The Yin Blog

Which conference has produced better NFL quarterbacks?

My 9 year old son and I were musing about which college conference has produced the best NFL quarterbacks; I figured it had to be the Pac-10, but he wondered whether it was the SEC based on its success in the BCS championship games.

"The SEC wins because of defense and running backs, not quarterbacks," I responded.

My dad, a big Michigan fan, chimed in with the thought the Big Ten would win this contest.

Hah! So I started thinking off the top of my head, who would be the best quarterback -- in terms of NFL careers -- from each Pac-10 school. Three were pretty easy:

Stanford: John Elway

UCLA: Troy Aikman

Cal-Berkeley: Aaron Rodgers

A little bit of thought added:

Washington State: Drew Bledsoe

Washington: Warren Moon

Oregon: Dan Fouts

Those six were/are all really good to great NFL quarterbacks. Then it starts getting harder:

Arizona State: um, Jake Plummer

Arizona: ???

Oregon State: uh, Matt Moore or Derek Anderson?

What's the remaining school? Oh, yes, USC. I was shocked when I went through the list of starting quarterbacks for USC at how . . . unimpressive the Trojans' quarterbacks have been in the NFL, especially considering how many have been drafted:

Matt Barkley: we'll see how his career goes

Mark Sanchez: going backwards/getting worse every year

Matt Leinart: bust

Carson Palmer: best of the bunch but average at best in the NFL

Rob Johnson: relatively long career in the NFL but mostly as a backup, and when given the starting job, he lost it to Doug Flutie, Alex van Pelt, and others

Todd Marinovich: ha ha ha ha ha ha

Rodney Peete: he beat Aikman in the UCLA-USC game but came nowhere close to Aikman's success; long career as a backup

Sean Salisbury: another relatively longish career as a backup

* * *

As for the Pac-10 versus the Big Ten, well, I'll go through the Big Ten schools another time (maybe), although off the top of my head, I'll have to admit that it starts off with two heavy hitters from Purdue (Drew Brees) and Michigan (Tom Brady).

Wow, I think I may need to turn in my "TV addict" card or something. Here's a list someone compiled of the "25 worst reality TV stars," and I don't recognize more than half of them. Hard to argue with the ones they have, although I kind of enjoyed seeing Russell Hantz's and Coach's antics on "Survivor."

Portland bomb sting sentencing positions

Sentencing for Mohamed Mohamud, who was convicted of attempting to bomb Portland's Pioneer Square during the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony back in 2010, is set for September. The prosecution and defense have filed their sentencing papers, and the government is asking for 40 years. This, according to the government, represents leniency, since the Probation Office has calculated the sentencing range under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines as life imprisonment.

40 years seems . . . quite a lot. The most similar case to Mohamud's (with more or less simultaneous stings and arrests) was that of Antonio Martinez, who received 25 years for attempting to bomb a military recruiting center near Baltimore. It's hard to see why Mohamud would merit an additional 15 years (i.e., 60 percent MORE time).