When the SEC and Big XII announced their plans to commit their highest ranked teams to meet in a new bowl game, it opened up lots of possibilities for the next iteration of the college football postseason. Last week, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott threw the Plus-One format back into consideration. Think about it: college football is centering itself around four conferences now. The SEC is at 14 teams, while the Pac-12 and Big Ten have 12 members each. The Big XII is still at 10 members, but many ACC schools are currently flirting really hard to make the move.

If you've got the four major conferences already committed to two bowl games, you've essentially got your semi-final matchups set. At least, that's the thought with the Plus-One model. Or that weird three-game model the Big Ten threw out there. Throw the independents and minor conferences a bone; the top two teams that aren't one of the four power conference champions go to a third bowl, and the national championship game gets the top two teams after the bowl games.

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Phil Steele has been gradually releasing his top 30 as the release of his college football preview magazine approaches. Saturday, he unveiled Nebraska at #17, which seems to be in line with the general thought for 2012. The SB Nation BlogPoll has the Huskers #18, for example. Even more importantly, Steele seems to favor the Huskers to win the Big Ten's West division.

Seven of my 9 sets of PR's call for a DD win ssn and the Huskers have a great shot at getting to the B10 Title game.

If you've ever read Steele's magazine, you recognize his abbreviations for trying to cram as much information onto as few pages as possible. But it's clear that he thinks Nebraska will win at least 10 games and considers the Huskers a tentative favorite to make it to the Big Ten's championship game. Michigan is ranked #22 in his rankings and Michigan State is #19. I suppose it's technically possible for Iowa, Northwestern, or Minnesota to suddenly appear in his top 15...but the odds of that are pretty low.

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Tom Osborne re-recruited Jamie Williams back to Lincoln this week. The former Husker and NFL tight end is joining the athletic department as associate athletic director of diversity and leadership initiatives after a six year stint at the San Francisco Industry of Art as the founding athletic director for the division II school. Among his responsibilities in Lincoln will be

• Manage diversity and inclusion programs within the department.
• Create a "leadership development program" for staff and athletes
• Oversee the department's long-term "strategic plan."

Tom Shatel of the Omaha World-Herald sees this appointment as the grooming of a successor to Tom Osborne. Steven M. Sipple of the Lincoln Journal-Star still thinks Paul Meyers is the heir apparent. For what it's worth, chancellor Harvey Perlman says that there will be a national search when it's time to replace Osborne, and frankly, Osborne isn't going anywhere just yet. And from my perspective, Osborne won't be voluntarily retiring anytime in the near future.

But let's suppose that Osborne gets run over by a bus (or Ndamakong Suh, for that matter)...who would be the other candidates to be Nebraska's next athletic director?

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Phil Steele released his 2012 preseason all-Big Ten team on Wednesday, with three Huskers being named to the first team. Guard Spencer Long was second team all-Big Ten in 2011 as a sophomore, so he's no surprise to jump to the first team. Neither are senior I-back Rex Burkhead and senior punter/kicker Brett Maher, who were first-team selections last season. Sophomores Kenny Bell and Ameer Abdullah earned second team all-Big Ten honors at wide receiver and kick returner respectively.

It's not until you get to the third team before you see any Blackshirts. Seniors Baker Steinkuhler (defensive tackle), Cameron Meredith (defensive end), Will Compton (linebacker), and Daimion Stafford (safety) all get a mention. I'm not going to criticize Steele for these selections, but let's be honest, that's not what we should see from a Bo Pelini defense. If no Blackshirts earn first or second team honors in December, then it's likely that Husker fans will be grumbling over another season of unmet expectations.

Guess who else earned third-team honors? Quarterback Taylor Martinez, which points out the vast dichotomy of opinions on the junior signal caller. Some fans want Martinez benched, while others are honoring him. Also honored on the fourth team was junior offensive lineman Andrew Rodriquez. That's an interesting selection since senior Seung Hoon Choi took most of the snaps with the first team in the spring.

