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Item: Marlins trade Reyes, Johnson, Buerhle, Bonifacio, Buck to Toronto

Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria says the trade is not a fire sale.

Many South Florida fans are angry they’ve been lied to.

A couple of things …

Loria was not the owner when the ’97 World Championship team was dismantled. Not exonerating him, just stating fact.

The Marlins-Jays trade ultimately could be a wash or even a Miami positive when it's examined a few years down the road.

But …

Loria and team president David Samson found a group of politicians who agreed to publicly fund a new stadium in Miami.

The Marlins also have benefitted financially from MLB’s revenue sharing.

So, when Loria & Co. threw around money last winter, optimistic Marlins fans believed the small-market mentality was gone for good. Ha.

Skeptics – even those, like me, who hoped things had changed – knew the team’s dysfunctional track record (owner involvement, management obsession with controlling every message) remained prevalent.

The big spending lasted one year. Sure, the season produced an embarrassing last-place finish, but it didn't warrant a 180.

At worst, Loria and Samson are greedy liars. At best, they are arrogant, ignorant and clueless.

Either way, the Marlins fan base has a right to be livid.

Item: Oregon, Kansas State, Notre Dame all undefeated 

Just a few weeks remain in the 2012 season, but as the saying goes, there’s still a lot of football yet to be played.

All three unbeaten teams have at least one game in which it wouldn’t be a total shock they lost.

Notre Dame losing at Southern Cal would be the least-surprising "upset." I think Oregon and Kansas State will sail through to the BCS game.  

I’ve said for years, any major college team that goes unbeaten has a right to claim a share of the national championship. I buy into the notion a team only can beat the opponents on its schedule.

No system is perfect. The BCS game is better than we had previously, and future changes should limit the griping by title also-rans even more.

I also understand that in some years, the national champion isn’t always the best team.

Just like the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, which decides a winner. That’s different than determining the country’s best.