Chris Dufresne

LOS ANGELES -- Many college coaches are control freaks who operate on military time and like to assign stadium steps for anyone arriving five minutes late to a 10 o'clock meeting.

LOS ANGELES -- West Coast Conference commissioner Jamie Zaninovich is a rookie on this year's NCAA tournament selection committee but is aware of the rule that prohibits him from being in the room when his league's schools are discussed for at-large consideration.

"I remember Dan Beebe (former Big 12 commissioner and committee member) telling me he was out of the room constantly," Zaninovich said by phone this week from WCC headquarters in San Bruno, Calif. "It's a nice problem to have. I hope it's a real problem for me."

LOS ANGELES -- People have speculated for years that California might someday drop off the map, and the slide may have already started with college basketball.

San Diego State, loser of three straight games and holding on by a fingernail at No. 24, is the only California team represented in this week's Associated Press top-25 poll.

And you thought Texas was the lone star state?

We're at a rankings standstill. Nobody budged in this week's top 11. It's as if everyone is standing at a bus stop waiting for November. There's nothing anyone can do until Alabama, Louisiana State or Oklahoma loses. Wisconsin beating Indiana by 52 points last week earned the Badgers a big-deal No. 6 in the first Bowl Championship Series standings. Boise State is stripping gears at No. 5, and Stanford hasn't lost in more than a year yet sits behind the No. 8 BCS ball. Only one bit of housekeeping: Washington enters the poll at No. 25 and Texas, once 4-0, drops out after dropping to 4-2.

LOS ANGELES -- The Pacific 10 (now 12) Conference is proud to welcome two new lodge members.

One program is disheveled, walks with a limp and wears its shirt tail out -- the other is Utah.

One is a model of efficiency, efficacy and proficiency -- and the other is Colorado.

The glut of bowl games is over except for those special few traditional galas that are always saved for last, "GoDaddy.com" and "Compass" among them.

LOS ANGELES -- A book written by three Yahoo Sports reporters (who are not yahoos) attempts to blow the boilermaker top off the sinister, fraudulent and perhaps illegal Bowl Championship Series, now entering its 13th preposterous season.