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• UCF AD Todd Stansbury tells the Orlando Sentinel's Paul Tenorio that the Big East exit fee/postseason credit split is about 60-40 in favor of the schools previously in the conference.
• The late Mal Moore of Alabama beat out Louisville's Tom Jurich and others for AD of the year.
• Late Memphis football legend Harry Schuh is remembered as a great athlete and a true friend, Bryan Brasher writes in the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
• Rutgers' opener at Fresno State will kick off at 10 p.m. ET.
• UConn coach Paul Pasqualoni speaks with Jack Arute and Gino Toretta on SiriusXM radio.

Teddy Bridgewater joined Twitter on Monday. So you cannot say that he is completely shying away from the spotlight that will accompany him this fall.

But the Louisville quarterback is doing what he can to minimize the individual attention that is expected to follow him during a 2013 season which will likely begin with the Cardinals in the top 10.

Bridgewater has requested that his school not start a Heisman Trophy campaign for him this season, asking head coach Charlie Strong and offensive coordinator Shawn Watson for any publicity to include the team as a whole, WDRB's Eric Crawford reported this week.

"We're going to let Teddy go and play," Strong said. "Teddy doesn't want to let people down and he doesn't want all of the attention. He wants to win first and foremost."

For a school that could very well be favored in every single game this season, that may not be the hardest thing in the world. But it is certainly a noble effort by Bridgewater, whom Mel Kiper Jr. has as No. 2 on his current Big Board for the 2014 NFL draft .

The rising junior has tried to deflect attention every step of the way during his first two years with the Cardinals, which have seen him win Big East rookie of the year honors and conference offensive player of the year honors while completing better than 66 percent of his passes for 5,847 yards with 41 touchdowns and 20 picks in 2011 and 2012.

"I don't pay attention to it. I'm all about this team," Bridgewater said. "I'm all about the team having success. I'm all about my teammates becoming better players. The Heisman isn't a goal of mine. A team effort, a national championship, a BCS game, those are our goals."

If Bridgewater steadily improves off a season that ended with a Sugar Bowl rout of Florida, and if Louisville takes care of business, any Heisman hype will likely take care of itself.

I'm just bummed that this may mean no more Bazooka bubble gum or cool notepads for me this season.

This fall will mark the final college football season that concludes with a BCS title game. The era has had its ups and downs for all, so here we will take a look at the best and worst of the past 15 years in the Big East:

BEST
1. BCS bowl performances: For all of the heat that this conference gets, it will likely exit the BCS era with no worse than a .500 record in BCS bowls. The Big East is 8-7 in BCS bowls during the past 15 years, winning its past two (Louisville over Florida in the 2013 Sugar, West Virginia over Clemson in the 2012 Orange.) The ACC, by comparison, has a 3-13 record in BCS bowls.

2. National title game appearances: Miami and Virginia Tech might both be ACC members right now, but the schools had combined for three national title game appearances as members of the Big East. Virginia Tech lost to Florida State in the Sugar Bowl following the 1999 season and Miami fell to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl following the 2002 season, while the Hurricanes defeated Nebraska in the Rose Bowl following the 2001 season. The Big Ten has three title game appearances, the ACC has three and the Pac-12 has three only if you count USC's appearances following the 2004 and 2005 seasons, both of which were vacated by the NCAA.

3. Realignment replacements (the first time around): After losing Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech to the ACC, the Big East was able to scoop up Cincinnati, Louisville and USF from Conference USA as football members (and Marquette and DePaul as non-football members). Cincinnati has won a share of four of the past five league titles and Louisville has won a share of the past two, in addition to appearing in a pair of BCS bowl games.

4. Coaches: Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer won five different coach-of-the-year awards (Bear Bryant, Eddie Robinson, AP, Walter Camp and Maxwell) in 1999. Miami's Larry Coker won the Bryant award in 2001. Rutgers' Greg Schiano won five different coach-of-the-year awards (Liberty Mutual, Robinson, Home Depot, Walter Camp and Maxwell) in 2006. Cincinnati's Brian Kelly won the Home Depot award in 2009, giving the conference 12 coach of the year awards from four different coaches during the BCS era.

