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Kid in a candy store
Charlies Inside Corner
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LARNED — Can it be any better than this?
The 10 days surrounding and following Christmas and the New Year are, for a sports fan, like being a kid in a candy store.
College football bowl games, NFL playoff games, big intersectional non-conference college basketball games. It’s enough to make one think they don’t ever want to see baseball season!
Oregon reminded Texas fans of why Mack Brown was eased out in Austin, destroying the Longhorns 30-7, reminiscent of early-season games when they were not competitive.
Following the hiring of new athletic director Steve Patterson, Brown was quoted as saying, “This hire is a home run for Texas.”
Hey Mack, it didn’t help.
Perfidious Brown was not, but it didn’t help.
Patterson did what he was hired to do: move Mack Brown into retirement!
From the “Weird Happenings” department this year, drug agents found a working mini-meth lab inside a porta-potty on a golf course in Purcell, Okla.
That gives a whole new meaning to “His game’s in the crapper!”
How is your favorite college football team doing in the “dollars spent for each victory” department?
Sorry Jayhawk fans.
Once again the Kansas Jayhawks come in as the least financially efficient college football team. Kansas has won just six games over the last three seasons and the cost per win comes to a whopping $8,008,689!
The Colorado Buffaloes come in right behind them at $6,4645,205 spent per win.
Meanwhile Kansas State came in as the second Most Financially Efficient, spending $1,529,494 for each football victory.
All of this proves that, as in government, throwing money at a problem is not necessarily the best answer.
Nothing is more worthless, more self-serving, than various magazines and other media naming their “Man of the Year” or “Sportsman of the Year.”  
Does anyone really subscribe to these magazines to read that kind of stuff?  
It falls into the same category as all of the “Best Ever” stuff.
Lost in the euphoria of Kansas State’s 31-14 slugging of Michigan in the Buffalo Wild Wings (don’t you just hate saying some of those names?) Bowl game is the question of how will Kansas State football recruiting fare in the next year or so.
Remember, the Wildcats lost two of their best recruiters this past year as Joe Bob Clements moved to Oklahoma State and Michael Smith became the Receivers coach at Arkansas.
Bill Snyder can’t do EVERYTHING in Manhattan (or can he?).
The success in the recruiting arena of his new assistants will soon begin to show if Kansas State can stay in the upper echelons of the Big 12 Conference football race.
We were told before the season started that the Big 12 would have a down year in Men’s basketball.
Lo and behold, it has turned out to be anything but.  
Oklahoma State, Kansas, Iowa State, Baylor, Texas, Oklahoma and yes, Kansas State look good enough to make the NCAA tournament. Whoever wins this conference race will come out of it with a few bruises and scratches!
Of course most Big 12 fans are rooting for Oklahoma State on Friday against Missouri in the Cotton Bowl.  I like the Cowboys  36-27 ... Can Ohio State show they belonged in the championship game as they battle Clemson? Buckeyes 30, Clemson 24 ... In the pseudo National Championship on Monday, undefeated Florida State plays once-beaten Auburn. Auburn has shown they have way too many ghosts making strange things happen at the end of games to go against them. Another miracle for Auburn. 27-24.


Charles Tabler is a contributing writer from Larned