A day after collecting the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback award, Robert Griffin now has some new attire to sport with adidas announcing on Tuesday they had signed the Heisman winning quarterback to an endorsement deal.

Griffin will be debuting the latest adidas gear starting at the NFL combine which is set to commence this week in Indianapolis.

So can he still wear all his Baylor gear whose team sponsor is Nike?  Well, maybe not in public at least, but the new deal ensures Griffin will get plenty of air time on your TV set between now and the NFL draft (April 26th) with adidas also rolling out its first RGIII commercial.

Griffin immediately becomes one of the biggest names in adidas' family of NFL players which also includes the 2011 AP defensive rookie of the year, Von Miller, former number one pick, Mario Williams, and Miami Dolphin running back, Reggie Bush.

Adidas is obviously happy to have Griffin on board.  They are promoting the move on twitter today with a #RG3 hashtag that according to CNBC reporter, Darren Rovell, costs a cool $120 grand to do so.  That might sound expensive, but there's little doubt Griffin will return their investment on that cost in a few split seconds.

Here's a look at adidas' first commercial featuring Griffin.

The NFL combine officially gets under way tomorrow in Indianapolis.  The NFL Network's Mike Mayock has released his updated top five players at each position heading into the combine and for the Big 12, things continue to look good for several players in the league.

Here's a look at what Big 12 player's made his top five at each position.

So what do you think?

Let's start with this, there wasn't much talk during the season, or his career for that matter, about Kendall Wright being one of the best wide receivers in the country.  But that has changed for Baylor's wide receiver who Mayock now ranks as the second best receiver available in the upcoming draft.

He entered the season barely cracking the top 100 of some analysts rankings, but after a season in which he hauled in 108 passes for 1663 yards, Wright could very well find himself being selected in the top half of the first round.

He no doubt benefited from playing almost his entire career with Robert Griffin at quarterback, but Big 12 fans have known about this guy for a while.  I've always thought his career at Baylor has been overlooked.  There aren't many guys out there that played college football that have the numbers that Wright put up in Waco.  He racked up 302 career catches for 4,004 yards and 30 touchdowns over four seasons.  Not bad, not bad at all.

He won't be unknown when draft night finally rolls around, that much is certain.

Robert Griffin figures to be one of the first players selected in the draft, but the Big 12 has a couple other quarterbacks that don't figure to last long once the draft gets rolling.  Ryan Tannehill could very well be the next quarterback off the board, and probably in the first round.  And not far behind should be Brandon Weeden. With some of the marginal quarterback play in the NFL, teams could do a lot worse than selecting Weeden.  His age will likely keep him from going in the first round, but he has all the tools to excel at the next level.

How much will the combine impact each player's draft stock?  That's always tough to say and I usually fall into the camp that the results from the combine are just a tad bit overrated.  I mean, how much can you really learn from a guy running straight ahead with no pads on or by asking him how fast a train will go from point A to point B?

Of course, that doesn't mean we won't be right back here talking about a guy who looked like was carrying a piano on his back during the 40 or who scored the lowest on the Wonderlic test.  It is the offseason, after all.

With Nebraska's move to the Big Ten came much talk about who was going to be Nebraska's new rival.  Many simply looked at a map and believed it would be Iowa for the simple geographical reasons.  But as many people have said many times before, these things develop over time for a myriad of reasons, no matter how much people want to force feed you how it should be.

In the Big 12, Nebraska was largely without a true rival.  Oklahoma was that team until the geniuses running the conference put Nebraska and OU in different divisions.  Colorado and Kansas State both took their turns at times with Missouri filling that role through Nebraska's last years in the Big 12.

Maybe Nebraska's rival will indeed turn out to be Iowa.  Who knows.  But if Nebraska plans on winning many Big Ten titles, the Huskers need to look no further than Michigan.  Maybe the Wolverines will never be the on-the-field rival they could be - they already have Ohio State and Michigan State filling that role nicely - but on the recruiting trail, the Wolverines are going to be a force to be reckoned with as this last weekend proved.

To say the Wolverines had a nice couple days recruiting is, well, a bit of an understatement.  They had a weekend not often seen in Big Ten country and usually reserved for the Texas and Alabama's of the world.

Michigan received verbal commitments from eight players over the weekend, all of whom are four-star recruits at the moment.  All eight players were ranked in the Rivals top 250 giving Michigan 10 such recruits in the 2013 class.