5. Bowl record: Matchups can often get more and more uneven as we look at the landscape of bowl games, but the Big East has certainly taken care of business when it comes to the postseason, going 46-29 in bowl games since the 1998 season.

WORST
1. Realignment losses (the next time around): This almost goes without saying, as no conference has suffered from realignment more than the Big East. Gone or soon-to-be gone are Boston College, Miami, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Syracuse, West Virginia, Rutgers and Louisville in football. (TCU, Boise State and San Diego State all left before playing a down as football-only members.) Notre Dame and the Catholic 7 (DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's and Villanova) all left in other sports.

2. Status/money: As a result of realignment, the Big East no longer has a guaranteed tie-in to an elite bowl game. And it is not sharing in the same revenue split from the future playoff as the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC. Simply put, there will be one less major conference starting in the 2014 season, as the Big East simply is not in the same place that it was as recently as two years ago.

3. BCS bowl appearances: The Big East's 15 BCS-bowl appearances are the lowest among any AQ school, as the conference has never received more than one bid in a year. The ACC received two following the 2011 season, with conference champion Clemson going to the Orange Bowl (and getting crushed by Big East champion West Virginia) and Virginia Tech going to the Sugar Bowl (and losing in overtime to Michigan).

4. QBs in draft: Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater may change things with another strong performance in 2013, and there have been other notable performances in recent years (WVU's Pat White, for one), but outside of Virginia Tech's Michael Vick (No. 1 overall, 2001) and Syracuse's Donovan McNabb (No. 2, 1999), the Big East has not had a quarterback drafted in the first round in the BCS era.

5. Conflicting interests: The divide between basketball and football schools played a large part in the split-up of the Big East. So, too, did the trust and double-speak. Look no further than departing member Pitt and its chancellor, Mark Nordenberg, who led a five-school contingent that sued Boston College in 2003 following the Eagles' departure for the ACC, saying at the time: "This is a case that involves broken commitments, secret dealings, breaches of fiduciary responsibility, the misappropriations of conference opportunities and predatory attempts to eliminate competition."

Our series continues today with the conference favorite, Louisville.

To see previous entries, click here.

Louisville

Most important game: Dec. 5 at Cincinnati

Why: Mark Stoops has been a hit in Lexington, Ky., since taking over the Wildcats program. But if we learned anything from last year's season-opener — in which Teddy Bridgewater completed 19 of 21 passes — it's that the Cardinals still have much more talent, especially since they bring back a majority of their playmakers from last year's Sugar Bowl-winning squad. Plus, if the Cardinals can't get by Kentucky in Week 3, we can kiss all of that undefeated season — and likely conference-winning — talk goodbye.

The Cardinals get Rutgers and UCF at home, and they don't have to face SMU. And, well, there's a reason the schedule-makers made their final regular-season game on a Thursday night against Cincinnati.

We went over this Friday in a post looking at the Bearcats' most important game, but it's worth echoing again here. This tilt may very well decide the conference champion — and the league's last guaranteed BCS bowl berth. For a Cardinals squad expected to be a preseason top-10 team, it may just decide a national title berth, depending on what the rest of the national landscape looks like. And for a quarterback who has been showered in expectations, hype and preseason accolades all spring, this prime time, national-television game could provide the outlet for one final Heisman Trophy advertisement.

These teams met in a Friday prime-time contest that ended in overtime, with Louisville recovering from a pair of 10-point deficits and, ultimately, getting to look back on the win over Cincinnati as the difference-maker in clinching the conference's BCS bowl berth.

This one will be on the road. It will be Louisville's final game in the Big East/American Athletic Conference. And it is the last scheduled meeting with its arch-rival, for now.

The Keg of Nails always means a lot to both schools. But the 2013 season could bring us the most meaningful Louisville-Cincinnati game yet.

Welcome to Twitter, Teddy.

