•On the strength of Illinois rallying to top Clemson, Ohio State knocking off FSU, and of course, Wisconsin toppling Duke, the Big Ten took the Big Ten/ACC Challenge for the first time in its 11-year history. Does this mean the Big Ten is tops in the nation? Don't count out the MAC, because Toledo put quite a hurting on non-NCAA, not-even-NAIA Rochester College.

•The Blackhawks will announce today that they've signed Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith to long term deals. So their core of young stars will remain intact well into the next decade. Plus, you know, Marian Hossa until 2021.

•The NFL released new concussion guidelines, preventing players from returning to action if they show signs of a concussion. It's not like the rough-and-tumble old days, when a player had to be literally unconscious before they would be given the day off. Oh wait; that was the rule up until yesterday.

•Because everything in soccer has to take for-fucking-ever, FIFA yesterday announced the procedures for the World Cup draw to be held on Friday. Hard to figure out what it means, but people who know say it's not good news for the U.S. Also, the fact that it's soccer, not good news for the U.S.

•Juan Marichal and the family of Johnny Roseboro will attend the opening of a play based upon the former's famous beating of the latter with a bat. The two became good friends, so there's still hope for Mike Piazza's one-man show about his bat-throwing nemesis, "Roger & Me: The Musical!"

•••••

I've got nothing pithy to say. I'm a broken man. Don't ask me to liveblog a Nets game ever again.

Cincinnati (-4) at Louisville- The Bearcats win the Big East if they can win on the road tonight at Louisville and then next week at home against Pitt. Yeah, Cincinnati might be in a BCS bowl. Prior to this the best bowl Cincinnati has ever been in is the PapaJohns Bowl. What's more they've only been to 10 bowl games in their history. Should be interesting to see how the team responds.

Miss. State at Alabama (-22)- Chances are you had no idea that Miss. State has beaten Alabama two consecutive years. And that in those two years Alabama hasn't scored an offensive touchdown. But they have. So that means Alabama probably isn't overlooking this opponent one week after they clinched the SEC West. Except, you know, this game is slotted between LSU and Auburn. Of course State also hasn't won a road game yet this season but, even still, this spread seems a bit high. Right? Especially since Alabama hasn't beaten any SEC team by more than 20 since the middle of September. But that's not stopping the Houndstooth twins, Maegen and Ashley Bailey, from remaining steadfast in their support.

Texas (-14) at Kansas- The year after their magical season the human blimp that is Mangino has returned to earth. At just 6-4, Kansas has lost every big game they've played this year, including 3 of their last 4 overall. Now Kansas has Texas and Missouri left on the schedule. Could Texas be ripe for the upset in Lawrence? If Kansas is going to have any kind of season worth remembering they have to win one of these final two. Otherwise they'll slink into a bowl at 6-6 and fans will have to convince themselves that 2007 actually happened. Don't worry, it did. We have the picture to prove it.

Meanwhile, Texas can't just win. They've got to slaughter Kansas and then sit back next weekend and root for Oklahoma to beat Texas Tech by 1. So it all comes down to the BCS standings to see who represents the Big 12 South in a three-way tie.

South Carolina at Florida (-23)- Steve Spurrier's headed back to the Swamp for the second time. In 2006, it took a blocked field goal on the final play of the game to preserve Florida's chance to play for a national championship. Now the Gators look unstoppable. But doesn't that line seem a bit high considering South Carolina has the best defense in the SEC? I think so. But then, Florida's offense has looked truly unstoppable for the past month. What would the over/under be in a hypothetical Florida/Big 12 Champion be? 85? Maybe.

Notre Dame (-4) at Navy- Remember way back when Notre Dame signed Charlie Weis to a 58 year contract extension and a few people questioned whether that was smart? And then Notre Dame fans got all upset and ripped anyone who didn't want to buy the lard from Charlie's gastric bypass surgery on eBay? Yeah, good job picking your battles. Weis's coaching record is worse than Bob Davie's. Navy has a winning record and is coming off a win at Notre Dame last year. Could Notre Dame really lose to Navy twice in a row?