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On Monday, the Big Ten announced the conference football schedules for 2015 and 2016. The big news is that besides designated-rival Penn State, Nebraska will face Indiana and Wisconsin as the three games from the Big Ten's Eastern Division. (No, we're still not using "Leaders"; they are generally the eastern teams, so they are the Eastern Division.) Purdue and Illinois fall off the schedule, and Ohio State won't be seen again in a regular season game until 2017. Of course, conference realignment may make all of this a moot point, so don't make any travel plans based on this.

Looking that far in advance, it's really an exercise in futility to try and gauge schedule strength; the seniors on these teams either just signed their letter of intent or are still being recruited. A lot can change, and it's likely that many teams will have new coaching staffs by then. But gauging by past history, the cross-division games for the Western Division teams appear fairly balanced. Michigan draws Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio State; that has the potential to be tougher than Nebraska's draw. Michigan State draws Ohio State, Indiana, and Penn State; will Ohio State be better than Wisconsin by then? Buckeye fans hope so, but that's probably a wash. Iowa may get a bit of a break with Purdue, Illinois, and Penn State. Minnesota gets Purdue and both Ohio State and Wisconsin; that's probably a tough draw for the Gophers. On the basis of history, Northwestern looks to catch a break by drawing Purdue, Indiana, and Illinois.

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The SEC and Big XII stunned the college football world on Friday by announcing that they've reached an agreement to pair up their conference champions in a bowl game starting in 2014. Paired with the Rose Bowl and their agreement with the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences, these four conferences have now separated themselves from the ACC and Big East. Conference expansion may be ready to enter round three as Florida State is now considering jumping from the ACC to the Big 12. Suddenly the conference that everybody couldn't wait to abandon now is now the conference that everybody wants to join. That's the wacky world of conference realignment.

No doubt about it that this agreement raises the viability and visibility of the Big XII. Matching up the conference champions in a bowl game brings the Big XII prestige and a huge payday. The SEC is currently on top of the college football world, and when this bowl game goes out to bid, it'll command rights fees that will undoubtedly dwarf what the Rose Bowl pays. Yeah, there won't be the tradition of the Tournament of Roses parade, but the potential of matching up Oklahoma with LSU or Alabama in a bowl game automatically trumps what the Rose Bowl usually provides.

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The Big Ten Conference announced that the 2013 Big Ten Baseball Tournament will be held at Minneapolis' Target Field and the 2014 tournament will be held at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha. Both sites raised eyebrows from people who feel that both parks are too big for the Big Ten tournament. Based on past history, those critics may have a point. But I think those critics may be missing a signal from the Big Ten that baseball needs to be B1G-ger.

When Nebraska joined the Big Ten, baseball experts told us that irregardless of how much the move makes sense for football, it was a bad move for baseball. The Big Ten's track record in baseball has been horrid in recent years; it's tough for northern schools to compete when the southern schools don't have to wait for the ground to thaw to play home games. Other than the automatic bid the tournament champion receives, the Big Ten is a non-factor in the regionals. Only four Big Ten teams have advanced to the Super Regionals since 1999. And the College World Series? Not since 1984.

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Once again, the College Football Hall-of-Fame has selected fourteen candidates to be inducted, and once again, former Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier was omitted from the list. Frazier, along with Eric Crouch and Trev Alberts, apparently wasn't even eligible to be inducted, according to ESPN's Ivan Maisel, despite being on the ballot:

The College Football Hall of Fame began to announce the Class of 2012 Monday by revealing the selection of BYU quarterback Ty Detmer on College Football Live. The remainder will be announced Tuesday. Why does it take so long for a Heisman winner like Detmer (1990) to be elected? Math. There are 22 All-Americans every year. The Hall inducts 12-14 annually. It must select all positions and from all regions. And the Hall has a rule against taking players from the same school in consecutive years.

Will Shields was inducted last season, so that meant no Huskers could be inducted in 2012. Sounds like a silly rule, but if you are going to have a rule like that, why even put the names of Frazier, Crouch, or Alberts on the ballot in the first place? Why raise people's expectations when they aren't even going to be considered?

