LSU, humbled. That was the BCS championship game Monday night in a nutshell. Alabama won, 21-0, at the Superdome in New Orleans, and it wasn't even that close.

How can a game be competitive when the loser crossed the 50-yard line all of once and never came close to scoring?

Yes, LSU was humbled, stumbling on offense, managing only five first downs and 92 total yards. The Tigers' offensive performance shouldn't be measured in yards, it ought to be done in iotas, and they were unable to move a single one.

Yes, LSU was humbled, bumbling through four quarters of some of the most ineffective, unproductive, futile football seen in a while, especially on such a grand stage, the second week of January, with the national title on the line.

Alabama (12-1) proved it deserves the championship and the crystal football that goes with it. The Crimson Tide defense suffocated LSU (13-1). The Tide offense was just inventive enough, took just enough risks, to allow the defense to win the game. And the

PASADENA, Calif. – It's what's in a player's head, not what's on it, that matters most. And not even those futuristic chrome domes worn by the Oregon Ducks during the Rose Bowl could obscure everything going on underneath: crackling synapses processing plays more rapidly than any other college team in the country.

It's the frenetic, feverish way they roll, as coach Chip Kelly joyfully shouted to his players amid locker-room bedlam moments after multiple scoring records were set in Monday's 45-38 victory over Wisconsin. More points were scored than in any of the previous 97 Rose Bowls. Same for the first quarter. And the first half. Oh, and it marked Oregon's first Rose Bowl win since 1917.

All of which culminated in a team-only moment, and Kelly wouldn't begin until the players shelved their shiny helmets and defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti, who has coached on and off at Oregon since 1980, made his way into the locker room. The doors closed behind him.

Aliotti's voice was hoarse

DALLAS – Winter meetings winners are sometimes too obvious to detail. Albert Pujols is $260 million richer. Jose Reyes is $106 million richer. The two teams that emptied their coffers for those stars, the Los Angeles Angels and Miami Marlins, certainly feel like winners today, although a few years from now their unfettered spending could label them losers.

For me, the champion of the week is a player hardly anybody talked about: Prince Fielder.

His agent, Scott Boras, held court in the hotel lobby spouting his praises but resisted doling out spreadsheets with numbers that established Fielder's eventual Hall of Fame credentials.

OK, so Boras did compare Fielder to Jimmie Foxx.

But all in all, Fielder's free agency is being handled masterfully by Boras, whose frequently employed strategy of waiting until every other impact player at his client's position signs has rarely worked so perfectly. Slugging first baseman Pujols was the competition for slugging first baseman Fielder. But rather

DALLAS – The Miami Marlins continued their staggering spending spree by agreeing to terms with left-handed starting pitcher Mark Buehrle(notes) on a four-year, $58 million contract Wednesday, the third top-tier free agent they've acquired in a week.

Attention the last two days had been on the Marlins' chase of slugger Albert Pujols(notes). But as Wednesday afternoon wore on and it appeared Pujols was leaning toward returning to the St. Louis Cardinals or signing with the Los Angeles Angels Miami struck again in a different direction.

The Marlins, emboldened by a new $640 million stadium, already have signed closer Heath Bell(notes) to a three-year, $27 million deal and shortstop Jose Reyes(notes) to a six-year, $108 million deal. Now they've added a veteran left-handed innings-eater to a predominantly right-handed rotation.

The Marlins new manager, Ozzie Guillen, was Buehrle's manager with the Chicago White Sox the last eight years. They are close friends, a factor that undoubtedly

DALLAS – Mike Matheny of the St. Louis Cardinals could lose his close friend and best player in baseball, Albert Pujols(notes), before he can write his name on a lineup card even once.

Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox lost his closer, Sergio Santos(notes), to a trade Tuesday and likely will lose a reliable starter when free agent Mark Buehrle(notes) signs elsewhere.

Dale Sveum of the Chicago Cubs feels just plain lost, wandering wide-eyed through the cavernous Hilton Anatole Hotel where this week's winter meetings are held.

All three are rookie managers. Only Sveum has experience managing at any level, and he has only 16 games in the big leagues. All three are struggling to gain their bearings in a cauldron of media attention and front-office wheeling and dealing.

"Yeah, this is my first winter meetings," Sveum admitted. "Last night in that lobby, to see that many people standing around and gathering information. It's like, wow, it's good to see a lot of people that you don't get

DALLAS – Albert Pujols(notes) and Prince Fielder(notes) provide the froth on the hot stove, and their eventual signings will be a huge splash. But the deep undercurrent of discussions and negotiations is focused as much on starting pitchers as on sluggers.

No team ever feels like it has enough starting pitching. And most don't. Because starters are so prone to injuries, they are the most high-risk of off-season signings. Still, bidding ratchets up prices beyond rational reason and a pitcher such as C.J. Wilson(notes) could end up with an offer that exceeds $100 million.

Wilson was last seen stinking up the playoffs and World Series with the Texas Rangers. He is 1-5 with a 4.82 ERA in the last two postseasons, and doesn't quite have the look of an ace despite going a combined 31-15 with a 3.13 ERA during his two regular seasons as a starter. He was a reliever his first five years in the big leagues.

That hasn't stopped the Angels, Marlins, Nationals, Cubs and Red Sox from pursuing him.

ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Cardinals capped a postseason nobody figured they'd be part of by defeating the Texas Rangers 6-2 Friday night in Game 7 of the World Series. The resilient Redbirds couldn't be vanquished.

In the waning days of August, St. Louis had a 0.2 percent chance of reaching the playoffs, according to AccuScore, a company that calculates probabilities by running thousands of game simulations. Expressed another way, the Cardinals faced 1 in 500 odds.

And that was to make the playoffs. Their chances of winning the World Series were minuscule, like a speck of Midwestern dust somehow reaching Manhattan or Malibu. It might have been the greatest comeback in baseball history.

The Cardinals squeaked into the playoffs the last day of the regular season, earning the wild-card berth primarily because the Atlanta Braves folded down the stretch. Once in, they proved they belonged, beating the Philadelphia Phillies in five division series games and the Milwaukee Brewers in six

ST. LOUIS – This was sloppy baseball on a crisp night. Thoroughly thrilling, breathtaking, dramatic, sloppy baseball. Marred by errors, errant pitches and mental mistakes, Game 6 of the World Series was not a purist's delight. Yet it will forever be remembered as one of the most exciting games in history, a classic, the details of which will be recounted around dinner tables for years.

And they aren't done yet.

David Freese(notes), who grew up in a St. Louis suburb and returned to baseball after quitting before college, hit a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Cardinals a 10-9 victory over the Texas Rangers and force a Game 7 in the World Series for the first time since 2002.

The Cardinals were down to their last strike in the ninth and tied the score on a two-run triple by the very same Freese. They were down by two runs in the 10th and extended the game with another rally after being down to their last strike. And despite a boatload of errors and oddities, somehow