ESPN College Football

1. The Big East expansion has made the best of an untenable situation. If Memphis is the end of expansion --Air Force, what are you going to do? -- then taking four teams from Conference USA, Boise State, San Diego State and Navy just may be a wash for losing Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia. That is, if you measure by football. The problem is that the Big East football schools share neither tradition nor geography, both critical to the well-being of a conference.

2. We let the NCAA train us to say “student-athlete” like it’s a word and not something made up to sound academic. Enough’s enough. “Plus-one” is nothing more than a nom de grid for a playoff, made up by those who don’t want to upend the bowl system. The most popular plus-one idea, with the top four teams seeded into (or separate from) the bowls, is nothing more than a four-team playoff. So, unless it’s absolutely necessary, I’m done with the term plus-one. It is what it is: a playoff.

3. The Pac-12 is playing a nine-game schedule. The ACC, as of this week, and Big 12 are on board to follow. The Big Ten will play an eight-game schedule with a ninth-game against the Pac-12, which is admirable. The SEC is sticking with an eight-game schedule, allowing its members to play four stadium-filling, bowl-qualifying home games. The argument that that eight SEC games is enough to prove a team’s worth is just so much chicken salad. The schedules cheat the ticket-buying fans and mock the viewers at home.

1. Now that recruiting season is over, college football's version of pre-spring-ball Hot Stove League returns to a discussion of how to fix the BCS. The Chicago Tribune reported Monday that the Big Ten is kicking around an idea of playing semifinal games on the home campuses of the higher seeds rather than as part of the bowl system. That solves the issue of fans traveling to more than one postseason game. But can you remove the top-four teams from the bowls and “protect” the bowls? I’m not sure how.

2. Army will play its spring game at Fort Benning in Georgia. Kudos to the NCAA for allowing West Point an off-campus exemption. And kudos to West Point for promoting football on the base, which has revived the sport. In 1926, Maj. Dwight D. Eisenhower turned down the head-coaching job at Fort Benning and became an assistant. He wanted to be known as an officer, not a coach. After the season, a colonel assessed Eisenhower as an “above average” officer and a “superior” coach. Eisenhower decided not to coach anymore.

3. West Virginia’s buyout of its game against Florida State on Sept. 8 underscores the school’s intent to move to the Big 12 this year, not in 2014, as Big East rules mandate. That’s why the conference and the school are suing each other. The Big East filed suit in Rhode Island, where it’s based; WVU filed in West Virginia; in the law, as in football, home field is important. The buyout signals West Virginia’s determination to throw money at the problem. Can an expensive settlement with the Big East be far behind?

1. Stanford coach David Shaw told me last April that he and his staff had a shot at nationally prominent recruits who would be the school’s most highly-regarded class ever. Stanford signed seven players Wednesday out of the ESPNU 150 and is 12th in the recruiting rakings. Shaw also said this: “Nobody wants us to be successful. There’s no way. With our academic standards? There’s no way that other schools want to see us have continued success … because if we’re going to be in the top 10 in football perennially, why wouldn’t you come here? How could you say no?”

2. And Stanford isn’t the only one. Vanderbilt, where James Franklin has refused to accept the Commodores perennial role as league doormat, at one point on Signing Day made the ESPNU top 25. Northwestern and Virginia both signed players in the ESPNU 150. Is something afoot here? Are better players getting smarter? Are they more willing to consider their education when deciding where to play?

3. And, now, for your dose of salt. Go back and take a look at the top classes of 2008. There are a lot of hyperlinked names that won’t ring a bell, even among the teams that are playing well. Alabama may have won the BCS Championship, but the three players highlighted are wide receiver Julio Jones, who played like a five-star player, offensive lineman Tyler Love, who played in two games last year, and athlete Burton Scott, who transferred to South Alabama.

