The first week of the collegiate football season offered some intrigue as we got our first look at most of the teams and were able to get our first true idea of who could be contenders this season and who was nothing more than a pretender (Clemson, Pittsburgh).

After being able to evaluate some of the teams better than we had in the preseason, we give you our new The Blue Workhorse College Football Top 25 after Week 1.

Some things to note from this week's rankings:

* After being just outside our Top 25 last week, Alabama springs into the Top 25 and all the way up to 13th after their dismantle of Tommy Bowden's Clemson Tigers.

* Unlike the AP poll, Clemson still makes our Top 25 after being dominated by Alabama. However, the Tigers fall 13 spots from 9th to 22nd.

* Our top 7 remained in tact from our preseason poll, but Texas earned just enough points to overtake Auburn for the #8 spot.

Find out where your favorite team is ranked...

Rocco Baldelli has returned to play for Tampa Bay after contemplating retirement due to a mitochondrial disorder and has become one of the best stories in baseball this year for the team that is the best story in baseball this season.

C.C. Sabathia was incredible Sunday afternoon against the Pirates pitching a complete game shutout allowing only one controversial hit. We say he deserves the no-hitter, the Cy Young, and maybe even the MVP.

What do you think?

In the Sunday Sports Selection series, we showcase a sports-related product (gadget, book, film, equipment, etc.) that we have enjoyed and think you may find of interest as well.

I receive e-mails occasionally from sports companies that are either interested in advertisements or having us promote their products or web site. I typically will at least give the company or web site a look over to determine if they have anything that is of interest for our web site or our readers.

Earlier today, I received an e-mail from a representative of a company by the name of StatBeast (www.statbeast.com).

According to their web site, StatBeast, founded in February of last year, is "The World Leader in Online Sports Statistics." They are a relatively new web site that offers interactive stat content for web sites and blogs. They offer a variety of widgets and other data tools, which are readily available for usage.

Here is an example:

["allowScriptAccess":"always","allowNetworking":"all","src":"http://www.statbeas t.com/Widget/StatBeastWidget.swf?wid=1058&bid=1"]

They currently only have NFL widgets available. (Available categories include Schedules, Standings, Compare Stats, Player Stats, Team Stats, and Vegas Baby!) However, they appear to have plans for baseball, basketball, hockey, boxing, soccer, and NASCAR data tools in the future.

Besides a widget for MLB standings to help me keep up with the pennant races, I would be really interested in some type of widget that had a top 25 poll for college football or if there was a weekly schedule for NFL or college football.

You can use the widgets if you have a web site, blog, or even some type of editable social networking profile, such as MySpace or Facebook, so feel free to check out StatBeast, and add your favorite NFL team's schedule, standings for their division, or Superbowl odds for all 32 teams.

Shotgun Spratling

In honor of the beginning of the 2008 college football season, we go ahead and ruin everything by telling you who's going to win each of the "BCS" conferences, the Heisman Trophy, and make a few other interesting predictions.

Who tops the list of our preseason best 25 teams in college football? It's not Georgia. And it's not some crappy Big 10 school.

Crystl Bustos has often been ridiculed because of her manly features and voice, but it is her manly swings of the softball bat that makes her the most feared hitter in the history of women's softball.

Russia will square off against USA in women's basketball and that means Becky Hammon will be playing against her home nation in the Olympics. However, with the recent developments regarding Russia and its military invasion of Georgia, Hammon's loyalties need to be examined.

Skip told it like he saw it without the sugar coating or unnecessary fluff many of today's announcers choose to use. He was unafraid to state his opinion, whatever it may have been, and had no remorse if you didn't agree. He hated the Wave and when anyone called in on sports talk radio and asked about the Infield Fly Rule. He knew baseball and seemingly where every fan in the stands hailed from as he would announce the hometown of whomever was lucky enough to catch a foul ball.

Our tribute to Skip...

Jason Taylor's presence will create some awkward moments in Washington, but it's nothing he can help...lest he change his name.

Very curious to see the Yard's opinion on this matter.

Most of this comes from a comment I made when Sports Dawg wrote on An Opinion On Sports about expanding the All-Star rosters after Clint Hurdle and Terry Francona nearly had to use David Wright and J.D. Drew as pitchers due to a limited number of innings available from the All-Star pitchers.

Sports Dawg isn't the only one to make the suggestion as I've heard a lot of people talk about expanding the rosters because "now the game counts."

However, I have to respectfully disagree.

If the game counts and is supposed to be important because of its determination of home field advantage in the World Series, then teams should make their players available to fully participate. By that, I mean there shouldn't be concerns that a pitcher threw two days earlier.

If you are the Arizona Diamondbacks, you are leading the NL West, and you think you have a shot at making the World Series, don't throw Brandon Webb two days before the All-Star game. (The same could be said for Scott Kazmir and the Tampa Bay Rays.) In my mind there are three options the D'Backs (or Rays) could have considered:

Option 1: Move Webb's pre-All-Star start up earlier in the week. This would take some pre-planning when you know a pitcher is likely to be an All-Star, but it could easily be done -- on July 6, Webb could have went on three days rest and then his last start prior to the All-Star Game could have been on July 11 giving him three days rest prior to the All-Star Game on Tuesday, which would leave Webb fully capable of throwing 2 or 3 innings in the All-Star Game.

Option 2: Skip Webb's start just before the All-Star Game so that he is capable of going multiple innings in the home field determiner.

Option 3: Only throw Webb in limited action for a couple of innings in the Sunday start prior to the All-Star Game. Using this option, Webb could have thrown 2-4 innings, depending on pitch count, against the Phillies on Sunday and Dan Haren could have thrown 2-3, again based on pitch count.

Using any of these three options, gives the National League a much better chance of breaking the American League's current streak of All-Star domination, gives your league the best opportunity to win your team home field advantage, which by looking at the home/road splits of almost every team in the league you can see the importance, for the World Series, and gives the fans a chance to see Webb instead of Aaron Cook for three innings even though Cook did a great job.

Of course, the All-Star Game shouldn't "count," and if it does count, it should be managed just like a regular season game instead of "let's try to get some time for everyone," but all of that is a separate issue.

The All-Star Break gives fantasy owners a chance to rest and gives us a chance to hand out some first half fantasy awards.

At one point, this author might have married Brett Favre for a variety of reasons (which he humorously outlines), but those days are officially over now thanks to the past week. Read why it's now official...

In lieu of the recent trend of teams demoting established players (Phillies' starter Brett Myers, Indians' closer Joe Borowski, and young Braves' slugger Jeff Francouer -- even though Francouer has scored 40 runs, hit 8 HR, and driven in 41 RBI), we examine those players who have failed to meet expectations and would be well deserving of a demotion including "All-Star" Jason Varitek.

See who else joins Varitek, Andruw Jones, and Eric Gagne ...

Wondering who made the All-Star team from your favorite team? We've got the American and National League rosters broken down team-by-team so you can easily see who was selected.