The idea that Frazier is not in any Hall of Fame that claims to represent the best of college football is simply absurd. Yes, Husker fans are biased in that regard...so I won't make that case. I'll let others make that case:

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ESPN.com blogger Adam Rittenberg recapped the Huskers' spring practice with three answers and three questions that still remain. My first take is to ask ask how anybody can really judge the Huskers spring practice without a spring game, but then I quickly reminded myself that the spring game is now much more exhibition than evaluation. Even if we had seen a spring game, we'd still be dependent on the same quotes from coaches and players to get any sort of feel as to the progress of the program.

In answers, Rittenberg calls out the secondary, the receivers, and Will Compton. While I'm optimistic about these areas, I'm not sure how anybody can label theses areas as "answered." Will the secondary be better, even with having to replace Alfonzo Dennard? It's certainly possible. We have no idea how good Mohammed Seisay can be, let alone will be... but with a spring practice to get himself familiarized with the scheme, I have to expect him to be serviceable at worst.

So why the optimism after a sub-par season in 2011? Everything seems to revolve around new assistant Terry Joseph. Nobody seems to want to directly throw former secondary coach Corey Raymond under the bus, but you do get the impression that everybody is excited about Joseph. Can Nebraska be better? Yes, but that's not assured. Change does not always mean things will get better, and frankly, for as bad as the secondary played last season, it is possible to get worse (*cough*Cosgrove*cough*)

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For many younger Husker fans, Bob Devaney is just a name. A meaningful name, memorialized in the Devaney Center for basketball, mind you. But they don't remember the man who really is the Bobfather of Nebraska athletics. But recent events bring him back to mind. Tippy Dye, who brought Devaney to Lincoln from Wyoming, passed away last month at age 97. Dye was Nebraska's athletic director from 1962-1967, handing over the reigns of the entire athletic department to Devaney at that time. Devaney was athletic director from 1967 to 1993, who was replaced by Bill Byrne, who retired from Texas A&M earlier this week.

So if you think Nebraska's three national championships in the 1990's are ancient history, you likely don't have an appreciation for Bob Devaney. But make no bones about it - without Bob Devaney, Nebraska football would not be what it is today. Heck, it might not even be what Iowa State football is today. Nebraska would not be a member of the Big Ten; heck, the Huskers might not even be in the Big XII. Maybe the Mountain West or Conference USA.

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After Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin announced last week that Bill Byrne would not be retained past the end of his contract in 2013, it was only a matter of time before Byrne tried to find a dignified way to leave College Station. The 66 year old athletic director has called a press conference for today to announce his retirement.

Byrne's record at A&M was mixed, much like his 11 year record at Nebraska. Byrne was best known for building up the non-revenue sports at both schools. He hired Dave Van Horn for Husker baseball and Connie Yori for Husker women's basketball; both great hires. At A&M, he hired Gary Blair, who led the Aggies women's basketball program to a national title.

At both schools, he was a builder of facilities, such as the west stadium skyboxes at Memorial Stadium and Haymarket Park. At A&M, he led expansions at Kyle Field.

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Nebraska-Lincoln chancellor Harvey Perlman talked to ESPN.com Thursday about the changes under consideration for college football's postseason. Perlman has long been outspoken in favor of the current BCS system, and he was quick to throw water on a lot of the speculation about where things are going:

"We've had some informal meetings, the Big Ten presidents and the Pac-12 presidents, and I think we're largely aligned in thinking a plus-one with a different ranking after the bowl games to select No. 1 and 2 would be acceptable. Our second choice would probably be a four-team playoff inside the bowls. Our highest priority is to preserve the status of the Rose Bowl and our connection to it."

"I don't think we would be very enthusiastic about any of the other options."

And then there was this lulu:

"I can't figure out a good reason to have a playoff to start with."

It's easy to read too much into Perlman's statements. He is, after all, a leader in the BCS....but Perlman wasn't speaking as a BCS leader. He mentioned the Big Ten and Pac-12 presidents specifically. He doesn't mention what the Big XII leaders think, nor what the leaders of SEC and ACC schools think.

