A column in today's The State, Columbia's local newspaper, reminds South Carolinians that the NCAA continues to enforce its boycott of the entire Palmetto State due to their adorable insistence on flying the Confederate flag on the grounds of the state captiol. While cities like Boise and Dayton reap incredible monetary benefits—and some sweet p.r.—every time Greg Gumbel announces that he's sending viewers out to those humble northern towns, USC's state of the art 18,000-seat basketball arena sits empty. And the author of the piece, Ron Morris, is not afraid to tell his fellow citizens that, well ... they really are being dumb about the whole thing:

I understand fully that hosting such an event means dreaming big. It is progressive thinking in a state where progress is usually measured by whether we move up to 48th nationally in public school education or by the fact we moved the Confederate flag from atop the State House to - celebrate! - the State House grounds.

In the end, it is a sad statement that the state of South Carolina and the city of Columbia cannot host an NCAA basketball tournament because it cares more about recognizing its racist past than its prosperous future.

Maybe some day ...

Morris: Rebel flag costs S.C. at tourney time [The State]

* * * * * *

Well, that was an interesting day. Only one more until the basketball zombies come to take us away again. I hope A.J. makes it back from whatever wacky wilderness adventure he's got himself into this time. It's always something with that guy!

Enjoy your evening of whatever is you do when we're not looking. Thank you for continued support the electricity industry.

The State newspaper has Spurrier's response:

“You need to call the university police and ask them what happened. I wasn’t there,” Spurrier said. “I’ve just heard second-hand reports that there was a little fracas, a little tussle between some people we don’t know and some of our football players. ... We’ll let the police and university tell us exactly what happened and what we need to do.”

So was it a fracus or a tussle? A donnybrook or a scuffle? The world awaits. The five players involved were (right now South Carolina fans are holding their breath and turning red) "receiver C.C. Whitlock, offensive lineman Terrence Campbell, defensive lineman Melvin Ingram and defensive backs Akeem Auguste and Antonio Allen." You can exhale now, none of these guys are that important. They're the same five guys who weren't even good enough to play in a loss to Vandy.

As if this weren't enough, the article is rife with speculation that this incident was "gang-related." Thanks to the Gamecock student newspaper's interview of Biology student Tommy Nguyen, that speculation seems fairly well grounded in truth. "Nguyen overheard the instigators of the fight shouting and yelling as they hit the victim. What Nguyen overheard indicated the fight may have been gang-related.

"At first I thought [I heard] 'Bloods' or something like that. Once they started hitting him they kept saying 'What's up Red?'" Nguyen said.

Five players involved in lunchtime brawl [The State]
All out brawl breaks out in GMP [Daily Gamecock]

8. UVa at UConn (-12.5)- Remember how Al Groh was supposed to revitalize Cavs football? Yeah, those dreams have long since passed. Now dontfirealgroh.com gets more and more frustrating each week. Already Cavs fans are rooting for the good ole days when their players were being arrested at gay bars to return. But has it really gotten to the point where a UConn team that scored 12 points on Temple, Temple!, opens as a favorite by more than 12 over Virginia? Yep, that time has come. UVa beat UConn last year 17-16. But you have to take UVa with that spread, right?

7. Oregon (-8) at Purdue- This game will take 5 hours to play and end with a score of something like 56-49. The new college football rules designed to shorten the game have no prayer of helping here. Joe Tiller is the most reliably average of all Big Ten coaches. He's good for 7 or 8 wins a year (10 bowl games in 11 seasons) and will inevitably have at least a single game in September that makes you think Purdue might be a factor. Then, they aren't. Unless it's sleeting and his mustache freezes. Then, you have to watch.

Oregon is probably USC's most legit challenger in the Pac-10 and no one has mentioned them all season. Why? Because as much as the Pac-10 complains about a lack of media attention on the East Coast, the only Pac-10 teams that get any West Coast media attention are in major markets in California.

