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RealClearSports College Football

The Last Ride of Bear and Billy

Wright Thompson, ESPN

NCAA Needs to Reboot Rulebook

Andy Staples, Sports Illustrated

ACC Struggling But Far From Dead

Mark Bradley, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Florida State Is Killing the ACC

Gregg Doyel, CBS Sports

With apologies to Mark Twain, the reports of the Atlantic Coast Conference's impending death as a relevant football conference have been greatly exaggerated. Ever sin...(full article)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Something important is being lost. Each rising sun takes a little more from the couple who live in the small brick home southwest of downtown. Billy Varner h...(full article)

When Mississippi State men's basketball coach Rick Ray turned in his paper and walked out of the room after less than 10 minutes, I knew I would be the dunce for this particular ...(full article)

Let’s be clear: The ACC has work to do. But that’s not nearly the same as being doomed, which is how some have characterized the conference after the double hit of Florida St...(full article)

Florida State will be the death of the ACC. That's real. That's honest. And that's irony. Because Florida State has been killing the ACC softly, like Roberta Flack in s...(full article)

More Recent Articles

Big East Pins Hopes on TV Deal

If television producers wanted to cast the Big East Conference as a 1980s sitcom, the plot would revolve around a series of hastily arranged marriages constructed to avoid deport...

SEC TV Network Would Mean Big Money

Looks like the SEC is getting into the TV business after all. Four years after striking its landmark deal with ESPN, there are indications the SEC will launch its own network in ...

8-Team Playoff Would Have Created Stability

There remains consternation that the ACC, Big East and, who knows, even the NCAA itself is in danger – real or imagined – following last week's news that the SEC and Big 12 w...

SEC, Big 12 Use Alliance to Gain Leverage

With a four-team playoff now imminent and the face of college football's postseason about to undergo a reconstructive makeover, the SEC and Big 12 made a bold statement Friday pr...

Human Selection for BCS Playoffs an Awful Idea

Somehow, some way, the human committee concept has gained traction as a method to decide which four teams should play for the national championship beginning in 2014....

Big 12 Becomes Desirable Destination

In the shape-shifting world of college athletics, the eye can no longer be trusted. There is beauty, to be sure, but most of the beholders wear the realignment equivalent of be...

More SEC Expansion Coming, But Where?

The last time they stopped playing the “Realignment Rhapsody” and everybody scrambled for a seat, the SEC had 14 available chairs. One year later, they’re cranki...

FSU Uncertainty Puts ESPN in Tough Spot

The ongoing waves of NCAA conference expansion and realignment have generally been all about football,  television revenues and schools doing what's in their own best intere...

RichRod Working to Change Wildcats Culture

They seemed like an odd couple. It wasn't surprising to see Arizona's new football coach chowing down at some of the city's best steakhouses shortly after his arrival last Decemb...

Presenting a College Football Relegation System

Nobody knows how it happened, but there's someone actually in charge of college football now. Probably something to do with a reanimated Teddy Roosevelt. First things first, play...

Big Ten's Love for Rose Bowl Irrational

Of all the love stories ever told, there may none purer than the Big Ten's undying devotion, commitment and pure heart-throbbing lust to the Rose Bowl. True love always. Best fri...

FSU, Miami to Blame for ACC Woes

The Florida State Seminoles are upset with the Atlantic Coast Conference. They are mad because the ACC is not considered an elite football league. They are insulted because the ACC...

Texas Outspends Competition

Big is good in this state. Bigger is better still. A short walk away is a 20,000-square-foot weight room and an equally recruiting-friendly, state-of-the-art locker room complete...

College Football Needs to Embrace Relegation

The English Premiere League may not play the best soccer in the world, but they do play the most Michael Bay soccer in the world. This movie, year in and year out, is rigged to e...

Will Florida State Switch to Big 12?

Just as the rumbling rumors of Florida State moving from the Atlantic Coast Conference to the Big 12 had begun to hush, here came the Saturday afternoon bombshell. "How do you no...

Boise State Should Jump Big East Ship

If Boise State is indeed having second thoughts about joining the Big East in 2013, as CBSSports.com reported on Friday, then it only makes sense. Boise State should have pause abo...

O'Brien Brings Optimism to Nervous PSU Nation

They spoke about Joe Paterno rarely in a room filled with his spirit, his followers and his replacement. Maybe that's the way it was supposed to be at Bill O'Brien's grand ...

