The weekend in college football did little to change the current race for the Heisman Trophy. In what has been a muddled race all season, with a number of the preseason favorites falling off quickly, last weekend only brought the leading contenders closer together.

Seneca Wallace, the frontrunner before this weekend, had one of the worst performances ever by a college quarterback. I am not sure what the record for futility is in a game, but I would suspect that a four-for-22 performance for 43 yards would rank high on the list. Wallace needed to have a statement game against Oklahoma-a team that was able to use the game to the best of their advantage in the National Championship race-and he definitely made a statement; unfortunately, it was the wrong sort of statement.

The rest of the pack stayed fairly constant, with Ken Dorsey and Greg Jones taking the week off with byes, Onterrio Smith performing well in a loss and Byron Leftwich dominating weak competition. What this all means is that Maurice Clarett should receive more recognition than ever. The biggest argument against him, and really the only one that could possibly stand in front of him winning the Heisman, is that he is a freshman. Otherwise, Clarett would be the runaway winner of the trophy.

He has dominated at all stages of the year, and even when he has a "bad game" by his standards, it is a game that any other back in the country would love to have.

Clarett, who has thus far lead Ohio State to an undefeated record, which is always a strong factor in the worthiness of a Heisman candidate, has been one of the leading scorers in Division I football. As a freshman he has been the best player on the field every time he steps out there. There is no stipulation in Heisman voting that says that freshmen are not eligible, or that they should be held by a different standard, and this year it appears that most voters are discounting the accomplishments of Clarett while valorizing the contributions made by upperclassmen. Clarett is having the best season of any player in the country to this point, and right now he deserves serious Heisman Trophy consideration. In the past, voters have done this same thing, costing Herschel Walker multiple Heismans, and it would be a shame if Clarett is victimized in the same way.

His name is Bonds, Barry Bonds

Whatever happens in this World Series, Barry Bonds has shut up all of his detractors. Before the series started, and throughout the regular and postseasons, the only knock on the career of Barry Bonds was his performance in the postseason. It was the only blemish upon what has otherwise been a sparkling career. Now, Bonds has shown that he can perform at the biggest stage and that he can dominate there as well. Bonds has always been baseball royalty of sorts as the godson of Willie Mays, and in the past few seasons he has cemented his place there on his own merit. With his performance in the postseason he is finally proving the naysayers wrong, albeit unnecessarily.

The postseason has always served as a measuring stick for the careers of players, not just in baseball, but in other sports as well. Now, I can understand this in the other three major sports, but not in baseball. In other sports, which are all continuous and played within time constraints, it is difficult to take a player completely out of the game, and thus their postseason failures can be tied to the individual themselves. In baseball, the fate of a player is largely in the hands of other players, and they have much less control of their performance. Bonds, of all people, has shown this with the number of times that he has been walked in the last two years, as he has had little control of his fate at the plate.

Whatever happens during the rest of this baseball season, and it appears that we have a great World Series on our hands, Bonds has cleared his name.

Feeling the sting

Last season brought to a close the tenure of the Charlotte Hornets in the NBA. Yes, they still exist as the New Orleans Hornets this season, but the moves that the NBA has taken in the wake of their relocation puzzle me.

The Hornets were one of the most popular teams in the NBA in their first few years of existence, with stars such as Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning, and successful seasons as well. Charlotte's expansion franchise was one of the most successful in the history of the league in terms of fan support and on-the-court aptitude.

How the mighty have fallen. In the last few years, the team has pulled a complete 180. The team was snakebitten, as they went through the death of a player in a high speed car crash, a sexual assault lawsuit against the owner and a massive decline in attendance. In the playoffs last year the Hornets averaged something like 9,000 fans per game, half of the capacity of the arena. A move made sense for the team, because it appeared that they were ruined in Charlotte, but what the league did next boggles my mind.

In the next round of expansion the NBA has decided that Charlotte will likely be one of two cities to receive a franchise. Coming on the heels of a dramatic collapse of a franchise in the city, I am amazed that the NBA would make this venture, particularly this soon after the move.