Tuesday marked day one for the BCS Bowls and the official end the college football season. The day was spattered with some great bowl games, which for the most part, the good ones ended up being the non-BCS bowl games. If you missed out on the South Carolina/Michigan Outback Bowl, you missed out on the best bowl of the day. The BCS bowls were kinda snoozers. Especially the Orange Bowl.

The Granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl, kicked us off in terms of BCS games and it featured Wisconsin (8-6) and Stanford (12-2). It wasn’t as high-scoring as expected, with the Cardinal defense really being stingy to the Badgers. Stanford took the Rose Bowl, marking their first ever win of the bowl game, 20-14. In a B1G heavy bowl day, the conference didn’t fair too well. The only win of the day for them came from the Northwestern Wildcats. Good try, good effort to the rest of them.

In the Orange Bowl, it pitted the Florida State Seminoles (12-2) against the MACtion’s Northern Illinois Huskies (12-2). It was the first time the MAC conference had sent a team to a BCS game, since they are not an auto-qualifying conference. Many had hoped that the MAC would put -up a better showing than they did, but it ended up in a 31-10 Seminoles beatdown. There was some controversy going into the game, ) while apparently the Orange Bowl actually told the Huskies they didn’t even want them playing in the game due to ratings. I don’t think the Orange Bowl should be complaining one bit, considering the ratings over the last couple of years have been terrible due to the teams who get selected. They Huskies should have just said, “It’s not me, it’s you.”

Wednesday night features the Sugar Bowl and the Louisville Cardinals and the Florida Gators, which has the making to be a very good match-up. Only five more games until the National Championship game featuring two of College Football’s blue bloods.

WEEEE!!

Some guys get statues made in their honor. This guy's getting a position renamed.

For reasons that I cannot even begin to fathom, someone donated a whole bunch of money to Stanford so that the football team would no longer have a plain old Offensive Coordinator, but instead the Andrew Luck Directorship of Offense. Just let that sink in for a moment.

Okay, look, I know that Luck did a whole lot for Cardinal football. It’s nice that this donor and the school want to honor him, but why not do that through a scholarship or an award or something? Plenty of schools do that, and it’s a far less ridiculous way to pay tribute to someone.

For his part, Luck issued a statement (through the school) on the situation:

“It is a huge tribute. To have anything endowed in my name is a complete honor. I feel very fortunate to have come to Stanford, and I have always enjoyed representing the university. The offensive coordinators I’ve had here helped me not only in football, but also to grow so much as a person. To be a part of that leadership and position is a very proud legacy for me.”

Pep Hamilton is the school’s OC, and he had something (glowing) to say, too:

“It is a tremendous honor to hold this position and to be associated with an outstanding young man like Andrew Luck, who means so much to Stanford football and the Stanford community. I will do everything in my power to proudly continue the tradition of creative and exciting offensive football at Stanford.”

Apparently naming positions for people isn’t a totally new thing at Stanford, but still. Having a person’s title include the phrase ”directorship of offense” just sounds silly. If I had cash to spare (p.s. I don’t, so stop calling me, South Carolina), I’d get my name on a library or something. Maybe that’s selfish, but at least it doesn’t make people go, “BUT WHY?!”

In other Luck-related news, he’s skipping Indianapolis’ OTA’s to finish up his degree at Stanford. That decision is getting mixed reviews, with some people applauding his commitment to education and others who believe that it’s doing him no favors to be missing time getting used to the system and his teammates. I tend to be in agreement with the former, but I’m also not a Colts fan.

Notre Dame needed overtime to beat UConn for the third time this season. Baylor continued their unbeaten streak against Stanford. The NCAA Women’s Championship is set for Tuesday night at 8:30pm ET on ESPN:

Baylor will try to finish their season unbeaten and become the first ever team with 40 wins.

Notre Dame returns to the game they lost last season.

It will be the second time this season the two teams will meet, with Baylor winning by 13 points earlier in the season.

The Lady Bears beat Stanford without much from star Brittany Griner. That’s what double and triple teams do. As head coach Kim Mulkey said in a postgame interview, “we aren’t the Brittany Griner show.” Those double and triple teams led to open shots for the other Baylor players. Odyssey Sims scored 11 points while Terran Condrey scored 13 points off the bench.

