What's all the buzz about?

Northwestern 17, Iowa 10. In the spirit of the losing team's point output (that would be you, Hawkeyes), here we go:

1. Sasha Cohen withdraws from Skate America.

Cohen, the 2006 Torino Games silver medalist, hasn't competed in more than three years.

Cohen had announced in May she intended to mount a comeback, eyeing Vancouver and the 2010 Olympics. She was supposed to make her first competitive appearance at a meet in France in early October. But she didn't make it because of nagging tendinitis in her right calf.

Thus Skate America, this weekend in Lake Placid, N.Y., would have been her first. But no. Same problem.

Now her first major competition in that effort may well be the national championships, in January in Spokane, Wash., and her chances of making the Games have to be considered diminished.

Not impossible. But not optimal, either.

The question that has been something of a mystery since May: Why all the buzz around Cohen and this "comeback"? Because the other U.S. women couldn't collectively earn three spots in Vancouver and thus Sasha is being portrayed as the great hope to unseat South Korea's Kim Yu-Na? Really? Is that fair to Sasha -- or, for that matter, the other U.S. women vying for the two American spots at the Games?

2. Larry Probst shows up last week at a PASO meeting.

And then leaves.

Probst, the U.S. Olympic Committee's board chairman, left before the Pan-American Sports Organization vote last Friday at which Toronto was selected as host of the 2015 Pan-Am Games. He said he had to leave Guadalajara, Mexico, where the PASO meeting was ongoing, to make a long-planned meeting back in the States of the Electronic Arts board of directors; Probst is EA's board chairman.

Can there be any question that when it comes to EA, Probst is fully committed?

As for the USOC -- it certainly makes for a curious move, particularly in the wake of Chicago's first-round exit from the 2016 Summer Games vote, after which Probst declared he understood fully that he had to be all in with regards to his USOC commitments.

It's true that during this trip to Guadalajara, Probst sought out Mario Vazquez Rana, the influential head of PASO, and declared that he -- Probst -- was committed to his Olympic position, and that Vazquez Rana designated Probst a provisional member of PASO's executive committee.

That may be a sign of advancement, as some Probst supporters are sure to suggest. Or it may be that Vazquez Rana, a shrewd political operator if there ever was one, recognized that a USOC chairman with limited Olympic experience might make an excellent choice to fulfill the PASO obligation to the United States.

It's true that EA is a big company, and board meetings are a big deal. If Probst tried to move heaven and earth to re-schedule it to accommodate his USOC commitment -- well, who would know? He hasn't reached out to make the point.

Finally, it's true, too, that actions speak louder than words and that -- in the Olympic context -- Probst missed the opportunity to demonstrate that he was, in fact, all in.

Again.

Last month in Copenhagen, Probst left the IOC's assembly there after the 2016 vote. There were several days of hobnobbing yet to go -- but they did not include Probst.

In June, Probst did not attend the International Olympic Committee's 2016 seminar in Lausanne, Switzerland, an absence pointedly noted repeatedly since as a significant protocol misstep.

Query: When does all in kick in?

3. Marked "confidential," a Nov. 5 letter written on behalf of the National Governing Bodies Council is instead circulating. Addressed to the USOC board of directors, it says, "NGBs identify talent. NGBs coach. NGBs train. NGBs build teams with medal count in mind but, more importantly, change lives."

Then it says, "And yet, the NGBs, with due consideration of the fundamental roles they play, unfortunately are not an active, respected and direct participant in the leadership decisions at the USOC governance level."

It also asserts that the current USOC leadership "has been at times dismissive of the essential roles the NGBs play as fundamental stakeholders in the USOC and the Olympic movement."

Then the thrust, the council asking for a "more direct relationship with the USOC board." The letter says, "It is our belief that the present state of governance blocks any chance for change," adding, "A USOC board without direct NGB representation is not in the best interest of the U.S. Olympic movement. NGB boards are the direct composite representation of their constituents. Surely the USOC board must be the same."

And: "... The expedient recruitment of a new CEO is critical to begin the healing process within the Olympic family and to revitalize our languishing roles and responsibilities to the entire Olympic movement."

The Nov. 5 letter follows the distribution of a Nov. 2 letter recapping the Oct. 28 meeting that Probst held for invited NGB representatives in San Francisco. Key points there:

- Probst said he is committed to asking the USOC board to "create a high-level task force to examine the intent of the previous USOC governance reforms and evaluate if the current board structure provides the organization with the most effective and efficient group of visionary leaders."

