Fans Are Definitely Unbalanced in Rivalries

College football fans don’t need an extra cup of coffee to keep alert during rivalry week.

They are already closely monitoring television programs for hints of bias, counting the inches in newspapers, wondering how school X managed to get 10 more inches of copy on Wednesday than school Z.

It can even be difficult to get universities to agree on a team of television announcers. Which is why the “Civil War” -- Oregon vs. Oregon State -- almost didn’t get on TV this year, according to the Portland Oregonian.

Veteran announcer Barry Tompkins, who wound up being acceptable to both sides, says there is a fail-safe way of knowing whether he has successfully straddled the line during a “Civil War” broadcast.

“I always know I’m safe when I get hate mail from both sides, which I’m sure will happen this game,” he told the Oregonian’s Rachel Bachman.

Trivia time: What college football rivals play in the Egg Bowl?

94 and counting: Someone was bound to puncture the good vibe surrounding Dusty Baker’s introduction as the new Cubs’ manager at a recent news gathering in Chicago.

Not surprisingly, the Cubs’ 94-year World Series drought came up. Baker, looking startled, said: “I’m finding out all these numbers when I got here.”

Wrote Chicago Sun-Times columnist Ron Rapoport: “Somebody had to break the bad news to him at some point, I guess, and Baker did his best to turn things around by saying, ‘You can’t bring the past with you to the present.’ ”

Thumbs down: There is no such thing as “only” an exhibition for the Kentucky men’s basketball team, as Pat Forde of the Louisville Courier-Journal noted after Nike Elite defeated Kentucky on Monday.

The fans registered their disapproval, booing and hitting the radio call-in shows.

“Memo to Nike kingpin Phil Knight: Don’t kill the golden goose, dude,” Forde wrote. “You’re jeopardizing merchandise sales when this team of vagabonds beats your flagship programs like UK and North Carolina.

“Not a loss that counts, of course, though you’d have a hard time convincing UK fans of that. It’s only mid-November, and toxicity already is thick around this basketball program.”

Changing times: Florida State’s Bobby Bowden has landed in trouble before with his comments, including using “Let’s roll” as a team slogan.

Asked for his thoughts on the controversy involving John Mackovic and some of his players at Arizona, Bowden said, “I don’t know what happened out there. It’s a sign of the times, nowadays. You’d better be careful what you say to these boys ...

“I heard ‘verbal abuse.’ Thirty years ago, we didn’t know what that was. You just did it anyway. You say what you want to say. It’s so politically correct nowadays, you’d better be politically correct what you say, or you’ll get yourself embarrassed.”

Trivia answer: Mississippi State-Mississippi.

And finally: Jennifer Capriati, 26, on having a parent as a full-time coach on tour:

“The parents have to realize also that there needs to be some separation. If you’re 30 and still traveling with your parents, something is wrong there.”

Lisa Dillman