While its quite clear that USC won't be winning any national championships in 2011, there appears to be a whole lot of unknowns concerning who will be winning the conference championships come next year - mostly because it seems like most of the major conferences are going to look a whole lot different after this season.

Colorado announced it was leaving the Big-12 for the Pac-10 earlier this week ,and now Nebraska has also said its jumping ship and heading to the Big-10 and Boise State is following suit as they will move to the Mountain West Conference.

However, the shake ups so far seem small by comparison to the rampant speculation of changes that include just about every major program not already in the Big-10, Pac-10 or SEC. What sounds like the most likely scenario involves a dissolvement of the Big-12 as Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor and Texas Tech will join Colorado in the Pac-16 and Missouri will follow in the Huskers footsteps as they also join the Big-10, along with some teams from the Big East like Rutgers and Pitt. These changes will likely push the SEC into making a move to keep itself as the pre-eminent football conference by raiding Miami, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Clemson from the ACC (or possibly Texas A&M from the Big-12). Which will then leave the ACC with some openings to fill, likely meaning more Big East defections of big name programs like West Virginia.

No one knows exactly where all of the cards will fall, but it sure appears like the college football landscape is going to be very different in just a couple of weeks.

After four rounds of secret balloting today, the NFL owners voted in favor of New Jersey as the home of the 2014 Super Bowl - beating out South Florida & Tampa Bay (which, ironically, is home to the "University of South Florida"). Clearly its not the draw of the Jersey Shore or the Short Hills Mall that peaked the owners interest, rather it was the financial appeal of the New York City market and the opportunity to showcase the $1.6 bil "New Meadowlands Stadium", which is co-owned by the Giants and Jets.

This will mark the first time that the Super Bowl is played outdoors in a cold-weather market, and you can best believe it will be the focus of a serious amount of attention come January of 2014. I get the allure of having the Big Game in the Big Apple, and I understand that football is a sport where the elements are supposed to matter and the players are supposed to be tough as nails and blah blah blah. My problem is that as a die hard 49ers fan, this is pretty much the worst case scenario.

Lets pretend my team (and really there are a dozen teams you could put in the same boat) happens to win the NFC in 2013 - which, if we could get a decent QB - may not be that much of a stretch, we will have to travel clear across country to play in conditions that are likely very foreign from anything we would have experienced playing against NFC West teams or with home field advantage through the playoffs. And, lets assume that the Niners get matched up against the Patriots or the Steelers, or even worse the Jets, and have to play a team that is specifically designed for bad weather, that has significantly more experience and that only has to travel a short distance for the game. This same argument could be made on the other side for someone like Chargers who may have to line up against Eagles or the Giants.

Since the Super Bowl is a one-game championship, it sure seems pretty unfair for teams who don't play in those conditions all year to be potentially punished for having a great season and getting stuck playing in a game that gives the opponent a significant home-field advantage.

I think the ultimate resolution should be to play every Super Bowl in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. There is no "home team" in Los Angeles, and its is the second largest media market, and actually better suited to host the most watched program on television. The Rose Bowl seats 100k people and the weather in mid-February in SoCal is almost always high 60's and sunny - which isn't warm or cold enough to favor any squad. Plus there is tons of historical relevance and pageantry to the stadium to support the memories of Super Bowl's past, while unfettered access to the glitz and glamor that surrounds the more modern versions of the game.

This way the sports fans of LA, who have long been hosed without an NFL team, win - and no fans from any other team will have a gripe about their team getting the shaft in the biggest game of the year.

Admittedly, I'm a college football nut and honestly am thrilled that Bowl Season has become a month-long, non-stop festival of games - but as I was flipping through the tube today and came upon the "Little Caesars Bowl" showing a Dec 26 match up between Marshall and Ohio, I had to wonder, "Who Cares?!"

Surely the local fans in Detroit weren't adding "Tickets to the Little Caeser Bowl" to their Xmas wish list - and I can't imagine the 8 football fans from Ohio Univ (not Oh St) bothered spending their holiday in a hotel in suburban Detroit, gearing up in anticipation for today's early kick. Between "We Are Marshall" and that awesome teammate-literally-carrying-him drive by Byron Leftwich in the GMAC Bowl many moons ago, we are admittedly rooting for the Thundering Herd - but we cant imagine that many West Virginian's are hopping on a plane to the D-Town to watch.

