FanHouse Cal Bears

Since joining the Bowl Championship Series system, the Pac Ten has been the perennial odd-man out, and history repeated itself again as the Kansas Jayhawks were selected to play in the Orange Bowl, leaving Arizona State as the off-man out.

Pac Ten Commissioner Tom Hansen is likely not amused--but nor should be be surprised. The BCS has a history of giving the conference the short end of the stick.

In 2001, the Oregon Ducks were jumped over by a Nebraska team that lost its final game and left out of the Rose Bowl. Two years later, USC was ranked #1 in both human polls, but left out of the Title Game. A year later, Mack Brown lobbied enough pollsters to jump Cal for the final automatic qualifying spot and a Rose Bowl berth, and in 2005, Oregon missed an automatic BCS berth by one slot.

Usually when College Football fans hear "blackout" they think of some Thursday night football game in the Big East or ACC where the home team wears all-black jerseys and ask all the fans to don black to the night game as well.

In the case of the October 20th UCLA-Cal game, the words "black out" will have a whole new meaning. Former Google spokesman and environmental activist Nate Tyler is asking everyone in San Francisco to go without electricity for one hour between 8 PM and 9 PM that Saturday night.

If the game is selected as ABC's West Coast game of the week--which is likely since USC will be playing on the Notre-Dame Broadcasting Channel and this game will determine second place in the Pac Ten--that 8 PM to 9 PM time slot will coincide with the game's Fourth Quarter. Not that it matters. Winner goes to the Holiday Bowl.

Environmental Hippiness and the Cal Bears Previously On Fanhouse:
Wonderful Treetards Allowed to Remain in Precious, Irreplacable Old Forest
What Y'all Doin' in That Tree? and Other Lingering SEC Questions, Week 1
Cal's Hippiegate Gets Worse
Cal Held Hostage By Hippies: Hupdate
Hippies Block Cal Stadium Expansion

Fans of Big Red may be seeing blue, as it looks like the top scorer for the 2006 Nebraska Cornhuskers will be transferring to a Pac Ten contender.

Cornhusker kicker Jordan Congdon, who made a name for himself as a Freshman, earning Freshman All-Big 12 and Freshman All-American nods is looking to transfer out of Omaha.

Tops on his list: the University of Southern California, though word on the street is he'll take a look at Cal-Berkeley before making a final decision.

Following the suspension of kicker Troy Van Blarcom and the tragic death of place kicker Mario Danelo, the Trojans are in dire need of help on Special Teams.