Baylor held everyone on Stanford in check, except for Nneka Ogwumike. She scored 22 points but needed 23 shots to get to that total. Her sister Chiney fouled out with just four points. The Cardinal made just 2-of-17 three point shots.

Notre Dame trailed at the half, but stormed back early in the second half. The game was tied at the end of regulation because UConn went on an 8-2 run to tie the game, fueled by the hustle of Kelly Faris.

Skylar Diggins and Brittany Mallory stepped up in overtime. Mallory hit two 3-pointers and Diggins played good defense to help the Irish prevail for their second straight semifinal victory over the Huskies. Those two 3-pointers were the only outside shots Mallory made in the game.

The National Championship will feature two of the game’s top junior stars: Griner and Diggins.

Which star will shine the brightest?

The Women’s Basketball NCAA Tournament started about three weeks ago with 64 teams vying for a national championship.

After last night, there are now just four teams remaining. For just the second time ever, the Final Four consists of the four number one seeds. All four won their Elite 8 matchups rather easily.

Baylor was the first to cut down the nets. The undefeated Lady Bears beat Tennessee and legendary head coach Pat Summitt on Monday night (though there was some late drama).

Stanford was next, as they beat Duke, to extend their winning streak to 32 games.

UConn beat Kentucky last night and are playing alot better now than they were just a month ago.

Notre Dame was the last team to secure a spot in the Final Four with their surprising thrashing of Maryland.

The women’s Final Four begins Sunday at 6:30pm ET on ESPN as UConn takes on Notre Dame. Baylor and Stanford will follow.

There are some interesting storylines heading into Sunday night:

• Will Brittney Griner dunk again? If you missed it, she threw down a two-handed dunk in the Sweet 16 against Georgia Tech.

• Can the Lady Bear stop the Ogwumike sisters? The senior Nneka and the sophomore Chiney for Stanford have accounted for at least half of the team’s offense in the tournament.

• Who will win the battle between Griner and Nneka? It is such an intriguing matchup. Griner is the rail-thin 6’8 center who has a 7’4 wingspan. Nneka  is the bulkier center for Stanford. Both can score at will around the basket. Will they guard each other?

• Can anyone stop Baylor’s Odyssey Sims? While all the hype goes to Griner, Sims has definitely stood out in the tournament. She has come into her own and Stanford had problems keeping Duke guard Chelsea Gray from driving to the hoop.

• UConn-Notre Dame Part 4: Notre Dame won the first matchup in overtime in South Bend. The Irish won by double-digits in Storrs in the regular season finale. However UConn got the best of ND in the Big East Championship. The two teams know each other well, so this should be a fun game.

• Can Skylar Diggins carry the Irish? To do that, she will need to put up big numbers in both halves, instead of just one.

Sunday’s Final Four should be an exciting one, with the top four teams fighting for supremacy.

As I was watching the late night Rivalry Game on ESPN2 last night, I watched the scores scrolling across the bottom line. I was shocked at what I saw in women’s college basketball: many of the highlighted teams (the winning teams) were unranked.

Is parody finally coming to women’s college basketball?

Well, not exactly. The top four teams are still more dominant than anyone else. Take number 4 Stanford’s win over Pac-12 opponent USC. They won 69-52 to extend their home court winning streak to 75 games.

Number 5 Duke survived a road test at Boston College, 71-62. What was shocking about Duke’s struggles was how dominant they were against ACC arch-rival North Carolina and how off they were against a team with zero wins in the conference.

Now onto the losses.

What was most disturbing was how these ranked teams lost. Six top 25 teams lost on Thursday night, five of those losses came by double-digits. Four of those losses came on the road.

Division I college basketball (both men’s and women’s) is down to just one unbeaten team and that would be Number 1 Baylor. Baylor will face 14th ranked Texas A&M on Saturday. Murray State lost to Tennessee State on Thursday night on the men’s side, while Green Bay lost on the women’s side. Green Bay lost to a team, Detroit, that has 11 losses and hadn’t won at Green Bay in 15 years. Detroit dominated on the glass (a 47-32 rebounding edge), got to the free throw line more (35 times to Green Bay’s 13), and held Green Bay to just 29.9% shooting. Two players for Detroit, Shareta Brown and Senee Shearer, scored 20+ points in the win.

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