This past Monday, Boise State became the fifth college sports program (and the first outside the BCS) to get their team’s logo on an airplane; they joined the Pac-10 members in Oregon and Washington as partners with Horizon Air.

(Waaaaait a minute. A twin prop? You couldn’t even get your logo on a real jet? Boise, Boise, Boise…)

Unfortunately, not everybody who’s going to fly in that plane is a Boise State fan. That ordinarily wouldn’t be too much of an issue, but when we’re in the middle of a season, fans of the Broncos’ opponents may take a bit of offense. ADs of the Broncos opponents, then, are really not going to stand for this crap. And thus we find Idaho AD Rob Spear, taking the most principled stand in history.

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Okay, we’re thinking of a football conference over by the West Coast, where one team enjoys a seemingly perpetual stranglehold on the conference, routinely running the table or slipping once to an opponent who had no shot at the title. Are we talking about the Pac-10 and USC in the Pete Carroll era (minus this year, of course)… or the WAC and Boise State in the same time span?

(”Give me liberty or a decent schedule or whatever!”)

The difference between the two teams, however, is that USC can get pretty much anyone, anywhere, at any time. Whether it’s money or influence or just the opportunity to have USC on your schedule, whatever. They’re never hurting for opponents. Boise State, on the other hand, can’t fill their 2011 schedule with a decent opponent, and it’s been this way for years.

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Say, remember how LeGarrette Blount crapped the bed harder than you’d ever seen anyone in college football ever crap a bed in your life? In the span of one game on awful blue turf (and one very eventful postgame), Blount went from a strong contender for first-team all-Pac-10, high draft choice and darkhorse Heisman candidate to a man whose season would end with 6 more suspensions than rushing yards - and he only got suspended once. Shortly thereafter, Chip Kelly announced that Blount’s suspension was to last the season, and that was that on the senior’s collegiate career.

(”Welcome to Paintown. Allow me to introduce you to Mayor McHellfist.”)

But that wasn’t, in fact, that. It never is, really. Despite being a suspended senior with no ostensible hope of playing another meaningful down for Oregon, Blount was never kicked off the team. He began the apology parade shortly thereafter, and even met with the original face-wrecker of sports, Kermit Washington. And lo and behold, just as we mused this afternoon in light of his published apology to the OREGON DAILY EMERALD, Kelly’s about to take the next step toward bringing Blount back in a few weeks. You could just knock us over with a feather, really.

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Ah, the beginning of October. It’s a magical time, when a good 20 college football teams are still dreaming of hoisting the glass football. That includes Boise State, oddly enough; the perennial mid-major Cinderella is counting its ifs for reaching the title game, according to the IDAHO STATESMAN, and none of them are entirely unreasonable.

(”Give me freedom or… wait, the Statue of Liberty doesn’t say that. Great, now I just look ridiculous.”)

But wait. It seems paradoxical, but is getting a non-BCS team to the BCS Championship Game really in the best interest of the non-BCS conferences? It really depends on your definition of the word “fair.”

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It’s perfectly natural for a football fan to be pissed off after their team loses a game. People say things, throw things, and drink things they don’t really mean to - it’s part of being a college football fan. When your team does so in embarrassing and epic fashion, as the Oregon Ducks did in their highly-anticipated Thursday night season opener against Boise State, the emotions run even higher. High enough, even, for one Oregon graduate to engage in that most formal of protests: the strongly-worded letter.

(Billable hours.)

Long favored by the elderly and the mentally ill to express their displeasure at…well, everything, the strongly-worded letter is a uniquely personal way to lodge a complaint against a person, a company, or, in this case, the Oregon Ducks’ pitiful performace several weeks ago in Boise. Usually, the letter in question is passed around and laughed at by its recipients (I worked in customer service for years, trust me on this). Occasionally, the sender might even get a form letter response. Oregon fan Tony Seminary received something slightly different - a personal check from Ducks coach Chip Kelly.

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• Why would Allen Iverson ever join the Grizzlies? Because God told him to.

• Andrea McNulty is willing to drop her sexual assault lawsuit against Ben Roethlisberger - as long as Big Ben admits he did it.

• A foolish foursome tries to steal Cal Ripken Jr.’s “8″ statue from the front of Camden Yards.

• The Redskins are redfaced over the bad publicity of suing a 72-year-old woman over season tickets, so they opt not to take grandma’s 66 grand.

• Since when did Cole Hamels go the David Beckham metrosexual route?

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Suddenly this morning, more speculation popped up in the blogs about what Boise State’s Byron Hout said to LeGarrette Blount last Thursday. Here’s the likely reason why:

A Twitter account hosted by someone named E.J. Prince generated that Tweet last night. Read more…

Last night’s season-opening college football doubleheader on ESPN was a nightmare for fans everywhere. It started off with South Carolina’s dreadful 7-3 win over N.C. State, and wrapped up with a much-hyped matchup between Boise State and Oregon that quickly turned into a one-sided snoozefest. Things couldn’t have been more embarrassing for the Ducks, who didn’t even manage to get a first down until the 7:07 mark of the third quarter. Oh, wait, I guess it could get worse:

Yup, that’s Oregon running back/loose cannon LeGarrette Blount, saving the evening, entertainment-wise, by lighting up Boise State’s Byron Hout with a right cross as the teams left the field after Boise State’s 19-8 win that wasn’t really anywhere near that close. Blount, you see, had promised to give the Broncos an “ass whuppin’” in the weeks leading up to the game, and since he didn’t really deliver that while the clock was running (he had 8 carries for -5 yards) I guess he figured he might as well get a shot in afterward.

There have been some stunning falls from grace over the years, but 18 hours ago I was hearing HEISMAN PUNDIT touting Blount as a darkhorse Heisman candidate on the Dan Patrick Show. Even Boise’s paper was talking him up. Now, not only did Blount obliterate any of that talk with his game performance last night, but it appears as if he may have completely ruined his college career by losing his mind afterward. And, if you think the punch was bad, things got even uglier a few moments later. Video after the jump.

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• Has the Curse of Alyssa Milano finally been lifted from MLB pitchers?

• What better way to kick off the college football season than by trading really bad rival-bashing songs back and forth?

• Green Bay Packers LB Nick Barnett shares his shopping habits - such as getting his wife a Thumper.

• Tony Kornheiser talks about all the quivering he did during his “Monday Night Football” days.

• Chelsea FC will have to wait awhile before signing any new players.

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For a lot of us, tonight is like Christmas, your birthday and finding your Dad’s stash of Swank Magazines when you were 12 all rolled into one: college football starts tonight. And unlike most opening week mismatches, tonight’s marquee match-up should be a doozy, with Pac-10 dark horse Oregon braving possible blindness from the Smurf Turf and the color-coordinated fans to America’s underdog, the Boise State Broncos (current listed as a 3.5-point favorite).

But this isn’t just a compelling game between two Top 25 teams with big aspirations. No, these two teams (in my best Jim Ross drawl) Just Plain Don’t Like Each Other, especially after last season’s win by Boise State that featured two Broncos getting ejected and Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli getting KOed by a cheap shot while attempting his first pass of the game. Here’s some video if you want to judge for yourself:

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