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As we move away from spring practice and the quiet time of summer, football writers have to start manufacturing content to fill space. We're not above that either, as you'll find in the summer months here at CN. The Sporting News' Steve Greenberg started early by beginning to rank coaches. In his Big Ten rankings, Bo Pelini came in sixth on his list. Yep...sixth.

I have no issues with the first two names on Greenberg's list. Urban Meyer has two crystal footballs on his resume. He's a lock for the top spot. Following Meyer is Bret Bielema at Wisconsin; two straight Big Ten championships earn you that spot.

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One of the toughest aspects of the Big Ten to accept is the Rose Bowl obsession. Prior to June 2010, Husker fans were like the rest of college football in mocking of the Rose Bowl. Sure, its the Big Ten's tradition...but it's a tradition that continually frustrates the rest of the college football world. Prior to the BCS, the Rose Bowl stood as the obstacle to numerous #1-versus-#2 matchups. Without the Big Ten's commitment to the Rose Bowl, Nebraska's 1994 and 1997 national championships wouldn't have had as much controversy. (And yes, Nebraska would have won the title both seasons, no matter what Penn State and Michigan fans delude themselves into thinking.)

Lee Barfknecht of the Omaha World-Herald wrote this week that the "Bloom (was) off the Rose for Big Ten Teams". With the rest of the college football world finally accepting a playoff starting in 2014, the Rose Bowl will simply become less relevant and less meaningful. That doesn't mean that the Rose Bowl should go away either; it can still exist, it just can't be the ultimate goal for Big Ten teams.

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ESPN relaunched their College GameDay Commercial Contest this morning with a few minor changes. You have to log in via Facebook; they didn't try to repair their broken e-mail system. If you don't have a Facebook account (or don't want to expose your Facebook information to ESPN), you can't participate.

A "captcha" is now in place for each vote; it's one of those things where they show you a scribbled word that you have to type in. That will slow down any robots as well.

The biggest change is that they will only release vote totals once a day at noon. If someone tries to hack the system, you won't be able to tell. And if you try to hack the system, you won't know if you were really successful. It's a smart move by ESPN, as it keeps everybody guessing. I've never understood why people show live voting in these contests; it would seem to serve cheaters more than the legitimate participants.

So the vote is on... If you want to share your Facebook bio with ESPN, start voting now!

Stuart Mandel of Sports Illustrated writes this morning that while using the college football bowl games for semifinals is still the leading proposal, campus sites are still under consideration. The leading proposal is to use six bowls, each with a tie to a BCS conference. The top two teams in the playoffs will be assigned to their appropriate bowl based on their tie-ins. (An SEC team would go to the Sugar Bowl, a Pac-12 team to the Rose, etc.) Those two bowls would become the national semi-finals. The next two teams would be assigned to those two bowls, and then after that, the rest of the bowls would be set up around it.

The interesting idea is that there would now be six BCS bowls, all playing on December 31st, January 1st, and January 2nd. In recent years, the bowls have strung out into the first week of January, and have given the NHL traction with their Winter Classic outdoor hockey game. So there is a desire to "reclaim New Years Day". I assume the idea is to play two games on New Years Eve, three on New Years Day, and one on the day after New Years.

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Sean Callahan of HuskerOnline/Rivals ($$$) and Steven M. Sipple of the Lincoln Journal-Star both report tonight that sophomore-to-be I-back Aaron Green plans to transfer from Nebraska. Callahan says that Green's father says that they are looking to play in an offense that would use Aaron Green in space. Sipple adds that Green is looking to play closer to home. He's looking at Oklahoma, TCU, Houston, Baylor, and Texas Tech.

With Green's departure, that leaves Rex Burkhead and fellow sophomore-to-be Ameer Abdullah as experienced I-backs. Junior transfer Mike Marrow is also on the roster, as is incoming freshman Imari Cross. Marrow is a big back at 6'2" and 250 pounds. Incoming freshman Imani Cross from Gainesville, Georgia will also join the program this summer; he's a 6'2" 210 pound back who rushed for 1,698 yards and 24 touchdowns as a senior in high school.

