In the patchwork quilt of subjectivity that makes up the BCS, perhaps the most bizarre aspect is the coaches’ poll. While on one hand, it seems like coaches would be most qualified to judge the merit of one team over another, realistically, there’s no one coach or coaching staff who knows enough about the entire college football landscape to put together a good Top 25 without just pulling a “they’re high in the AP so whatever.”

(Is a comparison to Stalinist Russia just a little bit over the top? NYET, COMRADE!)

More importantly, the poll’s presence leaves the BCS selection process open to the undue influence of a handful of malicious coaches sandbagging a team out of contention. To that end, the USA TODAY has been publishing final coaches’ polls, eliminating any incentive to do so (unless a hypothetical coach really wants to spend time explaining to ESPN why he put Southern Cal at #22). So hey, glasnost’s working well, right? Great, let’s get rid of it!

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• Andrew Bynum’s knee must be feeling a lot better, since the Lakers star is now strong enough to carry Playboy Playmates on his shoulders.

• Guess he finds that more fun than rehabbing with the Hoops Whisperer.

• Is there too much Twittering going on in the NBA ranks?

• One of the Oklahoma City Thunder owners has done such a good job, he awards himself with a $75 million bonus.

• Two men involved in an Internet scam were allegedly killed in a New York condo owned by ex-Jet Jonathan Vilma.

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That’s the question we should all be asking ourselves. Forget this whole “economic recession” or “war in Iraq” junk, the real, deep epistemological questions all come down to the very existence of a custom truck designed by and for a coach who has put together a career marked only by being outstanding in his mediocrity.

(Rich Brooks F-150: Options include 20-yr lease on Motor City Bowl parking space)

That being said, the “Rich Brooks” F-150 looks like a sweet ride, so long as you’re into the whole white lightning look. Let’s be honest, that looks like exactly the kind of truck Barry Melrose should have been driving to work during his 10-game stint as coach of the Lightning. In fact, if he had been driving that truck, maybe the team wouldn’t have dumped him so quickly.

So what is the Rich Brooks F-150 bringing to the table? Outside of Ford’s “legendary toughness”, it’s got an awful lot of psuedo-sissy boy features:

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What better way to celebrate Canada Day than by showing a cool CFL video.

• Ex-NFLer Tony Mandarich goes from one bust to many, many more.

• Can’t a guy like Yi Jianlian enjoy a night out with his girlfriend without a whole communist nation getting on his case?

• A little thing like armed robbery isn’t gonna stop these golfers from finishing their appointed round.

• Korean & Russian models cue it up to become the best babes in billiards.

• Is Mark McGwire pumped to be working his way back into baseball?

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Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks, like most football coaches, is a tough fellow, most likely to be able to handle himself, even at the age of 66. Still a resident of Oregon after coaching the Ducks prior to Mike Bellotti, the Wildcats coach got back to shore after his boat capsized on him yesterday.

After reaching shore thanks to a gravel bar that formed in the water, Brooks promptly managed to brush off the boat’s tipping over as “complete bull$–t.”

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Rich Brooks of the University of Kentucky is amused by the e-mails he gets from angry Wildcats fans. No, not that Rich Brooks, the other one:

The LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL sees double, as an exercise science major on the Lexington campus shares the same name as the football coach. Both Brookses are unrelated.

Having a similar moniker of the head gridiron guy has is moments for the other Brooks. His name gets giggles in the classroom when roll is called. His buddies toss his name out when trying to chat it up with Kentucky co-eds. He even once fooled a Lexington waitress into thinking he was the Wildcat coach.

Best of all were the e-mails the other Brooks has received - from recruits looking to come to Kentucky, messages from the rest of the football coaching staff, and especially from fans not afraid to make their feelings known. Brooks wouldn’t elaborate on the Wildcat faithful’s fuming, other than to say that it was “really descriptive”.

But UK fans should breathe a little easier when their ‘Cats face Florida State in the Music City Bowl on New Year’s Eve. With 36 Seminoles not coming to Nashville, either Rich Brooks should have success on the sidelines.