Musings on the week ahead

- It's interesting to watch marketers who have altered, or implemented, marketing strategies as a result of the recent, seemingly nationwide bad weather. Locally, Spin Pizza put into place a "bad weather" percentage-off discount, encouraging their loyal customers to come back, even though the recent weather was lousy. Nationally, Zappos adjusted their online presence to focus more on boots and cold weather gear.

- Personally, I hate to see Pete Carroll leave college football in order to return to the NFL. Like him or not, Carroll seemed more appropriate for the college game--his reputation is that kids love to play for him.

- Speaking of coaches, Frank Martin of Kansas State opened his postgame press conference, after losing to Missouri on Saturday, by apologizing for his slap/slight push of Chris Merrieweather. While the apology was appropriate, Martin's tone was less than totally contrite as he acknowledged that times are different now, or words to that effect. Coaches around the U.S. have noted the recent firings of Jim Leavitt, Mike Leach and Mark Mangino, all related in some way to real or alleged player abuse.

- Tomorrow night we enter an American Idol world without the verbal stylings of Paula Abdul. Ellen Degeneres takes over Abdul's slot and we'll soon discover if she will play Paula's role of "the nice judge."

- This is when college basketball heats up as conference play begins. And, this past weekend kicked off the "real" college season with some surprises--undefeated and #1 Kansas lost at Tennessee, previously undefeated Purdue lost, Missouri beat Kansas State, and Georgetown beat Connecticut. Only Texas and Kentucky remain undefeated but both will be tested in conference road games this week. Key games include: Kentucky at Florida, North Carolina at Clemson, Kansas at Nebraska, Texas at Iowa State, Syracuse at West Virginia and Mississippi at Tennessee.