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• You know how your mom used to send you to a friends house to get the chicken pox? It wasn't because she hated you. No, she wanted you to get it young, be done with it and be free the rest of your life. My dad did the same sort of thing for me when I was a kid. He used to force me to watch Bobby Douglass play quarterback for the Chicago Bears. That youthful experience has come in handy recently, inoculating me against Tebow fever, a disease that is spreading like wildfire through our sporting nation. Thanks to having gotten my fill of inaccurate, left-handed quarterbacks who would rather run then throw in my youth, I didn't think there was any chance I would fall victim to the Tebow mania. Then I watched last night. And now I have the chills, the cough, the fever. Damn. The overtime win over the Steelers was too much, even for someone with antibodies coursing through their blood. Thank goodness, though, my case isn't bad enough that I am forced to tweet ever thought I have about Tebow and/or retweet everyone else's thoughts. I'm still just an admirer of the guy's competitive ethic and his will – as are these jaded Denver journalists, whose columns today seem to have been written by school girls at a Bieber concert. ... The other big news item from outside the area is tonight's BCS championship game, which really isn't. The matchup of LSU and Alabama isn't my first choice for the national title game – of course, my title game would be at the end of an eight-team playoff and I wouldn't care who had survived – but it is what was picked for us. Who would you have chosen? That's the subject of our poll today. I'm guessing a rematch of LSU and Oregon will win, but I'm not so sure. ... Tonight's game is also the subject of John Blanchette's column in today's S-R and other views from along the West Coast.

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• Washington State: Mike Leach's coaching staff is coming together, with Christian Caple reporting yesterday the hiring of former Montana assistant Mike Breske as the defensive coordinator. Breske's hiring was also covered by the Seattle Times and the Missoulian. ... Christian has more on his morning blog post, including some links. ... Texted back-and-forth yesterday with my good friend who is a USC season-ticket holder. He's not a happy camper with how the Trojans are playing, especially in their 57-46 loss to Arizona, or the fact I pointed out a couple times the football team put 48 points on the Wildcats. ... Since leaving Spokane, the Oregon Ducks' have struggled offensively, and it happened again in a 77-60 loss to California. Of course, giving up 26 points to Allen Crabbe didn't help. ... Arizona State's woes continue, with leading scorer Keala King dismissed from the team Sunday. ... UCLA is done with the Nelson brothers. Younger one, Raymond, was kicked off the football team about a month after older brother Reeves was dismissed from the basketball team.

• Chiefs: The road trip continued with a 5-3 win over Everett on Sunday, the first time the Chiefs have won back-to-back road games this season. Jess Brown has this blog post.

• Preps: I have to call attention to this story by Doug Pacey in the News Tribune. It covers what fan reaction is doing to college recruiting. It is really interesting and worth taking the time to read. ... Mike Vlahovich will touch base with Bill Ames in Tuesday's S-R in our continuing Then-and-Now series. ... And Norman Chad's column will touch on playing time at the high school level.

• Mariners: Will Edgar Martinez make the Hall of Fame when the voting results are announced today? Larry Stone of the Times doesn't think so. And a little bit of Jim Moore doesn't want him to make it this year.

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• That's it for this morning. Don't forget to vote in the poll today. We'll close it down before kickoff. Until later ...