Happy New Year

Some thoughts on the various sporting action from New Year's Day and the last few days of 2008:

• Pete Carroll said after USC's 38-24 win over Penn State in the Rose Bowl that "in all due respect," he doesn't think anybody can beat the Trojans this year. Setting aside the incorrect preposition and the fact that somebody actually did beat USC this year, he's got a point. Southern Cal was one of seven teams from BCS conferences to win all but one of its games, and they earned the right to play for the national title just as much as Florida or Oklahoma did. (So did Penn State, for that matter.) We're not going to see a playoff anytime soon, I'm afraid, but this should have been a playoff game.
• Penn State could have won that game if they hadn't made so many big mistakes. This despite a Rose Bowl-record .800 passing percentage and 413 yards from Mark Sanchez, who was simply outstanding. Penn State turned the ball over too many times, and got a turnover of their own called back because of an offsides penalty -- which was one of too many penalties they committed against too good a team.
• The Lions weren't the only Big Ten team to fall on Thursday. Michigan State couldn't hang with Georgia in the Capital One Bowl, and after earlier losses by Northwestern, Minnesota and Wisconsin, the conference is now 1-5 in bowl games. Ohio State has a chance to make them 2-5 by beating Texas on Monday night in the Fiesta Bowl, but that's going to be tough. If not for Iowa's drubbing of South Carolina in the Outback Bowl yesterday, we could be looking at a Big Ten goose egg.
• Beanie Wells hasn't decided yet whether he'll play on Saturdays or Sundays next year. Selfishly, as an Ohio State fan, I'm hoping he sticks around another year, but if I were him, I'd go for the money. If he stayed in college another year, he might win a national title, but he would risk a very expensive injury.
• I didn't watch the hockey game that was played at Wrigley Field yesterday, but I love that there's one outdoor NHL game every year. Many hockey players grew up playing on ponds in the wintertime, and I kind of feel like that's the way the game was meant to be played. And in watching the highlights, it was kind of neat to see the hand-operated scoreboard being used for hockey.
• The Cavaliers lost their fifth game of the year the other day (on LeBron's 24th birthday), to a pretty good Heat team in Miami, two days after beating the same team in Cleveland. At 26-5, they've still got the league's third-best record, and I'm still optimistic about their chances to win it all. But they've got to get home court over the Celtics. And don't look now, but the 25-7 Magic is a threat too.
• For those who, like me, jones for baseball all winter, you should check out this Tim Kurkjian column about the Indians' outlook for 2009. Kurkjian concludes that the Tribe "could rebound in a big way," and I think he's right. Did you know our guys had the AL's second-best record after July 9 last year? That all came after the Sabathia trade, too. (Special thanks to my good friend John Arthur Hutchison for sending me the link.)
• Speaking of baseball, the MLB Network debuted yesterday, and thank goodness for that.