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Introducing the Bet It and Sweat It blog ...

Fred J. Robledo | Prep Sports - Fri, 03/02/2012 - 11:00
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WVU cancels game with FSU

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Sat, 02/04/2012 - 11:22
If you wanted even more proof that West Virginia was intent on leaving the Big East for 2012, no matter what the courts say, here it is: The Mountaineers have officially backed out of their Sept. 8 game against Florida State. There had been speculation surrounding the possible move for the past month. West Virginia needed to knock out one of its four nonconference games in order to be able to play nine league games as a new member of the Big 12. Athletic director Oliver Luck has continually reiterated that he fully intends on having his program in the Big 12 for the 2012 season, despite Big East bylaws requiring a 27-month waiting period.

Good news, bad news for FSU

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Sat, 02/04/2012 - 11:00
First, the good news: Jameis Winston, the nation's No. 1 quarterback recruit according to Recruiting Nation, has signed his letter of intent with Florida State and faxed it in. Better late than never. Winston didn't sign on Wednesday, national signing day, because he was in Austin, Texas, at a high school all-star game. He returned home Thursday and made it official on Friday. Now the bad news: West Virginia has officially backed out of its 2012 game with Florida State scheduled for Sept.

Ken O'Keefe leaves Iowa for NFL's Dolphins

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 17:10
Iowa is now in the market for both an offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. The school announced Friday that Ken O'Keefe, the only offensive coordinator Kirk Ferentz has ever had with the Hawkeyes, is leaving the program. According to multiple reports, he is taking a job with the NFL's Miami Dolphins. This easily qualifies as the most tumultuous turnover to hit Ferentz's staff, as Norm Parker retired as defensive coordinator after the season after working in that role for all of Ferentz's 13 seasons in Iowa City.

SEC postseason position rankings: WR/TE

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 16:23
The receivers/tight ends are on the docket Friday in our SEC postseason position rankings. The top two spots were easy. But after that, it gets a lot harder. You can see our preseason rankings here. Here's what we came up with for the postseason: 1. Arkansas: An easy call here for the top spot. Even though Greg Childs was unable to return to his pre-injury form, the duo of Jarius Wright and Joe Adams was outstanding. Wright set school records with 66 catches for 1,117 yards and 12 touchdowns.

B1G coaches 'on same page' after meeting

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 15:30
Big Ten coaches didn't sing "Kumbaya" after Friday's meeting at league headquarters in Park Ridge, Ill. "I don't think anybody wanted to sing," Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said, laughing. But the leagues coaches finished the meeting with handshakes after a contentious week regarding recruiting. Fitzgerald, the chair of the Big Ten coaches' group, told ESPN.com on Friday the coaches are "unified" and "on the same page" regarding recruiting practices after meeting for several hours.

Defections the story for ND's class

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 15:30
Gunner Kiel landed at Notre Dame after pledging to LSU and Indiana and now Deontay Greenberry is Houston-bound, after initially pledging to the Irish. The reverberations from both flips will likely be felt more in the years to come than the immediate future, but that didn't stop pettiness from reigning supreme Wednesday. The video has gone viral, LSU coach Les Miles questioning the heart of Kiel at the Tiger Gridiron Club's annual national signing day "Bayou Bash" in Baton Rouge, La.

Best recruiting programs since 2007

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 15:00
ESPN The Magazine and RecruitingNation compiled the past five years (2007-11) of ESPNU 150 rankings and then crowned college football's top 10 recruiting programs. Here's how they did it: Our methodology was simple: We re-tallied the scores following signing day and ranked the schools based on total number of ESPNU 150 recruits (there have been 900) hauled in over the last six years. Of course, like success on the field, recruiting is cyclical -- and fans of programs both on and off this list might look back on Feb.

B1G coaches meet, Meyer issues statement

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 14:21
The Big Ten's football coaches met earlier Friday in Chicago, a regularly scheduled get-together that became much more interesting after the spat about recruiting practices involving Wisconsin's Bret Bielema and Ohio State's Urban Meyer. The meeting wasn't mandatory but 11 of 12 coaches attended (Penn State's Bill O'Brien, who is preparing for Sunday's Super Bowl, wasn't present). Bielema, who questioned Meyer's recruiting practices earlier this week and said he followed up with the new Ohio State coach, on Friday told colleague Joe Schad that he hasn't alleged any NCAA rules violations by Meyer.

Meyer bringing SEC ways to the Big Ten?

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 14:15
Talk about the irony of all ironies. Urban Meyer is being called out again by one of the rival coaches in his league about recruiting tactics. Remember the firestorm Lane Kiffin started almost three years ago to the date when he accused Meyer of cheating, albeit wrongly, during a post-signing day celebration? That was an SEC tussle. Meyer was at Florida at the time and Kiffin at Tennessee for his 14 months of scorched earth detail. It made for some pretty captivating theatre, as Kiffin was clearly doing anything and everything he could to get under Meyer’s skin.

Who is the Big 12 recruiter of the year?

