New England begins its playoff push on Saturday against Tennessee in a new role for the franchise: favorites.

It's not that the Patriots haven't had their moments. There were Super Bowl appearances in the 1980s and '90s. Of course they won it all just two seasons ago.

But favorites? Bullies? A team to be feared?

Never. New England always has been an underdog, and often a colossal one, for its entire existence. In their three Super Bowls the Pats went off as major dogs. At 14-2 and riding a 12-game win streak, the Patriots now are the favorites in Vegas to win it all.

"There couldn't be anything less relevant than that to me," New England coach Bill Belichick says.

That's what is a coach is supposed to say, which is fine. But confidence is contagious in football, especially when the deck is stacked in your favor: a decided home-field advantage that comes from winter weather and snow-crazed fans.

This entire franchise transformation can be traced to a single day: Jan. 19, 2002. That was

The vast, vitriolic voices debating whether Pete Rose should be allowed into the Hall of Fame now that he has admitted to lying about gambling is enough to make you long for a calm, quiet dinner with Al Franken and Ann Coulter.

I admit the Rose story has always bored the heck out of me, but the latest grandstanding over this overblown drama is too much to ignore.

Pete Rose gambled. Pete Rose lied. Pete Rose, and this is my favorite, "sinned against baseball."

You can sin against baseball? Baseball is God? Jesus Christ can't hit a curveball? We all know that baseball always takes itself way too seriously, but sinning against a game?

(I would like to take a moment to admit that as a 10-year-old playing Risk with my sister Sarah, I once cheated by palming some extra troops into Madagascar, allowing me to seize a foothold in Africa. I hereby renounce my sin against the Parker Brothers.)

I get the shudders every time I hear Rose's name because I fear the ensuing pundit shouting match. Or

You know, for a college football season that had so much controversy, I will say it was a lot of fun. I actually am sad to see it end, and judging from the thousands of letters received, I don't think I am alone.

Thanks again for every input and remember the ground rules. Try to keep it short, to the point and with a point. Include full name and hometown. And while I read through them all, I can't respond to individual inquires. It is nothing personal, but we are talking about more than 1,000 emails a week.

Now on to the People's Voice ...

NICK SABAN
(Jan. 4: "LSU coach leaves celebrating to the experts")

Thanks for your column on Nick Saban. It was a great read and I appreciate the idea that there was something else to read besides "Southern Cal got screwed." The debate will rage on, I'm sure, about who is the real No. 1 team in the land. Southern Cal has a great offense – but LSU has a great defense.

Heck, even Barry Switzer said at halftime that defense does indeed win games. One

NEW ORLEANS – In the last minute he scowled and cursed. When the game ended, he jogged straight-faced out to midfield like he had just beaten Western Illinois, not Oklahoma 21-14 for the national title.

Later he held the championship trophy like it was for second place in a sorghum-growing contest at the Iberville Parish fair.

Here in the Big Easy, where over-the-top exuberance always is in style, college football's most dour and dull coach is king. He delivered on LSU's immense potential, ended a 45-year title drought and did it all without cracking a smile.

But that's Nick Saban. He ain't much for cocktail parties but he can coach like hell.

Not that this school or this town needs another free spirit anyway. Once LSU had answered every other question – defense, offense, special teams – affirmatively, about the only mystery left was whether Tiger fans could drink the damn town dry.

Lord knows they tried.

Put it this way: During the fourth quarter Sunday, the pro-Tiger crowd at the

NEW ORLEANS – At the Sugar Bowl on Sunday either Louisiana State or Oklahoma is going to win the national championship (or some share of it). At least one player is going to be the difference-maker, gaining hero status forever.

The way Billy Cannon still is canonized at LSU. Or a host of Sooners are celebrated in Norman.

That is natural and fine, but as Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops points out, that isn't all. To honor college athletes solely because of their exploits in games is to underestimate the character and accomplishments of so many of them.

Like two of his Sooners – star receiver Mark Clayton and steady defensive tackle Lynn McGruder – who don't need to do anything special Sunday to cement their hero status.

That was taken care of last June, when Clayton was driving his 1995 Mustang north on Interstate-35 from his home in Texas to Norman, Okla. for the start of summer conditioning. His friend McGruder was riding shotgun when, just a few miles from campus, a Ford Escort

BAYOU DULARGE, La. – Way out here on the bayou, way out here in the heart of Cajun Country, there are few people but lots of signs.

Like the one that proclaims this is "where the road ends and the fishing begins."

Or the one that reads "Geaux Tigers. Sooners Seaux."

Carrol "Ha-Ha" Sapia likes that one best – other than the handwritten one on his cooler that asserts "Budweiser Only." And he means it. On New Year's Day, the construction worker who proclaims himself "pure Cajun" and "all LSU" used shrimp as bait as he cast for red fish in the Bayou Dularge and slowly emptied a cooler stocked with nothing but iced-down Buds.

"We take fishin' seriously," he said in a deep, rich Cajun accent. "And football. And some drinkin' too."

They say the entire State of Louisiana is obsessed with Louisiana State football, especially with the upcoming Sugar Bowl against Oklahoma that could produce the team's first national title in 45 years.

New Orleans is practically painted in Purple and Gold. Bourbon

NEW ORLEANS – For the most part this week, amid the sin and seduction of Bourbon Street, you are more likely to find an Amish family sipping a banana hurricane inside Larry Flynt's Hustler Club than a Southern California fan.

As televisions here flickered with the final images of USC's 28-14 Rose Bowl victory, all but assuring a split national championship that will dampen the Sugar Bowl dreams of both Oklahoma and LSU, the Big Easy did a big shudder.

In a city always willing to give you a buzz, this was a buzz kill. About the only thing OU and LSU fans could agree on this week is that a USC loss – eliminating the Trojans from the title argument – would be a divine thing.

Thus everyone, be they from Muskogee or Metairie, was a Michigan fan.

"My mom taught me to share when I was a kid," Oklahoma center Vince Carter said. "But there are some things you don't want to share, and a national championship is one of them."

Depending on your political philosophy, the winner of Sunday's Sugar

With the BCS bowls finally upon us, we decided to give our readers the space to air suggestions on how to solve the great college football controversy.

There are about a million solutions that poured in, and most of them sound better than the current system. So below are some of them, ranging from the serious to the, well, you'll see.

We will return next week to your complaints and compliments from my regular columns.

Thanks again for all the input. I read everything, and continue to be humbled by the outpouring of passion. Remember, keep your submissions short and include your name and town if you want to get printed. My comments appear in italics.

Now on to the People's Voice . . .

BCS debate

I am amused by the situation with the BCS. I have always been of the opinion that the human polls were much more "accurate" in determining the best teams in the country than any computerized system.

The reason for this is very simple ... the human mind, without quantifying them per se, takes