The Big 12's annual meetings are currently taking place in Colorado Springs and league commissioner Dan Beebe has a lot on his plate. But one agenda item that he is pushing strongly is a fifth year of eligibility for football players. He hopes the proposed change will get some attention from the NCAA rules committee.

The proposal for a fifth year of eligibility would eliminate redshirting, instead giving college football players five years to compete on the field. Under current rules, players have a five-year window in which to complete four years of playing time. This isn't the first time this change has come up, but opponents have argued that eligibility rules need to standard across sports. Big 12 commissioner Beebe, disagrees.

Beebe, however, said he thinks football should be seen as unique because it has a high rate of redshirts and injuries.

"Injuries happen and coaches have players who could contribute, but they don't want to play someone on a limited basis and burn a redshirt year," Beebe said. "And you have kids during their redshirt year who are getting the heck beat out of them in practice every day with no hope of playing."

The rule change would certainly eliminate the need for coaches to agonize about redshirting decisions. In addition, it would seemingly end the need for athletes and schools to file medical hardships in the wake of injuries. Lastly, given that the average college football player takes around 4.7 years to graduate, the five-year eligibility window could help improve graduation rates.

The Watch List for the 2008 Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been released by the Football Writers Association of America. The Nagurski Trophy is presented annually to the best defensive player in college football and is sponsored by the Charlotte Touchdown Club.

According to the press release:

"The Charlotte Touchdown Club will hold the 2008 banquet on Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Westin Hotel in Charlotte. For the eighth straight season, the FWAA will also pick a Bronko Nagurski Defensive Player of the Week beginning with games on Aug. 30 and running through the middle of November. And a Bronko Nagurski Legends Award winner will also be selected from the FWAA's 1967 All-America team.

The Bronko Nagurski Trophy has been presented since 1993 and is awarded in memory of the legendary Nagurski, a former All-America lineman at Minnesota in 1927-29 and a star for professional football's Chicago Bears in the 1930s."

This year's watch list includes eight players from Big 12 schools, led by Oklahoma, which places three Sooners on the list. The Big 12 players on the Nagurski Watch List are:

George Hypolite, Colorado

Joe Mortensen, Kansas

Ian Campbell, Kansas State (pictured at right)

William Moore, Missouri

Sean Weatherspoon, Missouri

Auston English, Oklahoma

DeMarcus Granger, Oklahoma

Nic Harris, Oklahoma

Since its inception in 1993, three Big 12 players have won the Nagurski Trophy. Oklahoma defensive back Roy Williams took home the award in 2001. The Big 12 then had back-to-back winners in 2003 and 2004 in Oklahoma's Derrick Strait and Derrick Johnson from Texas.

First Gary Pinkel was scheduled to throw out the first pitch for the Cardinals on Opening Day. Then Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin had to take his place. Now another of the Big 12's coaching brethren has gotten his shot on the mound for a ceremonial first pitch. Kansas coach Mark Mangino got the call on Tuesday at the Kansas City Royals home opener at Kauffman Stadium. In addition, Gary Pinkel was actually involved in this ceremony as well, albeit only by way of the stadium's video board (that guy really needs to relax his off-season schedule).

"I'm honored that the Royals would even consider me for Opening Day," Mangino said. "When I was a kid I waited for Opening Day like you waited for Christmas."

Challenged by Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, who in a video presentation expressed his confidence that "coach Mangino will start the season successfully with a strike down the middle," Mangino met the challenge with a pitch down the pipe.

"It might have been a high strike to Frank Thomas," Mangino said. "Gary wanted one down the middle, but he's got to understand: A pitcher has to work the corners."

It sounds like Mangino's attempt fared better than that of Chase Daniel, who bounced his effort to the backstop. It's also good to see Mangino has a little baseball knowledge, although the Frank Thomas reference might have been a tad dated.

Update: Now with video-goodness. Thanks YouTube!

via The Wizard of Odds

Aqib Talib was considered by many to be the No. 2 cornerback in this year's draft.

I say was because Pro Football Weekly is reporting that Talib told teams at the NFL combine that he tested positive for marijuana three different times while he was playing as Kansas. In one of the cases, Talib told coach Mark Mangini that he would test positive even before the coach got the results back.

