Maybe Colts fans are a little too excited about Andrew Luck

This group of four Colts fans made the trip to Nashville yesterday to see the Colts take on the Tennessee Titans. Note that I didn't say "root for the Colts," because for these gentlemen, I don't that victory is the objective. They are looking for Andrew Luck in Indy blue.

The Colts do currently lead the Andrew Luck sweepstakes with their spotless 0-8 record. Miami is a half game back at 0-7, and the Rams put themselves a game and a half back with a win yesterday to go 1-6. The Cardinals are also in the one-loss club.

Is it okay to already own an Andrew Luck jersey in the colors of your favorite team? Well, unless you've appointed yourself the czar of fashion and taste and see it as your duty to tell other people what to wear, of course it is. It may not be the smartest investment in the world -- there are those who think the Colts wouldn't even draft Luck if given the opportunity -- but as a fan, you can make whatever statement you want.

This also helps put into perspective how insanely lucky the Colts might be getting here. If it does work out that the Colts end up taking Andrew Luck at #1 overall, they'd have had the top overall pick at two points in the last 19 years, and both times, there was a surefire-franchise quarterback available.

Try explaining that to the Browns, Texans, 49ers or Raiders, who, in that same period of time, used that same first-overall pick on Tim Couch, David Carr, Alex Smith and JaMarcus Russell, respectively.

Gracias, @Nashvillefan, @ClayTravisBGID and Larry Brown Sports.

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Big 12-bound West Virginia ushers in the end of the Big East as we know it

The first rule in conference realignment is, Nothing is a done deal until it's a done deal, a lesson we've learned the hard way two years in a row. At the moment, though, everyone with the slightest interest in the subject ? up to and including the power brokers of the schools and conferences in question ?�is working on two assumptions that appear very, very certain.

The first is that Missouri is days away from announcing its formal withdrawal from the Big 12 and subsequent arrival in the SEC. Chancellor Brady Deaton has already been given the go-ahead to execute the move if and when he sees fit, and his latest message to the Big 12 is "I wish them the best and all of that." The second assumption, as reported by multiple outlets this morning, is that the Big 12 will respond immediately to Missouri's departure by extending an invitation to West Virginia:

West Virginia is headed to the Big 12, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation, a move that leaves the Big East with five football programs and an uncertain future. The person said Tuesday that the Mountaineers had "applied and are accepted," leaving only legal entanglements from making the move official. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been formally announced.

Word from the locals is that the move is "a done deal" ? there's that term again ?�with a press conference� scheduled for tomorrow. I think it's safe to book it: The Mountaineers are headed for the Heartland.

The good news for the Big East: Having now successfully blunted the exits of Missouri and Texas A&M with the addition of West Virginia and TCU, the Big 12is� reportedly content to remain at ten members for the foreseeable future, meaning it won't be pursuing Louisville as a potential target for expansion. The bad news for the Big East: With its most consistently successful football school leaving five second-rate football programs in its wake, the Big East as we know it is finished as a major football conference.

If it remains as a free-standing football conference at all, it will be in barely recognizable form ? of the eight charter members for Big East football in 1992, only one remains: Rutgers ? and it will be without its only notable asset, an automatic bid to the Bowl Championship Series. That bid only existed in the first place because of the presence of one legitimate national power (Miami) and respectable lot of second-tier contenders (Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and West Virginia) in the mid-nineties, any of which was likely to be making a few national ripples at any given time. The bid barely survived the exit of Miami and Virginia Tech to the ACC in the last decade, and may have already been on the chopping block with Pitt and Syracuse's decision to follow the 'Canes and Hokies out last month. West Virginia's defection is like the last crew member hopping into the last lifeboat.

Of the five members left standing, three of them ?�Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida ? are less than a decade removed from the obscurity of Conference USA, and a fourth (UConn) is barely a decade removed from its transition out of I-AA. The fifth is Rutgers.

The hope for those schools when they were "promoted" to the Big East to replace Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech in 2004-05 was that the newcomers would rise to the level of the new surroundings as emerging, "big time" programs. For brief stretches (Louisville under Bobby Petrino, Cincinnati under Brian Kelly)�they managed to look the part. But the reality was the opposite: The addition of mid-major schools brought the Big East that much closer to a mid-major conference. Since 2004, five different head coaches have won the Big East championship at five different schools ? Walt Harris at Pitt, Rich Rodriguez at West Virginia, Petrino at Louisville, Kelly at Cincinnati and Randy Edsall at UConn ? and all five have accepted more attractive offers from outside of the league immediately after winning the title. Among those offers were gigs at Stanford and Maryland.

