Columnist Ron Kantowski: Everybody is an all-star

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2000 | 10:33 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column usually appears Thursday. Reach him at 259-4088 or ron@lasvegassun.com. Regular columnist Dean Juipe has the day off.

Next to Oregon's home uniforms and Georgia firing its coach following a 7-4 season, the most ridiculous development in college football is all these superfluous all-star teams.

Last week, the second and third Mountain West all-conference teams of the season were announced.

This whimsical practice started with the useless preseason honor squad, based solely on past performance and press clippings. It should be sponsored by The Amazing Kreskin or the Ouija Board folks, because it would take both to predict how untested 18-year-olds will perform in the heat of battle.

Then, some in the media determined the Mountain West coaches do a poor job of assessing talent. So they named their own all-star team last week.

The media must not have wanted anybody to take its team seriously, however, because it confessed that a full complement of ballots was received from just three of the eight MWC precincts. Of course, that's almost enough to get a president elected in some countries.

By the time the coaches released their all-conference team -- the official one -- virtually nobody was paying attention. In fact, the morning newspaper ignored it.

At most, there should be one all-state team, one All-American squad. After all, don't coaches constantly preach that football is a team sport?

But in the words of UNLV public address announcer Dick Calvert, check that.

Upon further review, perhaps Playboy should be allowed to keep its All-American team. At least that would give boys going through puberty an excuse upon being busted while rifling through their old man's private magazine stash.

So maybe all-star teams aren't such a bad thing after all. In fact, I think I'll do one myself. If John Madden can present a turkey leg to the Most Valuable Detroit Lion on Thanksgiving Day, what's to prevent me from handing out a reporter's notebook and a Bic pen to my favorite -- er, the best -- players in the Mountain West Conference?

So here's one man's -- or at least another man's -- opinion on the MWC's cream of the crop:

Well, there it is. While I realize there are other deserving players in the conference, I saw them only once. I saw the above-mentioned Rebels about 10 times each. I don't have to take anyone's word or interpret any statistics to arrive at the conclusion that they can play.

I can't say the same thing about Air Force's left offensive tackle, or CSU's right outside linebacker.

So I won't.