ESPN College Football

Joe Schad, Jesse Palmer and Ed Cunningham discuss conference expansion and if Notre Dame should remain independent.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Wednesday that the school remains committed to the Big East for its Olympic sports, despite a recent report indicating that Texas AD DeLoss Dodds has reached out to gauge the program's interest in joining the Big 12.

Swarbrick dismissed the report, saying, "It's a mistake to treat this as some sort of pitch by DeLoss. We're two people who talk frequently and talk about where we think this business is headed and who's doing what. We've talked about playing each other more, scheduling each other in other sports. It's a conversation that's had all of those elements to it.

"No one should have an impression where there was a point in time where DeLoss was making a pitch to Notre Dame. It's been a more collaborative, collegial discussion about the 2 schools and how we can do more together."

New Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby doesn't want to see any future expansion in college athletics, but recent events have given him no choice but to put the issue on the Big 12's agenda, as it is on other conferences'.

My opinion," he told USA Today on Tuesday, "is college athletics would be well served by some period of smooth water and not all of the angst and disorganization that goes with moves from one league to another."

We've heard that from the Big 12. Florida State is forcing Bowlsby's hand, though he wouldn't mention the school by name.

"I think the topic of expansion will be on every agenda going forward. But it's on every other conference's agenda going forward, too," Bowlsby told the paper.

Over the weekend, Florida State's chairman of its board of trustees opened up a big ol' can of realignment worms, however, when he offered credence to a long-held rumor rumbling around college sports. Could Florida State leave for the Big 12?

"On behalf of the Board of Trustees I can say that unanimously we would be in favor of seeing what the Big 12 might have to offer. We have to do what is in Florida State's best interest," Andy Haggard told Warchant.com.

So, here we are. After two years of attrition and a role as the hunted, the Big 12 is doing some hunting of its own? Or is it? The league just added TCU and West Virginia for 2012 after Texas A&M and Missouri bolted for the SEC, leaving the Big 12 with eight members. That move was a year after Nebraska and Colorado left the Big 12 for the Big Ten and Pac-12, respectively, costing the conference its namesake. Could Florida State move the Big 12 one step closer to a return to 12 members?

Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds tamped down some of the discussion, telling the Austin American-Statesman that there was "no traction" to the reports.

He did not add a "yet" on the end of that sentence, but more than a few assumed that was the case. How could the Big 12 and Florida State at least not sit down at a table for an exchange of ideas?

Where does the Big 12 stand right now? Bowlsby's not showing his hand.

"It's all about driving value for the member institutions," Bowlsby said. "There is a case to be made for optimal value being driven by the status quo, and there is a case to be made for some form of expansion. And I'm not prejudging or adopting either side of that right now."

He is, however, discussing it. And while that happens, there won't be many calm waters in college football.

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.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Whether Mack Brown was campaigning for it or not, he received four more years.

And to think, no one even got to vote. Not that a vote was needed. A few rumors that Brown might retire, and Texas' athletic director DeLoss Dodds got to work to make sure it wouldn't happen. The sage septuagenarian decided he wanted to keep his best asset for a bit longer, or at least until Dodds himself rides off into the burnt orange sunset. Dodds is 74, after all.

It was the wise and prudent move. Brown and his program have allowed Texas, and Dodds, to build the richest and most powerful athletic department in the country. Sure, there have been a few blips -- 5-7 and 8-5 immediately come to mind. Those two seasons, the worst of Brown's career, had some fans questioning whether the coach had become complacent or incompetent.

Brown will even own up to the complacency charge. He and his staff lived on the name brand they had built and neglected to develop talent, innovate and, most of all, win.

As for the incompetence, well, from the suites to the cheap seats just about everyone believes they are better than the guy on the sideline.

In this case, they're not.

For Carter Strickland's full column, click here.

University of Texas regents are considering making changes to football coach Mack Brown's contract.

The regents scheduled a Thursday telephone meeting. Brown's contract, which runs through 2016, is the only agenda item and details were not released.