While we get that bowls are a nice reward to a decent season - keep in mind that Marshall finished 6-6 and their coach is "resigning" after this game - and we know that they help bring in revenues for the schools to fund scholarships, blah, blah, blah - but we are left scratching our heads as to why they even bothered to make this game, let alone play it. The only humorous part of the story is that they couldn't have possibly have found a better sponsor, bc if you eat a slice of Little Caesars pizza I suspect you will soon agree that you'd rather go hungry than have another piece.

Looks like this guy just had a slice of pepperoni at the Little Caesars bowl.

Over in the UK this idea of fan's running a sports team has been around for a little while and we've made some new friends who are working on a very similar model as Project Franchise. The group is Five Pound Football Club and basically for 5 of their British bucks you can own a share of a yet to be determined "football" team. While we aren't really the biggest soccer fans, we are fans of beer and screaming our bloody heads off in the stands, so these guys seem pretty ok with us - plus they want to buy a team in Ireland, which we hear invented Guinness and St Patricks Day, so score 2 for the guys who talk funny.

Overall they seem to have a great concept and are really focusing on the fans perspective to help shape how they run the team. If you're reading this from the UK or are just a big fan of the other kind of "football" check them out at http://www.fivepoundfootballclub.com/

Cheerio!

Don't call it a shocker, unless truly, you really are shocked by this news, but the WNBA team the Detroit Shock is about to pack their bags and head down to the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was leaked this morning that the deal is done, but an official announcement has yet to be made.

If (and when) the Shock move to Tulsa, former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson will take on the role of both coach and GM.

We here at Front Office Fans aren't huge WNBA groupies, but out of all the WNBA teams (of which there are what, like six?) we could probably name two. The Shock being one of them.

It seems like Tulsa will be a good fit for the Shock. It's a smaller town with a lot less professional and collegiate sports teams to compete with. Plus, bringing in Richardson as coach will probably draw some nearby fans from Arkansas. And while they seemed to be one of the marquee teams of the league, winning titles in 03, 06 and 08, their attendance was down and with the Detroit economy as it is, it wasn't heading back up any time soon. Furthermore, they never managed to steal enough fans away from the Tigers, Red Wings, Pistons and the very first WNFL team the Detroit Lions.

So here's to what's left of the Detroit Shock. It was fun while it lasted, but just like the Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets, Miami Sol, Orlando Miracle, Portland Fire and Utah Starzz, their time has come. See ya in Tulsa.

It's always boggled my mind that the Southern California is home to two NBA teams (Lakers & Clippers), two MLB teams (Dodgers & Angels), two NHL teams (Ducks & Kings) and zero NFL teams. Technically, it's been argued that USC is LA's "pro" team, but the worse the Trojans do, the more the NFL talk starts up. Although it's been years since the NFL had a team in Cali, it looks like things might soon be changing.

According to the losangelesfootballstadium.com website:

By a 22-14 margin, a bill to exempt a proposed NFL stadium in Industry from state environmental law earned approval Wednesday in the California state Senate....The bill, sought aggressively by billionaire Ed Roski Jr. and his Majestic Realty Co. in September, would grant the 75,000-seat stadium project an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act, the environmental law that governs development. To take effect, the plan must be signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "I think the governor wants to restore the economy," said state Assemblyman Isadore Hall II, D-Compton, the bill's author.

The proposed stadium will be located in the City of Walnut. I've never been there either. But it's smack in the middle of LA and Anaheim.

Now all they need is a team. According to Majestic Realty, talks with a number of teams will start up as soon as the season ends. On their short list are the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars, St. Louis Rams, San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders.

So who should move? Vote in the poll below, and if your choice isn't listed, post to the comments which team you'd relocate and why.

If we were Al Davis there are a lot of things we would do differently, but the first would be getting the heck out of Oakland and head south on the 101, again. The Raiders are miserable and dont seem to be doing anything to get better anytime soon, but the big problem is that they went from being one of the most valuable franchises in sports to one of the least valuable in the NFL in just the last 10 years. A big reason is because they no longer play in the second largest media market and now share the Bay Area spotlight with the Niners, who really are the local team of choice. It also doesnt help that they play in a completely miserable, oversized stadium in a city on the low end of the California economic scale, meaning they rarely sell out. Not having a big name star hasnt helped either, but that still doesnt seem to stop thousands of Los Angelenos from buying silver and black jerseys and making the pilgrimege up north 8 times a year to watch their miserable team play. Dont believe us, spend a Sunday evening during football season in the Southwest terminal at the Oakland airport and you'll see its chalk full of Raiders fans flying back to LA... On second thought, never spend a Sunday evening at the Oakland airport by choice - although if you do get stuck there, we highly recommend the peperoni pizza at Round Table.