The most interesting thing about this game? Both teams had a bye coming in. Why? (Note, evidently this is not true. Both teams actually played games; Purdue-Northern Colorado and Oregon-Utah State. Even still, I stand by my bye week statement.) The second most interesting thing about this game, Oregon is traveling to Indiana for a football game. Again, why? This is one of those cross-regional games that makes no sense. Does Purdue bring in northwest recruits? No. Does Oregon hit up Indiana for players? No. Have Purdue and Oregon fans been clamoring for this match-up? No. So, why play? Just so the Pac-10 and the Big 10 can play another game on the same day as USC-Ohio State that no one on earth will remember? Brilliant.

But look at all the pretty touchdowns.

6. Auburn (-10.5) at Miss. State- Last year Miss. State and Sylvestor Croom found a way to beat Auburn at Auburn. Now, Auburn has a new quarterback, a new offensive coordinator, a new defensive coordinator, has looked mediocre in two wins thus far and they are favored by two scores in a road game. This makes zero sense to me. Granted State has looked horrible, but even when State wins they look horrible. How could you not take MSU here? I'll tell you, if Croom makes the mistake of scheduling the team fieldtrip to the only escalator in Starkville on the Friday before this game. Last year three starters were injured trying to walk the "magic stairs."

5. Oklahoma (-20) at Washington- Can you imagine what will happen if the officials, feeling sorry for Washington's excessive celebration penalty last week, blow another call on the west coast in favor of a Pac-10 school against Oklahoma. I'm rooting for this to happen just to see Bob Stoops storm the field and choke the head ref to death with his headset cord. Otherwise the Ty Willingham death march is likely to continue.

4. Michigan (-2) at Notre Dame- The fact that Michigan is favored in this game speaks volumes about Jimmy Clausen's hair. Because if you've watched Michigan's offense thus far they look like Australian aboriginees being instructed in how to build websites without first learning to read. Yet, amazingly, the over/under on this game is 37. How? The score of this game is going to be 13-10 Michigan and after it's over, Charlie Weis's amazingly invisible crotch is going to be soiled. But not for long. Immediately after he soils himself, Notre Dame fans will arrive to lick up his mess. All the while exclaiming, "Oh, yeah, Ty Willingham's the one who really blows. This isn't a blow job, this is just a European crotch cleaning."

3. Kansas at South Florida (-3.5)- This game is actually being played on Friday which means 99% of college football fans are going to think, man that sounds like a good game. Only the game will already have been played before we realize it's going on. Which is a shame because Kansas's Mark Mangino and USF's Jim Leavitt are the two angriest coaches on the sideline not named Mike Gundy. Kansas hasn't lost since John Brown's Raid but South Florida is favored at home. Anyone who tells you they have any idea what's going to happen in this game is a fool. USF is the moderately attractive girl of college football. Except she's bipolar. One party she's ski-polling two guys while sitting on the drier, the next weekend she's worn a navy pantsuit to the party and is crying into her Cranberry Diet Mike's Hard Lemonade. I'm sure this is tough to take for USF fans.

Hopefully for Mark Mangino's sake he'll avoid having his picture taken alongside oranges this time.

2. Georgia (-7.5) at South Carolina- Steve Spurrier is reverting to 1994 and plans on alternating between his two quarterbacks, Smelley and Beecher. Neither of them is any good and they're probably not going to be able to throw bubble screens to wide receiver Kenny McKinley, who has an injured hamstring. Meanwhile, Georgia comes into town incensed because Mark May didn't invite Knowshon Moreno onto the set and let him demonstrate his great leaping ability by tea-bagging Lou Holtz. Also, former Georgia defensive end David Pollack is now a member of the CBS announcing team. In what capacity, I'm not sure. There's a strong part of me that wants his only role to be high-skipping into the press box while barking with Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson walking calmly behind him.

This game may be the last chance Steve Spurrier has to prove he's still relevant. Otherwise he sinks to 1-7 in his last 8. It's also one of two early SEC East games (the other is Florida-UT) where every other SEC East fanbase needs to be rooting for the underdog to win so chaos rules in the SEC East.

1. Ohio State (-11.5) at USC- Too much has been said about this game already. And the most interesting question, hasn't even been answered. How much does USC have to beat Ohio State (sans Beanie) by to guarantee that Ohio State has no chance to play in the BCS title game? 30? 40? I'm interested in the number because I really have no idea.