There were three offensive lineman, a tight end, a defensive end, a defensive back and one player listed as an athlete.  That adds to a class that already had four star quarterback and defensive back.

Of course, signing day is still 11 months away and high school kids have been known to change their mind from time-to-time (Michigan had three junior day commitments from last year that eventually went other places) but you have to start somewhere and for Michigan, what a start it was for next year's class.

So what does it mean for Nebraska?  Well, directly it means nothing as Nebraska, along with every other school, is still in the early stages of putting together their 2013 classes.  But it's probably safe to say the bar has been raised.

Nebraska is hoping to make inroads in Big Ten recruiting country but with Michigan's apparent resurgence, not to mention what Urban Meyer has going at Ohio State, competing for the top talent isn't going to be easy in those areas, not that anybody said it would be.

Nebraska pulled two recruits (Jordan Westerkamp and Vincent Valentine) out of Illinois and two more out of Ohio (Greg McMullen and LeRoy Alexander) from Ohio in their 2012 class which is a good start in addition to the Ohioans already on the roster.

Among the Wolverines most recent haul, two came from Illinois including one that had a Nebraska offer (OL, Kyle Bosch).  They also pulled an offensive lineman out of Colorado, an area Nebraska has generally be strong in.  That's in addition to the wide receiver and defensive tackle that were part of their 2012 class from Des Moines and Kansas City, respectively.

It's far too early to be rushing to judgment about anybody's 2013 class, but Nebraska may have found their recruiting rival, if there even is such a thing.  Of course, this is par for the course Nebraska in recruiting and certainly nothing new in that regard.  It's always been an uphill battle recruiting against teams closer to more fertile recruiting grounds.

With Nebraska set to have a bigger class of recruits in 2013 than they have had recently, it stands to reason this may be Bo Pelini's most important class to date, a point certainly being driven home by what is happening in Ann Arbor.

Rex Burkhead for the Heisman?  Maybe it's a bit of a long shot, but if Nebraska fans have learned one thing during Burkhead's career thus far in Lincoln, it's not to underestimate #22.

Nebraska was 9-4 in 2011, but there's no telling where the Huskers would have finished if it not for Burkhead's effort.  He finished with 1357 yards and 13 touchdowns and went over the 100 yard mark seven different times and was the bulk of the offense in wins over Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State and Iowa during his junior season.

There's a long ways to go until the 2012 season kicks off, but Burkhead's name is already being tossed into the mix for possible Heisman consideration this fall.  He was one of 10 players given early odds to win the Heisman trophy by Sportsbook.com and one of three players from the Big Ten.

If you have an extra $100 burning a hole in your pocket, you would be awarded 20 times that amount should you place a wager on Burkhead and he follows through by bringing home the hardware in New York City on December 8th (of course, I'm not recommending or encouraging such a wager - just bringing you the facts here).

Here's a look at the 10 players who were among the initial list provided by Sportsbook.com.

Matt Barkely is the early favorite and it's tough to argue with that considering what USC has coming back on offense in 2012.

As for the Big Ten, Montee Ball has the best odds at the moment followed closely by Michigan's quarterback, Denard Robinson.  Ball finished fourth in the Heisman voting this past season but no doubt benefited from Russell Wilson's efforts and could suffer some in 2012 with Wilson having completed his eligibility in Madison.

As for Burkhead, there's little doubt the production will be there.  Whether or not he is able to put himself in serious consider will likely be based on what type of season Nebraska puts together.  If the Huskers are competing for a Big Ten title at a minimum, there's no reason Burkhead couldn't  at least garner enough attention to find himself among the four or five players invited to the ceremony come season's end.

As for actually winning it? Well, let's just say nothing should surprise you anymore when it comes Burkhead.

It probably comes as no surprise, but Texas is already off to another fast start on the recruiting trail for the class of 2013. On Friday, the Longhorns picked up the verbal commitment from one of the highest ranked players in the country in quarterback, Tyrone Swoopes. He's a 6'5" 220 signal caller from Whitewright, Texas (2A in Texas) who was ranked number 11 in the Rivals first Top 100 list for the 2013 class.

He is also the second ranked quarterback (Rivals) in the country behind only Max Browne of Sammamish, WA.

I'm not going to pretend to be some kind of expert on Swoopes' game since I've watched all of two, six minute highlight videos of him, but a couple things stand out based on those 12 minutes of tape.

First, the guy is big. He's listed at 6'5" and 220 pounds on the recruiting sites and he looks it on tape.