1. If the timing had been different, Mario Cristobal might have decided to leave Florida International, where he has been head coach for five seasons, and return to Rutgers. Cristobal had reasons to stay. He’s a south Florida guy. A team that went 0-12 in 2006, the year before he arrived, has gone to bowls the past two season. But in an age when coaches leave without saying goodbye, Cristobal didn’t abandon his team or the recruits that have agreed to sign with FIU on Wednesday. That makes him a stand-up guy.

2. Texas has gone 13-12 over the past two seasons, and persistent rumors regarding coach Mack Brown made athletic director DeLoss Dodds recommend a contract extension through the end of the decade to the university regents. Dodds all but rolled his eyes when he announced it, decrying the state of recruiting today. Maybe it’s a coincidence that Plano West defensive end Bryce Cottrell and Van (Texas) linebacker Dalton Santos switched from Oregon and Tennessee, respectively, to sign with Texas. Maybe not.

3. USC, on the heels of its 10-2 finish, is ranked 16th in the latest ESPN recruiting rankings. The Trojans might be higher were it not for the fact that they have only 14 commitments. That’s because USC is in the first of three years in which the school may sign only 15 players. As good as the Trojans were last fall, and as high as they have soared in the early rankings for next season, the NCAA-imposed recruiting penalty is going to take a toll. After struggling in 2010, the success of 2011 may be the eye of the storm.

1. “A Memorial for Joe” will honor the late Penn State coach Joe Paterno on Thursday, 29 years to the day that former Alabama coach Bear Bryant died only four weeks after his final game. The fact that both coaching icons died so soon after they left coaching has been noted time and again this week. The coincidences continue to pile up. Both Bryant and Paterno won their last victory against Illinois. Paterno’s last loss ever came to Alabama in September.
2. You can’t quibble with the success of Boise State coach Chris Petersen. The Broncos went 50-3 the last four seasons with Kellen Moore at quarterback, and is 73-6 overall. But now comes Petersen’s biggest test. According to PhilSteele.com, Boise State is dead last among FBS schools in returning starters with six. Depth is usually the last thing that mid-majors can count on. Then again, with the Big East on the horizon, we won’t be able to call Boise State a mid-major for much longer.
3. You know that a head coach has made it when he keeps winning even as his assistants depart. With that in mind, keep an eye on Wisconsin next fall. Head coach Bret Bielema is in the process of replacing six of his nine assistant coaches in this offseason. Offensive coordinator Paul Chryst became head coach at Pitt and took three coaches with him. Bielema may be young – he turned 42 this month – but he’s developing a coaching tree. Dave Doeren left his staff last year to become head coach at Northern Illinois.

1. Of course Tampa Bay had an interest in Oregon coach Chip Kelly, who has gone 34-6 in three seasons. If you think about it, it makes sense that Kelly reciprocated the interest. He’s an intensely competitive guy. As a New Englander who arrived in Eugene five years ago, he has no emotional ties to Eugene. Unlike Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, who has rebuffed the NFL in part because he likes raising his family in Norman, Kelly is unmarried. In other words, this won’t be the last flirting between Kelly and the NFL.

2. If New England had lost the AFC Championship Game on Sunday, offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien would have been the full-time Penn State head coach on Monday. So, Matt McGloin, were you a Baltimore fan on Sunday? “Kind of,” the Nittany Lions quarterback said, laughing. “No, that would obviously be selfish of you. You want the best for your head coach. Now that’s he in the Super Bowl, if they win it, it’s great for the university. It’s great for him. A Super Bowl offensive coordinator to be your head coach; that’s pretty exciting, especially as a quarterback.”

3. Auburn coach Gene Chizik hired offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler away from Temple. That’s the same Loeffler who ran the Florida offense in 2009-10. But don’t think the Tigers are going to install the spread offense that Loeffler used with Tim Tebow. Chizik also leapt at the chance to accept as a transfer Illinois fullback Jay Prosch, a Mobile native who didn’t think he would fit in new Illini coach Tim Beckman’s offense. The Tigers’ spring practice just got a lot more interesting.