Utah (-30) at San Diego State- As soon as they win this game Utah will be 11-0 and only have a home game remaining against BYU to complete a perfect regular season. Admit it, you don't care because they aren't in a Big 6 conference. God, you suck. Almost as much as San Diego State sucks. But not quite.

Ohio State (-9.5) at Illinois- One year after Ron Zook took Illinois to the Rose Bowl, he's got to beat Ohio State or Northwestern to be bowl eligible. Since September 13 Illinois has alternated wins with losses. Last week they lost. Can they take down Ohio State for the second year in a row?

Cal at Oregon State (-3)- The conspiracy to refuse to acknowledge that Oregon State remains on track to win the Pac-10 continues for yet another week. Oregon State has three games left and is standing at 5-1. Win out and they win the Pac 10 for the first time since 1965. Yet no one is paying attention to this. Except Beaver fans. Which should be everyone but Vince Young.

Georgia (-10) at Auburn- Tommy Tuberville has to beat either Georgia or Alabama to be bowl eligible. Who saw this coming? Tennessee's collapse has sort of sucked the air out of the national story surrounding Auburn. They couldn't really fire Tuberville could they? Last week Matthew Stafford saved the state of Georgia from the most dispiriting autumn since 1864. But there are still a couple of minefields remaining. This is one. Usually, anyway.

North Carolina (-3) at Maryland- Won't someone please win the ACC? In typical ACC fashion this year two new teams control their own destiny this week. If North Carolina wins all they have to do is beat N.C. State and Duke and they win the ACC's Coastal Division. That's simple enough. But if they lose? Who the hell knows. Same thing with Maryland, win their next three games and they win the Atlantic Division. Lose and we're back to being confused. What a mess.

Vandy at Kentucky (-4)- Remember back when Vandy was the feel-good story of college football and had won five games in a row? Yeah, now they've lost four consecutive games when a win could have made them bowl eligible for the first time since 1982. In two of these games, against Duke and Mississippi State, they've been favored to win. They have three games left to get that win. Can it happen in Lexington? If it doesn't you might be witnessing a pretty epic choke job.

Meanwhile Virginia Tech is coming off a win last Thursday night against Maryland. That win broke a string of two consecutive conference losses and kept them alive in the race. Win this game at Miami and Tech would only have to beat Duke and Virginia in Blacksburg to advance to the ACC Championship game. Meaning your ACC Coastal Champion will probably be 6-2. Lose, and it's likely that there will be a scrum of teams at 5-3. Most likely a four-way tie at 5-3 in the Coastal Division. (In fact if Virginia Tech beat Miami but found a way to lose to Virginia and a few other things played out, we could even end up with the unheard of five-way tie in the Coastal Division).

In other game news, Wyoming is playing UNLV in the Mountain West, Buffalo hosts Akron, and some NFL team called the Patriots that no one ever heard of is playing another NFL team that no one ever hears anything about. Some quarterback named Favre? I think he's Dutch.

1. Texas eliminated Missouri from the national stage on Saturday. The Horns were up 35-3 at the half and all those Missouri fans who were convinced that Texas might have a figurative hangover after Oklahoma were busy wondering if Chase Daniel was literally hungover. Three weeks ago I anointed Daniel the Heisman Trophy winner. Maybe that was a bit premature. Now everyone knows Colt McCoy is going to win it. Which probably means he won’t. The void in the Heisman race this year is gargantuan.

2. Maryland beat Wake Forest 26-0. If there is a less consistent team in America than Maryland, I haven’t seen them play all year. Lose to UVA by 31 when you’re favored by 14, beat a top 25 Cal team that you’re double digit underdogs to, lose to Middle Tennessee State by 10, and now bounce back from being shutout to shutout the top team in the ACC. There are no words. I’m picturing a bleary-eyed Ralph Friedgen sitting in front of film from this season’s games,Twinkies flying over his shoulder at warp speed, saying over and over again, “If I just watch long enough it will all make sense.” No, it won’t Coach. It never will.

