The Associated Press is reporting that Hawaii coach June Jones is leaving Hawaii to become the head coach at … wait for it… SMU.

This is a story that makes absolutely, positively no sense to me. As I sit here trying to reason why Jones would leave a school that, gets no nationally credibility mind you, to coach a team that went 1-11 last year. I get that it’s a challenge to put SMU back on the map but of all the jobs open in college football, he takes this one? Granted he will make more than $2 million a year, which one would be crazy to think didn’t factor into this decision in a big ole way but why this job.

Hats off to SMU athletic director Steve Orsini who has managed to bag former UNC head coach Matt Doherty to coach the Mustangs men’s basketball team and now Jones, who was mentioned in connection to a number of big-time head coaching vacancies including UCLA.

I am just blown away by this story.

So far, I am batting two-for-two on my picks today. Central Florida and Central Michigan both won pretty big but my loyalty to Boston College may cost me as Sean Glennon just threw a touchdown pass to put the Hokies on top with about seven minutes left in the game. We will see if Matt Ryan can break Hokie hearts two times in a single season.

Tennessee just scored quickly while sporting what I can only describe as dreamsicle-colored uniforms.

UPDATE - 3:34 Lightning will not strike twice for Boston College as Matt Ryan throws a heartbreaking interception deep in Virginia Tech territory with two minutes left. The Eagles got the ball back with 30 seconds left but Xavier Adibi picked off a batted ball and took it to the house for six. The Bottom Line on Championship Saturday, 2-1.

UPDATE - 6:41 Well I could be wrong but LSU looks like they have survived a pre-game full of rumors that their coach is leaving to win the SEC Championship. I wonder where, in the spectrum of hated athletes at Tennessee, Erik Ainge falls after basically losing the ballgame for the Vols tonight. Twice, Ainge failed to read the defenders before throwing the ball and twice the Tigers defense made him pay. For me, this loss goes back to what I believed early this season about Tennessee – they have absolutely zero big play possibilities on that offense, opting instead to nickel and dime their way down the field and tonight two of those plays really cost them the conference championship. Ainge just has to see Daryl Beckwith underneath on that last interception. That turnover is inexcusable. The Bottom Line on Championship Saturday, 3-1.

UPDATE - 7:45 If you like two teams just blowing each other up, I hope you are watching the Big 12 Championship right now. Missouri and Oklahoma have been trading blows for most of the first quarter and the winner of this game could turn out to be the team with the most starters still conscious. I like the way Oklahoma is playing on defense. Nothing that Missouri has tried on offense so far has been even remotely successful. We could be in for a good one. Oh and for the record, Missouri wide receiver Jeremy Maclin is as fast as any player I have seen this year. He is so explosive. If Mizzou wins this game, it will be on the legs of Jeremy Maclin.

UPDATE - 8:16 Oklahoma just came up huge on third and goal from the 2 and forced another Missouri field goal. Mizzou has gotten some questionable pass interference calls on third down on two scoring drive so far and this game really reinforces my belief that I could never be a head coach. When a referee throws a flag for defense pass interference well after the play (as was the case on both of those pass interference calls), I would likely strike said referee with the nearest blunt object. Apparently, this is not acceptable in the coaching profession, something about assault with a deadly weapon makes some athletic departments squeamish.

UPDATE - 8:22 Is it just me or does Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel look like Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger after a horrible beekeeping accident?

UPDATE - 9:44 Pitt has West Virginia on the ropes but the officials appear to be keeping West Virginia in the game. Two bad holding calls and a no-call on obvious pass interference call has Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt fuming. Pitt has outplayed West Virginia the game and it would be a shame to see them robbed of the upset because of poor officiating but so far that appears to be the case. Elsewhere, Oklahoma scored a big touchdown to take the lead again against Missouri.

UPDATE - 9:51 All Pitt needs is a first down to pull off an enormous upset after Pat White soars the ball over the head of his receiver on 4th and long. The officials continue to be atrocious after flagging a Pitt corner for unnecessary celebration for doing absolutely nothing. ESPN announcer Mike Patrick accurately said the officials were sucking the joy out of the game. Oklahoma goes up 14 after an interception by Oklahoma linebacker Curtis Lofton lead to a Sam Bradford touchdown pass. Chase Daniel is really beginning to show his frustration. I think the BCS may need to find two new teams for its championship when the night is over.

UPDATE - 9:56 See ya, West Virginia. Pitt has done it and the Mountaineers are out of the national championship after dropping to the Panthers, a 28-point underdog, at home.