Big Ten, Pac-12 Should Ditch BCS Plan

Within weeks, the conference commissioners and university presidents who run the Bowl Championship Series are expected to adopt a four-team playoff, the first in the history of m...

Seau's Death a Game-Changer: Pay Collegians

Pay college football players? Not on my watch. That has been my opinion for years, and not one of those 51-49 kind of opinions -- the ones where I can see both sides,...

College Football Should Be Banned

On Tuesday night, four eminences in sports and culture met at NYU’s Skirball Center to debate the question: Should college football be banned? According to the crowd of New Y...

Marinatto Quits Amid Big East Instability

When Big East Commissioner John Marinatto resigned Monday, the battered league was left at another crossroads. It could either crumble or find itself a billion-dollar television ...

NCAA's Seamy Side Months Before Kickoff

A secret affair. Hidden payoffs. A bungled cover-up. The John Edwards trial? Not exactly. More like the worst week in the life of Arkansas football this spring. In fact, I can't r...

Concussions Creating Moral Dilemma

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Where Did John Marinatto Go Wrong?

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Football Wins May Not Spur School's Donors

Common sense suggests a university's athletic success translates to more athletic donations. But do victories on the field also help academic giving? For years, that's been a reb...

Bowlby's Job: Keep Texas Happy, Big 12 Together

Bob Bowlsby is his own man. The strong-willed native Iowan once wrestled in college, and as a youngster, he used to sell soft drinks at Kinnick Stadium on the same University of ...

Off-Field Issue Brings More Heat to Irish's Kelly

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Big Ten Needs Big Say in Playoff Discussion

As the Bowl Championship Series dies a slow death over the next two years, don't expect many mournful tributes. It became the repository for endless complaints. But like with eve...

Nebraska Coach Sparks Debate About Gay Rights

Has a major college coach ever lost a job for expressing religious beliefs? A fascinating story is unfolding at Nebraska, where running backs coach Ron Brown denounced homosexual...

What Playoff System Means for Notre Dame

Of the 12 BCS decision-makers sequestered in a conference room last week in Hollywood, Fla., Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick found himself in the most unique position...

Dreaming of NFL in Face of Family Tragedy

Like any player from a small school hoping to make an NFL roster as an undrafted free agent, Delaware State's Jaashawn Jones has plenty of supporters echoing the same sentiment. ...

Potential Playoff Not Perfect, But It's a Start

The Death of the BCS is upon us, and there is no minimizing the news that college football, after 143 years, is on the verge of adopting a playoff. The powers-that-be finally bro...

Final Chapter Stymies Paterno's Biographer

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Revamped BCS Chance for Positive Change

The most despised entity in sports now has an expiration date. College football’s infuriating BCS system is set to die in two years, and once we’re all done celebrating the b...

Eric LeGrand's Comeback Moves Into Booth

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BCS Finally Embraces Playoff Plan

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BCS Playoff System Battle Far From Over

College football’s brain trust finally said it Thursday. The always-inevitable word that for years has been so taboo to the ever-controversial Bowl Championship Series that it m...

Barkley Returns to Restore Glory to USC

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Future of Rose Bowl a Hot Issue for BCS

There are few more enduring symbols in college football than the Rose Bowl, which, at the Bowl Championship Series meetings, has become emblematic of a sport caught between traditi...

Playoff Coming to College Football

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BCS Details Trivial Until NCAA Fair for Athletes

Nothing is more invigorating than a new story about the Bowl Championship Series considering a new format that looks more like a playoff and less like what it is. Tha...

NCAA Questioning Bowl Economics

One of the dirty secrets of many bowl games is that almost nothing is cheap. The industry, in this case represented by Sugar Bowl Inc., long ago learned how to squeeze every last...

Arkansas Too Good to Pass Up for Smith

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Arkansas Hits a Home Run with Smith Hire

We're not even to May yet, but Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long gets the early vote for Administrator of the Year in college football. Long did the right thing – even though...

Interim Move Worsens Arkansas' Black Mark

My favorite moment of the John L. Smith era at Weber State -- all 4½ months of it -- was the crock pot full of alma mater nonsense he served during his introductory news c...

The Art of Hiring a College Football Coach

Bill Moos likens it to an episode of the old TV spy series "Mission Impossible." Only a tight circle of confidants — "less than you can count on one hand" — knew he wa...

Arkansas AD Does the Right Thing

Every once in a while it happens. In the midst of all that is wrong, something so right finds its way through. Arkansas should be utterly embarrassed today at the very thought of B...