1. It’s impossible to know whether Gunner Kiel will turn into the Next Great Notre Dame Quarterback or just another guy. But the last-minute decision by Kiel, from Columbus, Ind., to spurn LSU and drive to the South Bend campus only three hours from home is a warming balm for Irish fans frustrated with the pace of head coach Brian Kelly’s progress. A pair of 8-5s is noticeably lacking in face cards. Notre Dame endorsed Kelly a few days ago by adding two years to his contract. Kiel endorsed him by showing up.

2. USF announced the other day that it has scheduled a home-and-home with Nevada, beginning with a trip to Reno on Sept. 8. The Wolf Pack will play in Tampa in 2015. That’s a nice get by the Bulls, but they buried the lead. More important is that in 2012, as it did three years ago, USF will play Florida State and Miami. They also played Florida and Miami in 2010. As the Big East and ACC struggle to create schedules in the wake of their realignment, here’s hoping USF continues to play the state’s bigger names.

3. Speaking of which: here are the five most interesting intersectional games for next season, excluding the traditional non-conference rivalries: Boise State at Michigan State on Fri., Aug. 31; Alabama vs. Michigan in Cowboys Stadium on Sept. 1; West Virginia at Florida State on Sept. 8; Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati at FedEx Field on Sept. 29; Notre Dame at Oklahoma on Oct. 27.

Now that hiring season for head coaches is complete, here are three items about hiring assistants:

1. It’s two weeks before signing date and Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian already has the best class ... of new assistant coaches. Sarkisian hired line coach Tosh Lupoi from Pac-12 North rival California, Lupoi’s alma mater and only employer. Lupoi, known for his recruiting prowess, joins new coordinator Justin Wilcox and linebacker coach Peter Sirmon, both of whom who came from Tennessee.

2. Alabama head coach Nick Saban likes coaches who know what he expects, which is why he just hired Tennessee defensive line coach Lance Thompson … for the third time. Thompson went with Saban to Alabama in 2007 and left for Knoxville three years ago, which means Thompson missed both of the Crimson Tide’s BCS titles (he won a ring with Saban and LSU in 2003). Out of the eight jobs that Thompson has held since 1995, Saban and George O'Leary (at Georgia Tech and UCF) each have hired him three times.

3. If you are looking for an example of grace and class in a difficult situation, read Tom Bradley’s statement after 37 years as a student, player and coach at Penn State. Jay Paterno, Joe’s son, also said goodbye after playing for his father and spending 17 years on his staff. I can't help but think, after all these years and all that stability, they are finally learning how the rest of the business lives -- at the whim of the head coach and his record.

1. Nick Saban’s elaboration on putting Alabama’s BCS Championship hopes in the hands of sophomore quarterback AJ McCarron is a treatise on the peril of coaching young players. To beat LSU, Saban said, “We’re going to have to throw the ball. We’re going to have to trust the quarterback to do it. ... If the guy plays well, we’ll have an excellent chance of moving the ball. And if he doesn’t play well, we probably won’t have much of a chance to be successful offensively. But if we don’t do it, we may not have a chance, either.”

2. Sugar Bowl chief executive officer Paul Hoolahan said it’s no coincidence that New Orleans hosts the Allstate BCS Championship, the Final Four and the Super Bowl in the 13 months that began Monday. It’s the engine that drives post-Katrina New Orleans. “We’re a tourism city,” Hoolahan said. “We don’t have any Fortune 500 companies. We’re probably a population of 350,000 people. We play waaay over our head.”

3. After two tumultuous seasons in which the NCAA hammered USC for violations in the Reggie Bush case and the Trojans went 17-9, USC finished 2011 10-2 and No. 6. My colleague Mark Schlabach put them at No. 2 in the Way Too Early Top 25. That doesn’t mean the Trojans are over the worst. This is the eye of the hurricane. With a loss of 10 scholarships in each of the next three Februarys, coach Lane Kiffin’s margin of error will be shrinking to nothing.