UPDATE - 10:45 Adios, Mizzou. What Oklahoma proved tonight was that Missouri was a complete fraud as the number 1 team in the country and  that Chase Daniel never belonged in the Heisman conversation with McFadden and Tebow (I would argue that McFadden does not belong in that conversation either). Oklahoma hit him early and often and Daniel folded like a cheap card table. I will give Daniel a pass on the game-changing interception, he did throw behind tight end Martin Rucker but it is hard to blame a quarterback for an interception off a deflected pass. So where does that leave us now? Presumably, Ohio State is in but who is number 2? Is it Georgia? Is it the famous undefeated-in-regulation Tigers of Louisiana State? Is it the recently resurgent Trojans? I have no idea. My hunch is that we will see Georgia in there, given that they are number four in the BCS standings at this moment but with this system, it is anyone’s guess. I will agree with Kirk Herbstreit when he said that its a shame that Mizzou will not get into a BCS bowl and Kansas will given that the Jayhawks never had to play Oklahoma. I hope that Kansas and Hawaii get put in the same bowl so I can completely avoid having to watch both teams altogether. If all of the great games today are proof of anything, it is that nothing — and I mean nothing NFL execs — beats college football.

In his column today on ESPN.com, Mark Schlabach wonders aloud why everyone is hating on Hawaii, while everyone seems to be giving Kansas the benefit of the doubt. If he doesn’t see the difference between the two teams, he really ought to consider another vocation.

Schlabach starts his column with Hawaii coach June Jones talking about all of the teams Hawaii wanted to schedule that wouldn’t schedule them. Among them, he claims, are Michigan and USC. I think to allow Jones to make these claims without verifying any of these claims or the reasoning behind those decisions — not the first of which is I’m sure that USC didn’t really want to fly to Honolulu to play the Warriors — is pretty shotty work by Schlabach.

The reason why people are (finally) starting to believe in Kansas is that in a matter of two weeks we will see if Kansas is for real. They play the game of the week Saturday against #3 Missouri and if they win, will have to beat Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship. And if they survive those two games, they’re for real.

See, in college football, being undefeated isn’t enough if you’re not playing anybody.  If that’s not Hawaii’s fault and they really can’t get anyone to schedule them then I’m sorry about that but them’s the breaks.

Do you really want to see Georgia or Oregon or West Virginia or Ohio State play a team that needed to go to overtime to beat San Jose State? Me either.

With all due respect to Go West.. the Western Athletic Conference is truly the king of wishful thinking.

Above is the cover of the WAC’s 2007 football preview where it suggests that Hawaii QB Colt Brennan and Boise State running back Ian Johnson could be going back to Boise or Honolulu with the hardware in ‘07, an outcome that is as likely as a Paris Hilton-led Outward Bound trip into the Yukon.

I think Johnson’s candidacy is a complete farce. I mean, let’s face it, the guy is much better known for popping the question to his BSU-cheerleader girlfriend after that Fiesta Bowl classic against Oklahoma than for anything he’s done on the field. And then there’s the Broncos schedule: Boise will once again be a BCS contender because they simply don’t play anyone worth noting. Their first five games: Weber State, Washington, Wyoming, Southern Miss, New Mexico State. Doesn’t exactly sound like playing Auburn, LSU and Tennessee, does it? Boise State was a nice story last year but to take Johnson’s Heisman candidacy for real is completely ridiculous.

Colt Brennan is different. He set the NCAA single-season touchdown record last season with 58 and the record for most touchdown passes in two consecutive seasons with 93 in ‘05-06. But you really have to wonder if Brennan isn’t a victim of the system that has brought him so much success. In his four-years at Hawaii, Timmy Chang threw more than 2,400 passes and currently holds the NCAA records for most passes attempted in a career. Chang also holds the NCAA record for most career passing yards. Hawaii’s system is designed to make quarterbacks look good and if you don’t think Chang’s records and gaudy numbers will be fresh in the mind of Heisman voters when considering whether or not Brennan should strike the pose, then you’re crazy. And then there’s that schedule . Hawaii’s first five games? Northern Colorado, Louisiana Tech, UNLV, Charleston Southern and Idaho. I can’t help but wonder if Brennan would be as highly regarded as he was if he played in a major conference. Sure his numbers are, on their surface, impressive but Brennan isn’t playing NFL-ready competition week-in and week-out. Consider this: if Chang and Brennan both put up equally gaudy passing statistics at Hawaii and Chang recently signed with the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL, how likely is it that Brennan will be able to make the transition from Hawaii to the NFL?

The Honolulu Advertiser is reporting that Hawaii’s senior quarterback (and Heisman longshot) is lobbing grenades at the Hawaii Athletic Department over Hawaii’s piss-poor facilities including a lack of soap in the team’s locker rooms.

“‘We spent all spring with no soap in our showers,’ Brennan said. ‘Half of the soap dispensers are broken. How hard is it for us to have soap in our lockers? Isn’t that something that should be a health issue?’

According to the article, a janitor has been trying to recycle empty shampoo bottles to use as soap dispensers.

Apparently, there is also a problem with parking near the team’s facilities. Brennan said that players pay between $3-$6 per day just to attend practices, workouts and practice sessions.

The tow truck driver has been in contact with players so much that coach June Jones is considering making him an honorary Rainbow Warrior. Brennan estimates that the 20 percent of the team has amassed parking fines of $200 - $1,000 in parking fines and tow truck fees. Brennan himself has accumulated $800 in fines in his two years at Hawaii.