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BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock essentially signed the current BCS format's death certificate on Wednesday by proclaiming that the "status quo is off the table." The current BCS television deal expires after the 2013 season, and the negotiations are to determine what will exist starting in 2014. And it now seems like a given that there will be some sort of playoff. There's still a thought that a Plus-1 could still exist; that's the format where a championship game is determined following the bowl games. Bowl aficionados still like that approach because it preserves the bowls...but it's still not a playoff. It doesn't clear the controversy from last season when two teams have similar resumes and one gets aced out of the competition for the title game. Last year, it was Oklahoma State and Alabama. Husker fans remember the outcry over 2001, where Oregon and Colorado fans were outraged after Nebraska edged them out for a title game berth.

The clubhouse leader appears to be some sort of four-team seeded playoff; the debate seems to be shifting from "if" to "how". Several proposals have been raised: home fields, bowls, neutral sites. Even how teams are being selected is up for discussion. Does the BCS formula get tweaked, bringing back strength of schedule? Does the BCS switch to a selection committee?

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Voting in ESPN's College GameDay Campus Commercial Contest was halted Tuesday after a inauspicious first day of voting. Voting was fast and furious in the early stages, and the numbers were staggering. By 11:00 pm Monday night, North Carolina State and Texas A&M were well out in the lead with over 400,000 votes each. For comparison, Nebraska only had 56,771 votes at that point. Was that a sign of the fervor of Wolfpack or Aggie fans? Hardly.

It was a sign of just how badly ESPN implemented this contest. It was just begging to be hacked, and that's just what a few N.C. State and Texas A&M fans did. Within a few hours, ESPN began restricting voting, but the damage was done. Tuesday morning, ESPN completely stopped the voting, posting the following message:

We've Been Overwhelmed With The Fan Response! We're Taking a Time Out to Ensure the Integrity of the Vote. Check Back for Updates.

And voting is still halted at this time. What went wrong?

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The Big Ten conference has announced that Nebraska will play in three Saturday night football games on the ABC/ESPN family of networks. On Saturday, September 29th, the Huskers will host Wisconsin at 7 pm central time. One week later, the Huskers travel to Bo Pelini's alma mater to play Ohio State at 7 pm central time on Saturday, October 6th. Three weeks after that, Michigan makes it's first-ever appearance in Memorial Stadium and it's first trip to Lincoln since 1911 for a 7 pm kickoff on October 27th.

The exact network is still to be determined, but it will be either ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2.

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The Detroit News reports today that Nebraska's $392 is the second highest priced season ticket for football in the Big Ten. Only Ohio State is higher, charging $560 for 8 games. That's $14 higher on a per-game basis. Trailing Nebraska in ticket prices are Michigan ($390), Iowa ($388), and Penn State ($385), which all are $1 or less than Nebraska per game. Nebraska doesn't vary their ticket price for season ticket holders per game; it's $56 whether it's Michigan or Idaho State. For visiting fans as well as fans buying single game tickets, the price does vary. Last season, Chattanooga tickets were only $55 while Big Ten conference games (and Washington as well) were $70.

That's actually on the low end for single game prices anymore. In Nebraska's final years in the Big XII, opponents regularly used to hike the ticket prices they charged for the Nebraska game. In recent years, I was appalled by the prices being charged by opponents as they regularly exceeded what the price would be if the game was in Lincoln. I've been voting with my wallet, preferring to watch games on television at some of the more ridiculous prices.

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Shortly after 2 am Saturday morning, former Nebraska cornerback Alfonzo Dennard was arrested after an incident near 14th & O Street. According to WOWT-Channel 6, Dennard hit another man outside the Hour Lounge bar shortly after closing time. KOLN-Channel 10 reports that Dennard then got into an argument with another man. An officer tried to arrest Dennard who resisted. Four officers eventually subdued Dennard and took the NFL prospect into custody. He is suspected of third degree assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, and third degree assault.

