mississippi State star Fred Smoot has run into trouble again. Smoot will miss the Minnesota Vikings' final regular-season game after breaking his jaw in an automobile accident early last Saturday in Jackson. Smoot can't talk, but he's getting the word out through text messages.

The Great Divide

The few of us still in the practice of keeping straight the interchangeable Meineke Car Cares and Micron PCs of the ever-inflating college football bowl season—postseason rewards for the game's "elite" clique of (mostly) winners for the second straight year is bestowed upon more "major" programs (64) than not (55)—have at least been able to rely on a game's timing as a rough gauge of its prestige, with the important games coming after Christmas. These days, the Bowl Championship Series has pushed back the cutoff for the supposed creme de la creme up to a week into the new year to avoid overlap, culminating in its self-proclaimed National Championship Game.

Saints To Get Week Off

Read it and rejoice, Saints fans (from The Associated Press):

NEW ORLEANS — This is new territory for the New Orleans Saints and their rookie coach: With a game to go, they have not only clinched the division, they have guaranteed themselves a bye in the playoffs.

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