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1. When the Fiesta Bowl invited NCAA president Mark Emmert to attend a panel discussion next week on concussions, Emmert not only accepted, he offered to serve as moderator. Emmert joins NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in being overt in taking head injuries seriously. The panel discussion also provides gravitas to the Fiesta’s resumption of its annual gathering of athletic directors and head football coaches. The former Fiesta Frolic used to be known for a lot of things. Gravitas was never one of them.

2. Typical, isn’t it? Arkansas made the best possible choice in an impossible situation when it hired John L. Smith to serve as caretaker of the Razorbacks for 2012. Smith, a veteran head coach, had spent the last three seasons on Bobby Petrino’s staff in Fayetteville. He knows the players. He knows the staff. The typical part? Weber State, which hired Smith as its head coach in December, becomes just another FCS victim of a big-spending school.

3. The Penn State administration continues to botch its dealings with Joe Paterno, weeks after the legendary coach died. The university contractually owed the Paterno estate $6.7 million, yet tried to negotiate the family into signing a legal release before it would pay the money. To call it ham-handed is an insult to hams everywhere. The university, after embarrassing itself again, paid the money last week.

1. The NCAA slapped a five-year penalty on former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel last year, and as of Tuesday night, the question arose of who will return to run a team faster -- Tressel or deposed Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino? Tressel at least has nothing preventing an NFL team from returning him to the sideline. Petrino is persona non grata in the BCS and, because of his callous treatment of Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank and general manager Rich McKay, it’s a good bet that no NFL team will rush to hire him, either.

2. Integrity returns? Maybe winning is neither everything nor the only thing. First, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell crushes the New Orleans Saints for their bounty program, and now Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long resists the urge to keep the lying, misleading coach who took the Hogs to a 21-5 record over the past two seasons. The great Bobby Jones assessed himself a one-shot penalty in the 1925 U.S. Open, which he then lost in a playoff. Complimented for his self-assessed penalty, Jones replied, “You may as well congratulate me for not robbing a bank.”

3. The changes at Penn State will unveil themselves in many ways over the months to come. The athletic department announced Wednesday that new coach Bill O’Brien, with other Nittany Lion head coaches, will do 18 alumni meet-and-greets on nine days from Apr. 30 to May 16. Joe Paterno last did this sort of thing in the spring in 2009, when he went to three dinners. Paterno didn’t need to do them. O’Brien does. The alumni want to like him. But they have to meet him first.

Bill O'Brien talks to Todd Blackledge about taking over at Penn State, and his conversations with Joe Paterno.

Our Mark Schlabach took another crack at his way-too early top 25 today. In response, we'll try again to rank Notre Dame's 2012 opponents.

1. USC (Nov. 24, away): Virtually every early outlook has the Trojans slated as the preseason No. 1 or No. 2 team, and rightfully so. Matt Barkley enters 2012 as the Heisman front-runner and USC will return to the familiar position of having the target on its back throughout the season.

2. Oklahoma (Oct. 27, away): Considering Notre Dame is the only current official, penned-in game that is absolutely going to happen for the Big 12 favorites next season, I'd imagine the Sooners would get up for that.

3. Michigan State (Sept. 15, away): A growing defense will keep Sparty plowing ahead in Year 6 of the Mark Dantonio era, which may just begin with MSU as the Big Ten favorite.

4. Michigan (Sept. 22, home): A number of early polls suggest Michigan as the leading Big Ten contender, but I think some of its losses on defense will be tough to replace. Nonetheless, any team with Denard Robinson under center has a chance to make big things happen, as Notre Dame fans are all too aware of.

5. Stanford (Oct. 13, home): Who needs Andrew Luck when you have that much time in the pocket? Throw anyone under center behind that offensive line and he'll have all the time he needs to make something happen.

6. Miami (Oct. 6, Chicago): The Hurricanes make the biggest jump from the last time we looked at the Irish's opponents. An experienced defense and a great recruiting year for Al Golden suggest this program is back on the rise, pending NCAA sanctions.

7. BYU (Oct. 20, home): I said it before and I'll say it again: If Riley Nelson has a big year, watch out.

8. Purdue (Sept. 8, home): This contest scares me if I'm an Irish fan. First game back from what is sure to be an exhausting season-opening trip in Dublin, with a hungry in-state rival waiting for them and looking to build on momentum following a strong 2011 finish and weak 2012 opener (Eastern Kentucky).

9. Wake Forest (Nov. 17, home): Jim Grobe teams usually perform better than they should, but the Deacs must recover from a weak finish in 2011.

10. Boston College (Nov. 10, away): No more Luke Kuechly means happier offenses everywhere. The Eagles just hope that means theirs, too, which will be in its first year under coordinator Doug Martin.

11. Navy (Sept. 1, Dublin): The Midshipmen have a brutal start to the 2012 schedule, facing the Irish in Dublin before going to Happy Valley to face Penn State, but things get easier afterward. Can they put the awful luck of 2011 behind them and beat the beatable opponents?

12. Pitt (Nov. 3, home): Paul Chryst seems like the right fit, but asking him to lift the Panthers out of their underachieving ways in Year 1 is a bit much.

Chip Kelly is staying at Oregon.

Oregon fans ... you can now breathe. By holding your breath, you turned purple and, well, you know that's not what you want to do.

This has been confirmed by the general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were deep in the process of trying to lure Kelly out of Eugene and into the NFL this past weekend.

"His heart is with college football and Oregon and he's no longer being considered," Mark Dominik said Monday, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

A handful of news outlets had reported that Kelly was leaving Oregon. George Schroeder of the Eugene Register-Guard, however, was the first to report Kelly's change of heart.

This hullabaloo leads to two questions: 1. How long will Kelly stay at Oregon, as it is now evident the NFL intrigues him -- an idea that was just a theory before? 2. Does this provide the Ducks a boost of momentum -- he's staying because we are awesome! -- or is there some damage control to undertake?

Oregon fans got to experience what it would feel like to lose Kelly, who is 33-6 at the Ducks' helm after winning three consecutive conference titles. Some panicked. Some said, "We'll be OK." Some felt a little of both.

The first reaction of many will be that it's now clear that Kelly will eventually leave. That's not necessarily true. A flirtation that doesn't lead to a divorce can often lead to a renewed loyalty and sense of purpose. Recall that Joe Paterno was, in 1972, out the door at Penn State to coach the New England Patriots.

But Kelly is incredibly competitive, so the juice of competing at the highest level might eventually overcome him. And the non-coaching aspects of leading a major college football program also might wear him down.

Just not yet.

The immediate reaction among the Ducks' rivals was that perhaps some of Kelly's top recruits might waiver. And Oregon did lose a committed player over the weekend. Kelly reportedly missed a recruiting trip to Sacramento during his chats with the Bucs. The guess here is he'll be making a few phone calls today.

Are bridges rebuilt immediately, only with stronger materials? "He loves us, he really loves us!"

Or are questions going to linger? "He flirted once, which means his eyeballs are prone to wander."

The answer -- in some ways unsatisfying -- is "both."

Ah, but too much introspection and navel gazing won't lead to any permanent insight, though Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens now knows that his "Plan B" file needs to be kept updated.

The Pac-12 blog's advice to Oregon fans is to live in and enjoy the present, perhaps with even more appreciation for this golden age of Ducks football. Kelly isn't leaving. His 2012 team is loaded. His focus is back on winning a fourth consecutive conference title.

There will be plenty of time to fret about 2013 and beyond.

Here’s a look back at Joe Paterno’s coaching career from a statistical perspective.

Paterno won 409 games, the most of anyone in major college football history. That total ranks second all-time among college coaches in all divisions to John Gagliardi’s 484 (Gagliardi is the head coach for St. John’s, a Division III school in Minnesota).

Paterno averaged 8.9 wins per season as Penn State’s head coach. He also holds the NCAA records for most bowl appearances (37) and bowl wins (24). He was 24-12-1 in bowl games.

He had 24 bowl wins as Penn State’s head coach. Only six teams other than Penn State have won more bowl games in their history.

While at Penn State, Paterno defeated 80 different teams. Oklahoma and Florida were the only teams that Paterno faced MORE than once without a win (0-2 vs both).

Paterno debuted as Penn State’s head coach on September 17, 1966, as the Nittany Lions defeated Maryland, 15-7. He coached the team to five undefeated seasons (1968, 1969, 1973, 1986, and 1994), winning his first national title on January 1, 1983 when Penn State defeated No. 1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, 27-23.

Paterno has been the record-holder for wins by an FBS coach since Oct. 27, 2001, when Penn State defeated Ohio State, 29-27 for career win No. 324, breaking the mark he shared with Bear Bryant.

His 409th and final win, breaking the NCAA Division I record shared with Eddie Robinson, came with a 10-7 triumph over Illinois on October 29, 2011.

Paterno’s 46 seasons as a head coach are the second-most in major college history, trailing only Amos Alonzo Stagg’s 57.

His 46 seasons are by far the most of anyone who coached a major college program and never coached another team (Frank Howard and Dan McGugin are second with 30 seasons at Clemson and Vanderbilt, respectively).

Paterno finished with 548 career games coached, matching Stagg’s total.

Paterno’s Penn State tenure (including 16 years as assistant coach) spanned 61 years and 12 U.S. Presidential administrations. He was the head coach for 46 seasons, for more than one-third of the games played by the program in its 125-year history.

With the transfer of the nation's second leading tackler, Arizona's glaring need at linebacker just got a boost.

Akron linebacker Brian Wagner will enroll at Arizona this week and will be immediately eligible due to an NCAA rule that allows athletes pursuing graduate degrees not offered at the former school to play right away.

Wagner, 22, averaged 13.36 tackles per game in 2011, and considering top tackler Luke Kuechly of Boston College is off to the NFL, Wagner will be the top returning tackler in FBS football.

Wagner, who earned first-team All-MAC honors, is taking advantage of the same transfer rule that was used by Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson.

Why is this a big get for Arizona? Because its top two tacklers, Derek Earls and Paul Vassallo, are graduating, and the Wildcats' top two returning linebackers -- sophomores Hank Hobson and Rob Hankins -- combined for four starts and 18 tackles last season, in large part due to the Wildcats using a base nickel formation much of the season. But when you toss in 2010 starter Jake Fischer, who is coming back from an ACL injury, you have four experienced guys for three spots.

And, yes, you can essentially pencil Wagner, 6-foot, 235 pounds, into the starting lineup.

From the Tucson Citizen:

He played middle linebacker in a 4-3 scheme at Akron. Exactly where he fits into Arizona’s scheme is to be determined, Wagner said, with the Cats presumably running a 3-3-5, no matter who coach Rich Rodriguez eventually brings in as defensive coordinator.

As for that defensive coordinator, nothing yet -- I found this to be an interesting narrative on back-and-forth with West Virginia DC Jeff Casteel. Speculation that Penn State also might be a player with Casteel raised one of my eyebrows, though Casteel's 3-3-5 doesn't sound like a Penn State defense.

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.

Notre Dame is the second-most valuable college football team, according to Forbes.

The magazine's list of the 20-most valuable football programs placed the Irish second only to Texas, which is valued at $129 million.

Notre Dame is valued at $112 million, producing $72 million in revenue and $47 million in total profit. Texas produced $96 million in revenue and $71 million in total profit.

Penn State, LSU and Michigan rounded out the top five.

1. Joe Paterno turns 85 Wednesday, and not only will his family gather to celebrate, but scores of his former players are expected to release a statement supporting and defending the legendary coach in the wake of the Penn State scandal that cost him his job. Paterno has received a mail crate of birthday cards on each of the last few days, thanks to an Internet push. He believes he has lost a little hair from the chemo but is otherwise holding up well in his fight against lung cancer.

2. Add Gene Smith of Ohio State to the long list of athletic directors who are “surprised” when the NCAA delivers a serious penalty to their program. Smith has spoken throughout the investigation of his confidence that the Buckeyes’ self-administered, five-scholarship penalty would be sufficient. The NCAA meted out a one-year bowl ban and took four more scholarships away. It’s nothing new -- when ADs declare their program’s innocence and good intentions, they’re always breathing in their own fumes.

3. A study by University of Oregon economist of the academic years from 1999-2007 established that the grades of male students drop as the success of the football team increases. In fact, Doug Lederman of Inside Higher Education reported, the gender gap would be wider except that most professors grade on a curve. You have to love when academia confirms something so commonsensical. Now, if they’ll only study the correlation between wins and beer sales.

There's the real world. There's the theoretical world. And there's the world of spin.

The real world: Todd Graham left Pittsburgh for Arizona State and didn't even get a notable raise on his $2 million salary because he'd rather be the head coach at Arizona State than Pittsburgh. His reasons? Really, it doesn't matter in Tempe. That's a question Pittsburgh should ask of itself, not Graham. It could be revealing.

The theoretical world: Todd Graham should have stayed at Pittsburgh because he said it was his dream job and he talked to his players about commitment and told boosters about his commitment to the future and because a high-character person would honor commitment above all else. And he certainly wouldn't announce a breakup with a text message.

The world of spin: Todd Graham was Arizona State's first choice and everyone is thrilled. Graham feels horrible about the way he left Pittsburgh because he loves and respects everyone there. It just couldn't be helped.

You want absolutes of honor, character and integrity in college football? Two names: Joe Paterno and Jim Tressel. How are your absolutes doing now?

You believe in absolute honesty? When you last broke up with a girlfriend/boyfriend did you say: 1. It's not you, it's me; or, 2. You've gained 10 pounds since we started dating and your laugh drives me crazy. And I hate your friends. Except for the one I might ask out.

What did Todd Graham have to say about how he left Pittsburgh during his introductory news conference at Arizona State?

I want to first start and talk about my players from Pitt. The last few hours have been extremely gut wrenching for me, obviously for my family. I love those guys. I'm very proud of the growth that they had this year, both on the field, off the field, in the classroom and in the community. I'm very proud of them. You never want to leave a program, and I never dreamed that I would have to leave a program under these circumstances.

The timing of these processes are extremely rapid, and it did not allow for me to address the team, and that is very hurtful. I've never had to endure that, and I really regret that. I really regret that I didn't have the opportunity to do that. I reached out to them in the only way that I knew how, the only means that I had at my disposal because I absolutely did not want them to hear about this on the news. I wanted them to know first. The only other alternative I had was not to communicate at all, and that was just unacceptable to me.

I plan on my return to Pittsburgh to reach out to them and to communicate to them. Obviously my staff that's there has communicated, as well, and those young men, I just want them to know that I love them. Coaching and teaching is a passion to me, and that's something that's very, very important before I talk about anything else, that I want my players from Pitt to know that I love them and I'm proud of them.

You can believe it or not.

If Graham loved his Panthers and was proud of them, why did he not insist on delivering the news of his exit personally?

Well, obviously this transpired this morning in a rapid pace, and it was last night and this morning, and there wasn't an opportunity to have a team meeting and be able to meet with them.

Now, these processes move very quickly and very rapidly, and that's the tough thing about this business and about coaching. I've had experience with that before, and if there was anyway possible, again, that's — I never want to do that, and that's the greatest regret you can have, and it's the most horrible feeling that you have. But again, I reached out in the only way that I knew how because I absolutely was not going to just have them see this on the news.

In other words, Graham put what he termed "a gut-wrenching experience" in his left hand and the opportunity with Arizona State in his right and decided to endure the one because of the appeal of the other. He made a tough decision that many people make in the job market, only the news media wasn't Tweeting about it all day Wednesday. And there are, whether folks back East are willing to admit it or not, real world reasons why Arizona State held such great appeal to Graham.

ASU athletic director Lisa Love admitted she was aware of Graham's now even more justifiable reputation as a mercenary climber who constantly eyeballs better jobs.

Said Love: "I love the fact that [Graham's wife] Penny's parents are sitting right here and they drove up the road. I love the fact that Todd has family here. I love the fact that Desert Mountain was a place where they were investing and prepared to invest in property and believed him. I believed him. I can tell you that I saw that on job movement, but I believed him."

Trust. It's dangerous. But Love needed a coach after a muddled 17-day search that Wednesday's spin couldn't smooth over, and there was Graham -- eager, affordable and with a fairly solid resume. Ergo, leap of faith.

Of course, track records don't disappear. What if Georgia or Ohio State comes calling with $4 million a year? Why should Arizona State fans believe this is a better dream job than his last dream job, a phrase that the effervescent Graham throws around a lot.

Question: Because of your track record, how do you convince Sun Devil Nation, future recruits, the football team, everyone affiliated with ASU that you're here for the long haul?

COACH GRAHAM: I think the only way to respond to that is just being here. Obviously it was, like I said earlier in the remarks, that this is a dream opportunity for our family. It's obviously the first decision I've ever made that has actually benefited my wife and benefited our family. You know, I think that the only way you can do it is, like I said, I'm going to work hard to earn their trust, and I think trust is earned, so that's all I can do.

Right. Actions, ultimately, are real world tangible. Words are for worlds of theory and spin.

But words are all there are at present, and many of the words are going to be negative about Graham, and not completely without justification. Graham's perfect grasp of massaging talking points Wednesday evening often strained credulity. For example, he celebrated former Sun Devils greats Pat Tillman and Terrell Suggs. Suggs took a shot at him on Twitter, and Tillman, an absolutist on integrity in both word and deed, would not likely have been at the presser clapping for Graham had he not given his life for his country.

Graham also seemed to be unaware of the term "irony."

Question: When you get settled in, what's the first thing you do to get this program going in the Todd Graham way?

COACH GRAHAM: One word: Relationships. Start building relationships. That's a key component.

He's — officially — referring to the theoretical world. But he's — in reality — speaking of relationships of convenience. You do your best to get along with folks at your office whom you might not like. You talk as pleasantly as possible to annoying neighbors because, well, it seems smarter than telling them they are annoying gasbags. You nurture your world and love your family and friends.

A football coach enters relationships of convenience with a football program. He's got his AD. He's got his school president. He's got boosters who want to play golf with him. He's got to shake hands with lawyers who will offer unsolicited advice on using the tight end more and being more "attacking" on defense. He's got 85 scholarship players who need to be pushed, prodded and coddled in ways unique to their individuality. There is lots of talk of family but it ultimately is a business based on what the scoreboard says.

The real world will be more difficult for Graham because of his present standing in the theoretical world, and no spin can change that. He doesn't have a clean slate. Some will resist giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Relationships? What about those guys at Pitt?

But if Graham is who Love and school president Michael Crow say he is, "just being here" is a reasonable point A for hope. Point B be will be maintaining a recruiting class that seemed headed for a top-25 national ranking before Dennis Erickson was fired.

And the endgame? That's where the real world intrudes over all else: Winning, winning, winning.

By now you probably have read the statement from the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors on Penn State. If not, go ahead and check it out from our most recent blog entry.

Does your head hurt? Can't blame you. That's the kind of overly wordy, point-obfuscating mess that only a team of lawyers and academic head honchos could cobble together.

Boil it down to the essence, though, and it's pretty significant. Big Ten leadership has been fairly quiet about the Penn State sex-abuse scandal to this point, with its most significant action so far being the stripping of Joe Paterno's name off the football championship trophy. With this statement, the conference presidents and chancellors are firing a warning shot, telling Penn State that the league may "impose sanctions, corrective or other disciplinary measures" whether the NCAA chooses to do so or not.

The league also wants its own lawyers involved in any NCAA or school-directed review. Usually, a conference brings its legal team to the aid of member schools under fire from the NCAA. (Remember how hard Jim Delany fought for Ohio State around this time last year? Or the league's support for Michigan with the practice-time violations?). Here it sounds like the Big Ten is putting the attorneys on the other side of the bench.

The big question is, of course, what type of sanctions the Big Ten is willing to impose on Penn State if it doesn't like the results of these investigations. Rumors have circulated that at least a few league schools were so angry and disgusted by the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal that they lobbied to kick Penn State out of the Big Ten altogether, and the Nittany Lions don't have the kind of history with the league that would make that impossible. I still very seriously doubt that would ever happen, since the conference just put so much work into getting to 12 teams and would likely have to deal with all kinds of thorny legal issues to expel a school. Besides, Penn State has taken steps to clean house by firing its president, athletic director and Paterno. The school needs to keep cutting ties to those who were culpable.

Another really interesting part of the statement reads that the council believes there is "sufficient information to raise significant concerns as to whether a concentration of power in a single individual or program may have threatened or eroded institutional control of intercollegiate athletics at Penn State." In other words, as many have said and written, Paterno was too powerful for the school's own good. (Naturally, no one from the Big Ten was complaining about this when the league was naming awards for him this offseason, but better late than never).

That leads into the council's directive "to initiate an immediate review of the fundamental issues and systems affecting intercollegiate athletics, including the serious issues relating to the institutional control of athletics." The goal is to come up with a set of "stress tests" to insure "(a) to insure that each member is responsible and accountable to the collective membership of the Conference for the control and operation of its intercollegiate athletics programs as well as (b) to prevent anyone, whether a trustee, administrator, faculty member, athletic director, coach, booster or otherwise, from eroding the effectiveness of an institution’s practices and procedures designed to protect the institution’s integrity and control over its intercollegiate athletic programs." (Lawyered!)

To which I say: Good luck with that. Look, there are serious problems with the deification of coaches and the undue amount of influence sports have over our places of higher learning. I wrote about this very thing a couple of weeks ago while warning Ohio State to be wary of the "cult of coach" with Urban Meyer. It's an issue that's ripe for review.

But the Big Ten is going to come up with "standards, stress tests and other criteria" to prevent this from happening by next spring? Right. Just as soon as the Big Ten Network millions roll in and coaches get their bowl bonuses cashed before driving their comp cars to spring practice. The genie isn't just out of the bottle; the bottle is smashed into a million pieces. Plus, there isn't likely to be a situation again quite like Paterno's, where a guy coaches for nearly half a century at a remote campus, basically building the program and much of the university himself.

Still, it can't hurt for the Big Ten -- and all leagues and schools -- to do this kind of soul-searching after one of the worst years ever in college sports. Everyone involved should do whatever it takes to make sure this kind of thing never happens again. Even if that means a league punishing one of its own.

1. As speculation continues regarding who will be the next head coach at Penn State, this much seems to be true: if he’s not a member of the Nittany Lion family, then the tight-knit former players who showed up en masse for the last home game in the wake of the firing of Joe Paterno will revolt. That could be Miami coach Al Golden and, yes, it could be the interim coach, defensive coordinator Tom Bradley. Interim athletic director Dave Joyner, who is heading the search committee, knows Scrap well. His son played for him.

2. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense and CIA director Robert Gates received the Gold Medal, the highest honor given by the National Football Foundation, on Thursday night. Before that, Gates served as president of Texas A&M. “I fired a lot of people when I was at the Pentagon,” Gates said. “But I don’t think I ever did anything as controversial as firing a football coach in Texas. I later told the media I had overthrown the governments of medium-sized countries with less controversy.”

3. Yale quarterback Patrick Witt, a finalist for the Campbell Trophy, the NFF’s “Academic Heisman,” turned down the chance to interview for a Rhodes Scholarship last month, in order to play his final college game against Harvard. “The quarterback position is unique. It wouldn’t be right to leave your guys as the leader of your team on that final game.” Witt will give the NFL a try. The Rhodes Committee told him, given his circumstance, they would consider waiving their age limit of 24, should he choose to apply again.

Houston Cougars (12-1) vs. Penn State Nittany Lions (9-3)

Jan. 2, noon ET (ESPNU)

Houston take from Nation blogger Andrea Adelson: It was all right there for Houston.

All the Cougars had to do was beat Southern Miss in the Conference USA championship game to make the first BCS appearance in school history. But they had their worst performance of the season, losing 49-28, dashing any hopes of getting up on the big stage. Now they have to settle for a lower-tier bowl game as they wonder about what could have been.

The loss puts a damper on what has been a special season. The 12 wins are the most in school history, and quarterback Case Keenum shattered virtually every NCAA passing mark -- career yards, career touchdown passes and total offense came tumbling down in a torrent of scoreboards that were lit up every single week. He threw for more than 5,000 yards for the third time in his career, along with a career-high 45 touchdown passes. Patrick Edwards had a terrific season as well, with more than 1,500 yards receiving. Linebacker Sammy Brown anchored the defense with his standout play. But this has been a program with a reputation of dropping a game it is favored to win every season. Just go back to 2009. After beating Oklahoma State and Texas Tech to open the season 3-0, Houston lost to UTEP. Later that season, the Cougars lost to UCF and in the Conference USA championship game. They managed to make it through this season unscathed until the very moment it mattered most. Perhaps the gravity of the situation overwhelmed the players. Perhaps distractions surrounding coach Kevin Sumlin and future coaching destinations were too much to bear. In any case, what has been one of the best seasons in school history may not be remembered that way.

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Penn State take from Big Ten blogger Brian Bennett: Penn State's players deserve a bigger bowl game than this.

The Nittany Lions finished 9-3, tied for a share of the Big Ten Leaders Division lead and are ranked in the Top 25. In any other year, that would all but guarantee a spot in Florida or some other traditional locale.

But this was far from any other year at Penn State. The Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal enveloped the entire university in November and led to the firing of legendary head coach Joe Paterno. Bowls do not like negative publicity, so the Nittany Lions tumbled down the Big Ten postseason pecking order -- all the way to the second-year TicketCity Bowl in Dallas against a non-AQ team.

At least it's an intriguing battle of offense versus defense. Penn State, led by Big Ten defensive player of the year Devon Still, finished fifth nationally in scoring defense and 10th in yards allowed. That defense will get a major challenge from record-breaking quarterback Case Keenum and a Houston offense that averaged an FBS-best 50.8 points per game this season.

Both teams could have new head coaches by the time the game kicks off, as the Lions are being led by interim coach Tom Bradley, while Houston coach Kevin Sumlin is a candidate for several current openings. We already know at least one winner from this bowl: Penn State has pledged to donate $1.5 million of its postseason proceeds to sex-crime advocacy organizations.

Michigan State defeated Michigan 28-14 on Oct. 15 and finished one game ahead of the Wolverines in the Big Ten's Legends Division.

The Spartans played in the inaugural Big Ten championship game on Saturday night, falling to Wisconsin 42-39 in one of the most entertaining games of the season.

Yet, when the BCS bowl games were announced on Sunday night, the Wolverines were picked to play Virginia Tech in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, while the Spartans were left out and will play Georgia in the lesser Outback Bowl.

"Michigan sat home on the couch and watched us," Cousins said. "I don't see how you get punished for playing and someone else gets to sit on the couch and get what they want. If this is the way the system is, I guess it's a broken system."

Oklahoma State might be asking the question of Alabama.

Without a playoff system in college football, the BCS objective is to match the two best teams in the country in the Jan. 9 Allstate BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans.

Whether you like the sport’s system for determining its national champion or not, the BCS got it right this season.

No. 1 LSU will play No. 2 Alabama in the Mercedes-Benz Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans with a BCS national championship on the line.

The Tigers and Crimson Tide are the two best teams in the country.

There’s no debate about whether or not the Tigers deserve to be there, after they blasted No. 14 Georgia 42-10 in the SEC championship game on Saturday night to finish the regular season with a 13-0 record. The Tigers have defeated the Pac-12 champion (Oregon), Big East champion (West Virginia) and six SEC teams which were ranked when they played them.

The Crimson Tide, whose only loss came against LSU 9-6 in overtime on Nov. 5 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., edged Oklahoma State for No. 2 in the final BCS standings released on Sunday night. The Crimson Tide had a .9419 BCS average, slightly ahead of the Pokes’ BCS average of .9333.

Alabama (11-1) was ranked No. 2 in the Harris Poll and USA Today coaches’ top 25 poll, which make up two-thirds of the BCS formula. The Pokes (11-1) were No. 3 in both human polls.

Alabama was also No. 2 in two of the six computer ratings in the BCS formula; OSU was No. 2 in the other four. A team’s average in the computer rankings is the other one-third in the BCS formula.

“The system that we have is the system,” Alabama coach Nick Saban told ESPN. “Regardless of what anybody thinks [of the system], it sort of is what it is. I think there are a lot of people out there who think these are the two best teams in the country and want to see them play again.”

LSU coach Les Miles said he didn’t have a problem playing the Crimson Tide again, even though the Tigers have already defeated them on the road this season.

“We look forward to playing Alabama,” Miles told ESPN. “The upside is you understand your opponent and you’ve seen them play. You’ve studied them before and obviously you’ve played them. It will be played in the same fashion with great enthusiasm and want to compete.”

OSU coach Mike Gundy, whose Cowboys will play No. 4 Stanford in the Jan. 2 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, said his team did everything it could in trying to impress voters by blasting rival Oklahoma 44-10 on Saturday night.

“We were very disappointed,” Gundy told ESPN. “We felt like our team had worked very hard. We had a tough loss [37-31 in double overtime at Iowa State on Nov. 18], but we came back and did everything we could do to dominate the game against Oklahoma. We felt like we had an opportunity by the way we played in the game.”

Gundy didn’t criticize the BCS system, saying his school “bought into the system several years ago.”

“We wanted the opportunity to settle the debate that had gone on all year about the offense of the Big 12, the defense of the SEC,” Gundy said. “We thought our defense was a lot better than most people thought. For whatever reason, people decided they wanted to see a rematch of LSU and Alabama. There obviously weren’t enough people who wanted to see the Big 12 champion against the SEC champion.”

The BCS didn’t get everything right on Sunday night.

After then-No. 6 Houston was upset by Southern Mississippi 49-28 in Saturday’s Conference USA championship game, there was one at-large selection available to BCS bowl games. By finishing in the top four of the final BCS standings, Stanford was guaranteed of earning an at-large selection under BCS rules.

With the Cougars out of the mix, the Allstate Sugar Bowl selected No. 11 Virginia Tech to play No. 13 Michigan in New Orleans on Jan. 3. The Hokies were routed by then-No. 20 Clemson 38-10 in Saturday night’s ACC championship game in Charlotte, N.C.

Sugar Bowl officials selected the Hokies over higher-ranked teams like No. 7 Boise State and No. 8 Kansas State.

The other BCS bowl matchups: No. 5 Oregon will play No. 10 Wisconsin in the Jan. 2 Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio and No. 15 Clemson will play No. 23 West Virginia in the Jan. 4 Discover Orange Bowl.

Here are a few other intriguing bowl games outside of the BCS:

• No. 6 Arkansas will play No. 8 Kansas State in the Jan. 6 Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas. The Razorbacks, whose only losses came against LSU and Alabama, probably would have played in a BCS bowl if they weren’t in the SEC (BCS rules allow only two teams from one conference to play in BCS bowl games). The Wildcats were just as deserving as Virginia Tech to play in the Sugar Bowl.
• Florida State and Notre Dame, two of the sport’s traditional heavyweights, will meet in the Dec. 29 Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla. Both teams had disappointing seasons after high preseason expectations, but should bring back good teams in 2012.
• Penn State, which finished 9-3 and tied with Wisconsin for first place in the Big Ten Leaders Division, slipped all the way to the Jan. 2 TicketCity Bowl at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Nittany Lions will play Houston. It seems obvious that bowl games sitting higher in the Big Ten’s pecking order wouldn’t want PSU because of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
• Ohio State (which last week hired Urban Meyer as its new coach) will play Florida (Meyer’s old school) in the Jan. 2 TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. OSU interim coach Luke Fickell will coach the Buckeyes in the bowl game, but Meyer figures to be a very interested observer.