3. With 6:46 remaining in the third quarter Penn State was tied at 17 with Michigan. Nittany Lions fans were starting to wonder if they were going to find a way to lose to the worst Michigan football team in the history of the university and then they scored 29 consecutive points and covered the huge spread. Am I the only person who pictures Joe Pa giving the Russell Crowe Gladiator speech during a television commercial break? Via the sideline phone no less. How much would you pay to hear Joe Pa say, “At my signal, unleash hell.”

(It takes a while but the best single line of moviedom in the past ten years will come up eventually. Damn copyright lawyers ruining clips for the rest of us.)

4. Georgia outlasts Vandy 24-14. This game was ugly. And I know because I was nauseous and attempting to take a nap while watching this game from my car on Saturday afternoon. Earlier I’d spent the day touring the Thomas Wolfe home in Asheville. Don’t ask. But isn’t it amazing how teams can drop off the national radar so fast? Georgia is number 7 in the BCS standings and you’d think they’ve lost three games already. That will probably change beginning this weekend at LSU, but still, how have they disappeared so quickly?

In case you're wondering how the Gators are getting ready for the Cocktail Party, here's a rap about the awesomeness of beards from Gainesville. Every time I want to hate Florida fans, they go and pull off something amazing like this. Work your way through the opening half-minute and wait for the rap to begin. It's truly outstanding. As an added bonus watch for Joakim Noah, Al Horford, and Taurean Green to make cameos. Seriously.

5. On Friday Boise State beat Hawaii 32-7 to get to 6-0. Remember Boise State head coach Chris Petersen? You should. He’s about to become the hottest commodity among young head coaches in the country. Their only win by less than 13 was over Oregon at Oregon. They’re #15 in the country and will be favored to get to 12-0. Can they crash the BCS again? Oklahoma hopes not.

6. Texas Tech is 7-0 and still has played no one. Why can’t my team ever get a starting schedule like this to artificially inflate our expectations? But that’s all about to change. Starting this week Tech goes to Kansas (where they’ve opened as an early underdog), then they get Texas and Oklahoma State at home before a nice road trip to Oklahoma. Christ, is the negative karma from going to law school finally catching up with Mike Leach?

7. LSU proved they can win a big night game on the road. Unfortunately for them, this win means their home game against Georgia will now be an afternoon game for CBS. Somehow Les Miles will find a way to blame Matthew Stafford for this insult to the honor of the Bengal Tigers. Meaning I'm glad I'm not Matthew Stafford.

8. Remember how USC was favored by 43 on the road? Yeah, they covered by 26. 69-0 was the final. Washington State’s really clicking on all cylinders now. Can you imagine being a Washington State fan, putting money on your team, and then having to watch this debacle?

As if that weren't bad enough, word is the entire Washington State dance team fled Pullman to become Mark Sanchez's harem. Only Sanchez dropped them off in Sacramento because they weren't hot enough for LA.

9. Oklahoma's Sam Bradford threw for 468 yards against Kansas. What’s more, the Sooners put up 674 yards of total offense. How is that even possible with the new clock rules? Seriously, 674 yards. You’re thinking, they must have thrown the ball on every play. You’d be wrong. They passed 56 times, but they also ran the ball 44 times. Meaning they managed to run 100 offensive plays. The average team in college football is averaging about 64 this year. How did this happen? Especially because Kansas ran 72 plays themselves. It wasn’t like they turned the ball over on the first play every time. I have no idea how this game featured 172 plays. Anyway, Oklahoma won 45-31.

10. Ohio State eviscerated Michigan State. Meaning it might well be another twenty years before Michigan State gets to go back to the Rose Bowl. But they can still beat Michigan this weekend, right? State fans are kicking dirt clods outside their UP Winnebagos. Right? Meanwhile, Ohio State and Penn State decides the Rose Bowl for the Big Ten before November is even here.

11. UVA upset North Carolina in overtime. What if Al Groh won the ACC this year? Your world is spinning in reverse right now, isn’t it? UVA is now 2-1 in conference and has a chance to take over the Coastal Division lead with a game at Georgia Tech this weekend.

