By TOM FITZGERALD, San Francisco Chronicle

For years Tara VanDerveer has bemoaned the lack of respect for the Pac-10 (now the Pac-12) in women's basketball. She's on the stump again.

National TV announcers "are always looking for something to drag the whole conference and us down," the Stanford coach complained this week.

The current economic fortunes of Stanford and Oklahoma State, who meet Monday in the Fiesta Bowl, rest heavily on the admissions of a couple of basketball players more than a half-century ago.

Forget the various Rose Bowls.

The most entertaining game of the college football season ended all doubt of how Stanford would react in a tight game.

In one area, Stanford coach David Shaw is much like his wunderkind quarterback. Neither he nor Andrew Luck likes to take credit. When passed a bouquet, each can't wait to break up the flowers and pass around the blossoms.

That's a little unusual for a quarterback. For a head coach on the college level, it's practically unheard of.

Imagine an NFL team owner grabbing an opposing quarterback in a headlock after a game.

Imagine a big-league ballplayer taking a microphone during pregame introductions and calling an opposing player "an ass."

Imagine a sport in which the competitors talk about respecting each other and then, when the competition starts, basically try to erase each other.

In other years, some 400 college players snubbed in the NFL draft would have signed by now. Some of them would have gotten signing bonuses.

They don't want to be the Buffalo Bills of women's college basketball.

Stanford seniors Jeanette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen made it clear that they don't want to be like the losers of four consecutive Super Bowls. Getting to the Final Four for the fourth straight year isn't nearly enough for them.

Like many other potential high NFL draft picks who decide to stay in school for one more year, Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck is getting an insurance policy in case an injury keeps him from playing pro football.

SAN FRANCISCO - When Trevor Bayne turned 20 on Saturday, he was known only to fans of NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series and his immediate family.