• Colleague Ted Miller says that college football spring prognosticators turn into fun fodder.
• Former Oklahoma State quarterback Wes Lunt has not visited Louisville yet, but is sincerely considering Illinois, colleague Joe Schad reports. Schad also reports that former Penn State quarterback Steven Bench's options are USF and Mississippi State.
• The AAC has a plan for an exit fee distribution, Greg Auman writes in the Tampa Bay Times.
• Great story here from the (Newark) Star-Ledger's Steve Politi, on Eric LeGrand returning to his Avenel home. Former Rutgers receiver Mark Harrison has signed with the Patriots.
• USF coach Willie Taggart says that the UCF rivalry needs time to grow, Paul Tenorio writes in the Orlando Sentinel.

We have officially reached the 100-day mark until the college football regular season kicks off. There is still plenty of business to tend to until then -- much of which is being discussed this week at the Big East's spring meetings in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. -- so here is a checklist of five things that the conference needs to accomplish between now and Aug. 29, when three league teams (UConn, Rutgers and UCF) will be among the 34 to start their 2013 campaigns before everyone else.

1. Release a new logo: The league will officially become known as the American Athletic Conference at the conclusion of the 2012-13 college sports season. A new logo is on the way, but is not expected to be revealed during this week's conference meetings, though we could see it in the next couple of weeks.

2. Get QB answers: Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, USF and Temple all exited the spring with open competition under center, though some seem to have a lot more clarity (Cincinnati, Houston, Temple) than others (Memphis, USF). For the other five teams, the summer is about continuing the growth of returning starters, all of whom took big steps this spring to build off their 2012 campaigns (particularly Rutgers' Gary Nova and UCF's Blake Bortles).

3. Find a true No. 2 to Louisville: No, the Cardinals have not already won the AAC in their final year in the conference before moving to the ACC. But the early Heisman Trophy and NFL draft hype surrounding quarterback Teddy Bridgewater -- coupled with preseason top-10 appearances in every major forecast, a favorable schedule and the overall brilliance of its athletic department this academic year -- has the hype at previously unforeseen levels on campus. Louisville still has 12 games to deal with once the first ball is kicked this fall, but it is the only team in the conference that, this far out, seems to have most of the answers it needs heading into the season. Who will make the biggest strides in the next 100 days to close that gap and emerge from the pack of relative unknowns in the league? This is, after all, the conference's last year with a guaranteed BCS bowl berth.

4. Make the rounds: Matt Rhule does not need to meet and greet all that many new people in the Philadelphia area since he was a longtime Temple assistant, but he is stepping into his first career head-coaching job. Willie Taggart has been a hit back in his home area of Tampa, Fla., but he is taking over a roster that has vastly underachieved the past two years, and he is entering recruiting battles with local rival and Big East newcomer UCF. Tommy Tuberville has had great success on the recruiting circuit so far at Cincinnati, but he has a big standard to live up to in following the footsteps of the school's past three head coaches. How will each new head coach in the conference further establish himself in the dog days of summer?

5. Houston must figure out several game locations: One of the more overlooked aspects of one of the conference newcomers this season is the Cougars' need to determine where they will play all of their home games. Four of them have been slated for Reliant Stadium, but the school's Oct. 12 game against Memphis and Nov. 23 tilt with Cincinnati still need locations. Rice Stadium and BBVA Compass Stadium are the options, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Geez.

• Oklahoma State has a number of restrictions on transferring quarterback Wes Lunt, but Louisville isn't one of them, our Joe Schad writes.
• CBSSports.com's Rob Rang has Teddy Bridgewater at No. 3 and Rutgers receiver Brandon Coleman at No. 25 on his 2014 draft big board.
• USA Today's Paul Myerberg previews Memphis, his 116th-best team for 2013.
• AthlonSports Braden Gall counts down the top 50 receivers of the BCS era, with the top spot going to a guy who made his name in the Big East: Pitt's Larry Fitzgerald.
• The Hartford Courant's Desmond Conner catches up with commissioner Mike Aresco for a Q&A.