1. Alabama offensive tackle Barrett Jones, on Trent Richardson's 34-yard touchdown down the left sideline -- Jones’ side of the field -- after 116 minutes of football against LSU this season: “We finally finished that drive. That was probably the most fun touchdown I’ve ever scored. Two games of frustration of not finding the end zone, just to seal the deal, that was a great feeling.”

2. Alabama won the first shutout in BCS bowl history and the Crimson Tide’s first bowl shutout since the 1963 Orange Bowl, a 17-0 victory over Oklahoma with President John F. Kennedy in attendance. That game was best known for All-American linebacker Lee Roy Jordan, who made 31 tackles in his final college game. This one will be known for Alabama allowing LSU only 92 total yards. The Tigers didn’t cross midfield until midway through the fourth quarter. The Alabama defensive tradition continues.

3. The BCS commissioners meet Tuesday in New Orleans to begin discussions of how to change the postseason. A plus-one will be discussed; a larger format is unlikely. The commissioners, many of whom have served on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee, are wary of the pitfalls (In a four-team seeded format this year, No. 4 Stanford would have made it; No. 5 Oregon, the Pac-12 champ that beat Stanford by three touchdowns, would not). Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said Monday, “How can it work in all the other sports but it can’t work in college football?”

1. Penn State made a good choice in Patriots assistant Bill O’Brien, a smart, young, personable coach who has been trained by the best. In hiring O’Brien, Penn State also shone a spotlight on Central Florida head coach George O’Leary, who quietly has joined Hayden Fry, Nick Saban and Bill Snyder as a developer of head coaches. O’Brien joins Ralph Friedgen, Ted Roof, Randy Edsall and Doug Marrone as assistants who worked on O’Leary’s staff at Georgia Tech and became FBS head coaches.

2. LSU is 3-2 against Alabama under Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban. Two games went to overtime, all had single-digit margins, and Alabama leads in total points, 112-110. “Whether we won, they won,” Saban said, “it doesn’t make any difference, there’s one common theme -- all the games come right down to the wire. So you have to be prepared to sustain your performance for 60 minutes in the game, and I don’t think that’s all going to be just about emotion. A lot of that is about competitive character.”

3. Referee Scott Novak, who lead the Big 12 Conference crew that will work the BCS Championship, is embarking on a year of seeing college football from another vantage point. Novak’s son Ryan is a 6-6, 225-pound quarterback who just finished his junior season at Littleton (Colo.) Heritage High. ESPNHS ranked Ryan as the No. 2 prospect in the state in the Class of 2013. He’s being recruited by schools in at least three AQ conferences, including the Big 12. That could affect his dad’s work schedule.

1. LSU defensive tackle Michael Brockers, who is 6-6, 306, has five inches and 12 pounds on Alabama center William Vlachos. In the Nov. 5 game, Brockers said, “It was funny, at first. I’m like, ‘Dang! He’s so short!’ He’s short but he’s got leverage all the time. I’m 6-6, he’s 6-1, 6-2, and he’s under my pads prett much every play. Sometimes he’s blocking me and I’m looking over him, like, ‘Oh my gosh! I’m getting blocked.’…I’ve just got to get my pads lower. It’s a struggle I’ve (had) playing d-tackle.”

2. Vlachos, on, Brockers: “He’s a great competitor. He’s a great player but he’s really a classy guy, too. I was able to talk to him after the game. I wished him the best. Obviously, I didn’t know I’d be seeing him again.” In the locker room after the 9-6 loss, Vlachos said, Alabama offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland “came over to us and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a feeling that we’re going to be back with these guys. It took you a while to process that and let that sink in….We’re fortunate to be in this position.”

3. Scheduling must be an art. It can’t be a science, not judging by what the Pac-12 released Wednesday. Oregon and Stanford each play three home games before students arrive on campus in late September and only one home game in November. The Big 12 can’t put out a schedule because it doesn’t know if West Virginia is coming next season. The SEC has released only its league-game schedule. Realignment is one problem; another, as Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News pointed out, is that for leagues with championship games, 12 games must be squeezed into 13 Saturdays from Labor Day weekend to Thanksgiving. That leaves little wiggle room.