Dennard had been considered a top ten cornerback in next week's NFL draft. Shutdown Corner ranked Dennard #27 on their list of NFL draft picks. Prognosticators have predicted that Dennard would be selected somewhere between the late first round and the third round. That is, until this incident. NFL teams will no doubt be reconsidering Dennard and asking more questions in the coming days. It should go without saying that this hurts Dennard's potential to be an earlier pick in the draft, though we'll have to wait and see just what, if any, charges will actually be filed in the coming days.

Next week, the leaders of the college football world will sit down in South Florida for their annual meetings. For the first time since the talk of real change started to emerge will the BCS conference commissioners sit down to discuss the various proposals with athletic directors, bowl officials, and television executives. Everybody has heard the ideas, but if you listen to what the bowl officials are saying, they've been kept out of the loop. Is that a sign that the bowl system may have lost it's death grip on college football?

Perhaps. Kevin Ash, chief administrative officer of the Rose Bowl, told Sports Illustrated's Stuart Mandel that they first heard of the controversial "two-semifinal plus the Rose Bowl" proposal in the media.

"That was the first we ever heard of that model..." "We're not at the table," said Ash. "Our [conference] partners are at the table."

Of course, that proposal was probably thrown out there to mollify the traditionalists in the Big Ten who worry that Jim Delany is somehow abandoning the Rose Bowl. SEC commissioner Mike Slive pretty much brushed that idea aside.

"It's not one of my favorites," Slive said Monday. "I think what we're trying to do is simplify in many ways, and I don't think that adds to the simplification of the postseason."

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If you happened to watch Michigan's spring game on BTN (while waiting for Noah's Ark to begin boarding on 10th Street in Lincoln), you may have noticed that Michigan had painted "#GOBLUE" on the 25 yard line. Michigan thus joined a number of sports franchises who promote "social media" on the field. What's this "social media" thing? Personally, I hate the term; the only people I hear use the term are web marketing "experts" who follow the latest trends. In a nutshell, it's a bucket term that encompasses all of the new ways we communicate electronically. First it was e-mail, then message boards and web sites. Then it was MySpace. Now, it's Facebook and Twitter. (And for Google employees only, Google+.) If you are on the bleeding edge, there's Foursquare and Pinterest.

But how prevalent are these tools? Many people are on Facebook, but not as many people actively use Twitter. The two tools are different; Facebook is more conversational IMHO, while Twitter is more of an immediate broadcast venue. Though conversations can ensue on Twitter, if you caught my Twitter war with KOZN radio's Mike'l Severe last night..it's a venue that's better for broadcasting information. People use it for different reasons: some people use it to interact with famous people, whether it's Justin Bieber or athletes, while others use it as a news source. I personally use it more as a news source than anything; I don't really follow any athlete or star other than Bo Pelini...and he doesn't really use Twitter. I know a lot of fans follow Husker players on Twitter; I personally don't find 99% of what the players tweet about to be all that interesting. But that's just me. Heck, this morning Brian Rosenthal remarked about the number of Husker fans who suddenly follow basketball prospect Jahlil Okafor on Twitter. It also drew this admonishment from the athletic department, who noted that fans who interact with recruits on Twitter could be violating NCAA rules. All the more reason to me to not follow these guys on Twitter.

And when a player DOES say something interesting, someone surely will retweet it...and I'll probably get it anyway.

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While spring games technically are a football game, it's really a scrimmage. Nobody really cares who wins, except maybe the players who are playing for pride. Why do Husker fans bother? For some of us, it marks the midway point of a long offseason. If the weather is good, it's a fine day to tailgate and get together with friends like you might do in the fall. For families, it's a chance to introduce the kids to Nebraska football at a reasonable price. Cheap tickets, and if the kids distract you during the game, who cares...you didn't miss a real game. Plus at halftime, they get to go down on the field and run around. Go ahead and take that picture of your son in the end zone.