A source told the Austin American-Statesman that the board will extend Brown's contract by four years through the 2020 season. The Statesmen also reported that Brown will continue to receive annual $1,000 raises with the extension. Brown, 60, is one of the highest-paid coaches in the country at $5.2 million per year.

The sad truth is this move might just be necessary for Brown. Ever since bringing on Will Muschamp and naming him coach-in-waiting, questions persisted about when Brown would be done.

Muschamp left. Brown insisted he was reinvigorated.

Yet, after the season, rumors persisted that Brown was leaving or being pushed out.

Generally, contracts as long as Brown's are a bad idea, but how else was Texas going to get rid of a distraction? Repeated denials and statements of confidence didn't do much to quash rumors.

This might help.

The negative recruiting consequences are debatable, but from Brown and Dodds' perspectives, the talk had to get old. Maybe this won't end it, but it's the last step to making it happen.

Going 13-12 over the past two seasons doesn't warrant a raise, but Brown's done enough to earn the confidence of his bosses, who aren't exactly scrounging for cash.

Brown looks like he's in for the long haul. Texas looks happy to have him.

Texas got out in front of persistent rumors that coach Mack Brown was either retiring or being forced out at Texas in the near future.

"Anything you are hearing, absolutely nothing about it is true," Texas AD DeLoss Dodds told The Associated Press by telephone on Sunday from New York, where he and Brown plan to attend Tuesday's college football Hall of Fame banquet.

A report surfaced last week that Brown planned to retire after the Baylor game on Saturday, which Texas lost to fall to 7-5. Brown shot down those rumors in his postgame media session.

"There'll probably be a lot more after tonight," Brown said of the rumors. "When I do retire, it won't come from a twit, a Twitter, in Topeka, Kan. I want to coach for a long time."

He was right. On Sunday, another report surfaced that he'd be forced out, one Dodds actively quelled.

"I can't even imagine why someone would start something like this," Dodds said. "It's just something we want to put to bed. It's certainly not the truth. And people ought to be more careful about what they are reporting."

Trying to hand out blame for the Big 12's diminishment over the last 16 months is a bit too convoluted. By now, just about everyone involved has had a hand in it.

But the possible end of the Lone Star Showdown, at least in football?

That's a bit easier.

Texas A&M's stance has been consistent throughout, punctuated by a repeated, clear stance on the issue.

"We want to make it abundantly clear we will play the game anywhere, any time," new Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp told the Austin American-Statesman last month. "If that game dies, it will not be on us. That game is bigger than Texas and bigger than A&M. That game belongs to the people of Texas, and if it goes away, it's not going to be on our watch."

Texas AD DeLoss Dodds, who admitted last month that scheduling the Aggies would be "problematic," delivered what may have been the rivalry's final blow on Friday.

"In my e-mail to [Texas A&M AD] Bill Byrne, I wrote that we were not in a position now to look at future football scheduling," Dodds said. "We're scheduled out with nonconference games through 2018 and our Big 12 schedule is not yet settled. What we have right now is a full schedule but if any future options are available, the decision will not be made by just one person."

Last month, Dodds had this to say: "We didn't leave the conference. They did. ... We'll make a decision that's best for Texas."

Each side is looking to pass the blame off to the other.

Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin told the Associated Press on Sunday: "We're able to accommodate them anytime they want to make that happen. ... It's their choice, obviously."

Sorry, guys. This one must be shared.

And drink it in, Lone Star State rivals, because it might be the last time you share anything for awhile, save a mutual disdain for one another.

This may return at some point in the future. In time, I'm betting it does. But the loss of this heated, annual rivalry is the most disheartening consequence of any recent college football realignment move.

As much as fans were clamoring to see Wyoming and New Mexico come to Austin in 2012, I'm betting all sides would have understood if those contracts had to be broken to make room for the Aggies. Pay to get out of those contracts? No, Texas shouldn't have to because of the Aggies' choice, but I'm also betting Texas A&M might have been willing to chip in on the cost to keep the rivalry going.

