Some gifts people give are pointless: Styling mousse to Dick Vitale. An all-you-can-eat card to Kate Moss. The BCS Championship given to Oklahoma or Florida.

It means nothing because the BCS has no credibility. Florida? Oklahoma? Who cares? Utah is the national champion.

The End. Roll credits.

Argue with this, please. I beg you. Find me anybody else that went undefeated. Thirteen-and-zero. Beat four ranked teams. Went to the Deep South and seal-clubbed Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. The same Alabama that was ranked No. 1 for five weeks. The same Alabama that went undefeated in the regular season. The same Alabama that Florida beat in order to get INTO the BCS Championship game in the first place.

FIND ME ANYBODY ELSE THAT WENT UNDEFEATED. THIRTEEN-AND-ZERO. BEAT FOUR RANKED TEAMS. WENT TO THE DEEP SOUTH AND SEAL-CLUBBED ALABAMA IN THE SUGAR BOWL.

Yeah, that's how it is now in the shameful, money-grubbing world of college football. If you're Florida and you beat Alabama, you get a seat in the title game. If you're Utah, you get a seat on your sofa.

Hey, remind me: What do they give out for one of those BCS things anyway? It's been so long since I cared. Something from Sears? This is the sixth year in the past 10 that the title has been in dispute under this cash-grab, fan-dis, monopoly that the BCS has created. Which is why the title game just doesn't matter anymore. It's like being named Miss Ogallala. Or Best Amish Electrician.

Just take a look at the teams that think they're worthy of being called national champs:

USC? Great year. Wonderful. Let's all go to SkyBar and celebrate. But it lost to Oregon State, a team Utah beat.

Texas? You think beating Ohio State by a nubby three points gets you the title? The Big Ten was 1-6 in bowl games! That's like pinning David Spade!

Florida and Oklahoma? They lost. Utah never did.

So that's it. Utah is the national champion. The Utes should probably have two now, actually. They went undefeated in 2004, too, and their coach still thinks they were the best team in the land. Smart fella named Urban Meyer. Coaches Florida now.

By the way, we're calling our title the "national" championship because it actually includes the whole nation­—all 119 Division I schools—unlike the BCS, which includes 66. Yeah, the BCS somehow eliminated the middleman—the NCAA. The conferences these schools play in take their dump trucks full of cash straight from the TV networks and fairness can go suck a lemon.

Nettie Tien

The Utes won't get the trophy they really deserve, so we gave them one of our own design.

Do me a favor. Call Ohio State president Gordon Gee and ask him why he won't support a playoff. He's one of the most powerful presidents in the NCAA. He could get it done. If he says anything other than, "We don't want to share the loot" then you know he's lying his bow tie off.

"This is not how we normally do things in America," says Utah president Michael Young. "In America, quality usually wins, not conspiracy. And there's a reason people usually enter into a conspiracy. It's money. You make money doing it. And those that are in on the conspiracy want to stay in and keep everybody else out."

Sure, BCS blowhards will hand you schlock about how the college football season is like a playoff, how it's an elimination tournament every week. Really? Well, how come Florida and Oklahoma weren't eliminated with their losses? Utah ran the table, beat everybody set in front of them, including Ala-damn-bama in no less than the Sugar Bowl, and gets the bagel.

Oh, by the way? It was Utah's eighth straight bowl win, the nation's longest streak. Among the losers during that run? Let's see USC, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, and now the legendary Houndstooth Hats.

"What else do we have to prove?" asks Utah's magical quarterback, Brian Johnson. Good question. He and the Utes essentially whipped Alabama at home. Handed Nick Saban a garlic necklace to wear the entire offseason. Stepped on his team's neck 21-0 in the first three possessions and never looked back. Let's see. Who was it that was losing to Alabama until nearly six minutes into the fourth quarter? Oh, yeah. Florida.

What, you want the Utes to win a spelling bee? Make a prize-winning souffle? Knock up Angelina Jolie? What?

It just slays me. It really does.

Call Myles Brand, president of the asleep-at-the-wheel NCAA, and ask him if he and his greedy presidents are going to stand in defiance of president-elect Barack Obama, who wants a playoff and wants it yesterday.

