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Big Ten bloggers Adam Rittenberg and Brian Bennett will occasionally give their takes on a burning question facing the league. We'll both have strong opinions, but not necessarily the same view. We'll let you decide which blogger is right.

We're in the process of projecting the Big Ten's statistical leaders for the 2013 season. We've already offered our choices for the league's top rusher and top passer. So naturally, today's Take Two topic is: Who will lead the Big Ten in receiving yards this year?

Take 1: Brian Bennett

Perhaps a better question might be, who will finish second in receiving yards to Penn State's Allen Robinson? The Nittany Lions junior was clearly the best wide receiver in a league that lacked stars at the position in 2013. Robinson's 1,013 yards were more than 200 yards better than the next closest competitor, and his 77 catches were nine more than any other Big Ten player. He should only improve in his second year as a full-time starter.

The only reasons to believe Robinson won't repeat as the receiving yards leader would include the inexperience at quarterback for Penn State this season, increased defensive attention after his breakout year and/or a major improvement by a fellow league wideout. Let's examine that last factor for some possibilities. There are several players who I think could make a leap up this year and post big numbers. Start with Wisconsin's Jared Abbrederis, who could easily surpass 1,000 yards receiving if he stays healthy and the Badgers' passing game shows more competency than a year ago. Nebraska's Kenny Bell has the talent and opportunity to become the Huskers' first 1,000-yard receiver ever. Ohio State's Corey Brown should thrive as Braxton Miller's No. 1 target, and Michigan's Jeremy Gallon will love being the go-to guy for Devin Gardner over a full season.

My choice to dethrone Robinson, though, is Indiana's Cody Latimer. He caught 51 passes for 805 yards a year ago and should benefit from working with more experienced quarterbacks in 2013. While he has competition for catches on his own team with Shane Wynn, Kofi Hughes and others, Latimer is the team's top big-play threat and has a great set of hands. If the pass-happy Hoosiers can get to a 13th game, he has a chance to finish with some eye-popping numbers.

I'm still picking Robinson as the receiving yards king. But should he falter, I say Latimer is the guy who picks up the crown.

Take 2: Adam Rittenberg

If this was about naming the Big Ten's best wide receiver, Robinson would get my vote. He also could repeat as receiving yards leader, but I'm hesitant to make that prediction without seeing Penn State quarterbacks Tyler Ferguson and Christian Hackenberg compete against FBS defenses. Robinson and Matt McGloin fed off of one another extremely well last season, particularly in the red zone, and Bill O'Brien's NFL-style offense provided the platform for both to flourish. O'Brien is still there and either Ferguson or Hackenberg could follow McGloin's path in Year 1 of running the system, but neither man has been in the fire like McGloin was before last season.

Latimer is a good pick as I love his size and big-play ability. Indiana isn't afraid to throw the football so Latimer should have plenty of chances to rack up yards. The thing working against him, as you outline, is the Hoosiers' overall depth at receiver, plus tight end Ted Bolser. Abbrederis likely would be my pick if Wisconsin's passing game hadn't struggled so much in 2012. He'll enter his senior season as Wisconsin's only legitimate threat at wide receiver, which might help his numbers (more opportunities) or limit him (more attention from opposing defensive backs). Ultimately, Wisconsin's run-first approach will prevent Abbrederis from leading the league in receiving yards.

I had Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez as the Big Ten's leading passer, and I'm sticking with Big Red for this pick and going with Kenny Bell. His production dropped off a bit toward the end of last season, but I really liked what I saw during the first seven games. Another offseason in the program should help Bell, who brings explosiveness to an offense that loves to stretch the field in the passing game. Although Nebraska has other weapons at wideout in Jamal Turner and Quincy Enunwa, the Huskers lose their top tight ends and should feature a guy like Bell more this fall as Martinez continues his evolution as a passer.

Several names could appear atop the Big Ten's receiving yards chart this fall and not surprise me. Let's also remember that no one pegged Robinson to lead the league in 2012, so a player could come out of relative obscurity to finish No. 1. But right now, Bell gets my vote.

Big Ten bloggers Adam Rittenberg and Brian Bennett will occasionally give their takes on a burning question facing the league. We'll both have strong opinions, but not necessarily the same view. We'll let you decide which blogger is right.

In the coming days, we'll make our predictions on the Big Ten's statistical leaders in 2013. Today's Take Two topic is: Who will lead the Big Ten in rushing this season?

Take 1: Adam Rittenberg

The Big Ten loses its top three rushers from 2012 -- Montee Ball, Le'Veon Bell and Denard Robinson -- but returns the next seven best ground gainers. That group of seven includes two pairs of teammates in Ohio State's Braxton Miller and Carlos Hyde and Nebraska's Taylor Martinez and Ameer Abdullah. Although any of the four could lead the league in rushing, it's possible that they'll cancel each other out and take away the carries needed to top the chart. Northwestern's Venric Mark also is in the mix, but like the others, he shares carries with a quarterback (Kain Colter) and should have a deeper group of running backs around him this fall. Penn State's Zach Zwinak hit the 1,000-yard mark in 2012, but he'll be pushed for carries by Bill Belton and dynamic redshirt freshman Akeel Lynch.

Wisconsin has a similar situation with its run game as James White and Melvin Gordon will enter the season as 1a and 1b. Of the two, Gordon projects a little bit better as a true featured back, but White is a talented senior who should be a big part of the mix as well. Iowa's Mark Weisman is part of the discussion, too, as he showed the ability to put up monster numbers when healthy in 2012, even for a bad offense. Michigan is on the lookout for a featured back, and while the Wolverines have some question marks along the offensive line, Fitzgerald Toussaint or Derrick Green could be a good wild-card pick.

Bottom line: this isn't an easy decision. Ultimately, I'm going with the guy running behind the league's best offensive line at Ohio State. Hyde will emerge as the Big Ten's leading rusher, edging out Mark, Gordon and Weisman for the title. Ohio State will rely less on Miller to carry the rushing load and use a more traditional power attack behind Hyde, who averaged 5.2 yards per carry and scored 16 touchdowns in only 10 games last fall. Hyde has the power-size combination to thrive as a featured back, and he should get a bigger carries load as a senior, not just in the red zone but everywhere on the field.

Take 2: Brian Bennett

The race for the rushing title should shape up as the most exciting individual battle in the Big Ten this season. The league always produces great runners, and as Adam noted, many of the top ball carriers are back in 2013. In fact, some of the best competitions for rushing yards will happen in the same backfields, as several teams are capable of fielding two 1,000-yard rushers this season.

Hyde is a good choice, especially if he can replicate what he did down the stretch last year for a full season. But Braxton Miller will still run the ball a lot, too, and Ohio State also has the improving Rod Smith, youngsters Warren Ball and Bri'onte Dunn, plus Jordan Hall and possibly Dontre Wilson. That's a lot of studs who need to be fed.

I'm tempted to take one of the Wisconsin backs, because you can never really go wrong there. But I can envision a scenario where both White and Gordon both put up over 1,000 yards but neither leads the league. Instead, I'm going to go out on an ever-so-slight limb and predict that Nebraska's Abdullah finishes as the Big Ten rushing champ.

Abdullah ran for 1,137 yards last year, and he began the season as Rex Burkhead's backup. He also split carries when Burkhead returned from a knee injury late in the season. Abdullah improved greatly from his freshman to his sophomore year and should be even better as a junior. Though Martinez will take his share of carries, Abdullah really only has one other player -- Imani Cross -- to split time with. The Huskers' offense plays at a fast pace and should get lots of snaps, especially against a pretty soft early schedule. Defenses also can't key on Abdullah because of the presence of Martinez and a talented receiving corps.

Abdullah received 226 carries in 14 games last year, an average of just 16 per game. Assuming he's fully healed from a minor spring knee injury, I could easily see him averaging more like 20-to-22 carries per contest in 2013. If he can improve his five yards per carry average from 2012, Abdullah should make a run at over 1,500 yards and possibly bring the rushing title home to Lincoln.

1. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said that the university wouldn’t release 2013 signee Eddie Vanderdoes to play at UCLA this year because he must be held accountable. Kelly is right. Vanderdoes signed the document. He has to live by it. So what took Notre Dame so long to commit to play at Arizona State in 2014? Sun Devils athletic director Steve Patterson said on the ESPNU College Football Podcast that it took a lot of lawyers and a lot of negotiation to get Notre Dame to agree to honor the contract it signed in 2008.

2. Wisconsin fifth-year linebacker Chris Borland is in that sweet spot for all college football fans. He is an immensely talented player who stuck around for all four years of eligibility. Those guys are so rare these days that it feels like Borland has been around forever. Doesn’t it seem like Borland played at least two seasons for Barry Alvarez, who retired in 2005? Nebraska senior quarterback Taylor Martinez is the same deal. I could swear he played for Frank Solich.

3. Borland, whom my ESPN colleague Matt Millen named as the No. 3 linebacker in the nation, is from Kettering, Ohio, and former Boston College All-American linebacker Luke Kuechly is from Cincinnati. What does it say that a) Ohio State signed neither player and b) that the Buckeyes’ star linebacker, Ryan Shazier, is from Pompano Beach, Fla.? The last native Buckeyes All-American linebacker is A.J. Hawk, also of Kettering, in 2005.

The 2013 season is less than three months away, and few things generate more excitement among fans than the first chance to see certain players compete in games. Every year, the Big Ten produces a handful of first-year stars, whether they're true freshmen, redshirt freshmen or transfers.

Who are the first-year Big Ten players to watch in 2013? Here are five of them.

Purdue QB Danny Etling, freshman: It didn't take long for Etling to impress Darrell Hazell, John Shoop and the rest of Purdue's new coaching staff. A decorated recruit and an Elite 11 finalist, Etling enrolled early and went through spring practice. He made a strong push late in the session and leapfrogged Austin Appleby to join senior Rob Henry in the top group entering fall camp. Although Henry is an excellent leader who has waited a long time to be the starter, don't be surprised if Hazell and the staff decide that the future is now and go with Etling, despite his youth. "Danny's work ethic puts him in a position," Hazell told ESPN.com. "He's a smart guy, gets himself out of trouble and is accurate when he's moving around in the pocket."

Michigan RB Derrick Green, freshman: Until Jabrill Peppers' commitment last month, no Michigan recruit in the Brady Hoke era has generated more excitement than Green, a late pickup in the 2013 class. The Wolverines are looking for a feature running back in their pro-set offense and struggled to find one last season, when quarterback Denard Robinson had more than twice as many rush yards (1,266) as any other player. Green plays a position where true freshmen can make an immediate impact, and he has a sturdy frame at 6-foot, 215 pounds. Michigan has been waiting for a power back like Green, and if he can grasp the protection schemes and outperform Fitzgerald Toussaint in camp, he'll likely play a lot this season.

Nebraska DE Randy Gregory, junior: It's no secret Nebraska needs help on defense, especially up front, where the Huskers lose three starters from 2012 and need a difference-maker to emerge. Gregory comes in from the junior-college ranks with an excellent chance to start or at least log significant playing time. The 6-foot-6, 230-pound junior from Arizona Western Community College missed last season with a broken leg but recorded 21 tackles for loss, including nine sacks, in 2011 as he helped Arizona Western to the NJCAA title game. The one-time Purdue recruit could fill the pass-rushing void left by Eric Martin.

Penn State QB Christian Hackenberg, freshman: Although Hackenberg didn't enroll early like Purdue's Etling, he also enters preseason camp with an excellent chance to become a Big Ten starting quarterback as a true freshman. After Steven Bench's transfer, Penn State's quarterback race is down to Hackenberg and junior-college transfer Tyler Ferguson, who went through the spring and slightly outperformed Bench. RecruitingNation rated Hackenberg as the No. 1 quarterback in the 2013 recruiting class, and he has all the mental and physical skills to play early in his career. He'll be challenged to grasp O'Brien's complex, NFL-style offense in several weeks this summer, but unless Ferguson creates significant separation, expect to see plenty of Hackenberg during the season.

Minnesota LB Damien Wilson, junior: The Gophers need immediate help at linebacker after losing Mike Rallis and Keanon Cooper, and they expect to get it from Wilson, a junior-college transfer from Mississippi. Head coach Jerry Kill was excited about Wilson's addition on signing day, and Wilson showed some promising signs during his first spring session with the Gophers. The 6-foot-2, 254-pound Wilson ranked fourth nationally in the juco ranks with 122 tackles last season and recorded six tackles for loss, two sacks and two pass breakups. Barring a preseason surprise, he'll play a significant role for Minnesota's defense this fall.

In case you missed it, NittanyNation's Josh Moyer and BuckeyeNation's Austin Ward had interesting looks at the second-year outlooks and challenges facing Penn State coach Bill O'Brien and Ohio State's Urban Meyer, respectively.

We have come to expect some major improvements by coaches in their second years on the job. Four coaches since 2000 have won national championships in their second seasons at a school, including Ohio State's Jim Tressel and Meyer when he was at Florida. The jaw-dropping stat in Ward's story is that Meyer is 34-4 in his second year as head coach at each program where he's worked, which included that BCS title and an undefeated season at Utah. That's pretty incredible.

O'Brien had never been a head coach before last season, when he led Penn State to an 8-4 record and won Big Ten coach of the year honors. But he sees benefits in entering his second year on the job, Moyer writes.

"I think I'm a lot more organized than last year," he added. "I can anticipate what's going to happen in training camp, that our kids are still in class and how the schedule's going to go. I can anticipate all that now. I know how to be more prepared.

"I understand the players a lot better and I understand their skill-set athletically, their academic schedules, their personalities -- and I think our staff understands each other better. It's change, but in the way that I'm more comfortable."

If the second year under a coach is really when teams make giant improvements, then Tim Beckman must be happy. His first Illinois team went 2-10 last season and needs to turn around quickly to keep him off the hot seat. In Beckman's previous job at Toledo, his Rockets went from 5-7 his first year to 8-5 (and more impressively, 7-1 in the MAC) in his second season.

Is the second-year phenomenon real? Here's a look at how the most recent coaches at Big Ten schools fared in their first two seasons:

Of the 23 coaches surveyed, 15 of them improved their win totals from their debut season in their second year, while two won the same number of games in both years. Ten of the 23 coaches won at least three more games in their second seasons, including some major jumps by Walker, who won a share of the Big Ten title in 2000, and Tressel. Some legendary coaches made the second-year leap, including Paterno and Alvarez, though Brewster's six-game improvement did not lead to a long coaching tenure. Of course it's not as easy to show that improvement in Year 2 when you have an outstanding first season, as Pelini, Bielema, Hoke and Tiller did. Interestingly, three of the six coaches who did not improve or maintain their first-year win totals (Lynch, Hope and Smith) were each fired after four seasons. The exceptions are Bielema, who went from 12-1 to a still very respectable 9-4, Fry, who won 143 career games for the Hawkeyes, and Hoke, who made a Sugar Bowl his first year and seems to have the Wolverines on an upward trajectory.

The evidence suggests that teams should expect to see improvement in Year 2, though every situation is different. It will be hard for Meyer to improve on 12-0, but his second-year track record still portends very good things for Ohio State.

Big Ten bloggers Adam Rittenberg and Brian Bennett will occasionally give their takes on a burning question facing the league. We'll both have strong opinions, but not necessarily the same view. We'll let you decide which blogger is right.

Colleague Ivan Maisel today writes about the Pac-12's pipeline of sending head coaches to the NFL and notes how the Big Ten has lost just one coach to the NFL (Indiana's Sam Wyche to the Indianapolis Colts) since 1948. Today's Take Two topic is this: Why hasn't the Big Ten sent more coaches straight to the next level, and when will the drought end?

Take 1: Adam Rittenberg

It's a bit baffling why the Big Ten hasn't sent more coaches directly to the NFL. You can talk about the conference's recent struggles, but the Big Ten still produces a lot of great NFL players and has coaches who have worked in the NFL and who are respected by key decision-makers with those teams.

The Big Ten has featured coaches who had been NFL head coaches (remember Lou Holtz, who coached the New York Jets in 1976, coming to Minnesota in 1984?), a head coach who came to the Big Ten from a USFL top job (George Perles from the Philadelphia Stars to Michigan State) and coaches who left Big Ten teams for other jobs but eventually became NFL head coaches (former Northwestern boss Denny Green, former Illinois boss Mike White, former Michigan boss Gary Moeller). Most Big Ten teams have run pro-style offenses and defenses during the years, and while more squads are going to the spread offense, it wouldn't be a huge transition for most coaches to go to the NFL. I think the tendency for Big Ten coaches to stay at their jobs for longer terms has contributed to the lack of direct NFL departures. Many Big Ten coaches looked at those jobs as destinations rather than springboards to the NFL.

I expect the Big Ten's NFL coach drought to end fairly soon. Kirk Ferentz's name has come up for years as an NFL candidate, and while he has remained loyal to Iowa, you have to wonder whether he'll eventually make that leap, if the opportunity is still there. Although Ferentz's stock has dropped a bit in recent years, he's still held in high regard in NFL circles. The other obvious name is Penn State's Bill O'Brien, who talked with several NFL teams about jobs after his first season with the Lions. Although O'Brien seems relatively happy at Penn State despite the challenges there, few would be surprised if he eventually moves onto the NFL, given his love for that league and his experience with the Patriots. He might not move in the next year or two, but I could see him guiding Penn State through the sanctions and then making the jump. Will the NFL court other Big Ten coaches? I don't see Urban Meyer as an NFL coach, but his success can't be overlooked. I can't see Brady Hoke leaving Michigan, although he might be a good fit in the NFL. Bo Pelini has some NFL experience, but I see him more as a pro coordinator than a pro head coach. I'm still watching Ferentz and O'Brien, and I'd expect one to make the jump sometime in the next 3-5 years.

Take 2: Brian Bennett

Yes, it's surprising that the Big Ten hasn't sent more coaches straight to the NFL, although the track record of college head coaches making smooth transitions into the NFL is spotty at best. For every Jimmy Johnson and Jim Harbaugh, there is a Nick Saban (who, by the way, went from Michigan State to LSU to the Miami Dolphins), and a Steve Spurrier. Time will tell if guys like Chip Kelly and Greg Schiano are ultimately judged as success stories at the next level. Still, you would think more Big Ten coaches would have been more attractive to the NFL, given the league's history of pro-style schemes and, let's face it, conservative play calling that thankfully is starting to erode in the pros.

Adam hit on what I think is the key point: the destination job factor. Think about the top coach in the Big Ten in the past 15 years: Jim Tressel. Wouldn't the Vest have fit right alongside a coach like Tom Coughlin in the NFL? Yet Ohio State was Tressel's dream job, and a place where he built his own fiefdom before it all collapsed. Even though the NFL can pay more, calling the shots at a major college program offers much better job security. I also think back on the story of Joe Paterno and how he was reportedly offered more than triple his Penn State salary to take over the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969. Of course, he said no and stayed in State College for the rest of his life.

The same can probably be said for Hoke and Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald, both of whom I think would make strong NFL head coaches. Yet neither seemingly has any desire to ever go anywhere else but their current job. Ferentz is no dummy. Why risk getting fired by taking over an NFL team -- one that probably wasn't very good, or else it wouldn't be in the market for a new coach -- when you have the cushiest contract in college sports? I wonder about Meyer. On the one hand, he has no pro experience. On the other hand, he's incredibly smart and competitive, and perhaps he'll one day view the NFL lifestyle as preferable to the nonstop recruiting demand of college, especially if he can add another national title or two. I feel like Pelini would jump to the NFL if a team wanted him, but I'm not sure how marketable he is as a pro head coach right now. I believe Mark Dantonio would succeed at the next level, but he seems like a college guy through and through.

O'Brien remains the obvious pick to break the drought. There's no question he's the most pro-ready coach in the Big Ten. The NCAA sanctions and constant distractions at Penn State have to wear on him, but you'd also think he'd want to taste the fruits of his labor once the Nittany Lions are eligible for a bowl again. Yet if the 61-year-old Bill Belichick decides to hang it up in the near future, the New England Patriots would have to take a hard look at O'Brien as his successor. If guys like Kelly and Schiano start to win big, the NFL might start looking toward even more college head coaches, including those in the Big Ten.

As we get closer to the dawn of the College Football Playoff, conferences are submitting names of potential selection committee members this spring. The more we learn about the committee, the more the question shifts from who from the Big Ten should take part to who has the time and desire to sign up for this demanding job.

Bill Hancock, executive director of the playoff, said during the SEC spring meetings that the committee could meet up to five times during the 2014 season, with each meeting lasting three or four days. Big 12 commissioner Bill Bowlsby compared the time commitment required to that of the basketball selection committee.

"There's going to be a lot of film study. There's going to be a lot of travel," Bowlsby told reporters. "The last year I was on the men's basketball committee, I think I was in the hotel 66 nights for the basketball committee. I think there's going to be a similar level of commitment that's going to be required from this."

The time and travel requirement is one reason conference commissioners have decided that they won't serve on the panel. Hancock said active athletic directors could be eligible, but that playoff officials are focusing more on former administrators, coaches and media members.

That makes sense. While Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez is an obvious choice for the committee, the demands on any current administrator could be too much, not to mention the extreme pressure involved. It's one thing when the basketball committee gets criticized for tournament seeding or its decisions on bubble teams among the final 68. The scrutiny will be more intense when there are only four teams involved. Alvarez told the Wisconsin State Journal that Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley issued the following warning about serving on the committee:

"There are people that will tear into your background. They will try to find anything they can to discredit you. Your email will blow up with people raising hell with you. You couldn’t pay me enough to do that."

We don't know what names the Big Ten has or plans to submit as potential candidates and we may never know the full list. Bowlsby told reporters that he has suggested about 15 people, including current and former ADs, ex-conference commissioners, retired coaches and former media members.

Hancock expects to receive about 100 names, and the selection committee will eventually have between 12 and 20 members and will be formed by the end of this season.

If playoff officials decide that former coaches and administrators are the best way to go, the Big Ten still offers a lot of options in that regard. Recently retired Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne seems like the ideal choice, assuming he wants to put in all that work. Former coaches like Ohio State's John Cooper, Michigan's Lloyd Carr and Purdue's Joe Tiller also make sense.

The question is, how many of them really want the gig?

We're less than 100 days away from the kickoff of the 2013 season. Hooray. Want another reason to celebrate? There's just one more season to go before the BCS officially dies and we get a new, four-team college football playoff.

As the BCS era -- which began with the 1998 regular season -- draws to a close, we're taking a look at the best achievements and worst failures of every league during that time. Here are five highs and lows from the Big Ten:

Low Five:

1. National title drought: There's no getting around this one. The Big Ten has just one crystal football in its trophy case, thanks to Ohio State's overtime victory over Miami in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. Other than that, the league has been shut out, and the Buckeyes got blown out in both the 2007 and 2008 BCS title games despite entering those contests ranked No. 1. Worse, Ohio State is the only Big Ten team that has even played in a national championship game. Compare that to the SEC, which has had five teams play for it all, or the Big 12, which has had three.

2. Rose Bowl record: OK, you say, so the Big Ten hasn't won a lot of national titles, but the Rose Bowl is the league's true ultimate goal. Well, the news there hasn't been very good, either. Since the dawn of the BCS era, the Big Ten has gone just 3-9 in the Grandaddy, with just one win in Pasadena since the 1999 season: Ohio State's 2010 victory over Oregon. That was the Buckeyes' only Rose Bowl appearance in the BCS era, as their success resulted in them playing in other bowls and often led to the league's second-best team going to California.

3. Non-Ohio State signature brands: We mentioned the lack of national title-game appearances outside of Ohio State. That's where the league's other brand-name schools have to take some blame. Michigan and Penn State have combined for seven BCS bowl appearances, which is good, but neither has made it to the national-title game. The Wolverines lost three out of four Rose Bowls from 2004-2007 and took a major step backward with the Rich Rodriguez hire. The Nittany Lions weren't able to play for a third national title and were sidelined for the final two BCS years because of probation. Nebraska hasn't reached the big stage game since joining the league two years ago, which was the continuation of a BCS drought for the Huskers that has now reached 11 seasons.

4. Scandal makers: The Big Ten takes great pride in its image and integrity, but the league took a serious hit in those areas toward the end of the BCS era. Three major programs -- Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan -- all went on NCAA probation, and the conference's assistance in helping keep several Buckeyes eligible for the 2011 Sugar Bowl wound up blowing up in its face a few months later. It also was poor timing that the Big Ten named its divisions Legends and Leaders right around the same time its supposedly squeaky-clean marquee programs were dealing with NCAA problems.

5. Recent New Year's massacres: Those with short memories may forget that the Big Ten actually performed quite well in its non-BCS bowls against the SEC and other power leagues for much of the BCS era. But more recent results have obscured that fact. New Year's Day 2011 might have been the low-water mark, as the league went 0-5 and got outscored 138-45 in its three games against the SEC. The Big Ten went 1-4 on Jan. 2, 2012, with Michigan State's overtime victory over Georgia saving the day (though Michigan did win the Sugar Bowl the following night). The league was more competitive on New Year's Day 2013 but still needed Northwestern to come through to avoid going 0-5 again. The Big Ten is just 2-7 against the SEC in the last three years, and that has damaged the perception of the conference's overall strength.

High Five

1. Doubling up: The BCS, all in all, has been good to the Big Ten. The league has made 26 BCS bowl appearances, more than any other conference (and one more than the mighty SEC). Until last year, the Big Ten had a streak of seven consecutive years of earning a BCS at-large bid. The conference's large, eager and sun-starved fan bases helped, especially for some teams with less than stellar résumés (i.e., Illinois in 2007, Michigan in 2011). The extra exposure and millions of dollars from those appearances have benefited the Big Ten, even if the league's 12-14 BCS record is a little wanting.

2. Ohio State's BCS run: Let's try and forget the '07 and '08 title games. The Buckeyes still have made an impressive run through the BCS era, with more appearances (nine) than any other school in the country. That number would have reached 10 last year if not for probation. The Buckeyes are also tied with USC for the most wins in BCS games (six), although the 2011 Sugar Bowl victory over Arkansas was later vacated by the NCAA.

3. Wisconsin's Rose parade: No Big Ten team has spent more time in Pasadena during the BCS era than Wisconsin, which has made five Rose Bowls, including the past three in a row. The Badgers own two of the conference's three Rose wins in that time with back-to-back victories in the 1999 and 2000 games. Their three consecutive losses there are disappointing, but it's better to have lost in the Grandaddy than to not have gone at all.

4. Money, money, money: Sure, the Big Ten lacks national championship rings or a glittering Rose Bowl record. But that hasn't stopped the conference from growing exponentially during the BCS era. Commissioner Jim Delany pioneered the idea of a league-only TV channel, and the Big Ten Network has been hugely profitable. The Big Ten is the richest conference in the land right now and is poised to rake in more dough with its next TV deal.

5. Rise of the middle class: If the Big Ten's signature brands outside of Ohio State failed to make a dent in the BCS title picture, at least some of the other league programs rose up and became contenders. Iowa went to two BCS games and won the 2010 Orange Bowl. Illinois sandwiched Sugar and Rose bowl bids around some otherwise disappointing seasons. Purdue got to the Rose Bowl in 2001. Michigan State is still looking for its first-ever BCS bowl but did win a share of the Big Ten title in 2010 and the inaugural Legends Division crown in 2011. Northwestern has been solid under Pat Fitzgerald and appears to be on an upward trajectory. Wisconsin has ascended into an annual conference power. While not every program has been able to maintain high levels of success, at least the Big Ten wasn't just the Big Two and Little Nine (or Ten, depending on the year) every season.

Good news: We are just 100 days away from the start of college football.

To mark the occasion, we're pulling out a checklist today of things that Big Ten teams need to accomplish between now and the start of the season. It's not quite "The Final Countdown" (cue GOB Bluth), but we are inching ever so close to kickoff. Here's what needs to happen in the next 100 days:

1. Identify a starting quarterback at Iowa, Indiana, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin: It seems as if there are an unusually high number of Big Ten teams who don't know for sure who their starting quarterbacks will be in the fall. (You could also add Illinois and Minnesota to this list, though it appears likely that Nathan Scheelhaase and Philip Nelson, respectively, would have to lose the job in the summer.) Iowa had a three-man race this spring that will probably come down to Jake Rudock and Cody Sokol in training camp. There's very little separation between Cameron Coffman, Nate Sudfeld and Tre Roberson at Indiana. Connor Cook continues to breathe down the neck of incumbent Andrew Maxwell at Michigan State. Tyler Ferguson claimed the starting job at Penn State during the spring, prompting Steven Bench to transfer, but highly touted recruit Christian Hackenberg will push for immediate time. Purdue will likely decide between senior Rob Henry and true freshman Danny Etling. Joel Stave and Curt Phillips separated themselves from the Wisconsin QB derby this spring, while incoming junior college transfer Tanner McEvoy could expand the race this summer. All these situations should work themselves out in August, but no team wants to be dealing with an unsettled quarterback competition once the season starts.

2. Solidify the defensive front sevens at Nebraska and Ohio State: The Huskers and Buckeyes stand out as two of the top Big Ten contenders in 2013, but both have serious questions at defensive line and linebacker. The issue is more dire at Nebraska, which struggled there last year and is replacing all but one starter from 2012. Summer arrivals, including junior college star Randy Gregory, could make an immediate impact, and players coming back from injury such as linebacker Zaire Anderson and defensive tackle Thad Randle will need to play up to potential. Ohio State is less concerned about its defense after the spring performance of defensive ends Noah Spence and Adolphus Washington, but linebacker Ryan Shazier is still the only returning starter in the front seven. Curtis Grant must finally live up to his talent to provide help to Shazier, and someone must assume John Simon's leadership role.

3. Locate the next great receivers: A few Big Ten teams, such as Nebraska, Penn State and Indiana, don't have to worry too much about who will catch the ball this year. But just about everybody else needs to find playmakers in the passing game. The top of that list includes Iowa, which couldn't generate a downfield passing attack last year; Illinois, which needs receivers to make new coordinator Bill Cubit's spread system work; Michigan State, whose young wideouts must improve on last year's shaky performance; Minnesota, which doesn't have many proven weapons to surround Nelson; and Wisconsin, which still must find a complement to Jared Abbrederis. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer is hoping some incoming freshmen augment a very thin receiver group, while Michigan needs to replace the production of Roy Roundtree. Purdue and Northwestern have lots of speedy options but could use the emergence of a true No. 1 target. Receiver was a weak spot as a whole in the Big Ten in 2012, and hopefully some players will improve through offseason voluntary passing drills.

4. Strengthen the running game at Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and elsewhere: It's a cliché to say that you have to run the ball to win, but in the case of the Big Ten, that's always been true. That's why it's so vital for the Wolverines and Spartans -- who both expect to contend in the Legends Division -- to find answers in their rushing attacks. Michigan is replacing its entire starting interior offensive line after struggling to get a running game going outside of Denard Robinson last year. Fitz Toussaint is hoping to bounce back from a disappointing season and a leg injury, while hotshot freshman Derrick Green could get lots of carries right away. Michigan State's efforts to replace workhorse extraordinaire Le'Veon Bell this spring ended up with converted linebacker Riley Bullough emerging as the top back in a mediocre field. Three incoming freshmen will compete for time right away this summer. Indiana coach Kevin Wilson put a heavy emphasis on the running game this spring, hoping for more balance after his team led the league in passing and finished last in rushing last season. Iowa has depth for once at running back but needs to stay healthy there, as the ground game is the key to the Hawkeyes' entire offensive philosophy. Nebraska also can't afford injuries, as Ameer Abdullah and Imani Cross are the lone backs with any experience. Illinois averaged just 3.5 yards per carry as a team last year, a number that must improve. And while Purdue loved what it saw from Akeem Hunt this spring, he still must prove he can be an every-down back after attempting only 42 carries last season.

5. Mesh with new coaches: Wisconsin's Gary Andersen and Purdue's Darrell Hazell are the fresh faces among head coaches in the league, and while they did a great job of connecting with their players this spring, they still need to get their new systems fully in place. The Badgers will be using some new, 3-4 looks on defense, while Hazell wants a more physical and disciplined team than we've seen from the Boilermakers of late. Michigan State has a new offensive playcaller in Dave Warner, while Cubit was one of many staff changes at Illinois. Penn State's John Butler takes over from Ted Roof as the Lions' defensive coordinator. With only 15 spring practices so far to implement their styles, those new coaches have had to rely on a lot of classroom time and players learning on their own. That will have to continue this summer during voluntary workouts and then will intensify when preseason practice begins. For new coaches, it's a race against the calendar -- and the calendar says there are only 100 days until kickoff.

Ohio State already had started paying more competitive salaries for assistant coaches before Urban Meyer arrived in November 2011.

But when Meyer and athletic director Gene Smith sat down to discuss staff pay, Smith soon realized he needed to do more.

"I think Michigan had stepped up with their coordinators," Smith recalled last week during Big Ten spring meetings in Chicago. "So we were already going to that before Urban Meyer came, but we bumped it up a little more. Any time there's change, you have that opportunity."

"Everyone's always focused on head coaches' salaries," Smith continued. "That's always the thing. But really when you look at the changes, it's really been assistants' salaries across the country -- not just in the SEC, but the Big 12, Pac-12, all across the country."

The Big Ten is part of the change, too, as the league is allocating more money toward football assistants than ever before. The Detroit Free Press has an excellent look at Big Ten assistants' salaries, complete with a database that includes 10 of the 12 current members (Northwestern doesn't submit salaries as a private institution, and Penn State doesn't have to because of state laws).

The Free Press found that eight of the 10 schools are paying more for assistants in 2013 than they did in 2012 (only Indiana and Illinois are not). There are some significant total increases, such as Wisconsin (up $558,000), Nebraska (up $518,500), Purdue ($400,000) and Minnesota ($355,000). Staff pay had been an issue at Wisconsin, which lost six assistant coaches following the 2012 Rose Bowl, and at Purdue, which paid less for its staff during the Danny Hope era than any Big Ten school.

The total trend among the 10 schools is an increase of $1,720,852.24 for 2013.

Ohio State and Michigan remain No. 1 and No. 2 in Big Ten staff salary, as the Buckeyes allocate $3.416 million and the Wolverines allocate $2.805 million. Nebraska and Wisconsin make the biggest moves in the league for 2013, as the Huskers rise from sixth to third and the Badgers rise from seventh to fourth.

Illinois, which replaced five assistants from the 2012 team, including co-offensive coordinators Chris Beatty and Billy Gonzales, dropped from third in staff pay ($2.314 million) to eighth ($2.065 million).

The database shows that nearly every Big Ten assistant with "coordinator" in his title -- whether he's the sole coordinator or a co-coordinator -- will earn north of $300,000 for 2013. Only 18 assistants listed will make less than $200,000 in 2013 -- 15 work for Minnesota, Illinois, Purdue and Indiana.


Some notes:

• Although Wisconsin paid former offensive coordinator Paul Chryst good coin, the school has increased its commitment for Gary Andersen's staff, not only with the coordinators but with some coveted position coaches like running backs coach Thomas Hammock ($300,000).
• All of Nebraska's assistants are earning $200,000 or more for 2013, but there's a huge drop-off between Beck and the next highest-paid assistant (defensive coordinator John Papuchis at $310,000).
• Michigan State has a similar drop off between Narduzzi and co-offensive coordinators Dave Warner ($270,000) and Jim Bollman ($260,000). Warner will be the primary offensive play-caller and has been on Mark Dantonio's staff since 2006, while Bollman is a newcomer.
• Although Michigan is paying top dollar for its coordinators, the school gets its assistants for a relative bargain. Receivers coach/recruiting coordinator Jeff Hecklinski will earn $225,000 in 2013, while the others all will earn $205,000. Ohio State, meanwhile, pays all but one of its assistants $286,000 or more.
• The Big Ten's three lowest-paid assistants all are in their first years: Illinois wide receivers coach Mike Bellamy ($125,000) and Purdue linebackers coach Marcus Freeman and running backs coach Jafar Williams (both at $120,000).
• Although schools like Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa ($325,000) pay their coordinators the exact same amount, others have slight differences in salary. Purdue's Shoop makes $5,000 more than defensive coordinator Greg Hudson. Minnesota defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys ($340,000) makes $5,000 more than offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover. Wonder if that leads to any underlying jealousy?
• Most Big Ten schools have assistant salaries in round numbers, but there are some interesting totals from Indiana, which pays co-offensive coordinators Seth Littrell and Kevin Johns $255,500.04 and new recruiting coordinator/assistant defensive line coach James Patton $173,740.08. Never know when that change can come in handy.

The Big Ten still lacks some of the OMG totals seen in the SEC -- LSU is paying new offensive coordinator Cam Cameron $3.4 million in the next three years -- but the overall trend puts the league more on par with what we're seeing nationally.

The Big Ten released its 2014 league schedule earlier Thursday, completing what its architect Mark Rudner called a "long, arduous process" of crafting a slate with two new teams, two new divisions and a second open week.

ESPN.com caught up with Rudner, the Big Ten's senior associate commissioner for television administration, to discuss how the 2014 schedule came together.

It's important to note the Big Ten compiled the 2014 slate based upon principles green-lighted by its athletic directors.

They are:

• Nonconference games that had been previously contracted were protected. For example, Northwestern visits Notre Dame on Nov. 15, 2014, so the Big Ten made sure not to schedule the Wildcats on that day. Also, Penn State and Rutgers had a previously scheduled non-league game for Sept. 13, 2014, which became a conference game with Rutgers joining the Big Ten. The date wasn't changed.
• No more than two consecutive road games
• Each team must play two home games and two road games in each half of the season

It's not as if athletic directors ask the league not to schedule multiple rivalry games on the road every year.

"Once you do that," Rudner said, "you're at risk of never having a schedule."

There has been some reaction to Michigan facing in-state rival Michigan State in road games in consecutive seasons (2013, 2014) and Purdue visiting Indiana for the Bucket game the same two years. The Wolverines never have played the Spartans in East Lansing in back-to-back years and haven't hosted MSU in consecutive years since 1967-68.

Although it'll be new for Michigan, such back-to-backs are fairly common when a scheduling model changes. Between 2010-11, there were 13 instances of back-to-back matchups, including rivalry games like Iowa-Minnesota (both games in Minneapolis) and Penn State-Ohio State (both games in Columbus) and other good matchups like Wisconsin-Michigan State (both games in East Lansing).

"It's unavoidable," Rudner said. "It happened five times in 2008-2009. So it's not foreign, it's not ideal, but it's unavoidable. When you're introducing new institutions and you dole out home and road games, it just happens."

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany has said "parity-based scheduling," where teams will face one another more often in crossovers based on historical success,will begin in 2016, will begin once the league goes to a nine-game conference schedule. Rudner said the league asked the ADs if they wanted to start the nine-game schedules in 2014 but they couldn't because of so many signed contracts for non-conference games. If they had, the 2014 would have incorporated parity scheduling.

The 2014 slate ultimately features none of it, as the traditional powers in each division -- Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State in the East, and Nebraska, Wisconsin and Iowa in the West -- don't play at all.

"I don't think it's going to hurt us," Rudner said. "Brand is strong enough. There are enough games that are strong that'll drive television interest. Short of a full round-robin, which nobody in our conference wanted to do, you're going to have these sort of issues."

A few other schedule notes:

• Rudner and his staff didn't have a directive to schedule mostly division games in November, but it worked out that way as most teams will play exclusively in their division or play only one crossover in the season's decisive month. "Ideally, that's what we would like to do," Rudner said. "It makes a lot of sense to play division games late in the season, toward a championship."
• The Big Ten doesn't look at long-term trends of how often teams open league play on the road when crafting schedules. Athletic directors haven't asked it to a be a principle of building schedules. "It's never been important to them," Rudner said. "What they want to avoid is long road trips and making sure there's balance, home and away, in each half of the season. The rest of it, they can live with. Not everybody plays the same kind of schedule, but they do it based on those principles. They look at it and say, 'That's fair. Let's do it.'" Penn State, by the way, will open league play on the road for the fifth straight year and for the ninth time in the past 11 seasons.
• That new members Maryland and Rutgers host traditional powers Ohio State and Michigan on the same day (Oct. 4) was pure coincidence, Rudner said.

The 2015 Big Ten schedule, which should be released by the end of the month, will feature the same matchups at the opposite locations. The league has to maneuver around some previously scheduled non-league games before finalizing the slate.

You can bemoan the Big Ten's recent lack of elite talent at some positions like quarterback and wide receiver. But one spot where the league has been traditionally strong is at defensive tackle.

That has been arguably the conference's deepest and strongest position in the past two years, filled with stars like Devon Still, Mike Martin, Jerel Worthy, Jordan Hill, Kawann Short and Johnathan Hankins, to name a few. In an otherwise slow NFL draft for the league, the Big Ten saw four defensive tackles get selected last month, including two underclassmen (Hankins and Akeem Spence). In 2012, the conference had five defensive tackles get drafted.

That's why it's notable that, heading into the 2013 season, the Big Ten has no established stars on the defensive interior. Several schools lost top players to either graduation or the draft, including Ohio State (both starters, Hankins and Garrett Goebel are gone), Penn State (Hill), Purdue (Short), Michigan (Will Campbell), Indiana (Adam Replogle and Larry Black Jr.), Illinois (Akeem Spence and Glenn Foster), Nebraska (Baker Steinkuhler), Northwestern (Brian Arnfelt) and Michigan State (Anthony Rashad White).

That's a big talent drain for one position. None of the returning defensive tackles in the league have ever made first- or second-team All-Big Ten. The top veteran tackles in the conference look like this (in alphabetical order):

• Beau Allen, Wisconsin, senior: An underrated player, the 330-pound Allen has what you'd call a low center of gravity, with calves that look like a normal man's thighs. He's a big reason why the Badgers were able to keep teams from running the ball effectively up the middle last year.
• Bruce Gaston, Purdue, senior: Overshadowed at times by Short, Gaston has the ability to disrupt things up front as well and will be asked to do more this season. He was slowed by injuries last year.
• Ra'Shede Hageman, Minnesota, senior: As athletically gifted as any Big Ten D-tackle, the 6-foot-6, 310-pound Hageman started to figure things out last season and had a strong spring. He looks like a guy who can take his game to the elite level if he stays focused and driven.
• DaQuan Jones, Penn State, senior: The 330-pounder is hoping to break out as a senior the way Hill and Devon Still did the past two years. He's been more of a run-stopper than a big-time playmaker so far in his career.
• Quinton Washington, Michigan, senior: He moved into a starter's role last year and will be the most experienced tackle on the Wolverines following Campbell's graduation. With the Michigan coaching staff's expertise on defensive line play, he could take a step forward this year.

All of those guys have been solid contributors, but hardly superstars. They're also all seniors, so maybe they'll go out with a bang.

Or maybe it's younger guys who emerge as the next wave of great Big Ten defensive tackles. Iowa's Carl Davis had a huge spring game and has always had talent but not health. Injuries have also held back Nebraska's Thad Randle and Ohio State's Michael Bennett. Michigan State's Lawrence Thomas, Michigan's Ondre Pipkins, Nebraska's Aaron Curry and Penn State's Austin Johnson could be on the rise. Recruiting and developing stud defensive tackles may be one of the hardest things to do in football, however.

On paper, the Big Ten defensive tackle situation looks to be down from the past couple of years. But new stars are sure to step forward in the fall. Several of them will have to do if the league's recent strong tradition at the position is to continue.

Most muttering about the Big Ten's new division alignment came from fans of teams in the seemingly loaded East division.

Their teams suddenly have a tougher path to their top goals, whether it's the Big Ten championship game, the College Football Playoff, a top bowl game or merely any postseason spot. The main complaints from the West -- mostly from Cornhusker country -- pointed to the potential lack of exposure their teams would receive by not playing as often in mega venues like Michigan Stadium, Ohio Stadium and Beaver Stadium, not to mention in the new Big Ten markets of New Jersey/New York City (Rutgers) and Maryland/Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia (University of Maryland).

The theory is less exposure could damage recruiting, not only in the Big Ten's fertile new territories but in the existing ones like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

But four recruiting coordinators from future Big Ten West division programs contacted by ESPN.com this week don't sound concerned about division placement hurting their recruiting reach.

"I really don't think coming into the West division will affect us from a standpoint of kids trying to see what we're about," said Ross Els, Nebraska's recruiting coordinator and linebackers coach. "The biggest thing for us is to obviously get the TV exposure out on the East Coast, whether we're playing the guys in the East or not. With the Big Ten Network market picking up in Jersey and Maryland, it's going to help us, even though we are on the West side."

The power of TV can't be minimized, Els said, noting that recruits in Texas, a former Nebraska recruiting hotbed, have less awareness of the Husker program because Husker games aren't televised as often as they were when Big Red played in the Big 12.

"But we are seeing the positive in the Midwest and now hopefully on the East Coast because we're on TV and that's what the kids are watching," Els said. "I'm interested to see what the response will be when we start playing Rutgers and Maryland or at least them watching us on TV more often. I think we'll even take another step as far as familiarity, but that's unproven right now."

Although West division teams will be getting less live exposure on the East Coast and in states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, the Big Ten's television exposure more than makes up for it, several coaches said. Every Big Ten home football game is nationally televised on Big Ten Network, ESPN or ABC, and most non-league road games are picked up by a national outlet.

Although players' family members still want to see them play live, they won't miss games if they can't make the trips.

"The Big Ten is a national brand, and with the Big Ten Network, you still can sell a lot of games being on TV, crossover games closer to home and have an opportunity to play new teams like Rutgers and Maryland," Wisconsin recruiting coordinator and running backs coach Thomas Hammock said. "With TV and having access to games online ... there’s probably less value placed on closer to home and more of the exposure of how much you can watch them play."

All of the West division teams assign coaches to recruit New Jersey andn Maryland. Purdue head coach Darrell Hazell, a New Jersey native, and running backs coach Jafar Williams, a Philadelphia native who played wide receiver at Maryland, handle the area for the Boilers.

Hammock, who hails from Jersey City, N.J., will continue to recruit his home state, where he plucked ESPN 150 running back prospect Corey Clement (Glassboro, N.J.) for the 2013 class. New Badgers assistant Chris Beatty, who grew up in Virginia and coached high school ball there, will target the areas around the University of Maryland.

Although the new markets already are priority areas for programs like Purdue, the effort there likely will ramp up in the coming seasons.

"It's certainly an area we want to pay attention to because of Coach Hazell's roots and Jafar's," Purdue recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach Gerad Parker said. "[The new additions] certainly perked our eyes because now we have a tie-in with the conference."

Matt MacPherson, Northwestern's recruiting coordinator and running backs coach, lists Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas as the three most important areas for the program's recruiting efforts outside of Illinois. The Wildcats have played at Penn State in two of the last three seasons, but the new alignment means they'll likely visit State College and Columbus just once every four years.

Still, MacPherson doesn't anticipate changing the team's recruiting plan because of the division alignment.

"When you're talking to a kid about the reasons for coming to Northwestern, you're talking not only a four-year decision but a 40-year decision, the rest-of-your-life-type decision," he said. "A lot of the kids we recruit and the families we recruit to can see beyond making that decision based on whether you're going to play in a certain football stadium one or two times in your entire career.

"I don't see it affecting us a whole lot as far as where we spend our time and resources, at least not until there's some evidence to say otherwise."

Although many Wisconsin fans didn't like the Leaders/Legends alignment because they moved away from regional rivals Minnesota and Iowa, former Badgers coach Bret Bielema often pointed to the recruiting/exposure advantages of playing Ohio State and Penn State every year. Hammock, meanwhile, had "no reaction" to Wisconsin being in the West, noting that the Badgers must play the schedule in front of them.

Some even see recruiting advantages to being in the West division.

"Being able to recruit the Midwest and push up to Chicago, being on that side of the line doesn't hurt us," Parker said.

Only time will tell how West division placement impacts teams' recruiting on the East Coast and in the eastern half of the league. But the coaches don't sound worried.

"Sure, we won’t be playing in the state of Ohio every year or every other year, but when people talk about the teams in the East, they normally talk about the teams in the West also," Els said. "So hopefully our exposure will still be pretty good in Big Ten country, regardless of which side we're on."

The name, game sites and logo for the upcoming College Football Playoff are set. Now comes the most important piece of the puzzle: the selection committee.

Everyone wants to know who will have the important and unenviable task of choosing the field of four for the Playoff each year. BCS executive director Bill Hancock has said the committee will consist of 14-20 members representing every conference in the sport. Hancock issued a statement following the recent meetings in California, saying that discussions about the selection committee's structure are ongoing, and that there's "no rush" to decide given the committee's importance to the process.

Who will serve on the group? Former coaches? Current administrators? Former media members? All have been mentioned as potential candidates. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany told ESPN.com and several other outlets last week that the committee must first and foremost be "a core group who are football smart, football savvy, great integrity" and that a member "can’t be a congressman. You can't come from this part of the country to take care of that."

Tom Osborne once was a U.S. Congressman, but he also had a Hall of Fame coaching career at Nebraska and served as the school's athletic director from 2007-12. In my view, Osborne would be an excellent candidate for the Playoff selection committee. His football knowledge and experience in pressure situations -- as a coach, an athletic director and in Congress -- make him a great fit.

Osborne isn't one to promote himself for the committee, but he has thoughts on how it should be compiled, and shared them with the Lincoln Journal Star. Osborne told Hancock to consider members of college football's Legends Poll, a group of 17 former college coaches, 15 of whom are in the College Football Hall of Fame, who select a top 25 poll each week during the season. According to the Legends Poll Web site, the former coaches "review all of the relevant game film using a state of the art service called Hudl, discuss each team's performance during a weekly conference call and establish a ranking of the Top 25 teams."

Sounds a lot like what the Playoff selection committee will be doing.

Here's the current Legends Poll voting panel (along with the school with which they're most closely identified): Bobby Bowden (Florida State), Frank Broyles (Arkansas), John Cooper (Ohio State), Fisher DeBerry (Air Force), Vince Dooley (Georgia), Terry Donahue (UCLA), Pat Dye (Auburn), LaVell Edwards (BYU), Don James (Washington), Dick MacPherson (Syracuse), Bill Mallory (Indiana), Don Nehlen (West Virginia), John Robinson (USC), Bobby Ross (Georgia Tech), R.C. Slocum (Texas A&M), Gene Stallings (Alabama) and George Welsh (Virginia).

Osborne served three years on the Legends Poll panel, and former Iowa coach Hayden Fry also has been on it. Former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler was an active voter at the time of his death late in the 2006 season.

From the Journal Star:

"Each week, they would send us DVDs of the top games," he said. "So you'd get 8-10 DVDs. They sent you a video player. You could sit there and really study the games."

The coaches on Mondays would gather for a teleconference, which lasted up to two hours, Osborne said.

"Each coach would talk about the game he had gone to the previous Saturday, and also what he'd seen on video," Osborne said. "I was impressed by the fact they seemed to be objective. It wasn't like R.C. [Slocum] was pushing Texas A&M, or Gene Stallings was pushing Alabama. They were just talking about strengths and weaknesses of teams in their area, and teams they'd seen. It was a very informative discussion."

Weren't coaches biased toward former employers?

"I thought the discussions were pretty objective and pretty dispassionate," Osborne said. "I heard coaches say things about their former school that weren't highly complimentary. They might say, 'We just can't play defense this year.' Or, 'We're pretty good overall, but we don't have a quarterback.' I didn't hear anybody trying to pump up their school to the other coaches. They were pretty blank, pretty blunt."

It sounds like a good place for Hancock to start. Cooper, who coached Ohio State from 1988-2000, has said he'll serve on the committee if asked. Mallory, who coached Indiana from 1984-96, also would be a good choice.

I lean toward a mix of former coaches and current administrators, as a guy like Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez makes a lot of sense for the job. But the time commitment could be an issue for those still working in the sport -- Alvarez talks about it here -- and the retired coaches certainly have more flexibility in their schedules.

It would be a surprise if several members of the Legends Poll don't end up on the Playoff selection committee. Here's hoping they reserve a spot for Osborne, too.

College football coaches aren't known for their patience, especially in the warp-speed realm of recruiting, but Nebraska assistant Ross Els knows there's no other choice.

Els, the Huskers' linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator, knows what's happening elsewhere: Michigan (eight verbal commits for 2014, seven in the ESPN 150), Ohio State (seven commits for 2014), Michigan State (six commits), Penn State (six commits), Northwestern (five commits) ... and so on.

Nebraska, meanwhile, has just one pledge for its 2014 class in safety/tight end Luke Gifford, who lives just down the road from campus in Lincoln.

"I want to be done now," Els told ESPN.com. "The problem is we aren't going to get a ton of commitments, obviously, until we get kids on campus. And because of our small population base around here, it's hard to get kids to come visit us right away when we're not paying for it. It's expensive."

Nebraska's location makes it challenging for prospects to pay their own way on unofficial visits before their senior years. Els had to interrupt our interview to take a call from a recruit in Texas. The recruit asked about the cost of an air ticket to Nebraska.

The Huskers will gladly pay for recruits to take official visits after the start of their senior year in high school, but the value of the official visit has changed as recruits are committing earlier and earlier.

For example, Michigan has made early commits a hallmark of its recruiting under coach Brady Hoke. The Wolverines had six verbal commits for the 2012 class before May 1, 2011. They had 20 of 25 recruits verbally committed before the start of the 2011 season. Michigan accelerated the process even more for the 2013 class, as two players (quarterback Shane Morris and cornerback Dymonte Thomas) committed in 2011 and 12 committed before March 2012. Michigan once again added a small portion of its recruits (six of 27) after the 2012 season kicked off.

Nebraska has had to be more patient, if if not by choice. The Huskers had three verbal commits at this time last year, and only 10 of the eventual 25 signees pledged before the season. Big Red made its big recruiting push in the weeks before signing day as it hosted prospects on official visits. The 2012 class followed a similar pattern, as only five of 17 signees committed before the season.

"Some kids will make the circuit," Els said. "They'll go along that East Coast and hit four or five schools. Well, when you come to Nebraska, where else are you going to go? No place is really very close. They have to make a special trip. ... It's not an excuse. It's just a fact that it's hard to get kids up here early.

"Once we do, we've got a great shot at them because of the facilities, the people. So I'd love to be done, but we'll take 'em when we get 'em."

Els said Nebraska doesn't shy away from recruits who are anxious to make verbal commitments. In those cases, the coaches strongly encourage them to get to campus.

Nebraska often doesn't land recruits in a hurry to decide if they aren't in "that magical 500-mile radius we talk about," Els said, but because the Huskers recruit nationally, many of their targets will make several trips (unofficial and official) before finalizing their choice closer to signing day.

Els has a simple message to Husker fans anxious about the 2014 class: be patient.

"You can't compare us to Ohio State and Michigan and Notre Dame," he said. "We will not fill up that quickly. If we're filling up that quickly, it's either because we just won the national championship and everybody wants to play for us, or we might be not very selective in who we're taking. We don't throw offers out there just to throw 'em out there."