12. The first BCS standings are out. Texas and Alabama are in the top spots. Not for long. I personally guarantee a loss for Alabama this weekend in Knoxville. It’s happening. Write it down and remember who told you first. In fact, wager your life savings on the Alabama favored by 6 line. That worked very well for everyone who took my advice on Texas Tech-Nebraska. As a consolation prize in advance, this lovely Alabama girl has lost her top. Oh my. She must be cold.

That opening paragraph either made your pulse quicken or it didn’t. I get that everybody doesn’t love college football. Believe me, I know. I went to school on the East Coast where, at the time, CBS split telecasts between the Big East and the SEC. I can’t tell you how many times in college I sat cursing at my television screen because a game like Rutgers-Virginia Tech was pre-empting Tennessee-Alabama. I’ve sprinted through the streets of Georgetown, gotten on the damn Metro to ride to shady sports bars in Virginia, then gotten out and walked down the side of a busy highway to find an elusive sports bar that was showing my team.

Freshman year, we didn’t have televisions in our dorm at George Washington. There were few Southerners and there was one big screen in the lobby. Invariably the Southerners would make sure the television was free for football. Because, to be clear, college football is the greatest sport in America. I say that as someone who has experienced everything from English premier league soccer to NASCAR, a tennis major to the Masters, there is absolutely nothing in sporting life that compares to being on campus for a big-time college football game. Nothing.

That’s why I always find it so lame when people who’ve never experienced a college football game trot out excuses for why college football is overrated. Nine times out of ten those excuses will lead with, “There’s nothing else to do in (insert college football town here). That’s why people go.” First of all, that’s incredibly elitist and stupid. Do people go to Knicks game or Jets games because there’s nothing else to do in New York City? Of course not. They go for the same reason that everyone goes to sporting events; because we’re fans. And fans go to sporting events. It just so happens that Lincoln, Nebraska on a Saturday has a better sporting environment than any sporting event in New York City. And big city folk can’t handle that. Tough luck, it’s true.

Second, the fans are all dumb, rednecks, illiterate, (insert judgment here). Also, wrong. The average person attending a college football game has a college degree. Many have advanced degrees. Somewhere along the way college football fans have been inaccurately typecast as dumb in a way that NBA, NFL, MLB and college basketball fans never are. I’d put the average fan going to college football games in an intelligence test against the average fan going to any other American team sporting event. And I’d feel pretty comfortable that college football fans would win.

Third, the NFL is better than college. I’ve been to lots of NFL stadiums. The environment, the excitement, the vibe just doesn’t compare. Not even close. Oftentimes I’ll double up on a fall weekend, Vols on Saturday, Titans on Sunday. The NFL game is a pale shadow of college football’s fun. But you don’t have to take my word for it. If you’re a sports fan and you haven’t traveled to the SEC, the ACC, the Big Ten, or the Big 12 for a game, then you’re wasting your sporting life. Seriously, you are.

Notwithstanding all of this, as the leaves are falling down around us, as the short season sprints—with SEC speed— all too rapidly by, you like to think that there’s a timelessness to college football and that you're not getting any older. But you’re wrong. Here are 11 things that are guaranteed to happen to you this fall

1. Back in college you used to handle a loss to a rival with grace and dignity. You figured that losing would get even easier with age. Then you graduated went to work for five years on asbestos document review and are angrier now after a loss than you ever were. Lesson: beer and parties with attractive women make everything better.

2. You’re getting one year closer to being the old guy who hits on fat college chicks at your tailgate. Remember when you were in college and it always astounded you how the old guys would, without fail, hit on the most mediocre chicks when they walked past? Last year your buddy pointed out a fat chick and you guys all ogled her. Don’t bother denying it.

3. You'll refresh your debate about which college quarterback had the most sex with the largest collection of attractive women. Yet again, for the 8th consecutive year, you'll acknowledge the answer. Tim Couch. Seriously, Tim F'in Couch laid the pipe like the pipe has never been laid since.

4. Suddenly, one season, somebody is going to have a kid. And send out an email to all his friends saying he needs to go to a sports bar that doesn’t allow smoking so he can watch the opening college football games this Thursday. Because Comcast doesn’t carry goddamn ESPN U. That person is me this year. My seven-month old son is in good hands.