Ask Brand what he's going to do if Obama starts asking the Justice Department to look into anti-trust hearings against the BCS. The Utah attorney general has already launched an investigation into that very thing. Or ask him what he'll do if Obama asks the Department of Education to consider withholding federal funds from these schools that have entered into this secret club called the BCS. You don't think playing in the title game means millions in general-fund donations for a school? That's as unfair as anything Title IX fought against.

Until all these people do the right thing, I'll be celebrating with the true national champions — the undefeated, untied Utah Utes. (Our new slogan: Utahk about a team!)

Lemonades for everybody!

My old friend and boss, Michael Tilley, sent this over to me today.

Yes, Tilley's new publication, The City Wire, has decided to pick up a column I write for my current employer that is picked up by about 20 publications in Arkansas. The City Wire is a bit of a first for us because it's entirely Internet-based while the rest of the publications that pick up my column are still primarily print-based.

What is unique, of course, is that I sent that column out today and Tilley put it up immediately, thus beating everyone else to the punch. I've known Tilley since my days as a business reporter at The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas in Springdale. He was the business editor of both The Morning News and the Southwest Times-Record in Fort Smith.

He's a good guy and I'm glad he's picking up my column. I hope he does very well with his new endeavor and, given his drive, intelligence and determination, I'm sure he will.

So, y'all go ahead and take a look at my column if you want to see The Hawg wearing a suit and grinning like an idiot. Heh, heh.

Yes, once again it's time to recognize the top Entrecard droppers of the month.

We had a lot of visitors here at The All Arkie Army in December and that's impressive seeing how the Christmas season kept a lot of people busy.

So, here are the top Entrecard visitors for December:



1. Crotchety Old Man -- and he's an All Arkie Army member, to boot! Yay!
2. BMWF1Blog
3. Of Trends and Aces
4. The Natural State Hawg -- Yes, the administrator of the All Arkie Army places a pitiful fourth on the "top droppers" list. Awful!
5. The Way I See It
6. Beyond Left Field
7. PaulsHealthBlog.com -- Yet another valued member of the All Arkie Army!
8. pamibe
9. The Half-Life of Linoleum
10. Political Conservatives -- a site run by two members of the All Arkie Army.

Thanks, folks. The visits are appreciated.

ARRA News Service: Jason Tolbert on the Tobert Report today ends year 2009 reporting on an Arkansas version of "Chicago style" politics. In summary, we have an elected constitutional officer who is Arkansas Chief Law enforcement officer advocating for and paying for a defeat of constitutional amendment in the past and now espousing that he can defend the very same amendment in a court case now challenging the amendment passed by the citizen's of Arkansas. And we thought their was no shame in Little Rock when Bill Clinton was AG. Below Jason explains about the latest "Dustin dust-up":

After seeing this photograph from the Arkansas Times of Attorney General Dustin McDaniel at a fundraiser for Arkansas Families First, the group formed to oppose Initiated Act 1, I decided to go down to the Arkansas Ethics Commission on my lunch break and take a look at their financial disclosure statements. My hunch was right.

The McDaniel Leadership PAC contributed $1,000 on October 28, 2008 to support Arkansas Families First in their campaign against Initiated Act 1. According to the PAC’s filing with the Arkansas Secretary of State, Dustin McDaniel serves as chairman of this PAC. (As a side note, fellow blogger Blake Rutherford serves as the treasurer.)

This is significant because as the Attorney General for Arkansas, McDaniel’s office now serves as the defense attorney in representing the state of Arkansas against the ACLU’s court challenge of Initiated Act 1. McDaniel’s Chief Deputy Attorney General Justin Allen told the Associated Press yesterday that his office will still be the ones defending the lawsuit.

I cannot help but wonder how someone who has contributed financially for a measure’s defeat can now be the advocate for the people of Arkansas in defense of that passed measure. I am certainly not a lawyer but referring to a borrowed copy of Howard Brill’s “Arkansas Professional and Judicial Ethics,” this appears to be a violation of Rule 1.7 defining a conflict of interest. The rule states “A concurrent conflict of interest exists if …. there is a significant risk that the representation of one of more clients will be materially limited … by a personal interest of the lawyer.”

Is this circumstance not a clear example of this definition? The rule goes on to discuss several requirements for a lawyer to overcome this conflict including if “each affected client gives informed consent, confirmed in writing.” The clients in this case would be a people of Arkansas, particularly the 586,248 Arkansans who voted for the Act. I am not sure how McDaniel is going to pull that one off.