Secondly, I was shocked to see how much the guy ran. One of the clips was almost exclusively him keeping the ball on zone read plays. The other clip had a few more passes, but it was still tough to gauge what kind of thrower this guy is. Obviously though, he's impressed the right people so I'll leave that analysis to the experts.

I was surprised in his running only because Texas really hasn't used the quarterback run nearly as much in their offense the past several seasons. Of course, maybe that is due to their personnel more than anything.

Is Texas going hard after Swoopes and indication Mack Brown and Bryan Harsin would like to get back to having a true threat at QB in the run game? Based on those two recruiting tapes, I'd have to answer that was a resounding yes, assuming they plan on playing him at quarterback of course, but I've seen nothing to indicate otherwise.

It's also interesting to note that Swoopes' aunt is none other than former WNBA star, Sheryl Swoopes, and he happens to be a very good basketball player himself according to SBNation Dallas.

Swoopes commitment gives Texas four players so far in the 2013 class. He joins wide receiver, Jake Oliver, offensive lineman, Jake Raulerson, and defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson in Texas' class thus far. All four players are ranked in Rivals Top 100.

Yes it's early, but I'd say it's a safe bet to assume the Longhorn's 2013 class is going to be another top five group. Earth shattering news, I know.

Here's a clip of Swoopes in action.

If you're an NFL general manager, who do you take first at the quarterback position, Ryan Tannehill or Brandon Weeden?  With the NFL combine right around the corner, more and more NFL rankings are being updated by the draft experts and Tannehill seems to consistently be ranked above Weeden.  That's the case with NFLdraftscout.com, Mike Mayock at the NFL Network, Mel Kiper, and Russ Lande to name a few.

Obviously that doesn't mean anything about who an actual NFL team is going to pick, but the consensus certainly seems to be leaning towards Tannehill, at least for the time being.

If I'm in charge of a team's draft, I'm taking Weeden given the choice, but that's not to knock Tannehill whatsoever.  It has actually been pretty amazing watching the guy play quarterback the past season and a half.  I can't imagine there are too many guys anywhere that can play both quarterback and wide receiver at the Division I level which speaks to what type of athlete the guy really is..  And he didn't only just play each one, but he excelled at each position

Tannehill led the Aggies in receiving his freshman and sophomore year totaling 96 catches and nine touchdowns those two seasons.  It's likely you know the story from there, but after starting the year at wide receiver again as a junior, he then replaced Jerrod Johnson midway through the season as the starter at quarterback and promptly led A&M to five straight victories to end the season.

That led many to predict Texas A&M as one of the Big 12's favorites heading into 2011.  The season didn't go as planned but Tannehill still performed reasonably well, especially considering he was only making the seventh start of his career at quarterback when the season began.   That said, I'm guessing if you asked him, he'd love to get another chance at Oklahoma and Texas as he threw six combined interceptions in two of A&M's biggest games of the year, both ending in losses.

Now over to Weeden for a moment.  By far the biggest knock on him is his age (28) and I get it.  NFL teams are forking over a lot of cash and in many cases, their teams' future by taking a quarterback at the top of the draft.  It's understandable to see why there may be some hesitation on a guy who might have a shorter career than some.  Age or not, Weeden's worth the risk in my opinion.

Sure, he'll take a few chances that he shouldn't which result in an interception, but you know what?  It doesn't bother him.  He'll come right back out and lead your team on an 80 yard drive the very next series.  You want size? He's got that at 6'4" and 220 pounds.  How about arm strength? Check - one of the strongest around. Knowledge of the game, technique, and instincts, are fall in his favor, as well.

Weeden might not posses all the athletic ability of Tannehill, (namely speed) but you don't play professional baseball or walk-on to the Oklahoma State golf team without a few athletic genes in your body.  There's simply not much to like outside of his age.  I'd even go as far as saying his age could be viewed as a positive since he has experience on his side, and already has a taste of what professional athletics is going to be all about.

There's not a lot not to like with Tannehill, either.  The guy is as smart as they come and he's already been successful in Mike Sherman's NFL style offense (at two positions).  It likely won't take him long to learn the in's-and out's of another NFL system or to learn all the things a professional defense will throw at him.  He might now have all the experience you'd like to see, but he has all the tools that certainly atone for that one aspect.