5. You’ll want to get in a fight with a rival fan. You probably won’t do it. At least you shouldn’t. Not if you value your job, your teeth, or your ability to explain to your wife why you should be allowed to go on the road with your buddies. But you’ll really, really want to.

6. Someone is going to suggest going by his old frat house. You really can’t do this. Fight, hard. Especially if you’re 30 or more and your own son isn’t a member there. But, you know what? You’re going to end up there. And ask them to sneak you into the KD house too.

7. If you're in the South, and you go to enough tailgates someone will offer you legit moonshine out of those jugs with four XXXX's on them. I kid you not. Some stereotypes are true. Drink more than a sip and risk your life.

8. One of your friends is going to turn down more to drink because, "I just can't handle the alcohol like I used to." Rage, rage, against the dying of the drinking light. Marshal all of your derisive skills until he continues drinking. If you must, spike his water with vodka. He knows not what he does.

9. Someone is going to send you a forward of a hot, naked girl from your school. And, for just a moment, you'll think, "Please Lord, don't let this be my daughter." Then you'll save the picture, email it to yourself and hide in on a shared computer with your wife under "2003 tax information."

10. Flush with the ability to magically walk around outdoors with a beer can in hand, you’re going to get into a debate about why there’s an open container law. You will be able to come up with no justification. Flush with this lack of justification you will claim that you’re going to start walking around with open containers everywhere. And then turn into a wuss when you get within 500 yards of a squad car and pour out your beer on a girl in a sundress.

11. As an apology to the girl in the sundress, you’re going to propose a national party for the start of college football season. It will be called, The Sundress Party and take place on open farmland somewhere in the South. Woodstock meets college football. Everyone will agree this is genius. Then it won’t happen…again.

But that will all be in the future. Because, in less than 24 hours, the greatest time of the year arrives. College football is back.

"I actually ran into Julio in the spring recruiting. I said hello to him. I said, 'Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you at the end of August.' And then he got out and got in his Escalade and drove off. That’s serious. And then I went over and watched (Alabama freshman) Burton Scott at Vigor High School at the track over there, and Burton Scott was running around. He went and got in his Escalade out at track practice and drove off. So I’m familiar with those two guys."

Koenning now says he was joking. Right. Jokes often contain the phrase, "That's serious." At least Alabama has a sterling record when it comes to NCAA compliance.

Tiger Tracks [Charleston Post and Courier]

Why, you ask, is a young and strapping (just ask my mom) Canadian man writing a Clemson Tigers football preview? Because I'm better than you, that's why. So shall we get down to business, I think we shall?

The Clemson Tigers have a lot of pressure on them this year, they play in South Carolina, a state where going 1-3 against ranked opponents last season and not winning a bowl game since 2006 just don't fly.

(Seriously look at their flag, are they muslim? I thought they still had the confederate thing going on.)

Regardless, the purple and orange have re-up'd their head coach Tommy Bowden for another 4 years but if Clemson doesn't live up to at least SOME of their lofty expectations this year Bowden may be looking for work elsewhere. So as the AP preseason poll have the Tigers ranked 9th lets take a look at what's good and what's bad down in Pickens County.

GOOD:
-Cullen Harper: a 6'4 220 lb beer swillin' (only a guess), football throwin' machine. Harper was money last year, throwing 27 touchdowns to only 6 interceptions. As Harper goes through his senior season he should complete his maturation process and maybe, possibly, conceivably could become a candidate for the Heisman if not a 1st round draft pick in next year's NFL draft, maybe. He would have to perform better against ranked opponents (Harper threw 3 of his 6 INTs against ranked opponents in 07) but when you face facts Harper is the best quarterback in the ACC, fo sho.

