Nebraska is set to join what is still being called the Big Ten conference in 2011, and the powers that be running that league have announced that they will play a championship game at the end of that season, according to reports coming out of the Big Ten’s media day.

Even with the pursuit of additional schools on hold, integrating a 12th team is a multi-pronged issue. The most urgent matter is deciding how to divide teams into divisions to allow for a championship game, which Delany expects to be played starting in 2011.

With league powers Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State among the eastern-most schools, a geography-based setup would be problematic.

“Geography is important,” Delany said. “It’s going to be a consideration, but it’s not the first consideration. Our athletic directors, many of whom coached and some of whom played, want competitive equality as best they can get it.” –Columbus Dispatch.

Oh, and never mind Nebraska, who brings its own sort of geographic issues. You know that they’ve done scientific testing to show that Nebraska literally is flatter than a pancake. Oh wait, that was Kansas. Whatever. You know what they say about those plain states. They all look alike.

We might see some NCAA conference shuffling before the week is out; one report cites “[a]n executive at a Big 12 school” claiming that Nebraska could join the Big Ten Conference by the end of the week.

Direct confirmation from Nebraska of a conference change for the Huskers wasn’t immediately available. Sources at two other Big 12 schools told The World-Herald that their athletic directors have instructed them to be ready by week’s end for a briefing on probable Big 12 changes.

Nebraska A.D. Tom Osborne offered implicit confirmation Tuesday night that the timetable on national conference realignment has been accelerated. –Omaha World-Herald.

Apparently, they’re not the only ones. The Big Ten told everyone to wait 12 to 18 months before the conference announced any real plans regarding expansion. That earlier timetable, combined with this report makes this all the fishier.

If Nebraska joins the Big Ten, they’ll become the western-most school in the conference. The Lincoln campus is a five-hour drive to the nearest Big Ten school, Iowa. Lincoln is not a Top 100 TV market; this report has the area ranked 105th. And even though Nebraska is a Tier 1 national university, their score in the US News and World Report rankings would make them the worst-ranked school in the conference academically. There’s nothing attractive about Nebraska as a Big Ten candidate, and don’t even get me started on the corn-fed coeds.

But who cares about all of that; everyone’s worked up about whether or not the Big Ten, either with eleven teams or twelve, will rename itself. My old friend J.D. suggested the “Great Big Conference.” I personally am a fan of the “Big-Assed Conference.” Probably because it has the word “ass” in it. I’m so mature.

Texas Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy almost cost his team a shot at the national title…with an incomplete pass. Just before the Longhorns kicked a last-second field goal, McCoy threw a high-arching pass out of bounds as time–or so everyone thought, expired.

McCoy says he thought the clock stopped on a pass out of bounds as soon as it crossed the first-down marker. Had he known the rule, he says, he wouldn’t have floated a long and high pass over the bench area that didn’t touch down until it appeared to hit a railing near the stands.

After McCoy’s pass, the clock hit :00 and the Cornhuskers began to celebrate. But one second was put back on after officials looked at a replay, enough time for Texas to kick the winning field goal. –the monolith.

McCoy didn’t even know that that was in the rulebook. And I only bring this up because Texas might be the worst No. 2 to ever make the national title game since Oklahoma in 2003 to play for the BCS title. Here’s hoping that McCoy throws one more incomplete, and that Nebraska juggernaut Ndamukong Suh–and not McCoy–walks out with the first-ever Heisman Trophy won by an exclusively defensive player. Read the rest of this entry »

Such is the itinerary for Nebraska’s Tara Mueller…Mueller? Mueller? Busted Coverage caught wind of the Scottsdale (AZ) junior dabbling in the pro beach circuit as a sort of de facto collegiate “sand volleyball” preview. Sadly, a lot of previews turn out to be a giveaway for the feature attraction. I doubt that’s the case here. See the whole gallery at BC. My favorites are here.