During the current recession, one of the main areas hit hardest have been lavish expenditures by large organizations - particularly, oh, athletic departments at major universities. They’ve been inured, however, to their current standards of luxury; familiarity and routine will do that. So cutbacks that you or I might take for granted, instead come as shocks to the system of a typical football coach.

(It could be worse; they could be using UCLA’s ride instead.)

Luckily, Jeff Tedford is a reasonable man.* He knows that no state’s hurting worse than California, and the budget shortfalls are hitting the state schools especially hard. And so off his Golden Bears will go this weekend, traveling down to Los Angeles for a game against UCLA, just like every other year. Except this time, it’ll be in a bus… and they’ll be lucky to get there in seven hours. Hope your iPods are charged!

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Some Web sites offer you “insider” information on which teams to put money on during the week’s big football games. But only Sports by Brooks has the ultimate insider: Jesus Christ. That’s right, each week Our Lord and Savior will descend from Heaven to offer His insight into the week’s top games. And with over 60 percent of all college and NFL players attributing their success to Him, no one is more qualified to pick winners.

I know a lot of people wrote into me (bigbettinjc@godmail.com) to give me grief for going 2-3 last weekend. To the people who doubt my wisdom, I can just say that this is a journey and not a short trip. Or as Proverbs 19:11 says, “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.” So instead of asking how your picks did, we’ll just use our knowledge gleaned from last week’s games to make better picks.

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Here at SPORTSbyBROOKS, we claim to be many things. Foremost amongst those things are sports fans, admirers of the female form, and chroniclers of the human condition. One position we have never claimed as our own is that of civil engineer and/or architect. That said, we here at SbB are pretty confident in saying that an earthquake fault line is a pretty freaking bad place to build a college football stadium.

Unfortunately, SbB was not around 86 years ago to advise the University of California against building their football stadium directly atop the Hayward Fault line. Now the stadium is (surprise, surprise) crumbling away and, after exterminating the hippies from the premises, university officials have decided to bring the stadium up to modern earthquake-proofing standards. Guess who gets to pay for it? You guessed it - Cal’s ticket holders, loyal through decades of bad-to-mediocre football, will be footing the bill to the insane tune of up to $225,000…each.

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For most undrafted free agents, minicamp tryouts can be the hardest and most stressful thing they’ve ever done. For Rulon Davis, who spent six months in Iraq, he might as well be playing a game of flag football with friends.

Davis was a two-year starter at defensive end at Cal, but what jumps out at you on his resume is his four years in the Marine Corps, including a tour of Iraq in 2004, the deadliest year for American forces. And though he returned safely, that doesn’t make him any less a hero than Pat Tillman.

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Is it going to be like this for the next year and a half? Every NBA team with cap space rolling out the red carpet for LeBron James like it’s a recruiting trip and he’s Johnny Walker. Last night was the Knicks’ turn to playing willing host, both figuratively and literally - the fans gave him a hero’s welcome, and the team played their role as second bananas as they were little obstacle in the Cavaliers’ 119-101 win.

Meanwhile, let me remind again you that King James doesn’t become a free agent until July 2010 - that’s almost two full seasons from now. So expect the parade to be coming to your town very soon - perhaps he won’t be wearing special shoes dedicated to your city, but believe me, you’re going to get really sick of it very soon.

Also coming to your city is Ball State - provided that your city is Detroit, and not a place like Glendale, New Orleans, Miami or Pasadena where they have a BCS bowl game. The Cardinals took care of Western Michigan 45-22 to wrap up a perfect regular season and book a date in the MAC title game in the Motor City. So good for them, I guess.

Meanwhile, there were some damned compelling college basketball games last night. Chief among them was Notre Dame hanging on to beat Texas 81-80 at the Maui Invitational, as A.J. Abrams’ desperation 60-footer at the buzzer hit the rim but missed. It sets up a meeting against No. 1 North Carolina for the eighth-ranked Fighting Irish and a chance for their fans to have something to celebrate in advance of their annual thrashing at the hands of USC this weekend.

• How many ways to hate Jon Gruden? Let FOOD COURT LUNCH show you all of his punchable faces.



