You can close on a house -- or wait for the Rose Bowl

	By the time the Rose Bowl is actually played, Mack Brown's roses will have withered. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
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Thirty-one days is a long time. Especially if you are Pete Carroll and Mack Brown. On Dec. 3, both coaches led their teams to victory and punched their tickets to play in the Rose Bowl for the national championship... in 31 days.

That day, USC beat UCLA to wrap up a perfect season. I can only imagine the war cry from the Trojans' locker room. "Great job men! Now get ready for the week, after the week, after the week, after next week!" Thirty-one days is entirely too long to have to wait to play a football game.

On Dec. 3, Brown's Longhorns demolished Colorado, 70-3, in the Big 12 championship game. Nothing like riding that momentum longer than it takes you to FedEx something around the world -- to yourself.

Julia Roberts, Britney Spears and Renee Zellweger all had marriages last almost as long. Almost.

Is it really necessary or fair to make the two best teams in college football wait to play longer than it takes to close on a house? You can close on a house in 31 days, and after spending a day moving all of your stuff in you could kick back and watch the Rose Bowl... unless you're in it.

For 31 days, Pete Carroll and Mack Brown will try to keep their players motivated and focused on winning the national title in more time than it took Terry Fox to run from Newfoundland to Toronto... on one leg.

Pulp Fiction was shot in 27 days.

Most murder trials last three weeks.

In 31 days a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, cocoon and all. In the same amount of time the Longhorns and Trojans will have to wait, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Utah Jazz will play 16 games, each.

In 31 days, a bird learns to fly. In 31 days, a baby learns how to smile.

During these 31 days, Carroll and Brown will watch game film over and over again trying to gain the slightest advantage. In 31 days, Dominoes can deliver a pizza to your house in 30 minutes or less 372 times.

In 31 days, the New York Jets lost their starting quarterback, their backup quarterback, started their third-string quarterback, brought a 42-year-old guy out of retirement to play quarterback, benched him and went back to starting the third-string quarterback.

Thirty-one days is longer than that last sentence.

It's a shame that the two such storied football programs must wait longer than it takes to watch people on Celebrity Fit Club lose 10 pounds.

Getting your program to a national title game is impressive. Keeping your entire team focused, academically eligible and off the police blotter is very impressive. Keeping that same group of men focused on the same game for longer than it takes roughly 110 species of insects to be born and die is inhumane.

I am proud of Pete Carroll and Mack Brown. They have brought their respective programs to the brink of something very special. It's too bad the moment had to be cheapened by the rallying cry of, "Lets kick some ass next month!"