ospitals are understaffed. Only a last-minute bailout of about 250 million reals ($76.5 million) from the federal and local governments saved the Paralympics from a shortf

The Bottom 10 inspirational thought of the week:In a lifetime made of memories I believe in destiny Every moment returns again in time When Ive got the future on my mind Know that youll be the only oneMeet me halfway Across the sky Out where the world belongs To only you and I-- Meet Me Halfway by Kenny Loggins from Over The TopThe 2016 college football season is trucking through its halfway point. The nations best handful of teams are beginning to separate themselves from the pack. Here at Bottom 10 headquarters, located in the attic above the octagon where Kirk Herbstreit spars with his Twitter followers, we dont care for such neat, clean breakaways. We like messy. We prefer to hit the midway portion of the calendar face-first, like Tim Tebow into an outfield wall.In our world, teams dont separate and depart upward and away like a rocket stage. They drop off the bottom like a discarded booster, doomed to either burn up during re-entry or sink to the bottom of the sea. To most football fans, by mid-October those teams are already doomed to be forgotten. To us, they shall never be forgotten. We shall continue to watch them and admire them, even when others become incredulous and believe they are entirely too awful to be worth our time. These teams are like a movie about a truck-driving deadbeat dad who seeks redemption through arm wrestling.With apologies to Lincoln Hawk and Steve Harvey, heres this weeks Bottom 10.1. FA(not I)U?(1-6)These Owls are firmly nested on a branch of a tree that overlooks Heartbreak Ridge. On Saturday, they lost to Bottom 10 Waiting List member Marshall 27-21 after surrendering a touchdown pass with less than two minutes remaining. Thats their fourth straight loss by six points or fewer. All but one of those losses came at the hands -- more accurately the talons, paws and hooves -- of current and/or former members of this years Bottom 10. The countdown is on for next months Pillow Fight of the Century (PFOC!) against ...2. Rice (0-6) The Other Owls lost Pillow Fight of the Week of the Year VI (PFOWY6) to R-O-C-K in the UTSA. This week, they host Prairie View, and the following week, they travel to Louisiana Tech. But honestly, those games are mere garnish for the Nov. 5 visit from FA(not I)U, aka The Owl Bowl. Its fitting that Halloween is here, and Tootsie Pop is running the old TV ads with the kid and the owl because the old, wise bird might as well be answering the question, How many weeks before the Pillow Fight of the Century? Wah-one ... tah-hoo ... tha-ree! Three.3. Kansas Nayhawks?(1-5) KU suffered its 38th consecutive road loss, breaking a tie with Wichita States 1964-71 teams for the longest road losing streak by any FBS team since the division was established in 1937. In related news, a pickup truck full of old dudes was spotted driving into Lawrence from Wichita flipping birds and blasting Kansas Carry On Wayward Son.?4. I-Ow!-A State?(1-6) Assuming Earth survives the Owl Bowl on Nov. 5, it will need to brace itself for what happens the following weekend, when Iowa State travels to Kansas for the You Cant Expand The Big 12 House Until You Fix The Basement Bowl.5. Notre Dame ... again?(2-5)After much debate about what to do with this weeks coveted fifth spot, we took to the streets, posting a Bottom 10 poll of people on Twitter. The choices were: Tennessee for turning the third Saturday in October into early Halloween, Purdue for a midseason coaching change, the ACC Coastal for reverting back to its standard spaghetti pile mode and the Irish. Just like a Stanford strength coach during postgame handshakes, the people spoke loud and clear.6. UMess?(1-6) In the time it takes you to read this sentence, Louisiana Tech wide receiver?Carlos Henderson?will have most likely broken free for another touchdown reception of 40-plus yards.7. Bowling Green (1-6) Its on like Donkey Kong in the MAC East. Not the original Donkey Kong, but rather, Donkey Kong Jr., the rightfully forgotten sequel in which Mario is a total jerk. There are six teams in the division, and three have one-win records. BGSU is 1-6 after losing to Toledo and next week takes on Kent, which is 2-5 after losing to My Hammy of Ohio, which is also 1-6 and next week takes on Bowling Green. Meanwhile ...8. Buffalo Bulls not Bills?(1-5) Buffalo, which is also in the MAC East, will travel to Northern Illinois, which is the lone 1-and-something member of the MAC West. The next weekend, NIU will host Bowling Green. Over the final three weeks of the season, Buffalo plays both My Hammy and Bowling Green, but only after Bowling Green plays Kent. Just imagine if UMass were still in the MAC this year.9. In a Rut-gers?(2-5)Look on the bright side, Scarlet Knights, youll still be uber-relevant when the postseason arrives. The College Football Playoff selection committee loves to talk about the importance of the common opponent component (say that 10 times fast, Condoleezza). When their meetings begin in a few weeks and they throw Washington, Ohio State and Michigan up on their computer screens, theyll have to have the Who beat Rutgers worse, and what does that mean? debate.10. Pur-dont?(3-3)If you had the Boilermakers in your offices Who Will Fire Their Coach First To Get The Inside Track On Les Miles? pool, then congratulations. Also, I need to come to work at your office because your pools are awesome.Waiting list: UTEP (1-5), My Hammy of Ohio?(1-6), NI-Whew?