College Athletics

Enter the trophy room at Southern Methodist University and feel what it must have felt to walk into a palace in which the royal family has hastily abdicated. Monuments to a lost civilization stand and remaining artifacts tell of great triumphs, but Heritage Hall, as it is housed in meticulously kept, red-bricked Gerald J. Ford Stadium, is a mausoleum. And it doesn't tell the whole story.

The saddest part of the Ben Howland saga at UCLA is not that a decent guy and good coach got fired. He's a big boy. He'll be fine. Give it a couple of years and he'll have another team in Pauley Pavilion, rendering UCLA black-and-not-so-Bruins-blue. No, the saddest part is that college athletics slipped further away from its mission. It was never supposed to be win at all costs. It was never supposed to be seasons that demanded ultimate victories, that made success in conference tournaments and the NCAA life and death.

One of USC's top track athletes, who set state records as a high school sprinter in Long Beach, is in the hospital after being shot three times in the legs a few blocks from the school, police said. Bryshon Nellum, 19, was walking out of a restaurant at Vermont Avenue near West Adams Boulevard with a few other people about 2 a.m. Friday when several men drove by in a car. One of them may have yelled a gang slogan before opening fire, Los Angeles Police Officer Sam Park said Saturday.

The end of this season means there's only a year left of the snaggle-toothed Bowl Championship Series, a cartel dreamed up by Satan that has been infuriating college football fans since 1998. We can't wait for the new four-team playoff starting in 2014 that would have solved this season by picking Oregon as the clear-cut No. 4 team. Or, wait, should it have been Stanford? OK, so maybe the controversies won't end, but that shouldn't stop the sport from continuing to be rip-roaring fun. This season's top 10 moments: 1 Crimson Tide landslide Alabama's toughest obstacle to the national title wasn't Notre Dame in Monday night's BCS title game at Miami Gardens, Fla. Shoot, that was easy -- Tide 42, Irish 14. Alabama's toughest obstacle was getting out of the Southeastern Conference championship game.

Gene Jelks, a former Alabama football player, says he was paid thousands of dollars by coaches and school boosters during his career with the Crimson Tide. In a copyright story in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jelks, a cornerback and captain on Alabama's 1989 Southeastern Conference championship team, charged that: "I was bought and sold to the university." He said money was funneled to him and his mother while he was still in high school to obligate him to play for the Crimson Tide.

The Supreme Court, in a key ruling supporting the enforcement powers of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., ruled Monday that the organization may force Nevada Las Vegas to suspend its highly successful basketball coach, Jerry Tarkanian, for recruiting violations and other irregularities. On a 5-4 vote, the high court said that the NCAA does not have to follow the same constitutional guidelines that cover government agencies in investigating violations of regulations.

It appeared a case of school property defacement, likely the work of a prankster. Years ago, an assistant coach at Claremont McKenna College came upon an old desk while cleaning out a weight room in the athletic department. The culprit had carved into the wood, the way lovebirds might scrawl a heart into a tree. Except this inscription was curious: it read "I Love This College" and was signed "John Zinda." The assistant reported what he thought was an act of mockery to the football coach.

San Diego State academic adviser Veston Thomas resigned amid allegations that football players improperly received community college credits that were later transferred to San Diego State.

Some people probably think quarterback Jim Plunkett led Stanford to its last Rose Bowl victory. It's understandable if memories are foggy, because it's been that long. It was actually Don Bunce, backed by the "Thunderchickens" defense, back in 1972. The losing team was Michigan and Stanford was still nicknamed "Indians. " No wonder, then, Stanford so thunderously celebrated its 20-14 win over Wisconsin on Tuesday in front of 93,359 on a chilly, crisp day. You forget how hard it is to do this.

Notre Dame senior linebacker Manti Te'o is not going to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night. Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel is poised to become the first freshman to win in the award's 78-year history. Te'o will finish second ahead of Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein. This isn't Nate Silver accurate, but a straw poll of 11 voters conducted by the website HeismanPundit.com has Manziel winning comfortably. Manziel garnered eight first-place votes; Te'o received one. Defense may win championships, but, in college, it always settles for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy.

Don't be surprised to see Shabazz Muhammad in uniform -- and maybe even in the lineup -- for UCLA on Friday. The highly touted Bruins freshman guard is recovering from a strain in his right shoulder, but he's physically "real close" to being healthy enough to play in UCLA's season opener against Indiana State, Coach Ben Howland said Tuesday. Muhammad has yet to be cleared by the NCAA, which is investigating ties his family and AAU team allegedly had with two financial agents.

UCLA offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone said he grabbed quarterback Brett Hundley as he ran onto the practice field Tuesday and told him, "I've decided, you're a quarterback. " Hundley certainly was one Saturday. He threw four touchdown passes and also directed a field-goal drive in the final minute, in UCLA's 45-43 victory over Arizona State. "I had been on him pretty hard the first seven games, so this goofy coach wanted to let him know how he was doing," Mazzone said. Hundley said, "It was like a blessing.

The Emerald City doesn't seem like an appropriate locale for a USC coaches reunion. But this weekend qualifies. Former Trojans coach Pete Carroll and a veritable battalion of former USC assistants and support personnel are preparing the Seattle Seahawks for Sunday's NFL game against the New England Patriots. Meantime, USC Coach Lane Kiffin and Washington Coach Steve Sarkisian, once ambitious young assistants under Carroll, are readying their teams to square off Saturday at CenturyLink Field.

Zach Maynard has weathered a couple of tough seasons as California's quarterback. This season alone, he was sacked six times by Ohio State, nine by USC and seven by Arizona State. And it's a good thing he is a nifty runner too, or it would have been worse. He entered Saturday's game at UCLA with five touchdowns, four passes thrown for interceptions, and a pass efficiency rating that put him at No. 94 in the nation. After Cal's 43-17 victory, he'll be moving up. Against the Bruins, Maynard was simply electrifying, equaling a career high with four touchdown passes and also running for a score.

Somewhere in Cory Paus' parents' house, buried among happier treasures, is photographic evidence of when UCLA's football struggles began in games at California's Memorial Stadium. It's shown on a newspaper sports page, of which the former Bruins quarterback says, "I wanted to burn it, but they wouldn't let me. " UCLA receiver Brian Poli-Dixon is forever reaching for the ball in the photo. "You would swear it was going to be a touchdown," Paus says. Except that "hands from the wrong color jersey are coming over the top. " Those hands belonged to Jemeel Powell, who picked off the pass in the end zone to preserve the Bears' 46-38 triple-overtime victory on Oct. 14, 2000.

Less than a year ago, Florida State running back Chris Thompson lay in a North Carolina hospital with two broken vertebrae, an injury he sustained in a game against Wake Forest. It looked as if his career might be over. Turns out, far from it. Thompson returned to the Florida State backfield against Wake Forest on Saturday, getting his first extended playing time of the season for the fifth-ranked Seminoles. He celebrated by running for 197 yards in nine carries -- including touchdowns of 74 and 80 yards -- in the first half as Florida State won, 52-0.