According to PFW's Nolan Nawrocki, several teams have taken Talib completely off their draft boards.

"There is no way I'd touch (Talib)," one team told PFW. "He's gotten into a lot of trouble, and he still does not get it."

"He's got a laundry list of issues," another team executive said of Talib's off-the-field behavior. "He's not a one-time offender. Give a guy like him money, and it never gets better. It only gets worse."

What will work against Talib is that this is a relatively deep crop of first/second-round cornerbacks, with little to choose between them. With several other comparable cornerbacks to choose from, Talib might slide into the second round. A similar situation happened last year with cornerback Eric Wright, a first-round talent who fell to the Browns in the second-round because of his pot problems in college. Wright played well in his rookie year and will likely start for the Browns this season.

I knew I shouldn't have eaten that kicker -- kid was in the engineering school.

Bare your teeth, NCAA:

Kansas football has taken another hit on scholarships and will lose two more for the 2008 season for failure to meet NCAA academic standards.

According to figures released by the school Monday, KU football had a four-year academic progress rate of 919 and had two players leave the program during the 2006-07 school year who were not in good academic standing.

Kansas is the second BCS school to take a hit from the NCAA's increasingly strict APR ("academic progress rate") standards -- last year Arizona lost four scholarships -- and is a harbinger of things to come. In January, the NCAA announced that 28 football and 70 basketball programs would suffer scholarship reductions.

Most of those will probably be smaller schools scrabbling for anyone vaguely qualified, but a brief review of schools in danger from the January post on this subject...

there are a number of major programs below the cutoff last year who were only spared because of the squad size adjustment: Texas A&M at 922, West Virginia at 924, Kansas at 918, South Carolina at 913, Oregon State at 913, Oregon at 912, South Florida at 910, and others.

...captures a number of major programs. Kansas knew it was under the gun and could only raise its APR by a single point, which bodes unwell for the Oregon schools and South Florida and the like. More hits are coming, and to top-25 schools.

Miami's offense has been garbage bag the last couple of seasons under the stewardship of Brock Berlin and Kyle Wright and (to a lesser extent) Kirby Freeman, but at the very least, you could always bring out the ol' "well, their defense is as good as ever" canard. At least until this year; when you field a D with two future 1st-round picks and you still let Oklahoma drop 51 on you, that's cause for concern. When you let Virginia drop 44 on you, you might want to think about the future in more immediate terms. When it happens in the Orange Bowl's last game ever, well, UPS is hirin'.

One year after replacing the promoted Randy Shannon as Miami defensive coordinator, Tim Walton got the most unceremonious of axes. But fear not- Miami was able to steal Kansas' DC right from under Mark Mangino's fat, unhireable nose. Despite Bill Young's rather ripe age of 61, he can't help but be seen as the latest coup for the still-struggling Canes, who are bringing in the nation's #1 recruiting class, at least according to ESPN. Despite the somewhat dubious schedule of Kansas, finishing in the top ten with regards to scoring defense isn't something to sneeze at, considering that the likes of Southeastern Louisiana and Central Michigan have offenses at least as competent as that of Miami nowadays.

Or, at least, that's what we're told by Thor Nystrom, a columnist in the Daily Kansan, the University of Kansas' student paper. (Aside: who names their child "Thor"?)

If you wanted a good meal, would it matter to you what the chef looked like? If your screenplay was being turned into a film, would it matter to you how much the director weighed? So why, pray tell, was Mark Mangino's door not knocked down by Michigan, West Virginia, UCLA or any of the other 15 schools that had coaching vacancies this offseason?

Because he is overweight, bald and considered at times to be surly.

It appears that Jayhawks have a very short memory. The logic goes something like this "Mangino had a good year, won a few games, and the Jayhawks came out ranked ahead of where most folks thought they would... so Mangino should be the most sought after coach in the country."

Pardon me while I guffaw.