Poll week is all but wrapped up. For our final query, we're looking to see which player you think will make the biggest jump in the Big East this season.

Thursday brought us our closest poll, with Houston and USF neck-and-neck as potential darkhorse candidates in the conference this season. I'd expect similar results from today's poll, as the eventual answers always end up as surprises.

Here is who we list as potential guys to take the next step. Disagree? Vote "other" and let us know who and why in the mailbag.

Anthony McClung, WR, Cincinnati: The senior had just 34 catches for 539 yards and two touchdowns last season, but he leads all returning players in the conference in career receptions, with 105. The runner-up on the Bearcats? Alex Chisum, with 28. Travis Kelce, Kenbrell Thompkins and Damon Julian are gone, and there are question marks in the backfield. But with a returning starter under center one way or another, and with added weight, McClung has the chance to break out as a true No. 1 option this season.

Gary Nova, QB, Rutgers: Players and coaches have spoken of a much more confident man under center this spring, especially with new coordinator Ron Prince in charge of the offense. Nova shed 15 pounds in the offseason and thrived in the spring game, and his poor play during the Scarlet Knights' three-game losing streak to close last season provides the perfect opportunity for a rebound in 2013 for the junior.

Calvin Pryor, S, Louisville: Pryor may be the most accomplished among these candidates, but he still has plenty of untapped potential after thriving as a starter during most of his freshman and sophomore seasons. Pryor was a second-team All-Big East performer last season after forcing five fumbles — the third-most nationally — and notching 100 tackles. He and Hakeem Smith should form the best safety duo in the conference.

Connor Reilly, QB, Temple: If this award went out in the spring, Reilly would be the winner by a wide margin. He jumped from fourth to first on the depth chart over the course of 15 practices, dominating in the spring and forcing Chris Coyer and Kevin Newsome into position changes. The dual-sport athlete (he also plays baseball) is the frontrunner to start in 2013, but the biggest question is likely the weapons around him.

Spurs, Patriots. Tomato, tomahto.

• The Cincinnati Enquirer's Tom Groeschen looks at key Bearcats dates this summer.
• Louisville is No. 10 in Athlon Sports' countdown of the top 25 teams. The gang debates if the Cardinals can run the table.
• UCF's secondary will be tested early in the season, Paul Tenorio writes in the Orlando Sentinel.
• UConn coach Paul Pasqualoni talks strength and conditioning with the Hartford Courant's Desmond Conner.
• Former Penn State quarterback Steven Bench was impressed by the buzz during his USF visit, Greg Auman writes in the Tampa Bay Times.

One play at a time, one game at a time … yada, yada, yada.

We're out with the clichés and straight to the point in the blog, as evidenced by our "most important game" series.

Starting today we'll take a look at one game from each of the 10 Big East teams' schedules and explain why it stands out above the other 11.

We'll kick things off today with Cincinnati.

Cincinnati

Most important game: Dec. 5 vs. Louisville

Why: The Tommy Tuberville era at Cincinnati opens with a pair of Big Ten games. While Purdue and Illinois are far from the cream of the crop in that conference, they should provide the Bearcats with very nice opening nonconference tests. Conference play begins nearly a month later against a USF team that should improve significantly under first-year coach Willie Taggart.

Afterward? A three-game stretch against Temple, UConn and Memphis is hardly Murderer's Row. The next trio -- SMU, Rutgers and Houston -- offers potential pitfalls, but the Bearcats, at least from the comfortable view of the offseason, will likely be favored in each of those contests. Which leads us to the regular-season finale, which also reminds us that this team does not play UCF in the Knights' first season in a conference that they are expected to enter as immediate challengers to the conference throne.

So that brings us to Dec. 5 at Nippert Stadium. The Keg of Nails. And what is the last scheduled meeting between these two rivals, for now.

We all know what happened last year, as the Cardinals recovered from a pair of 10-point deficits and won 34-31 in overtime — after a bad snap during a John Wallace field goal attempt was rendered irrelevant because of an ill-timed Butch Jones timeout.