And of course, it's a chance to see young players who haven't had a chance to take the field in a real game...plus a chance to see how individual players have developed during the offseason. The playbook is simplified, so you aren't going to get a read on what the offense would be like. But you can try to compare individual players and see if anybody catches your eye. Sometimes it's a Kyler Reed, who lived up to being "THAT GUY" in the 2009 game. Sometimes, though, it's Antonio Bell, who starred in the spring game on offense, only to be buried on the depth chart then move to cornerback. And sometimes it's Jamal Turner, who bought into too much of the hype from last year's spring game.

So who are the guys I'll be trying to keep an eye on?

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I'm not sure many people in the media really thought Arkansas would fire Bobby Petrino. Oh sure, there were plenty of reasons why, but there's also a 21-5 record the last two years. And in the SEC, winning is what matters. So when Jeff Long shocked the sports world by announcing that there are some things that won't be tolerated in the SEC, the media had to start speculating quickly about who Arkansas would hire. Pete Thamel of the New York Times started by naming names: Iowa State's Paul Rhoads, Baylor's Art Briles, and TCU's Gary Patterson all made sense. So does former Arkansas assistant and new Arkansas State head coach Gus Malzahn.

And then Bo Pelini.

Why Bo Pelini? Well, Pelini has a track record of nine-win seasons at Nebraska. A cheap buyout package from Nebraska. And a reputation for defense which any school who could use an upgrade on that side of the ball, as Sam McKewon of the Omaha World-Herald points out.

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The Tulsa World reports that former Nebraska wide receiver/outfielder Khiry Cooper is transferring to Tulsa. The two-sport athlete will graduate this spring, allowing him to transfer to Tulsa and play immediately as a graduate. NCAA rules allow a player to transfer after receiving their degree and play immediately as long as the player enrolls in a masters degree program that his previous school doesn't offer. It's the same rule that Wisconsin used to bring in Russell Wilson last season and Danny O'Brien this upcoming season.

I think some of us expected Cooper to pursue professional baseball this summer; he was a fifth round draft pick of the Los Angeles Angels in 2008 before deciding to enroll at Nebraska. His baseball career was uneventful, hitting .260 in 2011 as the starting center fielder. Head coach Darin Erstad said earlier this spring that Cooper had a lot of talent, but was hurt by trying to play both sports.

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When Tom Osborne revealed that Nebraska was considering an alternative "futuristic" football uniform for a game this season, it would be easy to dismiss it as another "April Fools Day" gag. (Gee, I wonder why people would be skeptical of announcements this time of year...) This is conservative, 75 year old Tom Osborne here, and Nebraska doesn't need to wear gimmicky uniforms to get attention. Or so some people think. Others think that this is the new trend, and that young players want to wear the cool, hip uniforms. It's a trend that began with Oregon and their relationship with Nike, and spread with the Nike Pro Combat uniforms.

Very few people are indifferent to Oregon's uniforms; you either love them or hate them. Frankly, without a classic look like the Green Bay Packers, it's really tough to do "cool" with green and yellow. So Nike adds in a lot of black to mix things up, and then tries new innovations. The polished chrome helmet from the Rose Bowl looks great on the bookshelf, but raised questions as to the legality of the wearing a helmet that puts off a reflective glare in actual competition.

On the other hand, there's no denying that one of the worst uniform ideas was Maryland's "state flag" design last season. But no matter where you go, it seems everybody is wearing special uniforms. Last year, Nebraska unveiled new gloves before the Wisconsin game, but fans gravitated to a picture of a black helmet in the background. Was it a prank by the equipment staff? Probably...but the reaction set the stage for today's announcement.

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The Lincoln Journal-Star reported today that Public Policy Polling's latest poll of Nebraska residents shows that 58% of respondents had a positive opinion of Bo Pelini. Sounds good, doesn't it? Certainly President Obama would like numbers like that. Congress REALLY would. But compared to last fall, those numbers aren't good. Pelini's approval went from 70% to 58% in just under six months.

Now, let's put the numbers in perspective. It's over 50%. And it's not like people suddenly disapprove of Pelini either; the percentage of people with an unfavorable opinion of Pelini went from 14% to 17%. The biggest change was in people who aren't sure: last fall, it was 16% and now it's 25%.

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