Firing Signals New World of Sports

Welcome to the post-Penn State era of college athletics. Welcome to a world when athletic directors and college administrators finally have the power again, and welcome to a tim...

OSU Criticized for Recruiting Tactics

“I can tell you this,” says Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema. “We at the Big Ten don’t want to be like the SEC—in any way, shape or form.” Just so ...

OSU's Meyer Strikes Gold Right Away

Thirteen months ago in the conference room not too far from here, a career was falling apart and Ohio State football was breaking apart. You remember the legend formerly know...

Alabama Claims Top Recruiting Class

1. Alabama: Not a lot of drama today in the Alabama camp. While other war rooms were buzzing, the Crimson Tide coaching staff could pretty much sit back and relax. They managed t...

Social Media Making Mark

Bill Curry spent only a decade away from coaching. But when Curry returned to coach Georgia State in 2008, in some ways it felt like it had been a century. "I didn't know doodly-...

Few Will Make Immediate Impact

Being an elite recruit doesn't necessarily lead to making an immediate impact in college. Much depends on a player's position and choice of school. "The two easiest positions y...

Flipping Part of Recruiting Game

Picture yourself 18 years old again. Now—and you will have to stretch your mind a little on this one—imagine that you are one of the most sought after football recruit...

Green-Beckham Is Top Prize

Signing Day is back. What will the storylines be this time around? Who will make a decision that will shock the world? Who will make a decision on national television, only to ha...

Wisconsin Losing Key Recruits

When the University of Wisconsin football team landed an oral commitment from highly regarded offensive tackle Kyle Dodson back in June, the recruiting world was buzzing about th...

Process Is Often Hit-or-Miss

On national signing day, every college coach, every recruit and every friend and family member is an incurable optimist, and what's the harm in that? At this point, every re...

Success Boosts Michigan's Future

Since that Sugar Bowl victory earlier this month, Michigan has received no verbal commitments and actually had one player decommit.What's more, the Wolverines have only two commit...

Top Questions Ahead of Signing Day

1. What’s the biggest storyline this recruiting season? What’s the big buzz? Aside from Penn State, I think Urban Meyer getting back into coaching is the biggest sto...

Rutgers Recruiting Class Now in Flux

Five Rutgers assistant coaches stood in the gym of Don Bosco Prep this morning, decked out in school colors and ready to put the final press on two of the top recruits in the sta...

Penn State Recruits Few Stars

A seemingly endless stream of negative headlines. Prolonged coaching limbo that left men on the verge of getting fired selling the school that was about to fire them. A new head co...

A Last Look at His Numbers

Legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno died Sunday at age 85, a little more than two months after he was fired midway through his 46th season leading the Nittany Lions. ...

Cancer's Timing All the More Painful

If the cancer had been more kind, it would have come earlier. The cancer would have come, say, in late summer. Joe Paterno would have been deified then, with the funeral of a ...

Old Joe Would Shame Young Joe

What would young Joe Paterno have said about old Joe Paterno? What would young Joe, intent on his "Grand Experiment," in which athletic excellence and intellectual rigor entwined ...

Life Ends in Jumble of Confusion

In death as in life, timing matters. Had Joe Paterno died Jan. 22, 2011, he’d have been hailed as the one coach who’d negotiated the murky waters of contemporary coll...

LSU Leaves No Doubt It's No. 1

What? You thought the Game of the Century would feature 100 points? Admittedly, most of us assumed there would at least be a few touchdowns. Just one would have been nice. But fo...

Kickers Decide the Outcome

Streets oozed with pedestrians. Lawns grew into epic tailgates. And fraternity homes lived up to legend. The Game of the Century? The partying Saturday in anticipation of the bi...

As Expected, Defenses Rule

This was Alabama vs. LSU. You were expecting the Big 12? Let's hope you didn't come to the Game of the Century to see touchdowns. No, this was the place for the grit and the hits...

Jefferson Steps Up at Right Time

The finest hour of LSU's still-perfect season occurred at approximately 10:35 p.m. Saturday night, in as hostile of an environment as can be conjured, against the toughest oppone...

Top Defenses Collide

With open arms into a community recently ravaged by tornadoes and a sport ravaged by a spate of negative news since the beginning of last year, from various NCAA violations to con...

Big Mistake Might Be the Difference

LSU: Here’s an interesting number: LSU runs the ball more than Alabama. The Tigers have 352 carries (38 more than the Tide), and share a bulk of the load between TBs Spenc...