-Senior James Davis and Junior CJ Spiller running the ball: Sharing the rock has been a staple of good college football teams in the past, Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams come to mind. Put quite simply, Davis and Spiller are expected to tear shit up this year. It would not be a surprise to see Spiller and Davis each reach 1000 yards on the ground. Last year they came close with Davis putting up 1064 yards and Spiller coming close with 768 yards. Not only that but 20 pounds separates this tandem so we can't call them "Thunder and Lightning", thank god because I'm so sick of that nickname for running back duos, I much prefer "Moose and Squirrel" and hope to enter it to the football lexicon soon.

BAD:

The law: The Clemson Tigers, like many other ACC football teams, are having a pickle of a time trying to keep their players out of the clink. Case in point; DeAndre McDaniel may face time for assault and battery charges laid against him by a female Clemson student, I heard something about a pillow case over the head but these are just rumors people. McDaniels did recently agree to do PTI, not Tony and Wilbon but what's called a "pre-trial intervention". According to the Charleston Post and Courier the PTI would involve getting McDaniel "…to deal with his frustration without pounding on someone." Oh irony, is there anything you cannot make hilarious?

-The offensive line: Bottom line is this; Tommy Bowden may start up to 3 freshmen on the O-line, yikes. The ACC is renowned for pumping out some of the best defensive linemen in the country and having these young'ns try and stop the front line of Miami, Florida State or Virginia Tech could get ugly. Lets move to audio-visual stimulation.

Imagine the cheerleader is Cullen Harper, the piece of paper is the Clemson O-line and the players are, well, players. It may look something like this:

I never get sick of that.

-Death Valley: We, as college football fans, cannot allow multiple stadiums to have the same nicknames. LSU and Clemson need to play each other for the right to call their stadium Death Valley, this must happen.

UGLY:-
Wendy's: I was told I would get a paragraph to bash someone or something or some such. So I choose Wendy's. I know their square burgers are the envy of the fast food world but Wendy is a fickle bitch. Why is it that everytime Ms. Wendy comes out with a new and delicious sandwich she only takes it away from those who love it after a month? Most recently many of my burger eating chums lamented the loss of the Spicy Baconator. To me, a Wendy's vet, it was nothing new. Oh, I remember the days of the Wild Mountain Chicken Sandwich and how she snatched that away from our hands. Wendy stop playing with our grease covered hearts!

-Spurrier:

He's just checking if he remembered to wipe…mmm the smell of failure

Loud whispers out of Blacksburg mention that Sean Glennon could *FINALLY* have that elusive Breakout Year, but pretty much every fan knows it will just end up being a venereal disease. The fifth year redshirt senior might be the greatest practice QB in the history of Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (sorry Don Strock). But once he takes a hit, bad things happen. When the offense is already too young and has to pull running backs off the street due to two-year starter Brandon Ore hanging out with coke dealers and not working at 7-11 in the offseason instead to motivate himself, a good senior QB with three years of starting experience could keep things together. Instead, he makes watching two buffalo fornicate in the dark look entertaining. Sorry to be bitter, but his ineptitude contributed a large part to single-handedly squandering the greatest class of wide receivers that Tech has ever attained.

The running game has been VT’s bread-and-butter for as long as I remember. That was back in the late 80s/early 90s when kids got in free to watch them possibly win a close game against Bowling Green. Fifteen straight bowl games and not too many bowl wins later, Virginia Tech treads water somewhere between relevancy and overrated. However, something strange has happened of late. The running game stopped functioning.

Offensive Coordinator Brian Stinespring acts like Sean Payton after finding some Southwest Virginia meth and tries to run a dual-QB spread offense system when clearly the personnel are not present to run it. It does not take a UVA-Charlottesville diploma, or even a UVA-Wise one, (even though VT’s engineering program is much better) to figure out that their success depends on a mobile QB (sorry Jim Drunkenraper). From Maurice DeShazo to the new hotness, Tyrod “T-Mobile” Taylor, this has been the type of player to bandage the leaky sieve that is the offensive line or pick up the slack when your running backs and wide receivers might have just picked up their high school diplomas. Jahre Cheeseman stands alone as the next tailback to hopefully get this rushing offense back in gear, and with the help of a more experienced offensive line (or maybe Tyrod just makes them look better?), the offense might give fans something to look forward to this year. Just keep the clipboard in Glennon’s hands.

