Text messages from press row ...

Looking back now on a forgettable first Saturday in October for the Southland’s major college football teams, UCLA’s losing to Notre Dame at the Rose Bowl is more surprising than USC’s losing to Stanford at the Coliseum. . . .

According to a spokesman for BetUS.com, an online gaming website, if Stanford were playing Notre Dame this week at Palo Alto -- the teams are scheduled to meet there for real Nov. 24 -- Coach Jim Harbaugh’s Cardinal would be favored by 4 1/2 points over Charlie Weis’ offense-starved Irish. . . .

AccuScore.com, which forecasts games after running variables through a simulation engine 10,000 times, predicted a 27-14 Stanford victory. . . .

What backup quarterback Patrick Cowan brings to UCLA, backup quarterback Mark Sanchez brings to USC: a playmaker’s ability to generate something out of nothing, rally his teammates and quicken a skittish coach’s pulse. . . .

After Oregon’s sleight-of-hand offense ripped through his team’s defense for 661 yards in a 55-34 victory last Saturday, Washington linebacker E.J. Savannah told the Seattle Times, “Half the time, I didn’t know where the ball was.”. . .

As Savannah probably realized in looking at the stats, it’s usually in the hands of dual-threat quarterback Dennis Dixon or Pacific 10 Conference rushing leader Jonathan Stewart, who will lead the Ducks against USC this week. . . .

Sophomore cornerback Alterraun Verner, whose 76-yard interception return for a touchdown sealed UCLA’s 30-21 upset victory over California on Saturday, returned two interceptions for touchdowns last season. . . .

With his third scoring return, Verner matched a school record shared by Jerry Robinson, Marcus Turner and Spencer Havner. . . .

With the World Series coming to Colorado for the first time, the forecast calls for mild temperatures and mostly sunny skies this weekend in Denver, where the Colorado Rockies have endured nine snow-outs in their history but have never played a game this late in October. . . .

The Rockies once played an April game in 28-degree weather. . . .

Joe Torre lent an air of dignity to the New York Yankees. . . .

Wouldn’t you love to see George Steinbrenner’s volcanic reaction if a Yankees sponsor offered to pay him 33% less next season? . . .

Teammates prone more to bickering than bantering, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth are the Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant of NASCAR, though neither O’Neal nor Bryant raised his fist to the other, as Edwards did to Kenseth on Sunday. . . .

A video clip of the incident has drawn 150,000 YouTube hits. . . .

Former Times staffer Rick Reilly, an 11-time national sportswriter of the year, says of his excitement over moving to ESPN after 22 years at Sports Illustrated, “I feel like Kirstie Alley locked in the Sara Lee factory.”. . .

In an NBA.com survey of NBA general managers, none predicted that Dirk Nowtizki of the Dallas Mavericks would be the MVP again this season. . . .

The top three picks: LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Bryant. . . .

Not surprisingly, 78% predicted that the Boston Celtics would be the league’s most improved team after adding Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to join forces with Paul Pierce, and 26% predicted that the Celtics would win the Eastern Conference, the same percentage that tabbed the Detroit Pistons. . . .

The San Antonio Spurs were favored by 37% to repeat as champions. . . .

The Kings (4-6) might have a losing record, but no other NHL team has won games in Canada, the United States and England this season. . . .

Tennessee All-American Candace Parker, the obvious choice for the lottery-winning Sparks if she makes herself available for the WNBA draft, has been engaged since April to Shelden Williams of the Atlanta Hawks. . . .

It has been widely speculated that the photogenic Parker, who was listed among People magazine’s 100 most beautiful people of 2007, could earn more than $1 million a year between endorsements, a fat contract to play overseas and a WNBA salary, even though WNBA salaries for rookies top out at about $43,000. . . .

Anthony Parker, Candace’s brother, is a 6-foot-6 swingman who averaged a career-high 12.4 points for the Toronto Raptors last season. . . .

He makes $4.35 million.

jerome.crowe@latimes.com