- Probst is "committed to asking the USOC board to form a group of high-level individuals to look at the [USOC's] current position within the global sport community, to evaluate the current international relations strategy and detail a recommendation to help the USOC put its best foot forward ... This would include a recommendation to how the USOC can best take advantage of the international landscape in Vancouver."

4. To win those 2015 Pan-Ams, Toronto defeats Lima, Peru, and Bogota, Colombia.

The lesson:

Rio's 2016 victory will not automatically make a success of candidates from emerging nations seeking international sports events.

Such candidates must be deemed, as Rio was by the International Olympic Committee, technically capable. Plus such candidates must carry a persuasive argument, as Rio did ("first Summer Games in South America").

5. To wit:

Doha, Qatar, ranked ahead of Rio in the IOC's initial assessment of 2016 cities. But the IOC took Doha out of the race because it had proposed holding Games from Oct. 14-30, outside the dates the IOC now specifies, sometime between July 15-Aug. 31.

The secretary general of the Qatar Olympic Committee, Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdurahman Al-Thani, tells the Atlanta-based newsletter Around the Rings that Doha now envisions a 2020 plan that would put the Games in July or August, saying, "We can play at night in climate-controlled stadiums. At a recent event in our stadium a temperature no higher than 28 degree centigrade [82 Fahrenheit] was recorded."

The Doha pitch, of course: first Summer Games in the Middle East.

6. It's way early but Munich would seem to be making all the right moves in its bid to stage the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

The Munich bid team announced a couple days ago that Willy Bogner would chair the effort. Bogner, 67, took part in the 1960 and 1964 Winter Games and later -- this is cool -- directed ski scenes in James Bond movies.

The other two 2018 bidders: Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Annecy, France. The IOC will make the 2018 choice in 2011 at a meeting in South Africa.

7. The 106-day Vancouver 2010 Olympic flame relay stopped Sunday in Churchill, Manitoba, the self-styled "polar bear capital of the world." On the way into town, the relay convoy had to stop to allow a polar bear to cross the road.

8. The USOC and the Southern California-based D.I.S.C. Sports and Spine Center on Monday announce a "strategic partnership" that will make the center an "official medical services provider" through the London 2012 Games.

Disclaimer: It was news to me when I read the release. I had no idea this connection was in the works.

That said, I can unhesitatingly recommend Dr. Robert S. Bray, the center's chief executive and founding director. He performed a microscopic discectomy on me five years ago. Not to say he was supremely confident -- but he sure was, and that's the kind of thing you want from your doctor, especially when he says he can fix the herniated disc that had left a fragment of spine junk pressing on your nerve.

Before the procedure, I couldn't reach down to put on a sock.

Dr. Bray fixed it, just like he said he would. The intense pain went away immediately; I've had no significant issues since.

Thanks again, doc, and good luck with the Olympic thing.

9. USA Boxing announces Monday it supports efforts underway in Congress that call on President Obama to issue a pardon to the legendary Jack Johnson.

A pardon would "help close the chapter in the disturbing racial conflict" surrounding Johnson, the first black world heavyweight champion, USA Boxing interim executive Michael Martino said in the release.

Johnson was convicted in 1913 of violating the Mann Act, which prohibited the transport of women across state lines for "immoral purposes." He died in 1946.

USA Boxing is a co-sponsor of the July 2-4, 2010, event planned in Reno, Nev., commemorating the so-called "Fight of the Century" there on July 4, 1910 -- the legendary bout that saw Johnson take on the former heavyweight champ, James J. Jeffries.

Jeffries had come out of retirement just for the fight, declaring, "I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro." Johnson won, knocking Jeffries down twice for the first time in his career.

10. Stephen Colbert's move to help underwrite US Speedskating: a win-win all around.

For Colbert, host of Comedy Central's "Colbert Report"; for the federation's finances; for the sport; and for the Winter Games. All will benefit because of the attention and the audience -- that elusive younger demographic -- that Colbert brings.

Prediction: We all will be hearing the funny new Colbert riff -- "U-Ice-A!" -- many times between now and the Feb. 28 end of the Vancouver Games. Or if that doesn't stick, some other clever shtick.

Oh, sure, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore may have been at the game Saturday in Iowa City, rooting for the wrong team. Did we mention that Colbert is a Northwestern alum?