Scheduling-wise, the Fighting Gobblers and fans could be in for a rough year. Ballgames against Furman, Western Kentucky, and Duke are locks. It’s too bad every road game is in question, which includes trips to old buddy Butch and his band of miscreants, Nebraska, the Boston Jesuits, Free Shoes University, and The U. Whenever the Frenchies from Exit 118 on I-64 play the team off Exit 118 on I-81, it’s basically a lock as well since Al Groh is more concerned with tucking in his sweatshirt, churning assistant coaches, and recruiting future draft picks since they play in that 3-4 thingamajig. That said, I am a big fan of www.dontfirealgroh.com. At least, he isn’t the highest paid state employee in Virginia anymore; the usurper lives in Blacksburg. The Commonwealth Cup is getting dusty over here, but that could be because Brandon Ore left town.

The Hokies somehow have always exceeded expectations when there were little. My extremely cynical projection puts them with a 9-3 regular season record and another trip to the ACC Championship Game due to the ACC being the ACC. That game will be against Climpson or Wake Forest, who they fortunately dominate. So, another BCS game could be in their future, but an actual win is another matter. But everyone should look on the bright side: if Matty Ice did not pull that Thursday Night comeback last year, Sean Glennon would have started at QB in the BCS National Championship Game.

And by “go to college” I mean commit felonies. Well, Mike Detellier has broken down NFL starters by their college conference. And while there is no big surprise, the SEC leads with 137 projected starters, there are some really surprising positional breakdowns. Coming in second after the SEC? Shockingly, BCS whipping boy, the ACC with 121. Followed by the Big Ten with 105, Big 12 with 72, Pac 10 with 70 and the mighty Big East clocked in with a robust 33. Yeah, but Ray Rice is awesome (and not starting)!

For the record, the entire Big East had fewer NFL starters than Tennessee and Georgia (a combined 39).

Which speedy conference has the most starting wide receivers? The plodding Big Ten of course with 13. Interestingly the SEC most outclasses the collegiate competition at defensive end with 17 NFL starters. But pass rushing in college is overrated. Don’t believe me? Ask Troy Smith.

What conferences are the NFL starters coming from? [HoumaToday]

Looking at the pairings, it doesn't look pretty. Wisconsin looks like the most likely winner, with Indiana, Penn State, Northwestern and, yes, our Illini, whose best two players are hurt and aren't particularly strong this year anyway. We're still stuck on the ultimate ACC/Big Ten Challenge from two years ago anyway; if Luther Head would have hit that late 3-pointer, we're convinced they would have won. They would! They would!

Anyway, we know this is an ESPN-created event, but, jeez, these days, what isn't? It means college basketball is upon us, and, as you might remember from our NCAA Tournament orgy last year, we kind of love the college basketball. Just remember to hit mute: Vitale's still alive, after all.

Michigan: The Defense Rests [Big Ten Wonk]

• 1. Virginia Tech: Smell The Excitement. Exactly 66 players on Virginia Tech's spring roster have a redshirt year on their resume. That's impressive when you consider that 14 players from last season are on NFL rosters right now. But there's another reason to be excited about being a Hokie these days; the school's rare Stinky Plant is going to bloom any minute. You don't want to miss this! (Thanks to Jennifer Bowman and Heath Sorey).

• 2. The Fabric Of Tradition. Florida State-Miami gets all of the attention, but Clemson-Georgia Tech is also a great football rivalry. Between 1996 and 2005, nine of the 10 games have been decided by seven points or less. Meanwhile, Clemson's annual game with North Carolina State is known as the Textile Bowl.

• 3. Georgia Not On His Mind. John Richt, the 16-year old son of Georgia head coach Mark Richt, has received his first scholarship offer, from Clemson. The younger Richt is a junior quarterback at Prince Avenue Christian in Athens, Ga.

• 4. Plenty Of Seats Still Available. What's the best place to watch an ACC game? The Sporting News recently ranked the ACC football stadiums, and coming in at No. 1 was ... Florida State. Last place? Duke.