(1-6),?Fres-No State (1-6), Georgia State Not Southern (1-5), getting smacked in the face by a ref, failure to expand. Wholesale Shoes China . Woodson said during a radio interview Thursday that the Knicks Carmelo Anthony doesnt get the same calls as other superstars. Wholesale Shoes Cheap . Varlamov made 33 saves and Ryan OReilly had a goal and scored in the shootout as the Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Thursday night. http://www.cheapshoeswebsites.com/ . Datsyuk will miss Tuesdays game against New Jersey and could be sidelined longer, while Cleary will likely miss at least the next three games. Its been an injury-plagued season for Datsyuk, who has suited up for just 39 games. Wholesale Shoes Suppliers . The Islanders dealt Thomas Vanek to the Montreal Canadiens after less than a year on Long Island. Meanwhile, the Oilers dealt long-time sniper Ales hemsky to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday for a fifth-round pick in 2014 and a third-rounder in 2015. Wholesale Shoes Online . -- Jimmy Walkers first PGA Tour trophy came with a special gift tucked inside. RIO DE JANEIRO -- After 1,192 days, Brazils run of hosting mega-sports events came to an end Sunday at the Paralympic Games.It began with soccers Confederations Cup in 2013, extended to the 2014 World Cup, ran through IOC President Thomas Bachs goodbye speech last month at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and finished with the closing ceremony of the Paralympics before 45,000 spectators at Rios Maracana stadium.Awarded when Brazil was a rising economic power, the sports pageants focused unprecedented attention on the country -- much of it unwanted.As the shows went on, Brazil plunged into a deep recession. A billion-dollar corruption scandal buffeted state-run oil company Petrobras, and President Dilma Rousseff was removed from office in an impeachment trial just days after the Olympics closed.This all left a very mixed legacy, Mauricio Santoro, an international relations expert at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, told The Associated Press. We are going to need some years to evaluate what was the impact, the worth of these events for Brazil.By a conservative estimate, Brazil spent about $30 billion organizing the events with a mix of public and private money that included the construction of four white-elephant soccer stadiums for the World Cup. All four are in cities without major teams.Rio fared better with the Olympics, getting a metro line extension, bus lines, and light-rail. But much of the investment was aimed at Rios upscale suburb of Barra da Tijuca -- not at the citys sprawling favelas, or slums. The Olympic Park and Athletes Village there will be molded into high-priced commercial and residential properties now that the games are done.I think the Olympics and Paralympics were a boost to the self-esteem of Brazil, Santoro said. They happened when everything was going so bad in Brazil. The mere fact they happened without serious problems, without an infrastructure disaster, without a terrorist attack, made Brazil feel better about itself.Brazils reputation away from home is another matter. Only a handful of foreign leaders attended the Olympics -- compared to about 100 four years ago in London.The state of Rio de Janeiro is broke and defaulting on bond payments. Some schools have suspended classes, and hospitals are understaffed. Only a last-minute bailout of about 250 million reals ($76.5 million) from the federal and local governments saved the Paralympics from a shortfall in the organizing committees privately funded operating budget.There was a feeling that Brazil is such a big mess, Santoro said. How could you have a good opinion of this country?Organizers bragged about legacy, but failed to deliver on a big promise made to secure the bid: the clean-up of Guanabara Bay, an open sewer that receives much of the citys untreated raw waste.Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes acknowledged the clean-up was a missed opportunity, one the Internnational Olympic Committee overlooked and often defended.dddddddddddd.The Olympics endured some rough going, plagued by empty seats, organizational glitches and scandals -- one involving American swimmer Ryan Lochte and another in which high-ranking IOC member Patrick Hickey was arrested for scalping tickets. Hickey is still in Brazil awaiting trial and denies any wrongdoing.Bach also skipped the opening of the Paralympics to attend a mourning ceremony for former West Germany president and foreign minister Walter Scheel. His office said he missed Sundays closing ceremony to be in New York to take part in the United Nations Refugee Summit.Police investigators in Brazil want to question Bach about email exchanges he had with Hickey related to Irelands ticket allocation. Hes not accused of wrongdoing, but he could be held if he arrives in Brazil.Against most predictions, the Paralympics were a smoother ride with grassroots support. Arenas were packed with many tickets selling at just $3 apiece, in contrast to the Olympics, where many tickets were sold as part of high-end hospitality packages and often went unused.The Paralympics also topped the Olympics in compelling stories, and in some performances.No story was more moving than that of 37-year-old Belgian Marieke Vervoort, who won a silver medal in wheelchair racing. She has a degenerative spine disease and talked of plans to end her life by euthanasia when she can no longer endure the pain.For me, I think death is something like they operate on you, you go to sleep and you never wake up, Vervoort said. For me, its something peaceful.The top four finishers in the mens 1,500 -- in the T13 class for visually impaired runners -- all had better times than the Olympic champion in Rio, American Matthew Centrowitz. Abdellatif Baka of Algeria won in 3 minutes, 48.29 seconds. Centrowitz ran 3:50.00 in an admittedly slow, tactical race.German amputee long-jumper Marcus Rehm, who jumps with a carbon fiber blade and won gold in Rio, also holds the long jump world record of 8.40 meters. This is better than the winning jump in the Rio Olympics at 8.38 meters.There was tragedy, too, when Iranian Bahman Golbarnezhad, 48, died Saturday after crashing in a road-cycling race.China topped the medal table at the Paralympics, which is increasingly driven by nationalism -- much like the Olympics. Britain, Ukraine and the United States were next on the table.The Paralympics are a high-performance sporting event between countries, IPC spokesman Craig Spence said. The goal is to win the most gold medals here. Thats what every sport is about. Its about winning.---Stephen Wade on Twitter: http://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/stephen-wade ' ' '