If nothing else, it would have forced A&M to quite literally put its money where its mouth is.

This rivalry dates back to 1894, is each school's most-played rivalry, and has been played every single year since 1914, a stretch of 97 seasons. It's the third-most played rivalry in college sports and the most-played intra-state rivalry.

Texas refusing to schedule A&M may kill one of college football's best rivalries, but the Aggies helped.

Texas delivered the death blow with the rivalry still salvageable. Texas A&M's move to the SEC, though clubbed the rivalry over the head, and put it in jeopardy.

Divy out percentages all you liked, but Dodds is both right and stubborn. Texas has been nothing if not consistent, insinutating throughout the process that if Texas A&M left the conference, the rivalry would be discontinued.

Texas A&M left the conference. Dodds is willing to sacrifice tradition for ego.

You know, like A&M sacrificed more than a century of tradition for "increased visibility for its student-athletes."

What, pray tell, was keeping Aggie athletes out of the spotlight? I'll hang up and listen.

The Aggies made their choice. Nobody, especially not Dodds, forced them to leave.

Dodds made his.

Now, college football fans may have to live with the consequences.

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- The Big 12's nine remaining athletic directors met on Tuesday with new commissioner Chuck Neinas.

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard, the chairman of the athletic directors, was slated to speak to a few waiting media members after the meeting, but Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds left the meeting first.

"I'm not talking," he said, hardly slowing his pace out of the Hilton hotel. "Jamie's talking."

A few minutes later, Missouri athletic director Mike Alden also declined comment, only noting later that it was "a crazy time."

"Jamie's talking," Alden said. "We all talked about it in there."

The Big 12 may not have any restrictions from leaving the league in writing yet, but considering the league's last formal meeting, Tuesday can certainly be considered progress.

"As far as formal agreements, we're working towards that," Pollard said. "I can't give you specifics, because that's something that's still a work in progress, but I will tell you that all nine member institutions are fully engaged and committed to putting together the necessary agreements to put together the kind of stability that we all want to have."

In short, that means granting the most valuable media rights, Tier 1 and Tier 2, to the conference for six years. If that's done, media appearance money would be paid to the Big 12. If a school left, the Big 12 would collect revenue from media appearance, not the conference's new school.

The school would be valuable to the Big 12 and only the Big 12.

That's not done yet, and for now, Missouri could leave the conference under the same conditions Texas A&M did, likely only facing a stiff exit fee.

"Could people change their position? Yeah, that's human nature," Pollard said. "I don't anticipate that happening. I really don't, and the special committee is clearly going to work toward initiatives that will further solidify so that doesn't happen."

Chairman of the board of directors, Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton, assembled the special committee to deal with the league's ongoing issues, appointing members from Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa State.

No consensus on the Big 12's future membership has been reached ("It could be 9, 10, 12, 16. Pick a number," Pollard said.) but the Big 12's athletic directors did begin examining schedules should the league move forward into the 2012 season with just nine members.

Group meetings concluded on Tuesday, and directors will meet one-on-one with Neinas on Wednesday. The Big 12 is still reeling from the loss of three members in 15 months, but a day after Texas A&M made its exit official, Pollard remains hopeful of the Big 12's future.

"Each institution has to figure out what's right for them, and you come out of it stronger on the other side. It feels like that today. The nine of us in that room? We've been through a lot together. An awful lot together," Pollard said. "Our obituary has been written several times, and it hasn't come to fruition. That's strengthened us, and we said this a year ago. Ultimately, we have to prove it. We have to prove it. But I feel very comfortable with the individuals in that room that are my peers and our league is going to be a very viable league."

At least this time, there was nobody talking over him.

Lots to get to on the blog tonight.

First off, you can read our news story on tonight's news conference at Oklahoma. Here's an update of what was decided.

More on the way later tonight.

