Will new NCAA boss be a bully?

Maybe it was all the post-NFL Draft coverage coupled with the NBA playoffs, but a major event occurred seemingly unnoticed Tuesday that could reshape college athletics.

That is if Washington president Mark Emmert, hired to succeed the late Myles Brand as the head of the NCAA beginning Nov. 1, chooses to make the position a bully pulpit to create popular support that would rein in spending, overhaul a poor financial structure and get behind a college football playoff.

Emmert previously told the Seattle Times a football playoff was "inevitable" but now is backing off that statement. He could set the tone for change.

Instituting a playoff is easy compared to controlling the runaway costs that will worsen if the Big Ten Conference expands to 16 teams and challenges the Southeastern Conference's $3 billion in TV deals.

How do the Pac-10 and Big 12 keep up? What about the Mountain West?

And if it's becoming increasingly difficult to keep up financially in football and men's basketball, universities and conferences are going to have to decide what to do with nonrevenue sports.

Some might become club sports. Some might play a regional schedule only, with no trips to nationals.

Exerting influence won't be easy for Emmert. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, the most powerful person in college sports, isn't going to jump at Emmert's command.

But Emmert has a bully pulpit if he chooses to use it. If he does, he could affect college athletics for many years.

■ STRAIGHT TALK -- A few gender-rules benders are ruining gay softball.

The North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance allows its teams up to two heterosexual players, according to Deadspin.com, to fill rosters and help avoid discrimination claims.

Pretty simple. Or so it seems. But those two roster spots are valuable, and some teams sneak other heteros on by pretending they're gay.

"I asked one of my straight friends to join our team and play outfield," one player told Deadspin. "After my team evaluated his performance, they told me he could permanently join our team, but since he was only 'good,' but not 'really good,' he would have to 'be gay' in the eyes of the league because we didn't want to waste one of our straight spots on the roster on a straight player who is only pretty good."

Word has it John Rocker is available.

■ DODGER BLUES -- Imagine how Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti feels now.

He ripped his club on an L.A. radio station Tuesday, and that was before the Dodgers lost a doubleheader later that day to the New York Mets. Then the Mets won again Wednesday to drop the Dodgers to 8-13.

"We've lost two out of three to Cincinnati, two out of three to Washington, two out of three to Pittsburgh," Colletti said. "All three of those teams -- no offense to those three teams -- we're better than they are. We should be winning those games."

Maybe the Dodgers aren't as good as they think they are. No offense.

COMPILED BY MARK ANDERSON LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL