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1. Find some quarterbacks. Oklahoma State's Brandon Weeden and Texas A&M's Ryan Tannehill were surprise stars at the position in 2010, but the two of them, plus Robert Griffin III at Baylor and Landry Jones at Oklahoma are the only proven, big-time passers in the Big 12 coming back in 2011. That's not good for a league that has made a living throwing the ball in recent seasons. Texas Tech and Missouri will be tossing out first-year starters into their normally pass-happy offenses, and they'll need their new guys to be stars if either team is going to be successful. Meanwhile, Garrett Gilbert has to rebound from a nightmare year in 2010, and Collin Klein at Kansas State and Jerome Tiller at Iowa State will try to impress with their feet as likely first-year starters.

2. Keep the balance at the top (a.k.a. forget about Nebraska). The Huskers are done playing football in the Big 12. Everyone else can't just get rolled by Texas and Oklahoma. Texas was obviously way down in 2010, but it was the only Big 12 team in the top 20 in late 2009, when it went undefeated and made it to the national championship game. Oklahoma will be a national title contender in 2011, but the reigning Big 12 champion lost to Texas A&M and Missouri in 2010. The Aggies and Oklahoma State look like solid Big 12 contenders in 2011, and they'll need to hang around the top 10 to help keep the Huskers' absence out of mind.

3. Get back in the national title hunt. Texas or Oklahoma played for the national championship in five of seven years from the 2003-2009 seasons. Last year, the Big 12 was essentially out of the picture after its last undefeated team, Missouri, got run over by Nebraska on the last weekend in October. Maybe Texas A&M or Oklahoma State crash the party, but it would help the Big 12's national perception in a big way during a crucial year for that perception if it could make another appearance in the championship game.

4. Stay off the hot seat/coaching carousel. Dan Hawkins was all but fired for most of the season last year, but entering 2011, every coach in the Big 12 has a serviceable approval rating from the fans and his bosses. Tommy Tuberville just got a contract extension, and the only seat slightly past chilly is Turner Gill at Kansas, who looks like he's checking off the first five things on his checklist (Recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit). Mike Sherman avoided any talk of his exit with a fantastic finish in 2010 and is bringing back a Big 12 title contender in 2011. Technically, with Colorado leaving, there was no coaching turnover after the 2010 season, and that could be the case again heading into 2012.

5. Utilize the players who took their talents back to campus. The Big 12 had the fewest NFL Draft early entrants (3) of any of the major conferences, and has a ton of star power coming back. Oklahoma got receiver Ryan Broyles and Travis Lewis to return for their senior seasons. Oklahoma State will keep their all-conference quarterback, Brandon Weeden, and Biletnikoff-winning receiver, Justin Blackmon. Jeff Fuller just finished the first 1,000-yard season in Texas A&M history, and he's back. All three teams are at the top of the list as the main competition to take home a Big 12 title. The league should be pretty deep in 2011, and it'll be tough, but barring a surprise season from somewhere, none of those three teams can flop next year and finish with seven or so wins and have the Big 12 consider it a successful season.

The Big East doesn't want a repeat of 2010. Here's a look at the top five items on the league's to-do list this offseason:

1. Find a perfect 10: The conference has a stated goal of growing to 10 teams. The addition of TCU in 2012 makes nine. The biggest offseason mission is to locate that 10th team. Villanova is still mulling a possible jump up to the FBS level, while programs like Central Florida and Houston wait by the phone. This is a decision the league has to get right.

2. Fix the offenses: Scoring was down throughout the league in 2010 and was one of the biggest reasons why several teams disappointed. Exhibit A: the paltry offensive outputs by Connecticut and West Virginia in the top two Big East bowl games. The good news is that starting quarterbacks return at six of the eight schools, and new coaches at West Virginia and Pittsburgh are promising to ratchet up both the pace and the points. That will force the rest of the league to catch up, or fall behind.

3. Gear up for nonconference showdowns: The Big East's 3-11 record against BCS AQ conference opponents was the main reason why the league lost respect in 2010. It has to have a better showing in 2011. Luckily, many more of those marquee games this year are at home, including: LSU at West Virginia; Notre Dame and Utah at Pitt; Miami at South Florida; and NC State at Cincinnati. There will still be tough road games (Pitt at Iowa, Cincinnati at Tennessee, USF at Notre Dame, Syracuse at USC, to name a few), and the Big East needs a win or two there, as well.

4. Stop the brain drain: There's only so much a school can do to keep a coach who's in demand. But whatever it takes, Big East teams need to do their best to secure some very promising young coaches now in the league, including Skip Holtz at South Florida, Charlie Strong at Louisville, Doug Marrone at Syracuse, Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia and Todd Graham at Pitt. Seven of the eight schools have named new head coaches since the end of the 2008 season. The turnover has to slow down, whether that means schools offer big contracts or increase the pay to assistants or whatever.

5. Root for TCU: The Horned Frogs are clearly not going to catch any breaks in their last year in the Mountain West Conference, and they lose the nucleus of the team that won the Rose Bowl. The Big East needs TCU to be strong heading into 2012, a potentially major year of resurgence for the league. Maybe one of the league schools should help TCU out with its current scheduling problem. If nothing else, the Big East should send good vibes toward Fort Worth and hope Gary Patterson keeps things moving forward -- and that he doesn't leave before 2012.

Now that the offseason is upon us, let’s examine the to-do list for SEC officials and teams over these next seven months:

Closing the Cam Newton loophole: This is something the NCAA needs to address as well and has indicated that it will seek to close the current loophole. In short, if a family member is shopping a prospect to a school, there needs to be some kind of repercussion. Otherwise, there are going to be a lot more family members doing just that in the future, and when they’re caught, they’re going to claim the prospect knew nothing about the solicitation, whether the prospect did or didn’t. SEC commissioner Mike Slive has also acknowledged that the league needs to go in and clean up its own language concerning this issue.

Replacing Newton: Speaking of Newton, talk about some giant shoes to fill. He was at Auburn for only a season, but what a season it was. He took the Tigers from a possible contender in the Western Division to the best team in college football. Rising junior Barrett Trotter is the guy to beat this spring at quarterback. Rising sophomore Clint Moseley will also be a part of that battle. The guy Auburn fans are excited to see is incoming freshman Kiehl Frazier of Springdale, Ark. The 6-foot-3, 212-pound Frazier played in the spread offense in high school and can both run and throw it. He will be one of the Tigers' top signees in February.

Too many byes: No school should ever have to go through another season where six of its SEC opponents have byes the week before it plays those teams. That was the case with Alabama this season, and it’s just too much of a competitive disadvantage. No school wants to be in that position. The SEC tried to fix the problem last season to no avail, but is continuing to look at future schedules across the league to make sure an abnormality like this doesn’t happen again.

Finding a passing game: With former Louisville and Tulsa head coach Steve Kragthorpe taking over as LSU’s offensive coordinator, the Tigers need to find a passing game next season if they want to be a part of the SEC and national championship equation. They finished with an SEC-low 10 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions this season and ranked 107^th nationally in passing offense. Getting the quarterback up to speed will be Kragthorpe’s first order of business, whether that’s rising senior Jordan Jefferson or transfer Zach Mettenberger.

Restoring the edge: Will Muschamp inherits a Florida program that’s oozing with talent, but lost its edge last season. Getting that edge back will be No. 1 on his to-do list this offseason and spring. It helps that Muschamp retained strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti, who’s one of the best in the business. Marotti will undoubtedly set the right tone during the offseason conditioning program. The chemistry was lacking within the team last season, which was uncharacteristic of an Urban Meyer-coached team. Overall, there were just too many people pulling in too many different directions and too much drama off the field. Muschamp’s challenge is getting that oneness back again that was so evident when the Gators were winning national titles under Meyer.

What tops the to-do list in the newly formed Pac-12 this offseason? Read on.

Hey, why are there 12 teams here? Hey, it's because the Pac-10, the conference we've known since 1978, is now the Pac-12, with two new teams -- Utah and Colorado -- and North and South divisions and a conference championship game. It will take some getting used to. For one, goodbye nine-game, round-robin schedule; hello conference misses. And hello this debate: "The North rules!" "No way, man, the South is where it's at!" In any event, the dynamic will be different, and you can count on coaches thinking about how it will be -- in recruiting and on the field -- over the coming months.

Solving the QB intrigue: Arizona, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, Utah and Washington State are set at quarterback. Oh, and Stanford, too. But five schools have varying degrees of intrigue (and even Arizona needs to figure out what to do with capable backup Matt Scott). Arizona State needs to establish a pecking order between Brock Osweiler and Steven Threet. At Colorado, Tyler Hansen returns from an injury and will try to fight off a challenge from junior college transfer Brent Burnette this spring. California has a wide-open competition with a bunch of names and no clear favorite (transfer Zach Maynard?). Is true freshman Brett Hundley ready to take over at UCLA, or are Kevin Prince or Richard Brehaut going to prevail? (And will Prince be ready to compete this spring after knee surgery?). And Washington is a battle between Keith Price and Nick Montana.

Tending to the hot seats: No Pac-10 coach was fired this year, though newcomer Colorado dispatched Dan Hawkins. But that might not be the case after the 2011 season, seeing that a couple of seats range from steamy to warm. Topping the hot-seat list are UCLA's Rick Neuheisel and Washington State's Paul Wulff. Both need to win this season to survive. Neuheisel, coming off his second 4-8 season in three years, probably needs seven or eight wins. Wulff probably needs to get his team to a bowl game. Arizona State is expected to be a top-25 team. If it's not, Dennis Erickson could be in trouble. Arizona coach Mike Stoops and California coach Jeff Tedford might not be on hot seats, per se, but their seats aren't as comfortably chilled as they once were.

Hello, my name is Coach New Guy: Two Pac-12 teams welcome new coaches: Jon Embree at Colorado and David Shaw at Stanford. Shaw will need no introduction to his players; he was the Cardinal's offensive coordinator under Jim Harbaugh, who bolted to the San Francisco 49ers. (I'm concerned I will suffer some sort of Harbaugh withdrawal this spring.) But he's rebuilding an outstanding coaching staff that suffered a major brain drain on both sides of the ball, including Greg Roman (offense) and Vic Fangio (defense). Embree has stocked his staff with plenty of familiar names and faces and lots of impressive NFL pedigree, which will appeal to recruits. Still, both are first-time head coaches so it will be interesting to see how they adjust to their big corner offices.

Where's the beef? Most Pac-12 teams take significant hits on their offensive or defensive lines -- or both, in the case of Arizona, Oregon and Stanford. Colorado loses just one lineman, but that's left tackle Nate Solder, a likely first-round NFL draft pick. Arizona, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA and USC must replace at least three offensive line starters. Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Utah and Washington State need to replace at least two on the D-line. If you watched the conference's two BCS bowls -- Stanford in the Discover Orange and Oregon in the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game -- you saw what happened when you win the battle in the trenches.

Now that the offseason is upon us, here is a to-do list for the non-AQ conferences:

1. Mountain West needs to figure out its expansion plans. The league board of directors meets Monday, and expansion will be discussed. Invitations are not expected to go out, but the league has got to decide whether it wants to stand pat at 10 members or add two more to get to a conference championship game. A lot of that will come down to money. The Mountain West needs to know whether adding that extra game would give the league enough money to make it worthwhile. A championship game could bring in an extra $5 to $6 million, but remember, any revenues from that game or a new TV deal would have to be split 12 ways, not 10. That means more money has to be had. If the Mountain West does expand, does it want to go back into Texas after losing TCU, or somewhere else?

2. How does C-USA fit into those plans? There is still continuing talk that Conference USA and the Mountain West could join forces to have a championship game between the winners of their conferences, in the hopes that they would receive an automatic BCS bid. There has been no indication that the powers that be that run the BCS would approve of this plan. But it is surely worth exploring, because it would benefit both conferences. The problem is if an 8-4 team from the Mountain West or C-USA gets an auto bid over a more deserving team from an AQ conference that would have been in line to be selected as an at-large. The last thing the non-AQs need is a UConn situation on its hands.

3. WAC survival. The WAC needs to figure out how it is going to survive. A lot of that is predicated on what the Mountain West is going to do, with speculation surfacing that San Jose State or Utah State could be potential members of an expanded MWC. That would surely deal a death blow to the WAC. As it stands, the WAC has five current members and two incoming members for the 2012 season and needs to add at least one more for scheduling purposes. The two new members, Texas State and UT-San Antonio, are current FCS members making the transition up. The problem for the WAC is that there is no real viable FBS school that would want to join the conference right now. North Texas has declined its overtures repeatedly, so there is nowhere to turn but the FCS ranks. This has been done before, but in this super-charged expansion environment, the WAC is dangerously close to irrelevance.

4. MWC work on AQ bid. This list may seem heavy on the Mountain West, but there is a reason for it. The league is the one with the most cachet right now, and the one with teams most likely to earn a BCS bid in the years to come. While much of this is out of the Mountain West’s control because it has to meet certain criteria, the league should begin working on its appeal to the Presidential Oversight Committee for an exemption should it fall short of the auto bid. It is not too early to do so because the calculations will be made according to league membership Dec. 4, 2011. For those wondering, TCU’s credentials will count. So will Boise State’s, but the Mountain West loses Utah and BYU from the equation. The MWC will have a good argument: It had a BCS team in 2008, 2009 and 2010 (two in 2009 actually) and has done well in its bowl games (two straight Bowl Challenge Cups). It is 13-7 in bowl games against AQ opponents since the league began 12 years ago.

5. Keep rattling cages. The non-AQs have made tremendous gains over the last several years, but still they have fallen short of getting into the BCS national title game. We may never get a breakthrough, but the work to poke holes in the system should continue on. Some are reluctant to criticize, but the non-AQs must have an outspoken leader who voices their concerns as emphatically as Bill Hancock defends the system. Nothing may come if it. But the non-AQs need people to stand up for them in the hopes of one day making history.

The offseason is here and it provides a chance for the Big Ten to look in the mirror.

The league didn't exactly have a banner year in 2010, and it's important to avoid slipping back to the period before the bowl breakthrough in 2009.

I've prepared a to-do list for the Big Ten and several of its teams during the next seven and a half months before the games begin again.

1. Image is everything: Legends and Leaders will remain through the 2011 season, and the Big Ten's new logo isn't going anywhere, either, but the league should continue to examine how it's viewed nationally and how it can improve its image. Whether Big Ten fans want to acknowledge it or not, the league's reputation outside the footprint isn't overly favorable. A large part of this has to do with recent on-field performance, but many see the Big Ten as an arrogant league that lives off of its past. The Big Ten should improve in 2011 with the addition of Nebraska, but it must find better ways to connect positively with folks around the country.

2. Repair the defenses: Five Big Ten teams made changes or tweaks to the defensive coordinator position, and fixing defense will be a common theme around the league in the coming months. Teams like Michigan and Northwestern return quite a bit on offense but need significant upgrades on the defensive side of the ball. Indiana tries to fix its chronic problems on defense, while other squads such as Purdue and Wisconsin must replace standout linemen (Ryan Kerrigan, J.J. Watt).

3. Quarterback search in the Leaders division: Illinois and Purdue are the only teams in the Leaders division that have a good idea of their starting quarterbacks entering the season, and that's assuming Boilers signal-caller Robert Marve returns at full strength following his second ACL tear. Wisconsin, Penn State and Indiana will feature quarterback competitions this summer, and Ohio State must identify a starter for the first five games while Terrelle Pryor serves his suspension.

4. Complete Nebraska's integration: All indications so far suggest Nebraska's transition to the Big Ten is going well. It's important for both sides to complete the process without any snags before Nebraska becomes a full Big Ten member on July 1. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and others acknowledge Penn State's transition two decades ago didn't go as smoothly as it could have. It's important for the Big Ten to finalize future schedules and any other logistics before Big Red comes storming in.

5. Fill the gaps in Madison and Columbus: The Big Ten's top two teams in 2010 both face significant challenges on the depth chart entering 2011. Wisconsin loses more individual standouts than any Big Ten team and must replace stars at quarterback, offensive line, tight end and defensive end. Ohio State not only says goodbye to a large senior class but must figure out how to survive the first five games without four offensive starters (Pryor, Dan Herron, DeVier Posey and Mike Adams) and a defensive reserve (Solomon Thomas).

There’s plenty of work to be done this offseason in the ACC. Here are a few priorities:

1. Introductions. Al Golden, meet Jedd Fisch. With two new head coaches and four new offensive coordinators, some introductions will be in order. Maryland coach Randy Edsall and Miami’s Golden have already hit the road recruiting, but they’ve got to get to know every high school coach in their respective areas, every academic counselor in the football building, boosters, trustees, players’ parents – anyone and everyone who can help make the program a success. The new coordinators have to meet with their quarterbacks and groups to make sure everyone is on the same page.

2. Homework. Not just for the players, but for the coordinators as well. The assistants have to know and learn their personnel, and the players have to learn the new terminology and philosophies. For those coordinators unfamiliar with the ACC competition, a crash course could be in order. A lot of studying will be in order at Clemson, for example, where a first-year starting quarterback will have to learn the up-tempo offense of first-year coordinator Chad Morris.

3. Name that quarterback. Miami has to choose between Jacory Harris and Stephen Morris. At Virginia, the competition is wide open. NC State’s situation is dependent upon the decision of starter Russell Wilson, who is spending the spring training with the Colorado Rockies. Tevin Washington enters the spring as the starter at Georgia Tech, but nothing is a given. There will be a lot of new faces at the position throughout the conference, so it will be a key offseason for development.

4. Watch Oklahoma film. Lots of it. No, you don’t want the players overlooking Charleston Southern and skipping ahead to the Sept. 17 date with the Sooners, but the staff can. Jimbo Fisher & Co. will get a second chance at Oklahoma after losing 47-17 on the road last year. The Sooners are a definite national title contender, and Florida State could jump into the conversation with an upset in Week 2. The Noles are the ACC’s best hope for a big splash on the national stage in 2011, but it starts with Oklahoma, and the preparation starts now.

5. Get some closure in Chapel Hill. This month, UNC chancellor Holden Thorp wrote a letter to the faculty stating that he didn’t know “when or how the NCAA will ultimately rule,” but you would think the lengthy NCAA investigation has to end at some point between now and the opening kickoff. Not only does this program need to close the door on that investigation, it needs to do everything in its power this offseason to make sure it doesn’t happen again.