The Baldest Truth

Everybody loves a big-time college athlete who chooses Boolah! Boolah! Boolah! over moolah-moolah-moolah.

How loyal of him to stay in school with his buddies instead of wandering out into the cold, cruel world of professional sports. How noble. How heroic.

How shortsighted.

I have my doubts about Jimmy Clausen being good enough to star on Sundays. Nevertheless, if NFL scouts love the Notre Dame quarterback so much that he’ll be a top draft pick next April, he only has one intelligent choice.

Go pro, kid, go pro.

Clausen shouldn’t make the same $80 million mistake Sam Bradford did. He shouldn’t stay in school because it’s fun. I’d give the same advice to Washington QB Jake Locker and any other underclassman who is top-10 material.

They can have plenty of fun in the NFL. If they have to, they can buy fun. They should think about the primary purpose of college: To prepare a young person for life and for the profession he or she wants to enter when the keggers, study halls, hook-ups and final exams are finished.

Bradford is the cautionary tale of all cautionary tales. He probably would have been the first pick in last year’s draft but he decided to stay at Oklahoma because, he said, “My three years here have been probably three of the best years of my life.”

He added: “I really feel that there is no need to cut this experience short.”

Need, no. Reason, yes.

Through the end of last season, the University of Oklahoma experience did for Bradford exactly what it was supposed to do. As the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and a kid generally considered the best QB available, he surely would have received more money than eventual No. 1 pick Matthew Stafford did from the Lions ($41.7 million guaranteed, with a chance to earn as much as $78 million).

Instead, Sam Bradford is damaged goods.

The first shoulder injury, suffered in this season’s opener, probably didn’t hurt his stock for the 2010 draft too much.

When he went down hard on the shoulder again last week, however, it meant only two words to NFL teams:

Injury.

Prone.

Where will Bradford be drafted now? In the middle of the first round, where his guaranteed take probably would be around $10 million? In the second, where he’d be lucky to get half that? In the third, where seven-figure signing bonuses are rare? Later? It’s a distinct possibility, especially if he isn’t in top shape come Combine time in February.

Obviously, when it comes to risk-reward ratios, it’s foolish for a top-tier college football player to delay his pro career.

Yeah, but what about Tim Tebow? Few say he should have left Florida after leading the Gators to last season's mythical title. Apples and oranges, folks. NFL talent evaluators weren’t even sure he had pro QB skills. (In fact, some still aren’t.) Tebow had to return and prove he was worth the high pick and the big bucks.

As for Clausen, he gets lots of ink because he’s at Notre Dame. OK, but did anybody who watched the USC game really believe he was the best QB on the field?

Matt Barkley had better stats, made more big plays and didn’t misfire repeatedly at the end with the game on the line.

The Trojans are 5-0 in Barkley’s starts, 0-1 in the game he missed. He performed superbly at Ohio State and at Notre Dame - giving him two more signature victories in half a season than Clausen has had in three years.

Yet we seldom hear Barkley’s name in the Heisman discussion because he’s a freshman. Clausen, meanwhile, is a Golden Domer. Nuff said.

Reason No. 849 why the Heisman is a sham.

Anyway, if Clausen finishes strongly against the non-USC-type opponents on ND’s remaining schedule, he certainly will be projected as an early draft choice, maybe even No. 1.

If so, he should go.

Why come back for another year under Charlie Weis, whose tutelage neither improved Brady Quinn’s draft status nor made Quinn an instant NFL star?

Cash over co-eds. Sunday's dough over Saturday's show. Moolah over boolah.

Those are the simple economics of football, a violent business in which one play, one hit, one cheap shot, one accidental collision can put a serious dent in a future paycheck or even end a career entirely.

Read Mike Nadel's musings daily at TheBaldestTruth.com.

