Colleges May Pay to Avoid Such Sponsors

It was one thing for college bowl games to go corporate, but now regular-season contests have sold out to sponsors, starting with Dr. Pepper purchasing the rights to the annual Oklahoma-Texas showdown.

What next?

Kevin B. Blackistone of the Dallas Morning News wondered the same thing, then came up with a few suggestions:

--The junior college basketball tournament could align with Kinko’s, the copier service. “There is no better way for Kinko’s to show off its service than with some of the people who use it most--juco basketball coaches who copy term papers for players seeking credit to qualify at four-year programs,” he reasoned.

--The University of Miami football team could go in with a bail-bond company. It’s a natural.

--Even more obvious is Rice University with Uncle Ben’s. “So, too,” Blackistone wrote, “is Prairie View A&M;’s football team with any fertilizer maker.”

Trivia time: When Magic Johnson and Michigan State met Larry Bird and Indiana State in their much-ballyhooed NCAA championship game in 1979, who were the other teams in the Final Four?

Very interest-ing: Some fans in Hideo Nomo’s hometown of Osaka, Japan, are rooting harder than ever for the Dodger pitching star, now that a bank there has come up with a promotion to attract customers. For every strikeout he throws, they get an extra 0.001% of interest on special savings accounts.

By the end of last week, the Osaka Credit Assn. had attracted 355 accounts at 351 million yen, or about $3.9 million. The bank says it will stop taking the accounts when deposits reach 2 billion yen.

The Kruk of the matter: John Kruk went on “The Late Show With David Letterman” this week, took a couple of bites during the interview from a dinner delivered by a nearby restaurant and said he spends most of his time in front of the television since retiring from baseball about a week ago.

“I get up early every morning and lie on the couch,” he said.

You mean that wasn’t his regular training regimen?

Add Kruk: The Burlington, W. Va., resident said his weekday routine includes watching various talk shows.

“Montel Williams, Jenny Jones, Ricki Lake, but she [Lake] has got a lot of sick people on there,” he said. “I thought I met a lot of sick people playing ball, but my God, you can’t hold a candle to those people.”

On weekends, he plays golf, but only in the morning. Has to be home in time to catch wrestling on the tube. Kruk, 34, also said he is considering opportunities in broadcasting and has an offer to star in a movie.

“What the heck,” he said. “I have nothing else to do.”

Gee, you never would have known.

Trivia answer: DePaul and Pennsylvania.

Quotebook: Martina Navratilova on her match with Monica Seles: “She beat me, and I ain’t no slouch potato.”