It was already a stepping-stone conference, a poaching ground for the actual players, and now that there's nothing left worth poaching, it's left to join the other Have-Not leagues that have never pretended they're anything but. In fact, survival may dictate that it literally join them, under the umbrella of a massive "super conference" already being forged by an unwieldy marriage of convenience between the Mountain West and Conference USA. The merger gives those two conferences ? or one conference, or whatever it is now ?�all of the leverage in the next round of musical chairs: Where the Big East appeared poised to invite up to six Mtn. and C-USA teams to fill out its dwindling ranks, there is no compelling incentive to leave a relatively stable ship for one that appears to be sinking. Suddenly, it's the Big East that has to accept the reality of the new landscape, or cease to exist.

There's still a chance (possibly a distant one, but a real one) that a colossus consisting of the Mountain West, Conference USA and the Big East could sustain an automatic BCS bid. The tentative plan, according to the Boston Globe, is a 28 or 32-team league split into four divisions, the winners of which would meet over the last two weekends of the regular season in a mini-playoff for the bid, which frankly sounds like kind of a great idea for everyone involved: It opens access to more schools without adding another slice to the pie, and thereby also increases the competitiveness ? i.e. undefeated Boise State (or Houston, or Hawaii, whomever happens to be the hot upstart du jour) gets the automatic bid out of a huge pool of teams instead of unranked UConn out of a very small one, which would also free up a coveted at-large bid that would have gone to undefeated Boise State for the traditional power conferences. That's not as good as a playoff (which the Mountain West still wants, for the record), but it is a proactive solution to a lot of problems.

That's one thing the Big East has never had: A solution. Poaching Conference USA for Conference USA-level programs bought it a little time, but it did nothing in the interim to address the larger existential crisis ? the never-ending, decades-long trend toward separating the "Haves" from the "Have Nots" ? that forced it to fill out its ranks with the Have-Nots in the first place. When the Big East escaped the guillotine last summer, its response was to invite TCU and dither over the addition of Villanova. The former hopped another ship before it ever came aboard, and nobody outside of Philadelphia and a board room in New York even pretended to care about the latter.

The time for the only, bold proactive decision the league seemed to have at its disposal ? kicking out Notre Dame in non-football sports, in hopes of grinding the realignment gears to a halt by driving the Irish into the Big Ten ?�has long passed. And Notre Dame may be on its way out, anyway.

What the Big East is left with, then, is a shell that no one has any good reason to join and its remaining members are actively attempting to flee. If it survives ?�and it still might, with the possible addition of Houston, Air Force and others ?�it will be with the scraps the rest of the adults' table has already passed over. And soon enough, it will arrive to find its chair has been taken away.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Facebook and Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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Video: Andy Sutton?s elbow to Landeskog?s head; suspension worthy?

Friday night's Colorado Avalanche game was Gabriel Landeskog's hockey Bar Mitzvah, as the team announced beforehand that the rookie sensation wouldn't be shipped back to juniors. Mazel tov!

What did Edmonton Oilers defenseman Andy Sutton get him on this momentous occasion? Why, an elbow to the head in the third period, of course. Here's Sutton's hit, followed by some retribution from Landeskog's teammate Shane O'Brien:

Sutton was given two minutes for elbowing and five for fighting at 3:23. O'Brien was given two for instigating, five for fighting and a misconduct. Landeskog didn't appear injured on the play, as he skated through the third period of the Avs' 3-1 loss to the Oilers.

The Colorado announcers, obviously partisan, saw this Sutton hit as a potential violation of the NHL's Rule 48 banning principle contact with the head. Landeskog is in a vulnerable position in attempting to take the pass; if Sutton wasn't trying to hit him on the head, we're not sure where else he was targeting. This is, as they say, the kind of hit the NHL wants out of its product, with or without an injury on the play.

If there is any action taken by the Dept. of Player Safety and Sheriff Shanahan, keep in mind Sutton would be a repeat offender, having been suspended for two games in Jan 2010 after a hit on Pascal Dupuis of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Granted, we are a little hesitant to pass judgment on Andy Sutton; for although we've seen the replay, we can't claim to be an expert. Others have made the same mistake in the past:

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Where would the Rangers hold their victory parade?

Yeah, yeah. The Texas Rangers still have to win one more game before they can even think about staging the first World Series title parade in the team's history.

It's also worth noting that fans in the Metroplex have grown famously averse to premature party planning ever since Dallas released early parade plans in 2006 when the Mavericks took a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals. (The preparation turned out to be a giant jinx as the Miami Heat won four straight games to hold a parade of their own.)

Still, the topic of a Rangers parade location has been quietly whispered about in the past few days because it's a fun debate subject. Though downtown Dallas might like to get in on the fun, Arlington has been home for the Rangers since they moved to Texas in 1972. Like anything else in Texas, the city is fiercely provincial and Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has already fired off a warning for Dallas to keep its distance should a parade be necessary.