So who do you have?  Again, I'll go with Weeden, especially if you're a team looking for a guy that can come in and make your team better immediately.  If you already have an established quarterback, then maybe Tannehill is your guy let him learn the ropes as a backup for a season or two.

In all actuality, there may be no wrong answer when you're considering these two.  The upside far outweighs the downside for either guy.

The ink is barely dry on the new schedule but that doesn't mean we can't start doing a little bit of prognostication as to how the league will play out in 2012.

Beyond the Bets has already put out some very early win totals for the Big 12 in 2012. These will more than likely change after spring football practice concludes and the season draws closer, but it's still a great starting point for some discussion.

Here's a glimpse at where Beyond the Bets set the number and a very preliminary guess as to whether each team will be above or below that mark this fall.

Baylor - Beyond the Bets (BTB, hereafter) set the Bears win total at 5.5.  Baylor has a brutal road schedule to look forward too, plus no RGIII, Kendall Wright, or Terrance Ganaway to go along with a suspect defense that gave up 56 points to Washington in the Alamo Bowl.  They hit 10 wins a season ago, but they'll face an uphill battle to approach that mark this year.

Early prediction: Over, but barely, with six wins. Let's assume a 3-0 non conference record which means they need to find three wins among the nine game conference slate.  TCU, Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech appear to be the likeliest wins in order to get there.  Of course if they do make it to six, that will make three straight years in the postseason for the Bears.

Iowa State: BTB total = 5.5. The Cyclones have five conference home games which helps, but their annual rivalry game with Iowa is at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City this season making a win there seem less likely.  Pulling another huge upset as they did against Oklahoma State last year (and Nebraska and Texas before that) wouldn't hurt their cause, either.

Early prediction: Over with six wins but just like Baylor, another tough one to predict here.  Underestimating Iowa State under Paul Rhoads has been an easy thing to do.  That said, Rhoads' ISU teams have generally overachieved and with experience coming back at the quarterback position, they should do so again.  They will need to win at least two road games to get there coming from a combination of Iowa, TCU, Oklahoma State (two years in a row?), Texas, and Kansas.

Kansas - BTB total wins = 3.5.   How much impact can Charlie Weis have in one season?  Having an experienced quarterback in Dayne Crist will help, but the Jayhawks have gigantic holes to fill all over the field.  They won two games under Turner Gill last year.  Can they find two additional wins under Weis to get over the number at four wins?

Early prediction:  Under with three wins.  Going 3-0 in the non conference games could change this prediction, and with those games being against S. Dakota State, Rice, and Northern Illinois, it certainly is possible.  Let's predict a road loss at Northern Illinois, however, meaning they'll need to win two Big 12 games to get to four wins.  Defensive coordinator Dave Campo may be coming from the NFL, but he won't have NFL talent to work with in Lawrence.  Kansas will win a Big 12 game somewhere along the line, but not two.

Kansas State - BTB total wins = 8.  The Wildcats won a bunch of close games in 2011, but winning 10 games wasn't a fluke.  They have five conference road games which won't be easy.  They also get Miami at home in the season's second week after winning on the Hurricanes home turf in 2011.  Collin Klein returning at quarterback and Arthur Brown at linebacker are huge pluses for K-State.

Early prediction:  Push at 8 wins. This number is right on.  The swing game for Kansas State is Miami.  Win there, and the Wildcats should get to nine wins.  Lose, and then 8 wins seem more likely with a 6-3 mark coming in the Big 12.  Games at Norman and Morgantown will be tough and then Texas finally gets a win over KSU in the final week of the season leaving the Wildcats with an 8-4 season.

Oklahoma - BTB total wins = 9.5.  Having Landry Jones back certainly will help the Sooners cause and Mike Stoops returning as defensive coordinator should help breathe some life in a Sooner defense that has underachieved at times the past few seasons.

Early prediction: over with 10 wins, at least. A 3-0 non conference schedule (sorry Notre Dame) means Oklahoma needs to go 7-2 in the Big 12 to make 10 wins a reality.  The toughest contests appear to be on the road at West Virginia, a home date with Kansas State, and of course the annual game at the Cotton Bowl against Texas.  An Oklahoma State team that might down just a little this year has to come to Norman helping the Sooners cause, as well.  Oklahoma received a lot of attention last year as national title contenders and this year shouldn't be any different.

Oklahoma State - BTB total wins = 7.5.  The Cowboys are going to be the hardest team to predict in 2012 in my opinion.  They are coming off four straight nine win seasons so it would be easy to assume they'd be right back where they've been, but there are big question marks this year.  Will their offense be as explosive without Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon?  It's hard to imagine it would be, which means the pressure is on their defense to show continued improvement.