• Say hello to Diagne Thierno Seydou Nouro, the Danny Almonte of Japanese high school basketball: The MAINICHI DAILY NEWS says the Senegalese exchange student shaved almost five years off his age to play on a championship-winning high school team.
• Your daily dose of economic bad news: ESPN reports that plenty of advertising spots for the Super Bowl this year are still available, despite NBC’s earlier rosy predictions.
• In other financial news, the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE says that Cal coach Jeff Tedford has deferred a bonus payment due to him until…some time in the future.
• Pete Carroll’s excuse for the otherwise inexplicable loss to Oregon State earlier this year? He tells the LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS that it was the aftermath of the hype of the Ohio State game.
• Speaking of Oregon State, it looks like their path to their first Rose Bowl appearance since the 1964 season just got murkier, as THE OREGONIAN reports that star running back Jacquizz Rodgers is unlikely to play in their must-win Civil War game against Oregon this Saturday with an injured shoulder.
• Just when Cleveland Browns fans thought they had seen the last of Derek Anderson doing anything other than holding a clipboard…the CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER notes that he’ll be the starting QB for the final five games now that Brady Quinn is shelved for the year with his broken finger.
• Julius Jones tells the SEATTLE TIMES just how fired up he is to face his former team the Cowboys this Thanksgiving. I’m sure that Dallas is just as excited to see his hapless new team the Seahawks come to town.
• INTENTIONAL FOUL brushes up on some of the greatest mustaches in NBA history. Expect NBA TV to have a four-part special over Christmas.
• Manny Ramirez and Mark Teixeira buyers beware! THE EXAMINER has compiled an all-Scott Boras Bust team.

Plotting to take revenge on someone for making racist remarks by robbing them? Probably not what Martin Luther King Jr. would have recommended. But if that’s the route you’re going to go, at least make sure that you rob the right people. Otherwise, you just look sloppy. That’s the hard lesson that the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE is reporting that Cal fullback R.J. Garrett and former teammate Gary Doxy allegedly learned.

According to police (and nothing good comes after that phrase), the two had heard about racial slurs made by a white member of the Cal crew team to a black female student and friend. So their solution was to break into the guy’s dorm room and rob the place. Which might have served some bizarre form of comeuppance if they had in fact targeted the right person.

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College sophomores throwing up on a Saturday morning is not news, unless that college sophomore is vomiting on the 17 yard line after taking a brutal hit all while ESPN’s cameras are rolling and a national audience is watching.

Attempting to receive a pass in the flat Jahvid Best, sophomore running back for #23 California, was flattened by Maryland defensive back Kevin Barnes. The clean shot on the unsuspecting Best caused the Cal Bear to lose whatever green stuff he had in his system. (Video via AWFUL ANNOUNCING after the jump.)

Best’s lunch wasn’t the only thing lost. The Terps, the same Terps that lost to Middle Tennessee State last week, beat the Golden Bears 35-27.

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THE WIZ OF ODDS has news that is either amusing or disturbing, depending on your proclivity for games of hacky sack: Cal officials started cutting down a grove of oak trees this week to make room for expanded sports facilities for the Bears athletic teams. Somewhere, Treebeard weeps.

You might recall the a group of protesters condemned the plans, since trees are living creatures too, maaannn. In fact, one tree has yet to be cut down since there are several people squatting in them. You might remember Brent Musberger’s considered opinion on their activities from last year.

No? Good thing video is after the jump!

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Last time we checked up on Allison Stokke, the pretty pole vaulter was reaching new heights as a Cal freshman, setting new records at Berkeley.

(”Snack bar? It’s right over there.”)

Now thanks to the fine folks at MYCHILLPILL.NET, we have new snapshots of the Golden Bears’ golden babe in action. More photos after the jump.

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BUSTED COVERAGE has been on the scene with the latest news on Allison Stokke. First, they gave us pics of the pretty pole vaulter reaching new heights with the Cal track & field team. And now they tell us the Golden Bears are selling Stokke photos.

GOLDEN BEAR SPORTS is offering shots of Stokke in a dazzling array of sizes & prices - from $7.99 wallets to 20″ x 30″ glossies for $65.

Sounds very familiar to an earlier sales pitch presented by a southern California newspaper. Read more…