"The story is a sad one told many times/the story of my life and trying times."- R.E.M., "How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us"

That's the first thing that comes to mind when reimagining the whole ACC/Big East switcheroo of a few years back. To recap, ACC commissioner John Swofford, stuck off the realness of having a Florida State/Miami conference championship game in sold-out Alltel Stadium year in, year out, raids the Big East for Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech (due to near-extortive tactics by Virginia government) to pad out its roster to twelve teams. It's also worth noting that Syracuse was originally tabbed to jump ship.

On the one hand, it struck a chord with people who were looking to prove that the conference could be a legitimate stronghold, since the past couple of decades had proven the ACC to be Florida State and a bunch of teams that would usually get a Bowden smackdown when they thought they could snatch the crown (the exceptions being the 1995 UVA team that tied for the conference championship and 2001 Maryland, which still lost to FSU). But the other way of looking at it was that the ACC is first and foremost a basketball conference, and this expansion would wreak havoc on scheduling. Frankly, it's a shame that some kids just entering college might have to wait years before they see their squad go to the Dean Dome or have Duke come to their house (truly a great experience no matter how good they happen to be at the time). Moreover, there were questions about how these schools fit in to the profile of the ACC, generally considered the province of academically esteemed, mid-sized flagship universities and smaller, prestigious private schools that all tend to have well-balanced athletics. I'll leave it at that.

AJ checking in from the state of Iowa, where we just had the caucuses and okay you don't care about politics.

- Ha-YUUUGE fake punt from Kansas to keep their drive alive, as Virginia Tech is within a field goal and had all the momentum in the second half.

- Fumble near the goal line, he may have been down... and a personal foul? And now a holding call? Good heavens, even Roy Riegels is wondering if they know which direction to take the ball.

- And now an interception by Tech! Mangino is probably mad enough to eat a horse.

- We're at the end of the third quarter, and Virginia Tech is out of the shadow of their own end zone. If Kansas lets the Hokies put points on the board here, the lineman who committed that personal foul penalty near the goal line should find a safe house and lay low for a while, because Mangino may want to murder him.

- Three and out for Kansas, including two big hits on Reesing as he tried to scramble for yards quite unsuccessfully. The punt goes to the 9-yard line, so we get to see Sean Glennon try to guide the Virginia Tech offense on a sustained drive. This should be amusing.

- Glennon tosses a lob into double coverage, and to the surprise of nobody, Kansas picks it off and takes it back inside Virginia Tech's 5. This may be over very soon.

- Indeed. Six points for Reesing on the keeper, and it's 24-14. What's more fun than watching an aerially deficient offense? Watching an aerially deficient offense that's down by 10 in the fourth! I'd say the probability that Glennon throws another interception is right around, oh, 70,000%.

- The weather is in the mid-50's...I wonder if this will be attributed to "Beamer ball"

- Tyrod Taylor is getting destroyed on this first drive. Appears to be more of an offensive line breakdown than a matter of anything he can control, but jeez...

- On their first drive, Kansas is tearing up VT in the short passing game ... credit to Mangino, because this always seemed to be Tech's defensive weakness in spite of all their speed. Rather unusual slip-up for VT on 4th and 1 with the false start penalty. Missed field goal from Kansas, though. Not how you want to start things on specials teams against BEAMER BALL!!!!

- Tyrod Taylor looks waaaay in over his head. Pick-six to Aqib Talib, KU up 7-0. Mangino Ball!

- Kansas is often giving up good field position to the Hokies, but I have to admit- their defense appears up to the task. Maybe a little too much swagger for guys who wear what looks like bastardized Texans uni's.

- Aqib thinks he's Devin Hester ... but it works, taking a too-short (no "Gettin' It") field goal attempt dang near to the 40 after fielding it in the air.

- Pick thrown by Glennon, and not a good-looking one. Dare I say that this Jayhawk defense looks real.

- Todd Reesing's intangibles are "immeasurable"...imagine that. Decent looking drive for the Jayhawks ends in a field goal. 10-0 KU.

- Dear lord, VT's offense looks lost. Understandably, a QB controversy is part of the lay of the land, but they need to establish some sort of identity.

- 17-7 at the half, in favor of Kansas. Really can't figure out a way that this might change.