Everyone is an expert on sports

Will the Ducks ride to another BCS game?

To quote Stephen Colbert, "You know I'm a born sportsman. I have been told by many doctors that I have athlete's feet."

Corny as that joke is, I still love it.

And, in spite of every reason to hate sports for their commercialism and to despise athletes for doping, I'm still a fan.

I've got a well-worn TV remote control that gets a bit of a workout during the fall when college football appears on every sports channel on almost every day of the week.

In fact, my fingers are exhausted from last weekend's slate of games that finally ended Monday night.

And, the real athletes think they have it tough.

Actually, they do.

Watching football players slam into each other at hyper speed can be painful.

I always hate to see players get injured.

Such is the case of Beau Hebert of Nicholls State who was knocked out of the game by Oregon's Terrance Mitchell while sliding toward a first down.

Yes, Mitchell deserved to be kicked out of the game because of the new "targeting" rules enacted this season. It wasn't a cheap shot, but it was avoidable.

Hope Hebert recovers quickly.

Meanwhile at Oregon State, the Beavers managed to do what few ranked teams do: lose to a lower division team, this time Eastern Washington.

For some reason, the Beavs always manage to start painfully slow. They overlook inferior opponents and get burned.

So ends the talk of starting 7-0.

In fact, no team in the Pac-12 is certain to start 7-0.

The Ducks could lose this weekend at Virginia.

San Jose State could shock Stanford.

The uncertainty of college football makes it so compelling to watch.

Unlike pro football, where every team plays the same dull way, college football is far more exciting with a variety of offensive styles of play.

There is hurry-up, spread, pro-style and pistol, to name a few.

The defenses have their work cut out for them.

Yet, pro football dominates the national discussion, particularly on ESPN.

The main reason is ratings.

In the Northeast, where most Americans live, there is no noteworthy college football team. In fact, no college team from the Northeast, including New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania, are ranked in the top 25.

Conversely, some of the best teams in pro football are in the Northeast, such as the New England Patriots, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. And, of course, since the Jets are based in the New York area, we must suffer through all the meaningless blather about the Jets, who haven't won anything since 1969.

So, ESPN and sports talk radio cater to pro football.

And, it's easy to tune out.

Pro football, like most pro sports, offers little excitement because the outcome is pre-ordained by the gambling powers-that-be. Since so much money is at stake, the outcome has to be controlled by organized crime or the NFL, if there is any difference.

Yes, there is gambling on college games, but, most of the time, it means little.

Oregon State was a 24-point favorite over EWU and lost by 3 points.

The Oregon Ducks were favored by at least 59 points and covered the spread, 66-3.

But the spread, including the over and under, are meaningless at the college level because college kids are so fickle. In fact, I've never understood the over or under.

Gambling on sports, particularly college sports, is for fools, or those who have more money than brains.

Actually, since the pro game is so rigged, you would be an idiot to bet on pro football as well.

So, this blog is not about gambling or odds that your favorite team will win or lose.

It's about pointing out the obvious in an age where such things are often greeted with suspicion.

Pro sports are fixed.

College sports, mostly, are not.