Big 12 headed for binding TV rights

The Big 12's presidents agreed to grant their television rights to the conference for six years, Oklahoma president David Boren said at a news conference on Thursday. Missouri chancellor Brady Deaton said at a news conference also on Thursday night that the agreement was not official, and the league had agreed to pursue such binds.

A source at Missouri confirmed to ESPN.com that they were told "there was no agreement, only an agreement to work toward that as a potential outcome."

The Big 12 signed a 13-year, $1.1 billion deal with Fox Sports last summer for Tier 2 rights and the Tier 1 rights for ESPN/ABC are up for renewal in five years. By signing away the media rights to the conference, any team that left the conference during that period would offer no television revenue to a prospective new league. Any television revenue produced by that team would go to the Big 12.

"We felt that we needed a lot more than an expression of solidarity," Boren said, referencing "unequivocal commitments" that held the Big 12 together in 2010, when the Big 12 last faced near extinction. "It was a very important item to show we mean business about staying together."

Boren added: "That grant of rights really has teeth in it, because when you've granted your rights, it's very unlikely that a member would receive an invitation to another conference."

Texas A&M still headed to the SEC

Tonight's agreement has had no effect on the Texas A&M and its intended departure to the SEC.

Boren said Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin was on the teleconference, but was careful to note that it was "highly likely" that the Aggies would continue to chart their intended course for the SEC. Boren also said the league would not give up on convincing Texas A&M to stay until the Aggies became official members of the SEC.

The league's presidents did not discuss waiving rights to legal action that would allow Texas A&M to continue with its intended move to the SEC after the conference's presidents voted to accept them on the condition that each Big 12 team waive those legal rights.

“Another key to Big 12 stability will be for the league to assist Texas A&M with our departure," Texas A&M spokesman Jason Cook told the San Antonio Express-News.

New interim commissioner officially appointed

Dan Beebe is out, and Chuck Neinas is in. Neinas has dealt with scores of athletic departments around the country, and recommended more than half of the athletic directors in the Big 12 to the administrations in their current schools. Boren lauded Neinas as a figure respected around the country.

Neinas will take over only as interim commissioner, though. He is not a candidate for the permanent job, which may take a "few months" to fill, Boren said, though he established no concrete timeline for the hire.

"We needed someone to lead us through a healing process," Boren said of Neinas. "There's no one better to do that."

Expansion has been re-opened

While the Big 12 nearly broke apart, the efforts of an expansion committee were obviously halted. Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione and Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds are on the committee, which has been re-activated.

The league doesn't know if it will expand to 10 or 12 teams, but will do its "due diligence" and is open to both.

I'd expect negotiations with BYU to be re-opened, and for the Big 12 to seriously talk with remaining teams in the Big East like West Virginia and Louisville, but also seriously talk to schools closer to the Big 12 footprint, like TCU or Houston.

Nothing's off the table yet, though. As it should be this early in the process.

Boren refused to name any names or publish any list of prospective members.

"We want anybody we look at for expansion to know they were our first choice," Boren said.

Big 12 committee formed

This is also an important development. Chairman of the board of directors Brady Deaton is putting together a "committee" to handle a variety of tasks facing the Big 12 currently.

For now, no change in revenue sharing has been enacted, but if it's going to happen, it will be explored by this committee.

Deaton is expected to put it together by the end of the day on Friday.

The league agreed not to air grievances with others in the league publicly, which is necessary for the appearance of stability. It also agreed that any disagreements would be settled privately through the multi-purpose committee that Boren called a "special working group."

Concessions by Texas and Oklahoma?

It's clear so far that Texas and Oklahoma have and are willing to give on some issues. Oklahoma got its wish with Beebe's ouster and a commitment with the media rights that would ensure stability, but Texas AD DeLoss Dodds told local media on Wednesday that he did not want to sign over media rights.

Judging by Boren's comments, that stance has softened. Maybe he was leveraged into it, or maybe it was a measure of good faith. Either way, it looked like it happened.

Oklahoma has also made it clear that it would not stand in the way of equal revenue sharing. The Sooners, as one of the Big 12's top earners, would get less money in that agreement.

"Would equal distribution mean a financial contribution for good of the conference? Yes. Would we be willing to do so? Yes," Boren said. "We would hope that wouldn’t occur overnight."

Boren said he hoped such a plan would be fazed in slowly.

As for Texas? Maybe we'll hear from them soon.

Lots more coming on the blog tonight. Stay tuned.

Boy, there was a lot of not-news this weekend, eh?

Of course, the reports of Texas A&M bolting to the SEC might have been premature but not necessarily inaccurate in terms of what is eventually going to happen.

Conference expansion, it seems, is not dead. At least rumors thereof are not.

So what does that mean out West?

It could mean nothing. Texas A&M could bolt the Big 12, and the Big 12 could replace the Aggies with Houston and things would stay fairly stable.

Who thinks that's the endgame? Me neither.

The big prize has been and will continue to be Texas. If another round of expansion roulette begins a few years before everyone thought it might, count on Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott making use of his speed dial with Longhorns athletic director DeLoss Dodds.

I mostly agree with Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman:

I expect the six BCS conferences to fold into three: Pac 16, Big Ten and the SEC. And I still think if A&M leaves and the Big 12 chooses not to expand, a nine-team league won't work, Texas and others will join the Pac-12, and the Longhorn Network will be allowed under the current Pac-12 television package that already includes six regional networks: Arizona, Southern California, Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Mountain network with Colorado and Utah.

While Scott has been quoted as saying the Longhorn Network can't work in the Pac-12 framework of equal revenue sharing and the conference's total ownership of its network and regional networks, anything can be made to work if the money is right.

Texas with an equal slice of the Pac-12 pie and its own network separate from the Pac-12 is a huge win for the Longhorns, yes, but Texas in the Pac-12 -- or whatever it would then be called -- is a huge win for the Pac-12. A give-and-take negotiation, in the end, would mean more revenue for everyone, which is the ultimate goal here.

That said, plenty of folks with a dog in this hunt are saying that's not going to happen, such as Texas Tech president Guy Bailey.

"Here's the deal, what the Pac-12 offered last year, and I think they would be open to this year, is a package deal," Bailey told [Fox Talk in the Morning on KJTV 950 AM in Lubbock]. "You'd have to have four schools and Texas is the cornerstone to that. Remember, the issue last year came down to the Longhorn Network. The University of Texas wanted its own network for tertiary rights and the Pac-12 doesn't allow that. We can cut that out right there. I don't foresee that happening."

In other words, there's lots of intrigue here. The wheels are spinning in the heads of many conference commissioners, school presidents and athletic directors at present. It would seem there is weakness in both premature, impulsive action but also in being cautious and reactive.

Which is why I'm betting Scott is perfectly comfortable with these developments (or temporary non-developments). He wanted a Pac-16 in the first place. He's been on record for a long time espousing the likelihood of "super conferences." This is his comfort zone.

Scott isn't sweating this. He's grinning.

The Longhorn Network doesn't launch until Aug. 26, but it's already been the subject of plenty of discussion and prompted the league's athletic directors to meet last week in Dallas in the midst of more realignment rumors and problems that had to be solved before the launch.

"Oh, you know, just another easy summer," Beebe said with a laugh to begin a recent interview with ESPN.com. "I need a summer where I can be bored for once."

He didn't get it in 2010, when the Big 12 lost a pair of teams.

This one wasn't easy either, but Beebe took some time to talk about the Longhorn Network, Texas, Texas A&M's future in the Big 12, and the league's possible new network.

We’ve seen commissioners take a much bigger role in this world of expansion and realignment, but how has that changed the jobs you, [Big Ten commissioner] Jim Delany and [SEC commissioner] Mike Slive and the rest of you do compared to your predecessors?

Dan Beebe: I think the intensity is ratcheted up enormously. It’s already more intense, and there’s a greater amount of intensity that’s been created between the high-resource conferences and the lower-resource conferences. For the commissioners’ roles themselves, and within the BCS-level conferences, it’s ratcheted up as well.

How much longer do you think we’ll be talking about expansion and realignment in college sports in general?

DB: It’s happened for a while, for 20 to 22 years that I’ve been around. Certainly when it happens at this level, it makes a lot more news. I mean, I brought in five new members when I was in the Ohio Valley Conference, and then you’d have to look back at Penn State and Arkansas and South Carolina and some other movements that have gone on.

I think until we all kind of settle into our new television deals and we play, the Big Ten plays together with its 12 and the Pac-12 plays together and the Big East with its new configuration, until we go through a few years of that, this will always be something that people suspect will occur, and that’s a change in alignment.

What was it like for you to see this stuff bubble up again in recent weeks, a year after it looked like the Big 12 had kind of moved on?

DB: It’s disconcerting. Like I said at media days, we’re not going to get the benefit of the doubt by the media or the public until we go through a couple seasons probably playing each other and everybody gets to see what we’re talking about in terms of our stability and commitment to the future and what’s going on or what we’re about.

We had that athletic directors meeting the other day, and every single athletic director reiterated their commitment to the conference and the fact that they believe the best place for their institution is in this configuration of institutions.

How would you describe the discussions at the meeting last Monday?

DB: Frank. And respectful. But there certainly was -- and I encouraged it -- nobody I think held back from what their feelings were and what their position was.

Look, the one thing that hasn’t gotten out is, especially with the Longhorn Network, how considerate DeLoss Dodds and Texas has been about this. They have said, and it’s made several publications, that they did not want to do anything that was going to create a recruiting advantage or do anything that was going to harm the conference. And DeLoss came to the meetings with that kind of continued attitude about it.

So what was expressed that you would describe as frank?

DB: Well, that kind of sentiment. I don’t want to get into what goes back and forth while ideas are being formulated, because I think you need to have those things done in private, so it was just a matter of where everybody stood on certain issues and it was a good exchange.

Texas A&M has certainly been at the center of a lot of this, so what did they express to you and others in the meeting about their future in this league?

DB: That they’re very, strongly committed to the conference, just as Bill Byrne stated. They helped make sure it was going forward last summer and believe strongly that this is the place for the institution to be located.

How do you feel the Longhorn Network’s general existence affects the long-term stability of the league?

DB: Well, I think that all of our institutions in five years are going to have delivery systems, whether they be together or some together, some not. We’ve just seen the Pac-10 basically create that for their own members in what, six different networks and a seventh for the conference?

So, I think that’s the wave of the future. There’s going to be an appetite for fans in a local region to see the content in that region that may not be appealing for a wider region or even nationally, and all of our institutions are going to create some sort of delivery system.

The Longhorn Network is just the first one out of the gate. And whenever you have a first venture like that, there’s all sorts of questions and things that need to be ironed out. But I think all of [the other schools] will be there in five years.

(Read full post)

1. Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds, on the lessons taught by Jim Tressel: “I think every head coach in the nation has read the Ohio State stuff. And we preach this every day: if you know something’s wrong, tell everybody the first day. Tell the president, tell the NCAA, tell everybody the first day. Then, regardless of the size of the problem, it doesn’t get bigger. I tell our staff, ‘If you go to bed at night knowing something that you think may be wrong, you’ve started a cover-up.’”

2. West Virginia boosters grumble that athletic director Oliver Luck botched the coaching transition. They believe that Luck should have bought out Bill Stewart last December or been patient enough to wait one more season. Luck tried to finesse the situation -- get Dana Holgorsen, the coach he wanted, and not buy out Stewart. It blew up in his face. I don’t think that’s Luck’s fault. Stewart handled it poorly. Holgorsen’s own undisciplined behavior exposed him and Luck to criticism. So Stewart’s gone and it’s time to move on.

3. The Fiesta Bowl replaced executive director John Junker with a rocket scientist. Dr. Robert Shelton is a physicist who has worked with NASA and has served the past five years as the president of the University of Arizona. It’s a shrewd move. Shelton knows the local area. As a university president, he arrives at the Fiesta Bowl with NCAA street cred. By hiring him, the bowl takes off the table any questions about what it intends for its future. So we wait and see how Shelton and the bowl pick up the pieces.

Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds released a statement on Wednesday, a day after Colt McCoy's wife made controversial comments on ESPN Radio.

"We take compliance very seriously at Texas," Dodds said in the statement. "We have procedures in place that enable our coaches, student-athletes and administrators to make the right choices. We are performing our due diligence as always to make certain there are no outstanding compliance issues."

On Tuesday, Rachel McCoy called in unprompted to Colin Cowherd's show on ESPN Radio, and did a six-minute interview, touching on her husband's experience with both agents and boosters, explaining how often he had to turn them down, but intimating that his teammates did not do the same.

"Colt did not himself have as much interaction [with agents], I don't think. I know he was approached quite a bit, but you know how Colt is, he can just kind of brush it off and just kind of move on and not go down that road, but I saw so many of his teammates who just, they maybe didn't have some of that self-control just to be able to say no to somebody. I can't. That's not my personality, I don't want to hurt people's feelings."

McCoy's point was to explain that boosters and agents, in pursuit of relationships with players, had to be better controlled on campus, but her comments have produced a controversy during the usually docile college football summer.

The Big Ten's proposal to restructure full scholarships for athletes has made its way onto the radar for several other leagues, including the Big 12.

Whether or not to increase the value of scholarships is a topic that will be debated this week at the Big 12's spring meetings in Kansas City. Not surprisingly, there are some different viewpoints.

The Big Ten proposed last month that scholarships be restructured to reach the full cost of attendance, which would allocate additional funds (estimated at $2,000-$5,000 per full scholarship) to student-athletes. This would apply to all athletes on full scholarships, regardless of their sport.

"Cost of attendance comes with all sorts of complications," Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said Wednesday. "The cost of attendance will vary at certain institutions. If it's $5,000 here and $2,000 there, how does that get into recruiting?"

Beebe brings up an interesting point. The varying cost of attendance figures, which are federally regulated, will lead to discrepancies.

There are also the different revenue-sharing models between leagues. The Big Ten, for instance, shares all of its revenue equally among its members. The Big 12 does not. Just ask Nebraska how that feels.

I'm not surprised to see that Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds is in favor of the Big Ten's plan. Texas, after all, is one of the nation's largest and richest athletic departments.

But Dodds acknowledges all schools aren't in the same boat.

"The Big Ten would be for it because they've got the Big Ten Network. They've got dollars," Dodds said. "But probably 80 percent of institutions would have to go to the academic side to get the money. You have to vote something like this in, and I don't see how you'd get the votes."

We'll see where this topic goes, but it's interesting to see how other leagues view the Big Ten's proposal.

One Big Ten assistant coach wants to keep the scholarship structure the way it is. Penn State quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno makes a pretty convincing case in his weekly column that student-athletes already get a pretty good deal.

No one sells the student-athletes on the idea that they are getting paid more than $80 an hour for a part-time job. No one tells the student-athlete to go talk to other students on campus who work 30 or 40 hours some weeks and will still owe tens of thousands of dollars when they graduate.

It is all about perspective. The reality is that a few hundred more dollars or even a few thousand dollars to help cover the cost of attendance isn't going to erase the cheating that goes on. The cheating that's going on is for a lot more money than the cost of attendance.

The problem is what society sells to big-time athletes and their families. Society sells lights, camera, the NFL or NBA. Those are sexy products. What isn't being sold is education, studying and a chance to enrich the mind and get rich in the classroom.

Some really good points from JayPa.

What are your thoughts?