This week’s college football Top 10:

1. Alabama

2. BYU

3. Oklahoma State

4. Boise State

5. Miami

6. Oklahoma

7. Cal

8. Oregon

9. Virginia Tech

10. (tie) Florida, Texas

And, frankly, Florida and Texas probably shouldn’t be rated that high after steamrolling high school JV squads.

Just because they were ranked 1-2 before the season’s first scandal doesn’t mean the Gators and Longhorns should be grandfathered into the top two spots once play starts. Not when other schools are passing true on-field tests.

But in the “official” rankings - the USA Today coaches' poll - there they are, right at the top. And hey, there’s USC moving up from No. 4 to No. 3 after its nailbiting 56-3 victory over powerhouse San Jose State. And there’s No. 7 Ohio State, somehow staying ranked ahead of Cal, Boise State, BYU and others after lucking out against Navy.

Jeesh. And we thought Iran’s elections were rigged.

As much as the lack of a playoff system fries my bacon, that’s not the single biggest problem with the BCS. No, it’s that the deck is stacked against the precious few with the cojones to play legitimate September schedules.

Even if Oklahoma defeated BYU and Virginia Tech beat Alabama, the Sooners and Hokies still wouldn’t have advanced in the rankings ahead of Florida and Texas - who tucked in their napkins, grabbed their forks and feasted upon Cupcake U. and Twinkie State.

By taking a chance and losing, however, Oklahoma and Virginia Tech were dealt crippling blows to their title hopes and uphill climbs to the best bowls.

The voting habits of coaches (or their assistants, secretaries, SIDs or whoever else casts those ballots) serve as a tremendous disincentive for top programs to play peers before the conference season starts.

To avoid just the kind of fate Oklahoma, Virginia Tech and a few other risk-takers suffered last weekend, the honchos at most major programs schedule as many hyphenated compass-point schools as possible.

East Tennessee State-Clarksville, anyone?

As a result, there’s no way to compare teams from different conferences and regions. Yet that’s exactly what the coaches/voters - who ultimately play a huge role in deciding the schools in the mythical title game and other big-bucks bowls - attempt to do.

(Writers vote in the AP poll. But realizing the conflict of interest, AP wisely removed its pollsters from figuring in the BCS equation several years ago.)

Florida is the best ... why? Because the Gators are willing to take on those juggernauts from Charleston Southern, Troy and Florida International, all in Gainesville?

Not that I really blame Urban Meyer & Co. They’d have nothing to gain and everything to lose by playing Miami, USC and Boise State instead.

In Illinois, many fans are upset with AD Ron Guenther for agreeing to an annual game against Missouri. The Failing Illini have dropped five straight in the series, including Saturday’s 37-9 humiliation.

Oh, for a 44-13 victory over Northeastern Missouri A&M!

If I had a vote, I would always make strength-of-schedule an important factor. I’d rather give Virginia Tech credit for losing to Alabama than reward Penn State for its epic triumph over the Mighty Zips of Akron.

I’d rather reward Oregon for having the guts to play on Boise State’s blue turf than Georgia Tech for snoozing through 60 minutes of “action” against Jacksonville State.

And I sure as shootin’ would rather reward Oklahoma State for its decisive victory over Georgia than a mess of others for laughing their way past Week 1 weaklings.

Giving top programs “value points” for mixing it up with each other during the non-conference season is the only way to make September truly matter on a national scale.

It makes so much sense, it will never happen.

Though we can argue from now until January about which conferences are the best, BYU can’t do much about being in the allegedly inferior Mountain West. What BYU can do is schedule tough non-league opponents - and it did just that with Oklahoma and Florida State.

While Saturday’s neutral-site victory over Oklahoma could help the Cougars in the big-money bowl picture, even an unbeaten season would give them zero chance to surpass Texas if the Longhorns also go undefeated.

Before the season began, voters were just too freakin' impressed that the ’Horns hooked a schedule featuring Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, UTEP and Central Florida.

(Read Mike Nadel's musings daily at TheBaldestTruth.com.)