In 2000, when he left Florida for the Washington Redskins, Spurrier could reflect on six SEC championships in a decade and a national title. The subsequent Washington implosion has been well-chronicled. After signing a $5 million a year deal Spurrier went 12-20 in two seasons and quit. He sat out a year and with much fanfare returned to the SEC as the coach of the Gamecocks. Now after three complete seasons and one extra SEC game Spurrier has more SEC losses at USC (13) than he had in his entire SEC coaching career with Florida (12). From 82-12 in the SEC to 11-13 with the Cocks. The best season Spurrier has had was his second—an 8-5 mark with wins over Florida and Tennessee.

But now, in the wake of yet another loss to Vanderbilt, the question has to be asked, is Steve Spurrier done? He's 63, his team is not going to do better than 8-4 with their schedule (and probably worse) and, what's more, Spurrier simply doesn't appear to have much passion for the game anymore. In year's past watching a football game featuring Spurrier was an exercise in showmanship. Spurrier tossed visors, broke clipboards, yanked quarterbacks from one play to the next with reckless abandon, and celebrated with sophomoric glee. Last night? Last night I couldn't even pick Spurrier out on the sideline at South Carolina.

How bad has it gotten for Spurrier? If he left he couldn't even anoint his son as successor right now. Also, in an alarming economic indicator of Spurrier support, visor sales have plummeted 95% in the greater Columbia area in the past three seasons. In the end Steve Spurrier is in danger of what once seemed impossible, slipping away into SEC irrelevance. No one fears the Ol' Ball Coach anymore. Not even Vandy.

Spurrier takes pregame Music City Tour [Tennessean]

For three years Ole Miss tried unsuccessfully to enroll Jerrell Powe, a 330-pound beast ranked among the Top 5 defensive tackles in the country. There was just one problem with the idea of him taking college classes, best illuminated by his mother: "Jerrell really is a good child," she said. "He just can't read."

Further explanation: "While a Florida recruit with a 3.0 GPA only has to score 620 on his SATs, Vandy's must measure up to something closer to the 3.5/1300 minimums it requires of all applicants, even the ones who can't pancake a 300-pound lineman. And those select athletes don't always make their way to Nashville."

All of this is essentially a prelude to invite anyone heading to this game (Vandy or South Carolina fans) to shoot me an email and come share a bunch of beers tomorrow night. Thursday night college football...it makes the weekdays disappear. Kind of.

The Grass Ceiling [Nashville Scene]

Do you see what they've done there? They've combined condominium and cock. Which usually only happens on South Beach. Anyway, the condo craze came to Columbia, South Carolina and condo towers went up around the wasteland that is Williams-Brice Stadium. But it seems the real estate market is not as robust as anticipated.

As a result 40 cockominiums are going up for auction on Saturday. 10 of these units have no reserve so get your carpetbags packed. How did this happen? Well, The State knows.

A building frenzy that would result in more than 400 condos by Williams-Brice kicked off in early 2005 when developers broke ground on The Spur. It was one of the best years on record in Columbia for real estate sales. Three more cockominium developments were started that same year.

Man, cockominium's aren't even selling now? What's the world come to?

Stadium condos going to auction [The State]

South Carolina's the only team left who can force another bubble team out, which means that the 'Cocks haven't been this hated since the last Lesbian Pride march. But the good news for you bubble team fans is that Florida is the #14 team in the country, they outscore their opponents by 15 points a game, they're on a 4-game winning streak, and they've lost just six games all year. Of course, two of those were to South Carolina. So... nevermind. You're probably screwed.

A handy championship game viewing guide for today:

SEC: South Carolina @ Florida, 1 pm, CBS
ACC: Boston College @ Duke, 1 pm, ESPN
Southland: Sam Houston State @ Northwestern State, 2 pm, ESPN2
Big 12: Kansas @ Texas, 3 pm, ESPN
Big 10: Iowa @ Ohio State, 3:30 pm, CBS

Just a few short hours until you become a slave to the bracket.

South Carolina Thefts [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]