Early prediction: Over with eight wins. A good gauge to what the Cowboys will have in 2012 should come early with a road game against a Rich Rodriguez coached Arizona team in week two.  Let's predict a win in the desert, then a 5-4 Big 12 mark leaving them at eight wins on the year, although I wouldn't say another nine win season is out of the question by any stretch.

TCU - BTB total wins = 9.5.  Well, these win totals came out before the announcement of four TCU players being arrested this morning, including their best linebacker.  It's too early to say how all this shakes out, but it's not hard to see how it could affect the season and not in a good way.  As for the schedule, it's going to be more than a little interesting to see how they hold up against the Big 12 schedule week-in-and-week out.

Early prediction: Under with 8 wins, although with the dismals on the team this morning, it's nearly impossible to know what to make of the Horned Frogs.  They should go undefeated in their nonconference games meaning they should expect something in the five or six win category in the Big 12.  Road games at Stillwater, Morgantown, and Austin won't be easy and then there's the season finale with OU in Fort Worth.  So for the time being, let's say under, although taking a flyer on the Horned Frogs at the moment is probably the way to go.

Texas - BTB total wins = 8.5.  For Texas, it all starts at the quarterback position.  If they get more consistent results from the position, they'll be tough to beat.  If not, another up-and-down season is on the horizon.  I will say I'm a believer in Texas this year, however.  It's no small task replacing both coordinators and they performed reasonably well in year one of running new systems.  Year two should be even better.

Early prediction: Over at nine wins. How the Texas season goes is largely going to be decided during the first three weeks of their Big 12 schedule; at Oklahoma State, West Virginia, and the annual showdown with OU in Dallas.  If they can get through that stretch at 2-1 - combined with a 3-0 record in the non conference - the Longhorns could be 5-1 after six weeks.  Then there are still very winnable games remaining against Baylor, Kansas, Texas Tech, and Iowa State for a nine win Longhorn regular season.  How about a Big 12 championship?  Maybe not this year, but they won't be far from it.  Again, it all comes back to the QB...David Ash, what do you say?

Texas Tech - BTB total wins = 7.  The Red Raiders will be on their third defensive coordinator in as many years under Tommy Tuberville.  How that transition shakes out along with what type of contributions they get from their junior college signees will define what is ahead for the Red Raiders in 2012.  Texas Tech's schedule sets up nicely except for the fact they'll play all year without a break in the schedule once they start Big 12 play.  Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Texas all have to make trips to Lubbock this season.

Early prediction: push at seven wins. Texas Tech should start the year with three easy wins heading into Big 12 play.  Can they find four more wins in the Big 12?  Here's guessing yes, although they'll most likely have to pull an upset or two to get there.  The swing games that could go either way in my mind will be TCU, Oklahoma State and Baylor.  If they can win two of those three, things should be looking up once again in Lubbock.  Of course, it comes back to staying healthy and playing just a little bit of defense.

West Virginia, BTB total wins = 8. It's hard to predict exactly how West Virginia will fare playing an entirely new schedule, but the positive is Dana Holgorsen knows the Big 12.  He has seen these teams many times before and will know what to expect, something that shouldn't be understated.  Plus, he happens to have a pretty good quarterback in Geno Smith running his system.  West Virginia will have a revamped defensive staff this year trying to stop some pretty good Big 12 offenses.  If they're up for the challenge, their first season in the Big should be a success.

Early prediction: push at 8 wins.  The key to the Mountaineers season will come in protecting their home field advantage.  Baylor, Kansas State, TCU, and Oklahoma all have to travel to Morgantown. I'll say if they can win three of those four, they'll have to feel pretty good about their position.  Back-to-back trips to Texas against Texas and Texas Tech will also be huge.  It's early, but let's predict an 8-4 first season in the Big 12 with a lot of potential upside to go above that mark.

Hey, what do you know?  West Virginia is officially in and now we have some actual football games to start talking about with the release of the Big 12's schedule today.

Here's the official link of the schedule release on the Big 12's website. You can also see each team's schedule as it stands now (some teams are still filling the out of conference schedule, namely Oklahoma) at the links below.

Here are a few quick notes and thoughts for each team on what to expect in 2012.