Though Arlington does not have the traditional "downtown" parade route that Dallas can boast, the campus that holds the Rangers Ballpark, Cowboys Stadium and a Six Flags amusement park should be able to provide enough parking and roadway space to handle the celebration. It will also be the likely place to party should the Rangers manage a win in Thursday night's Game 6 or Friday's Game 7.

From the Star-Telegram:

Look for at least a homecoming party Saturday or Sunday night near Nolan Ryan Expressway. Last year, the team hosted the Texas Rangers Rally in a parking lot.

Arlington visitors bureau President Jay Burress said that's his guess.

"The entertainment district lends itself well to big crowds," he said.�"This is where it should be. This is their home."

Agreed. Though New York Rangers fans have had fun with the New Jersey Devils for having their Stanley Cup parade in the parking lot of the Meadowlands, teams should celebrate in the places where they play. Arlington has supported Rangers baseball through thick and thin, even passing a half-cent sales tax to build the beautiful ballpark the team currently calls home. Should the Rangers have the great fortune to throw the best kind of parade, I don't think there's any question where it should be held.

Arlington, all the way.

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Red Sox looking to poach John Farrell from Blue Jays?

With the Boston Red Sox expected to announce Ben Cherington as their new general manager Tuesday, the first order of business for the new man in charge will be to hire a few field manager.

Reportedly, the Red Sox may already have their man in mind. The only problem is that he already manages another team. A division rival, too.

According to the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo, the Red Sox braintrust has wanted to hire Toronto Blue Jays manager John Farrell ever since the team and former manager Terry Francona parted ways in late September.

Farrell was the Red Sox's pitching coach on Francona's staff for four seasons, from 2007 to 2010. He reportedly would've preferred to stay in Boston and eventually become the Red Sox manager. But when it appeared that Francona wasn't going anywhere, Farrell decided to take the Blue Jays' job last season.

It would seem like a good fit. Farrell is familiar with most of the players on the roster and the remaining coaches on staff. Competing in the AL East wouldn't be new to him. The front office also likes that Farrell is on board with using advanced data and sabermetrics in his approach to the job.

Perhaps even better, Farrell wouldn't be a brand new manager. He says he learned quite a bit in his first year in the Blue Jays' dugout.

"The one thing I was never exposed to was the responsibility of 25 players," Farrell said at the end of the year when talking about his biggest challenge from 2011. "In the past, it's been 40 percent of a roster with the pitching staff.

"Managing the clubhouse, being in tune with what's going on with an individual player, whether it's mentally, physically or fundamentally -- there's a lot of time spent, a lot of maintenance in those areas, to be abreast of each guy in the clubhouse."

Do you think those quotes hold any meaning to a Red Sox front office that surely wants to whip its clubhouse into shape and make sure the fried chicken and beer escapades are a thing of the past?

But Farrell also has a contract with the Blue Jays. He's signed for two more years. Would Toronto really want to let him go, after managing the team to an 81-81 fourth-place finish in the AL East and a roster that appears to be on the rise?

Blue Jays president Paul Beeston says the Red Sox have not requested permission to interview Farrell, so they consider this a hypothetical situation. But as we've seen this offseason, these sorts of things can become reality very quickly, especially if Farrell is Boston's top choice.

Even if Toronto has managerial replacements on hand (like bench coach Don Wakamatsu) or prefers not to keep an employee who wants to leave, the team isn't likely to just let Farrell out of his contract. Especially when this would be a lateral move to a division rival and perennial contender. Getting Farrell will surely cost the Red Sox, maybe whichever prospects come from the Cubs as compensation for Theo Epstein.

That should give Cherington plenty to work on before he can even settle into his new GM chair at Fenway Park.

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Theo Epstein explains himself in a long goodbye to Boston

Theo Epstein is trying hard to make sure there are no hard feelings over his leaving the Boston Red Sox.

First, Epstein took out a full-page ad in Sunday's Boston Globe to thank his bosses, colleagues and Red Sox fans.

But for anyone who felt he still had some 'splainin' to do on his way out the door, Epstein accommodated those looking for answers with an editorial in the Globe on the day he's set to be named the new general manager of the Chicago Cubs.

If Epstein is to be taken at his word, one thing becomes clear in his 1,600-word goodbye to Boston: He's always been concerned about overstaying his welcome and was ready to move on.

Football legend Bill Walsh used to say that coaches and executives should seek change after 10 years with the same team. The theory is that both the individual and the organization benefit from a change after so much time together. The executive gets rebirth and the energy that comes with a new challenge; the organization gets a fresh perspective, and the chance for true change that comes with new leadership. This idea resonated with me.