Home Recruits Key LSU Dominance

Before the age of contrived commitment press conferences, before recruits began pulling bullpups from underneath a table to drive home the point they were becoming Bu...

Coaches Are Complete Opposites

The most noticeable difference is the coaches. Yes, both Nick Saban and Les Miles have won national championships, and, sure, they have almost identical records against ranked op...

LSU Nearly Turnover-Proof

LSU's three turnovers are the fewest in the nation, they did not turn the ball over once in October, and they have gone 59 possessions without losing a fumble or throwing an inte...

Richardson Not Only Heisman Hopeful

Trent Richardson stiff-arms Heisman Trophy questions the way he pounds through tackles. Alabama's star running back can dip, dodge and outrun all the inquiries, but it won't sto...

Left Tackle May Be Alabama's MVP

Barrett Jones is a nerd, at least by football standards. The Alabama redshirt junior left tackle is so talented at the violin that he can play what people hum. He has such a big v...

Running Game Looms Large

When Louisiana State played at Alabama two years ago, the game was so physical the Tigers were carting players off the field. The injured included running back Charles Scott, who...

Future NFL Players to Watch

Claiborne is a tall cornerback who has shocking quickness, explosiveness and playing speed. He has been an impact playmaker in 2011 because he has excellent instincts and natural...

Big 12 Exploring Options

Chuck Neinas, the Big 12’s interim commissioner, said there was some resistance among Missouri’s Board of Curators about remaining in the conference. “You&rsquo...

Source: Big 12 Eyes TCU, Louisville

With all nine Big 12 presidents announcing their intentions tonight to remain in the league, the latest development in conference realignment could become problematic for the Big...

Big East Plans 'Aggressive' Expansion

After two high-profile schools departed for the ACC this week, and amid fears they could be left behind during college conference realignment, the Big East finally got good news ...

Big East Solidarity Gives TCU Hope

Instead of a wake, the presidents and athletic directors of the Big East Conference held a virtual solidarity rally Tuesday in New York. And while no reported blood oaths were ta...

BCS President OK With Realignment

As the dizzying carousel of conference realignment scatters college athletic departments to new leagues across the country, the NCAA’s reshaped landscape won’t alter ...

The Money Question Is Money

Why is Florida State rumored to be considering the Southeastern Conference? Because it can get upwards of $40 million a year, perhaps double the haul in the Atlantic Coast Conferen...

15 Players Under Investigation

The probe into Miami athletics is growing, with the university looking into the eligibility of 15 athletes who might have accepted improper benefits from a rogue booster. Miami Pre...

Limited Immunity Keeps Many Eligible

In the immediate aftermath of the Miami scandal, Purdue released a 37-word statement last week saying there were no "eligibility issues" with quarterback Robert Marve. ...

Ex-Player Denies Taped Quotes

Despite evidence to the contrary, former University of Miami running back Tyrone Moss, the only football player to talk on the record in last week’s Yahoo! Sports expos&egr...

QB Harris Faces Uncertainty

Jacory Harris came into this season believing Miami coaches would struggle deciding if he or Stephen Morris should be the Hurricanes' starting quarterback. Well, he was right. Fi...

How Boosters Buy Influence

When Nevin Shapiro pledged $150,000 to the University of Miami athletic department, he got a student-athlete lounge named after him. But the bigger perk was access — to the...

Sympathy for Shapiro's True Victims

Please spare us the outrage about how Nevin Shapiro, the rogue booster, has victimized the University of Miami athletic program. Please, all of you bleeding heart pundits, save yo...

Former Coach Coker 'Distraught'

Approached Friday morning outside the function at which UTSA would receive a $1 million gift from B.J. “Red” McCombs, Roadrunners football coach Larry Coker brushed o...

Miami Should Prepare for Worst

If the worst of the allegations are true - from the money and other gifts to the prostitution to providing for an abortion - then it's time to shut down the University of Miami f...

Should Anyone Be Surprised?

The scandals rocking intercollegiate sports in the past few months apparently were just the warm-up acts. We give you now the main event. The University of Miami has taken the sta...

NCAA President Has No Clue

Forget the NCAA’s bluster about reform. Less than a week after college sports’ governing body held a retreat in Indianapolis for university presidents, conference comm...

Other Scandals Pale in Comparison

Tempting as it is, don’t start here with the messenger, OK? Yes, any decent defense attorney’s instinct and stock in trade is to question the accuser’s credibil...

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