1. LSU safety Eric Reid, the defensive hero of the victory over Alabama on Nov. 5, said Wednesday, “We see mistakes that we made in the game that we can (correct and) score more points and also not allow them to score as much as they did.” Mistakes? The Tigers allowed but two field goals in an overtime game. “As a defense you don’t want anybody to ever score on you,” Reid said. “If you go out with that mentality, then you get upset when anybody scores on you.” Championship standards are different, aren’t they?

2. The Pac-12 released its 2012 schedule Wednesday, and welcome to the league, Rich Rodriguez! Among Arizona’s first six opponents are Oklahoma State, Stanford and Oregon, Nos. 3-4-5 in your current rankings. Washington can top that: at No. 1 LSU, Stanford and at Oregon in its first five games. The Cal Bears have consecutive road games in September at Ohio State and at USC. Returning to remodeled Memorial Stadium will feel very good.

3. College football may be more successful and popular than it’s ever been. But the empty seats at the Sugar Bowl on Tuesday night and the vast swatches of unfilled real estate at the Orange Bowl on Wednesday night -- a friend texted me to ask if that was Clemson-West Virginia or a Marlins game -- indicate that the BCS has work to do. If I ran the Orange Bowl, I would suggest that ACC champion move to at-large status in the next BCS contract so that I could pick both sides of my matchup.

1. The decision by Justin Wilcox and Peter Sirmon to leave Tennessee to resuscitate the Washington defense isn’t necessarily a commentary on the struggles that Derek Dooley is undergoing in Knoxville. Both guys are from the Pacific Northwest, and every coach is allowed a move to go home. But there is an implicit endorsement of Husky coach Steve Sarkisian, who took the Huskies from the bottom of the Pac-10 and is stalled below the top tier of the Pac-12 North. If Washington gets a defense, watch out.

2. In the wake of that thrilling Fiesta Bowl, Oklahoma State and Stanford are faced with the task of how to sustain their newfound success. The Cowboys had the benefit of a 28-year-old quarterback and a once-in-a-generation wideout. The Cardinal rode the mind and body of their once-in-a-generation quarterback and a brutish offensive line. Coaches Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State and David Shaw of Stanford think they have capitalized on their program’s success by upgrading their recruiting. We’ll find out in September.

3. Go figure: Alabama, Boise State and Stanford suffer crushing losses this season because of their inability to execute a field goal. Virginia Tech suspends its regular kicker from playing in the Sugar Bowl, then sends his backup home from New Orleans for missing curfew. Third-string kicker Justin Myer comes in against Michigan and makes kicks of 37, 43, 36 and 25 yards before missing a 37-yarder in overtime. Myer not only kept the Hokies in the game, he showed why coaches don’t use a scholarship on a kicker.

1. In the wake of the Sugar Bowl’s decision to overlook No. 7 Boise State and No. 8 Kansas State, one suggestion being discussed for the next BCS contract is to obligate the BCS bowls to take the highest-ranked available team rather than have the ability to choose an at-large team. The bowls surely will balk, and may cry antitrust. But no one is forcing them to be in the BCS. Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott wouldn’t address that idea specifically but said, “There are things we all see that could be better.”

2. A plus-one will be discussed at the BCS meetings next spring but it will take a unanimous vote of the six AQ conferences to implement it before the current contract with ESPN expires in two years. Even if they get that, there’s a bigger problem. The Cotton Bowl, the leading candidate for the fifth site, is on Fox for the next two years; the BCS is on ESPN.

3. Scott said the Big Ten/Pac-12 games in the new scheduling arrangement will be spread over the first three weeks of the season and scheduled three or four years out to allow schools to complete their non-conference schedules. Figuring out a system for who plays whom, and not the actual matchups, will be left to the athletic directors. Scott said, “It won’t be put everyone in a room and speed date.”