Sorry ACC, some leagues don't belong in title picture

Reality check: They're a great story, but by no stretch of the imagination are the Utah Utes the nation's No. 1 team, as some fans and contrarians insist. Not if you take strength of schedule into consideration. It's why the best SEC team should be included in each national title game. As for the ACC - sorry Virginia Tech - there are even some BCS conferences that just shouldn't be playing for the big prize.

Futurewatch Timing is everything. For its splashy '09 opener, Tech meets an Alabama team that will be breaking in a new quarterback. Edge, Hokies.

In time I'm worn out by these college football debates. How much longer until we can start boring one another with talk about basketball teams on the bubble?

Bromance Coming in for a fair share of abuse after the BCS title game is the Fox broadcasting team, especially play-by-play man Thom Brennaman. As the night wound down, Brennaman was saying something about Tebow - perhaps nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize - when the Florida quarterback was flagged for taunting. "That's the first thing wrong he's ever done in his life," Brennaman said. The perfect ending to a bizarre broadcast.

Infamous Don't look now, but ACC football is being dumped on again. This time, it's the dithering ACC officiating crew that's feeling heat for contributing to the choppiness of the title game.

Bottom line The defenses for Florida and Oklahoma were stout, but let's be clear - they were helped by the rust that accumulated on the offenses after a 40-day layoff. Played two weeks following the regular season, the game might have been the wide-open, exciting affair that was promised.

Idle thought Percy Harvin's 52-yard run from scrimmage after Oklahoma tied it in the fourth quarter felt like the game breaker.

For what it's worth With a Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback, Oklahoma should have passed more often.

Hoops du jour I'll suspend my bashing of ACC football long enough to take a whack at ACC basketball after a couple of stunners - Morgan State beating Maryland and Boston College, fresh off its upset of North Carolina, losing to Harvard. Tell me now the ACC isn't a shadow of what it was.

Twerps Maryland's loss at home to a sub-.500 MEAC team recalls Chaminade's upset of Ralph Sampson's Virginia.

Suggestion For another season, college basketball officials are doing their best to muck up games by making too many bogus charging calls under the basket. Memo to the zebras: stop rewarding the floppers.

World view The international media voted Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, not Michael Phelps, A thlete of the Y ear. They might have gotten that right.

The One In a New Orleans victory that broke the Lakers' 15-game win streak, Hornets point guard Chris Paul had 32 points, 15 assists and zero turnovers. He makes the game look too easy.

Oh, baby Former Tennessee basketball star Candace Parker is pregnant. Some people will do anything to escape the WNBA.

Big Bird No way the Steelers' James Harrison should have been the runaway winner of the AP Defensive Player of the Year award after the kind of season Ravens safety Ed Reed has had. Reed doesn't just prevent touchdowns, he scores them.

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373 or bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com