Sunday morning coffee

- The fan economics of the NFL drew columnist Sam Mellinger's (Kansas City Star) attention this morning in his piece titled "Chiefs Face Business Crisis." Mellinger hit it on the head with this statement, "Using the Team Marketing Report numbers, going to 10 games at Arrowhead Stadium would cost more than $3,500 for a family of four. For that money, you can buy a 42-inch LCD television with surround sound, three leather home theater chairs, the Sunday Ticket package to watch every game, and still have nearly $150 per week to spend on beer and food." That, in a nutshell, is the issue locally--the Chiefs do not derive enough revenue from suite, sponsorship and advertising sales, thus forcing a greater emphasis on the fan to pick up the revenue slack. And, a game made for TV has now become a better experience at home given the technological advances of high definition television, DVRs, sound quality, and the web, which provides multiple options for checking stats and the play of your Fantasy Football team.

- Speaking of Fantasy Football, our draft was held last week--earlier than normal which heightens the difficulty given this strike year where teams are trying to quickly get in shape and player moves seem to be magnified.

- Also early was Sports Illustrated college football preview issue, which hit my mailbox this past week. SI's annual preview usually arrives the week before the first game. This year, the weekly mag's preview not only came early, but it supplements a special, conference-specific edition which was published for the first time. SI picks Alabama as the national champion followed by Oklahoma, LSU, Stanford, Oregon, Florida State, South Carolina, Boise State, Nebraska and Texas A&M.

- In the "If" department--if Nebraska had not fled the Big 12 for the supposedly greener grass of the Big Ten, we might have been treated to a NU-OU conference championship game in December. The two traditional rivals played each other twice in the history of the Big 12's post-season conference championship with Oklahoma winning both times.

- How'd you like to be the kid taking over at quarterback at Gardner-Edgerton High School in Kansas, following stud athlete Bubba Starling and all of his accomplishments? Talk about a tough job...

- I don't fault John Harbaugh one bit for playing through the end of the game on Friday night versus the Chiefs. Kansas City head coach Todd Haley apparently took exception to Baltimore scoring late in the Ravens' 31-13 exhibition win. Harbaugh explained that it was a good situation to evaluate player talent as well as to let guys, who are trying to make the team, score in a late-game situation. Harbaugh noted that "if this had been the regular season, we would have been on a knee."

- The Nebraska band is going to have to learn a lot of new music. NU's band traditionally plays the fight song of the opposing team when an opponent ventures into Memorial Stadium. This year, NU will have to learn the Big Ten fight songs for Ohio State, Michigan State, Northwestern and Iowa.