Last Modified: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 5:40 PM

BY CARL DUBOIS / AMERICAN PRESS

In Pearl LaFleur's class a long time ago at St. Margaret, I inadvertently revealed that much of my knowledge of the world owed to a passion for sports. How did I figure out what state was the Buckeye State? Well, if the Ohio State football team was the Buckeyes, then ...
What color is crimson? Well, Alabama is the Crimson Tide, and they wear red uniforms, so that must be crimson.
Mrs. LaFleur made a point to say that what I was doing was associating, and she seemed very happy to see the way my mind worked (at least that's how I remember it). I wonder what she'd think about the sports world today. I wonder what a third-grade student would glean from sports today.
The Big 12 dropped to 10 teams (and then, to nine, and then ...) and kept its name. The Big Ten, which for years had 11 teams, now has 12. Louisiana Tech plays in the Western Athletic Conference. There was talk a couple of days ago about Boise State (which, last I checked, was in Idaho) having conversations about joining the Big East for football.
That would be, geographically, one very large "East."
These are the times in which we live. If Alabama starts wearing blue, all bets are off.
Would somebody think of the kids??