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The biggest college bass fishing tournament yet held begins at Lewisville Lake today with the winners crowned on Saturday. The 2008 BOATU.S. National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship features 106 two-angler teams representing 57 schools from 23 states.

If there's a level playing field for college athletics, this is it. From the deck of a bass boat, small-school teams from UT-Arlington or Tarleton State are on equal, if unstable, footing with the Big 12 and the Pac-10. "This is fishing," said tournament director Wade Middleton, "and bass don't really care who's on the other end of the line."

Bass fishing is just as competitive as football, and many of these college anglers were high school athletes. Justin Rackley had pro baseball aspirations until an injury ended his dream. Now Rackley, a member of the Texas A&M team that won last year's championship, has shifted his sights to pro fishing.

Rackley is back, hoping for a repeat victory, though Trevor Knight, his fishing partner from last year, has graduated. Unlike in other college sports, fishing teams may be all-male, all-female or coed. In fact, a woman, Tiffany Spencer, helped start the fishing program at UTA.

All the teams will compete through Friday, when the field is cut to the top five teams for the final day. Tournament headquarters is Sneaky Pete's Marina. The college anglers are fishing for $35,000 in scholarships and prizes.

The tournament is being filmed and will be featured as part of a 13-episode National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship television series produced by Careco Multimedia and aired beginning in early October on Fox College Sports and affiliated networks.

Meanwhile, at Clarks Hill Lake in Georgia, the Women's Bassmaster Tour pros are on pins and needles for the last regular tour event of the season. The top 20 anglers in point standings after Saturday will compete in the WBT Championship, Oct. 23-25 on Arkansas' Lake Hamilton.

The tournament counts toward the 2008 WBT Angler of the Year title, the biggest prize ever in women's bass fishing. The AOY winner earns a Toyota Tundra truck and, more important, breaks through bass fishing's glass ceiling, becoming the first woman to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic.

The 2009 Classic is Feb. 20-22 on the Red River at Shreveport-Bossier City.

Alabama's Kim Bain, who won the 2008 WBT opener at Lewisville Lake, has never relinquished the points lead, but her lead is not exactly safe. Juanita Robinson of Highlands, near Houston, stands 23 points behind Bain, a native of Australia, and Oklahoma's Sheri Glasgow is just 55 points behind the leader.

Other Texas anglers with a shot at the AOY title are Patti Campbell of Waxahachie (fourth place), Bonnie Johnson of Weatherford (sixth) and Debra Petrowski of Arlington (seventh). Georgia's Pam Martin-Wells, always a tough competitor, is in fifth place.

The winner at Clarks Hill gains 300 points toward AOY, with a five-point separation through fifth place and four-point separation for sixth through 10th place.

Also after Clarks Hill, anglers can discard their worst finish of the season. The standings have a chance to be scrambled at this tournament.