Boise State's odds on winning national title

Cash in your 401K and break out Grandma's birthday check!

Bodog.com lists Boise State's odds of winning the 2009 national championship at 100/1. We'll take those odds any day. Some of the other teams with the same odds at the national title are Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, and BSU's September opponent Oregon. The team with the best odds is USC, in an obvious nod to 2005.

What we love best about the sports book is that Fresno State is not even listed. A group of teams are bundled into "The Field," and Boise State appears to be the only small-conference school to not be included in that group. Compulsive gamblers know what they're talking about!

The University of Idaho also did not receive a specific mention, either because they are to be included in The Field (says The Field: "Thanks for nothing!") or because sports betting agents didn't have their scientific calculators on hand to calculate the exponential figures of Idaho's national championship odds.

Football Futures Betting [bodog.com]

Tuesday: Links with Diet Coke

Story of the day:

Broncos hire Nevada alumnus [BroncoSports.com]

Boise State head athletic trainer Gary Craner will be retiring next month after 36 years on the job. Paul J. wishes he had the same opportunity.

Craner will be replaced by Marc Paul, a Nevada alumnus and the head trainer for the Wolfpack for the past eight years.

“We are very pleased to have attracted a person of Marc’s experience and background,” Bleymaier said. “We knew that replacing Gary Craner, who has been here for 36 years, would be a difficult task, but we think Marc is the right person at the right time. We feel he will be a great addition to the program.”

We're crossing our fingers that Bleymaier hired Marc Paul the athletic trainer and not Marc Paul the mentalist and mind-reader. Although, we would like to know what Coach Pete is thinking vis a vis the quarterback situation.

Other links:

Losing to BSU could cost Oregon's Bellotti [OregonLive]
His contract is tied to performance and gaudy uniform incentives

This is the first we've heard of a Jared Zabransky statue [Bleacher Report]
And the last we'll hear of it, hopefully.

Brian Murphy's long-awaited Indy Car column [Idaho Statesman]
Long-awaited if you actually wait for that kind of thing.