Both teams finished 5-2 in the Big East last season, along with Syracuse and Rutgers. They were all able to claim a share of the conference crown — the Bearcats' fourth in the past five seasons — but Louisville got the BCS bid, thanks in large part to its win over Cincinnati.

Cincinnati and UCF have gotten most of the consideration this spring as the biggest challengers to Louisville's repeat bid in 2013. Thanks to the schedule-makers, we may just have to wait until the last Thursday of the season to find out who gets the final guaranteed BCS-bowl bid from the conference.

DDP has a yoga company. Who knew?

• Former Cincinnati running back George Winn was cut by the Houston Texans.
• CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd has Louisville at No. 10 in his post-spring top 25.
• Memphis has drawn some attention for its spring guide -- because punter Tom Hornsey is on the cover.
• The (Newark) Star-Ledger's Steve Politi says that Julie Hermann needs to prove she can be a visionary as Rutgers' new AD.
• UConn coach Paul Pasqualoni talks about his approach to the 2013 season, Desmond Conner writes in the Hartford Courant.

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. -- Long-time rivals Louisville and Cincinnati are scheduled to play for the last time in December.

The future of their Keg of Nails series remains on hold, while Louisville works to figure out how joining the ACC impacts its nonconference schedule. Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said during the ACC spring meetings that he still does not have an answer on the future of the rivalry.

Complicating matters is another rivalry game the Cardinals have against Kentucky, which runs through 2016. Jurich said he expects that series to be renewed. "We’ll roll another one out. I don’t suspect there’d be any problems," he said.

With an eight-game league schedule, the chances that Louisville plays both Kentucky and Cincinnati annually remain slim now that the Cards and Bearcats are set to go their separate conference ways.

It could happen, but it would not be an every year scenario.

"If we’re going to keep one, we’re going to keep Kentucky," Jurich said. "That’s something that’s so important in our state, and the commonwealth of Kentucky relies on that game, so it’s something I want to make sure we keep. We might be able to play both in the same year once in a while, because Cincinnati has been a great rivalry, too."

Cincinnati athletic director Whit Babcock knows he is in a holding pattern, telling ESPN.com, "Tom and I have a good relationship, and it’s something we talked about a while back and it’s something we’ll address in the coming months. Obviously at Cincinnati, we’d love to maintain that rivalry for our fan base in any and all sports but I know it will take some time for the transition of Louisville to the ACC before Tom and I can answer all those questions. We’d love to do it and we wish those guys the best."

The two schools first played in 1929 and have played annually since 1996. Cincinnati and Louisville have actually played more football games than Louisville and Kentucky.

NC State athletic director Debbie Yow does not know Julie Hermann, but she is thrilled nonetheless.

You can understand why. Hermann is now part of a club with only a handful of members. A club that has not seemed to grow in membership over the past 20 years, despite more women playing sports, more women coaching and more female sports teams than ever in collegiate athletics.

Hermann became the third female athletic director at a BCS-level school when she was hired Wednesday to take over the Rutgers athletic department, joining Yow and Sandy Barbour at Cal. The hire signals a bold move for Rutgers, in the middle of an athletic department mess with a move to the Big Ten looming.

But will it end up being a move that opens more doors for females with designs on becoming athletic directors? That question gets murkier. Dating back to when Yow got her first AD job at a BCS school -- at Maryland in 1994 -- there have never been more than three female ADs at any one time at BCS conferences.

Hard to believe that no progress has been made over such a long period of time, especially when strides have been made in virtually every other area.

"I understand it completely," Yow said during a break at the ACC spring meetings at Amelia Island, Fla. "These jobs are very challenging to secure and there are an ample number of qualified women. But they usually involve key boosters and those key boosters are often times men. I don’t have any statistical data to support this, but they have a challenging time seeing themselves on the football team plane with that female athletic director.

