Football Teams

Only 10 college football teams in history started the season ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press media poll and finished in the same spot. Of them, only USC's 2004 team and Florida State's 1999 team have gone wire to wire, maintaining their ranking week to week throughout the season. Could the 2012 Trojans do the same? After emerging from a two-year bowl ban, top-ranked USC enters Saturday's opener against Hawaii at the sold-out Coliseum amid huge expectations. The Trojans are ranked No. 1 in the AP preseason poll for the first time since 2007.

Tyrann Mathieu, a Heisman Trophy finalist nicknamed the Honey Badger, has been kicked off the Louisiana State football team for violating team and university rules. The defensive back, who was entering his junior season, had been a dynamo on defense and special teams for the Tigers, who are ranked No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' preseason college football poll. Mathieu scored four touchdowns last season, two on fumble returns and two on punt returns, while intercepting two passes, causing six fumbles and recovering four fumbles.

Penn State's iconic no-frills football uniforms -- once a symbol of discipline, unity and team over individualism -- will undergo major changes for the upcoming season. For the first time, player names will be displayed on the backs of the jerseys and the uniform will feature a blue ribbon, the symbol  for child abuse awareness. Months ago, new Coach Bill O'Brien said the school's uniforms wouldn't change from the design favored by Joe Paterno for much of his 46 years as head coach.

To play high school football in Southern California, players have to fulfill some basic requirements, such as getting a physical and making sure they are academically eligible. There is an added element if you want to play for Sherman Oaks Notre Dame this season. You'll need a passport, because the Knights are headed to Ireland to play Hamilton High of Chandler, Ariz., on Aug. 31 in a journey that will rank as the longest trip any Southern Section school has traveled for a regular-season football game.

As severe as they may be, the penalties that the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. imposed on Penn State University's football program Monday aren't likely to have as profound an impact on the school as the scandal that caused revered coach Joe Paterno to be ousted in disgrace last year. The larger purpose of the sanctions - including a four-year ban on bowl games, 40 fewer scholarships, 111 wins revoked and a $60-million fine - is to tell universities across the country that there's a considerable price to pay for letting their mission become subservient to their athletics programs.

UCLA basketball players are off to China, where they will see the Great Wall. UCLA football players are off to San Bernardino, where no one will see "over the wall. " "I would love to be in China," senior running back Johnathan Franklin said during the Pac-12 media day. "Anywhere but San Bernardino. " Franklin, laughing, said, "I hear it's going to be 105 degrees out there every day. " First-year Coach Jim Mora can only hope. If the UCLA football team has been known for anything recently, it's for being soft.

The Penn State decision Monday has thrown the numerically challenged Big Ten into another perplexing state of confusion. What to do now? Commissioner Jim Delany followed the NCAA's rebuke of Penn State with his own set of penalties, including the forfeiture of nearly $13 million in revenue for the next four years. The Big Ten, though, has an alignment problem. Ohio State's bowl ban for this season leaves the Leaders Division with two schools now ineligible for the division title.

The NCAA dropped the hammer on Penn State on Monday, crippling the university's football program for years to come by delivering sweeping penalties in response to a sexual abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. The university was fined $60 million and its football team was banned from postseason play for four years, over which time it will also forfeit 80 scholarships. Players will be allowed to transfer to any other school without having to sit out a year of eligibility, which could result in player defections that further damage the program.

The Terrell Owens saga took yet another interesting turn on Tuesday. Owens is the NFL's second all-time leader in receiving yards, but after burning one bridge after another in the league, he cannot find a team willing to use a roster spot on him. And now he cannot even hold a job in the Indoor Football League. In a statement released Tuesday, the Allen (Texas) Wranglers announced that Owens had been cut from the team and would lose his ownership stake in the franchise as well.