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 12:45
Recruiting Nation scoured every league and named the recruiter of the year in each conference. Who landed the honor in the Big 12? Bo Davis of Texas. Writes Recruiting Nation: Bo Davis settled right in for the Longhorns and did very well in his first season as a recruiter for Mack Brown and Texas. His impact was immediate as ESPNU 150 defensive end Torshiro Davis (Shreveport, La./Woodlawn) signed with Texas on signing day instead of LSU, where he had been a longtime commit.

Q&A: Penn State assistant Larry Johnson

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 12:30
Larry Johnson has been Penn State's lead recruiter for years, helping the Nittany Lions reel in several blue-chippers, particularly from the Washington D.C./Maryland area. But Johnson's recruiting responsibilities increased this year as Penn State scrambled to hold onto its class. New head coach Bill O'Brien, named to his post Jan. 6, is still juggling two jobs and turned over the recruiting reins to Johnson. Penn State lost several of its top verbal commits to other schools, but held things together enough to sign a class of 19 on Wednesday.

Gene Smith statement on recruiting flap

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 11:55
Earlier today, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told ESPN.com he was unaware of any recruiting violations by Ohio State's Urban Meyer in the wake of Badgers coach Bret Bielema saying Meyer had used "illegal" methods. Meyer reportedly shot back at Bielema and some comments from Michigan State at a high school coaches' clinic on Friday. Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith has weighed in, too, and he's not happy with what Bielema said.

Future ACC sked prepares for expansion

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 11:31
Dear Pitt and Syracuse, We are officially ready for you. Sincerely, The ACC Nothing about Round 2 of ACC expansion has been complicated, including Friday’s decision to add Pittsburgh to the Coastal Division and Syracuse to the Atlantic Division -- that is, of course, whenever those two programs are released from their Big East lockdown. The ACC didn’t just release its future schedule model on Friday; it announced that it is now prepared and ready for the minute Pitt and Syracuse escape.

Stanford leads Pac-12 in mock NFL draft

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 11:23
Stanford's recent success just about Andrew Luck? That's just silly talk. If ESPN NFL draft guru Todd McShay is on target with his mock 2012 NFL draft, plenty of evidence to the contrary will be produced on draft day. McShay projects that Luck will be the No. 1 overall pick, of course, but he also projects that Luck will be joined by three teammates in the first round. How many other teams will produce that many first-round picks? One: National champion Alabama.

Vrabel named Big Ten recruiter of the year

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 11:15
Urban Meyer has been receiving a lot of accolades for his recruiting work at Ohio State. But don't forget the hard work his assistants did in compiling one of the best classes in the country. ESPN.com has named Buckeyes assistant Mike Vrabel as its 2012 Big Ten recruiter of the year. "Vrabel moved from linebackers coach to defensive line coach with the hire of Urban Meyer. And in the process the two-year assistant helped secure one of the nation's best defensive line classes.

UW's Alvarez unaware of illegal tactics

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 10:45
Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez spent most of his life in coaching, and he knows recruiting can be a messy process. But Alvarez also knows the difference between questionable recruiting practices and illegal ones. And to his knowledge, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer didn't do anything illegal in compiling the Buckeyes' latest recruiting class. Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema accused Meyer of "illegal" recruiting practices Wednesday and told the Sporting News on Thursday that Alvarez soon would be discussing Meyer's recruiting with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany.

ACC announces future schedule model

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 10:10
The ACC has announced its future regular-season scheduling formats, which will keep the current divisional alignments the same but eventually include Pittsburgh in the Coastal Division and Syracuse in the Atlantic Division. The current primary crossover partners will remain with Syracuse and Pitt becoming primary crossover partners with each other. When Pitt and Syracuse join the ACC (the news release didn't state when that might be), the league will play a nine-game conference schedule.

B1G division names to stay after survey

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 09:40
Legends and Leaders are here to stay, and Big Ten fans want it that way. The Big Ten has completed its research into the division names, which were panned nationally after being unveiled last December. The league hired an independent market research firm to survey Big Ten fans during the 2011 football season, and the results show that most fans (57 percent) like the division names. Surveys were distributed to fans who came to the Big Ten's mobile tour, which displayed the new football championship trophy at 10 Big Ten campuses as well as in Indianapolis for the league title game.

USF loses top recruiter McGeoghan

ESPN College Football Nation Blog - Fri, 02/03/2012 - 09:35
USF has taken a big hit to its coaching staff. Top recruiter Phil McGeoghan has left to take a job as assistant receivers coach for the Miami Dolphins. Skip Holtz wished McGeoghan well on his Twitter page. McGeoghan has earned wide praise this week for his efforts on the recruiting trail, including an honorable mention for his efforts from the folks at ESPN Recruiting Nation. He was instrumental in bringing in four-star tight end Sean Price &#151 who had wavered during the last weeks of the process &#151 along with four-star cornerback Chris Bivins and linebacker Tashon Whitehurst, who flipped from Syracuse.