FanHouse Conference USA

It's a marriage of mutual necessity. He needs them -- and, oh, do they need him, as sure as Ashley Judd can fill a "Go 'Cats'' t-shirt. The anguished looms at Kentucky need John Calipari because he'll hustle, sell the program, recruit stud players, kiss babies and embrace the psychotic romance that is Big Blue Nation. And John Calipari needs Kentucky because, well, he still isn't roundly accepted as an elite coach, a perception he'll change if he resurrects a fallen dynasty.

The Big Ten leads all college football conference in number of Super Bowl players with 19. That's right, SEC fans, you don't rock the house - at least for this year's Super Bowl.

Perhaps this reflects the necessary cold-weather taste of Chicago and Indianapolis general managers who knew they'd need a few extra cold weather guys to survive icy playoff battles.

Whatever the reason, there she is with 19 participants among players on either the active roster, injured reserve or non-football injury/illness list.

The ACC came in second with 15 participants, the Big 12 third with 14, the SEC fourth with 12 the Pac-10 fifth at 11 and the Big East sixth at eight participants.

Reflecting the reality that football talent is not confined to D-IA schools (nor America, for that matter), 16 players arrive at the Super Bowl from someplace other than D-IA schools.

The rest of the data:

Independents placed six player representatives in Super Bowl XLI, the Mountain West six, the Western Athletic Conference five, the Sun Belt four, the Mid-America Conference two and one from Conference USA.

So there's your college football angle to this whole Super Bowl excitement. Signing Day is just a few days away at which point we can return to some normalcy with talk of Spring, Summer and Fall football practices and workouts and head into the 2007-2008 college football season.