Stanford’s Luck has good role models in Aikman, Manning and Bradford

High-profile, can’t-miss quarterbacks such as Troy Aikman, Peyton Manning and Sam Bradford paved the way for Andrew Luck. ...

Staying in school is OK. ...

Sasha Vujacic won’t soon win an NBA title with the New Jersey Nets, but after hitting the game-winning shot in Wednesday night’s victory over the Chicago Bulls he was averaging 11 points a game since last month’s trade from the Lakers. …

The NFL’s new overtime rules for playoff games — a team cannot win simply by scoring a field goal on its opening possession, etc. — are sure to leave somebody grumbling. …

Twenty years ago Friday, Flipper Anderson caught a 30-yard touchdown pass from Jim Everett to give the Los Angeles Rams an overtime playoff victory over the New York Giants and, without breaking stride, sprinted through the end zone, up the tunnel at the Meadowlands and into the visitors’ locker room. …

“I didn’t see any reason to celebrate down there and get stuff thrown at me,” Anderson noted, “so I kept running.” …

Under the new overtime playoff rules, by the way, an opening-possession touchdown such as Anderson’s still ends a game. …

If you think it’s absurd that no player has been voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame unanimously, consider this: Babe Ruth garnered only the 11th-highest percentage of votes. …

Ruth, who hit 714 home runs, gave up only 10. …

Electronic billboards popped up all around Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, congratulating Texas Christian on its Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin. ...

Signed, “Little Sisters of the Poor,” they’re an obvious dig at Ohio State President Gordon Gee, who used that description to slight the level of competition faced by non-automatic qualifier teams such as TCU. ...

A team that plays on a blue field (Boise State) fell short of the BCS title game, but a team with a red field (Eastern Washington) plays for the FCS title Friday night. …

There has never been an NFL playoff team quite like Pete Carroll’s sub-.500 Seattle Seahawks, 100-1 longshots to win the Super Bowl and 11-point underdogs Saturday — at home — against the New Orleans Saints. …

Insiders attributed Vince Young’s troubles with the Tennessee Titans more to a poor work ethic than a lack of ability. …

Albert Pujols, generally regarded as baseball’s most dangerous hitter, is due to make $16 million this season, a figure that doesn’t rank among the top 10 salaries in the game. …

Reader Scott Denny of Tustin e-mails to remind that the Beatles, inspiration for LeBron James’ calling his team the “Heatles,” were not always adored, noting that John Lennon raised a ruckus when he called them “more popular than Jesus.” …

Noting that Beatles records were literally torched in some instances, Denny writes, “And LeBron’s jersey was burned in Cleveland, so the connection deepens.” …

Vinny Del Negro shouldn’t have to stump for Blake Griffin. …

Rick Pitino says St. John’s might win the Big East, which would give first-year Coach Steve Lavin the same number of conference titles he won during seven seasons at UCLA. …

USC and UCLA fans had to like what they saw in Wednesday’s Under Armour All-American Game at St. Petersburg, Fla., where future Trojans quarterback Max Wittek passed for two touchdowns and Bruin-to-be Brett Hundley hooked up with Oregon-bound receiver Devon Blackmon on a 59-yard scoring pass. …

Also impressive was USC-bound kicker-punter Andre Heidari, whose punts “seemed like [they] were going to get hung up in the Tropicana Field rafters,” the Sporting News reported. …

This might be a first: A midseason list of top 30 candidates for the Wooden Award includes one from Northwestern, which has never made the NCAA tournament, and none from UCLA. …

Mychal Thompson, color analyst on Prime Ticket’s telecast of Pepperdine’s game against St. Mary’s on Saturday, won’t have to do much prep work to familiarize himself with the Waves’ leading rebounder and No. 2 scorer: It’s his son, Mychel. …

The marquee at West L.A.’s Nuart Theatre, where the trapped-hiker saga “127 Hours” is playing, calls it a “disarming film.”

jerome.crowe@latimes.com