"In my case, I was blessed at Maryland the men on the committee who were key boosters really could see that. That’s how it happened. It’s very challenging for women to get these jobs."

Yow pointed to a study conducted by R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter titled "Women in Intercollegiate Sport" that pointed out women had a better chance of becoming presidents at BCS schools than athletic directors.

According to that study, 10.6 percent of Division I athletic directors were females in 2012. In 1998, that number was 9.9 percent. If you look at the FBS level, only 4.9 percent of athletic directors were female in 2012.

For her part, Hermann has worked at the side of one of the top athletic directors in the entire country at Louisville in Tom Jurich, one of four nominees for AD of the Year. Louisville has made tremendous strides under Jurich and seen incredible success in the last year, joining the ACC while winning a BCS game, men's hoops title and playing in the women's title game.

Hermann said during her introductory press conference in New Jersey, "(Athletics) is male-dominated, but in my building it's not male-dominated, it's probably-female dominated. We have Tom surrounded. And on the other hand I've been a woman in collegiate athletics my whole life. I don't know anything different other than the men that helped us make it happen."

When asked at the ACC spring meetings whether he thought this might open more doors for women to become athletic directors, Jurich said, "I sure hope so. I don’t know how many women have gone for those jobs, but I know she’s definitely ready. She’s going to do a great job at Rutgers. They’ve got an incredible asset who was my right-hand for 15 years. She was more than an employee, she was a very close friend and I’m going to miss her dearly. But I couldn’t be happier for her."

Yow is thrilled, too. Though it feels as if progress in this one area has been nonexistent, seeing Hermann get a job at a school headed for the Big Ten is progress in itself. She would be only the second female AD in Big Ten history when Rutgers joins the league in 2014 (Michigan State's Merrily Dean Baker from 1992-95 was the first).

Whether this sets a trend or not, Hermann is the one who went out and got this job for herself.

"It’s terrific, terrific for the league, terrific for her, terrific for the thousands of women who aspire to becoming a director of athletics at this level," Yow said.

The glass ceiling has another little crack. Joyous news indeed.

Teddy Bridgewater has appeared near the top of seemingly every 2014 mock draft imaginable in the past three weeks. Mel Kiper Jr. placed the Louisville quarterback as the No. 2 overall player on his initial 25-man Big Board, behind South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, so it comes as little surprise Wednesday that Bridgewater is his top quarterback heading into the 2014 NFL draft.

Kiper Jr. touts Bridgewater's footwork, his ability to not rely on his athleticism, and his sixth sense in the pocket, which Kiper Jr. compares to Tom Brady's.

Bridgewater, an early 2013 Heisman Trophy candidate, comes in two spots above reigning Heisman winner Johnny Manziel on Kiper Jr.'s five-man list. Clemson's Tajh Boyd, Oregon's Marcus Mariota and Alabama's AJ McCarron complete the top 5.

David Fales (San Jose State), Braxton Miller (Ohio State), Logan Thomas (Virginia Tech), Bo Wallace (Ole Miss), and Derek Carr (Fresno State) are the next five on Kiper Jr.'s ranking.

Travis Haney looks at make-or-break scenarios for this crop of quarterbacks, but he does not include Bridgewater -- because he has fewer question marks than every other signal caller in this class.

Kiper Jr. also looks at the top cornerback prospects in this year's draft.

Yup.

• Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater goes No. 8, USF defensive end Aaron Lynch goes No. 9, and Rutgers receiver Brandon Coleman goes No. 26 in 247sports.com's 2014 mock draft.
• Former Cincinnati president Greg Williams says he did everything he could to keep the Bearcats in a major conference, Bill Koch writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer. The school is touting its own virtues while making the best of its current conference, Tom Groeschen writes.
• The fourth annual Charlie Strong Women's Clinic is June 1.
• UCF coach George O'Leary praises his players for their academic progress, Paul Tenorio writes in the Orlando Sentinel.
• UConn coach Paul Pasqualoni is not worried about his program's lack of 2014 recruits, Desmond Conner writes in the Hartford Courant.