10A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2005
NCAA FOOTBALL
Phil McCarten/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Southern California football players gather to watch a broadcast of Bowl Championship Series rankings at the USC campus on Sunday in Los Angeles. The BCS national title game will match USC (12-0) against Texas (12-0) in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4.
BCS comes through in picks
BY RALPH D. RUSSO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — For once, the Bowl Championship Series gets to gloat.
With a glitzy lineup that gives the critics little reason to gripe, the BCS has never looked better.
The Rose Bowl is perfect with Southern California and Texas, the nation's only unbeatens.
The Orange Bowl is a game for the ages — and the aged — matching septuagenarian coaches Joe Paterno of Penn State and Bobby Bowden of Florida State.
Notre Dame is back on the big stage, meeting Ohio State in a Fiesta Bowl soaked in tradition.
Georgia gives the relocated Sugar Bowl a "home" team in Atlanta, facing a West Virginia squad that even makes the Big East look good.
"I certainly understand that there are teams that are not in these four games that have had great seasons, as we have every year." BCS coordinator and Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said Sunday. "I must say that there's a lot of consensus that we have quality matchups among highly regarded teams in this year's BCS games."
Only Oregon has a case to complain.
Seemingly on a collision course all season, USC and Texas will decide the national title in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 4.
in the country," Texas coach Mack Brown said of the two time defending champion Trojans. "They've just blown out people out right and left, and that will be challenge for us. But that's fun.
"For Texas not to be in the national championship game for 36 years and to see where (USC coach) Pete (Carroll) has brought their program the last three years, that's where we want to be. That's where we want to go."
championship instead of Okla-
homa.
"They do have the No.1 team
The other common complaint is the BCS doesn't create compelling matchups beyond the title game. Well, it all worked out this season.
The BCS has been hammered in the past for putting the wrong teams in its championship games. Two years ago, USC was left out and college football ended up with two champs. Last season, many felt Auburn should have played USC for the
Yes, Texas and USC made it easy for the BCS. But remember, in the pre-BCS days the two superpowers would be going separate ways for the postseason.
"Anytime we have a matchup that is widely lauded as being a great matchup in the championship game, you can really see the benefit of a system like this in which through the bowls we're able to bring together the No. 1 and 2 ranked teams that otherwise wouldn't have come together through the (old) bowl system," Weiberg said.
MLB
Offseason features high-profile trades
Teams seek to fill rosters
BY RONALD BLUM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — The winter meetings are back in Texas for the first time since 2000, when teams spent nearly $739 million on 24 free agents, including $252 million on Alex Rodriguez and $160 million to Manny Ramirez.
Relieves Billy Wagner and B.J. Ryan, first baseman Paul Konerko, outfielder Brian Giles and shortstop Rafael Furcal already have agreed to contracts, with Furcal leaving the Atlanta Braves over the weekend to accept a $39 million, three-year offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers.
With many top free agents this offseason already committed, the focus this time around is likely to be on trades rather than signings.
"This particular free-agent market is difficult," said New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, stymied in his search for a center fielder. "Because of that, it's going to promote a lot more aggressive trade discussions."
Top remaining players in a weak free-agent group include center fieldier Johnny Damon and pitchers A.J. Burnett and Kevin Millwood. With a paucity of top talent available to sign, there will be plenty of trade talk going on at baseball's annual swap session, which had been devoid of big-name deals in recent years.
Ramirez, unhappy with life in Boston despite winning the World Series MVP award in 2004, is the biggest name available. But he can veto trades and is owed $57 million over the final three years of his contract, complicating efforts to deal him by the Red Sox,the only major league team without a general manager.
Tony Guieterrez/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig listens to a question during a press conference at the winter baseball meetings Monday in Dallas. MLB announced further details, including names of players that are planning to play in the first ever World Baseball Classic that will be played March, 2006.
Tony Gutierrez/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
"He's still one of the top three or four hitters in baseball." Boston assistant GM Jed Hoyer said, adding that more than a dozen teams have inquired. "They haven't been able to meet the price that we would want for Manny. We're certainly not going in with the expectation that we're going to have to make a trade. Teams would have to step up and beat our expectations."
Florida has been the most active team in the trade market, dealing 2003 World Series MVP Josh Beckett and third baseman Mike Lowell to Boston, first baseman Carlos Delgado to the New York Mets and second baseman Luis Castillo to Minnesota.
Catcher Paul Lo Duca could be joining Delgado on the Mets.
TUI
Dir