What we don't know is when exactly Walsh's tenet began to ring true with Epstein. Has he always been a restless soul, with a wandering eye toward the next challenge? Was the seed planted when he first resigned from the Red Sox, after the 2005 season? Or was the team's September collapse ? and all the scapegoating that came with it ? the final dose of affirmation Epstein needed?

Epstein also indicates that the Cubs are the only job he could imagine leaving the Red Sox to take. So maybe this was some convenient timing, if not exactly perfect because he had one year remaining on his contract with Boston.

But once that contract expired, Epstein sounds like he was ready to leave. In the editorial, he mentions preparing assistant GM Ben Cherington to take over in 2012. Planning the transition was discussed with ownership, as well. This wasn't someone angling for a contract extension. This was drawing up an exit strategy.

Personally, I've always believed that once you think about leaving a job, it's time to go. I've dealt with that myself, I've seen friends and colleagues go through it. I'm sure most everyone reading this can relate.

To bring it back to sports, I'm reminded of Lloyd Carr's last year as Michigan's football coach. When it was revealed that Carr wanted to resign after the 2006 season, the struggles of 2007 (the loss to Appalachian State, a 9-4 record) made that much more sense. Carr's heart couldn't have been fully in the job if he wanted to leave.

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So with a new manager to be chosen ? and the working relationship that needs to be developed ? Epstein apparently didn't think it was right to lead the search when he had an eye on leaving. And if Cherington was already lined up as the GM successor, then why not let him take the wheel on perhaps the team's most important decision leading into the 2012 season?

Is that explanation good enough for Red Sox fans and media? We'll surely find out over the days, weeks and months to come. But it comes off as honest to me. And given the lack of tension and resentment surrounding his exit, there's no reason not to believe him.

Epstein went over plenty more in his op-ed piece, though probably glossed over the September collapse more than many will prefer. But who can blame him? Cleaning up that mess isn't his problem anymore. It's a mindset that Epstein may have carried through next season, had he stuck around.

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Derek Holland keeps house, mimics Washington, grows mustache

Derek Holland breathed a sigh of relief after pitching the game of his life Sunday night. Not only had he helped the Texas Rangers even the World Series with a special performance in a 4-0 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals, he reported that his family appreciated that he cleaned up his apartment for their stay in the Great Metroplex area.

Check out the "MTV Cribs"-style video jaunt over to La Casa de Holland, co-starring girlfriend Lauren and Holland's pet Boxer, named "Wrigley." (And lots of empty cups, beer bottles, Doritos bags ...):

So it's not just single sports writers who live that way! But wait. There's so much more. After the game, Holland sat down for a funny traditional interview with the MLB Network.

Actually, most of Holland's interviews are funny, because that's just how he is. (And he might just be driving the Rangers' limo to a championship.) On MLBN, hosts Brian Kenney and Harold Reynolds pointed the conversation toward Holland's interaction with manager Ron Washington as the Texas skipper came to remove him from Game 4 in the ninth inning. Holland's amusing impression of Washington is done with genuine affection:

"As soon as he came out, I gave him that stare and was, like: 'Don't you dare take me out of this game...'

"And he came out, and got out there and was, like, 'All right, son. Now, listen here: you ain't gonna go in that game no more. You gotta get out. You listen to that crowd right now, son ?�they're gonna give you the ovation you need.'

"I was, like, 'Wash, Wash, c'mon now, lemme go the distance!'

"He's like, 'Oh, no, son. You've done [enough]. Now you gettin' out of the game, now.' And he gave me that nice little Wash laugh with the mouth wide open ?�'Ha-ha!' ? you know?"

[Big BLS h/t: @CJZero for the video.]

As 'Duk pointed out, Holland also sounds a lot like Billy Bob from the Rock-a-Fire Explosion band of Showbiz Pizza fame. That's a place Holland probably would like. And Washington was right about the ovation at Rangers Ballpark for Holland. He appreciated it:

"Good Lord, that was amazing. The fans, they're unbelievable, and the way they just roared, I mean ... I don't have much arm hair to begin with but, man, it was sticking up for sure. I had that tingly feeling in my body. It felt amazing."

Speaking of hair, Kenney and Reynolds also delved into that thing on Holland's lip he refers to as a mustache. Guess how long it's taken him to grow it:

"Now, now. This mustache has got some hairs in here. We are approaching ? man ?� four months.

"It's the first time I've ever had anything like that; to do something, and the crowd gets into it. I mean, I had little kids wearing fake mustaches, I got women wearing mustaches. It's unbelievable. It's something cool.

"The only thing I'm jealous of is, their mustaches are better than mine."

Here's proof.

And what did the family say about Holland's housekeeping?

"I got the approval from them today. It was definitely clean, nothing laying around for them. The best part: My brother said the blow-up mattress was very comfortable. So we're good."

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