Michelle Kaufman

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama might not be invited for a cup of coffee at the Colombian soccer federation anytime soon after his blistering comments last week during a visit to Miami to promote the Feb. 29, 2012, friendly between Colombia and Mexico at Miami's Sun Life Stadium.

Turns out the fluffy-haired Colombian great's opinions on the federation are as laser-sharp and direct as the passes he distributed for 22 years from the center circle for his national team and a dozen clubs, including the defunct Miami Fusion.

Quick, who won the women's NCAA championship last season?

Hint: Not Connecticut. Not Tennessee. Not Stanford. Not Duke. Nope, not Baylor, either, despite 6-8 blocking machine Brittney Griner.

It was Texas A&M, and the runner-up was Notre Dame, proving that the women's game is getting deeper. This season, the race to the top could be more wide-open than ever. Rising programs like the the University of Miami, No. 7 in the AP preseason poll, and 10th-ranked Georgetown could be in the mix come late-March.

The days of Geno Auriemma's UConn Huskies and Pat Summitt's Vols rolling over the rest of the country are past. In fact, Tennessee hasn't made the Finals Four since winning back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008.

This could be the year, though, that the Vols rise again. Not only is it the last shot for seniors Shekinna Stricklen, Glory Johnson, Alicia Manning and Alssia Brewer, but they will be hypermotivated to win the title for legendary coach Summitt, who is battling early-onset dementia.

All around the country last weekend, college football teams opened their conference schedules and faced familiar foes: Florida vs. Alabama, Michigan State vs. Ohio State, UCLA vs. Stanford, Illinois vs. Northwestern. Meanwhile, in Washington, Big East presidents gathered Sunday in a desperate attempt to save their conference and its decades-old rivalries, weakened by the recent exits of powerhouses Syracuse and Pittsburgh.

MIAMI -- Isaac Dixon freely admits it.

A "big reason" the former Miami Monsignor Pace High football player chose University of Oregon over a handful of other suitors was the Ducks' futuristic, neon-trimmed uniforms, with flashy accessories and multiple mix-and-match combinations as unpredictable as the team's high-octane offense.

MIAMI -- When Nevin Shapiro pledged $150,000 to the University of Miami athletic department, he got a student-athlete lounge named after him. But the bigger perk was access -- to the football players he idolized, the stadium sideline, the coaches, even the team plane. Big-time college sports rely on boosters to bankroll escalating coaches' salaries and ever-expanding facilities, and those donors sometimes think of themselves as part-owners of the team.

The more they pay, the closer they get.

The European leagues have closed shop for the summer, and Barcelona's much-hyped Champions League title over Manchester United is history. It's time to turn attention to our home soil for the 2011 Gold Cup -- a 12-team biennial regional tournament that opened Sunday.

As usual, Mexico and the United States are favored to make the final June 25 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., with defending champion Mexico getting a slight edge.

The Mexican team routed the United States 5-0 in the 2009 final and features Manchester United rookie phenom Javier "El Chicharito " (the small pea) Hernandez, Tottenham's Giovani dos Santos and captain Rafa Marquez, a veteran central defender who played for Barcelona and now is with the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer.

MIAMI -- Palm Beach County is the epicenter of American women's soccer. The U.S. women's national team is in town for a three-week camp in preparation for the Women's World Cup in Germany, and Magic Jack, the Women's Professional Soccer team formerly known as the Washington Freedom, has relocated to Boca Raton, Fla.

Magic Jack is named for the Internet phone service invented by Palm Beach, Fla.-based team owner Dan Borislow . It opened its season recently with a 1-0 victory over the Boston Breakers in front of about 1,000 fans at Florida Atlantic University. That was a remarkable crowd considering the team did very little advertising and doesn't even have a website. The team features seven members of the U.S. national team, including star forwards Abby Wambach and Lindsay Tarpley . Rookie Christen Press, Stanford's career scoring leader, also is a player to watch.