Baylor won ten games in 2011, but they'll be hard pressed to get back to that mark in 2012.  They look to have the league's toughest road schedule with games at West Virginia, Texas and Oklahoma.  All that without some guy named Robert Griffin running the offense.

Iowa State starts Big 12 play by hosting Texas Tech on September 29th and then plays nine straight weeks without a bye before completing their conference slate.  The Cyclones, along with Texas Tech, are the only teams in the conference without a game on December 1st, the last week of the regular season.

Kansas hosts newcomer TCU on September 15th which will be the first conference game of the year.  They also finish the season with the other newbie, West Virginia.  The Jayhawks are one of the teams with five conference road games in what will be Charile Weis' first season.  Dayne Crist, are you ready?

Kansas State gets the pleasure of opening their Big 12 schedule in Norman against the Sooners on September 22nd and they also get to travel east to take on West Virginia this fall.  Both Oklahoma State and Texas will play in Manhattan in 2012.

Oklahoma's biggest obstacle remains finding two more out-of league games to go along with Notre Dame.  As for their Big 12 schedule, they travel to both West Virginia and TCU for their initiation to the Big 12's newest teams.  And after playing Oklahoma State in early December last season, the Bedlam game is back in its familiar position on Thanksgiving weekend.

Oklahoma State, unlike OU, gets to stay home to play West Virginia and TCU.  But after two straight years of getting the Sooners at home, they have to head to Norman this season.  They open their Big 12 schedule on September 29th against Texas in their first big test without Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon.

TCU gets the pleasure of playing the league's first conference game when they head to Lawrence to face Kansas who went 0-for the Big 12 last season.  They also hit the road against Oklahoma State and West Virginia before finishing at home against Oklahoma.  It'll be interesting to see how the Horned Frogs handle the grind in their first season away from the Mountain West.

Texas opens Big 12 play in Stillwater versus Oklahoma State and then will play host to Dana Holgorsen and West Virginia.  The two matchups precede the Red River Rivalry which is the following week giving Texas a very tough opening stretch to the conference season.

Texas Tech will join Iowa State as the other team without a bye week once the conference season gets underway.  That being said, the fans in Lubbock should be happy with a solid slate of home games including Oklahoma, West Virginia, Texas, and Baylor.

West Virginia will get five home games in their first season with Kansas State, TCU, and Oklahoma all having to visit Morgantown.  They also open Big 12 play at home against Baylor.  After watching Dana Holgorsen's offense put up 70 on Clemson in the Orange Bowl, it's a scary thought to think how many they could put on Baylor whose defense hasn't exactly been a steel curtain of late.

Quantity over Quality?

The Big 12 went through its first season without a championship game in 2011, but was fortunate in the fact that the Oklahoma State- Oklahoma game, which was moved back a week, served as the de facto conference championship game.  With that game returning to its normal Thanksgiving weekend slot, it appears less likely the Big 12 will have such a matchup in 2012.

Obviously anything could happen, but the two best games during Championship weekend appear to be Texas at Kansas State and Oklahoma visiting TCU.  Eight of the ten Big 12 teams will be playing on December 1st which should still give the league some strong exposure while the Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC, and SEC hold their title games.

If it feels like we've been here before over the past four months, well, that's because we have. That being said, it appears as if today is truly the day West Virginia can call itself - publicly at least - a member of the Big 12.

However they want to word it, the Big East today released a statement terminating West Virginia from the Big East effective June 30, 2012.

In deciding to terminate West Virginia University’s membership, the Conference took into account the accusations that WVU asserted against the BIG EAST in the lawsuit that is now being dismissed. The Conference also took into account the steps that West Virginia University was willing to take to resolve the litigation, including the payment of an exit fee well in excess of that required by the Bylaws. In light of all of these factors, the BIG EAST Conference felt that it was in its best interest to terminate West Virginia University’s membership and conclude the litigation.

It's about time. The Big 12 officially announced West Virginia as its newest member back on October 28, 2011. Since then, it has been back and forth tug-of-war between West Virginia and the Big East on exactly when that was going to happen.

West Virginia and the Big 12 have maintained all along the Mountaineers would be here for the 2012 season. The Big East, however, wasn't so willing to just let West Virginia off the hook.

The reports of the settlement appear to be as they were reported last week. The Big East will collect $20 million in the form of an exit fee. West Virginia will pay $10 million of that with the Big 12 helping out with the rest, $5 million of which will be paid back by West Virginia once they become full-share members in 2015-2016.

So what all this really means is we will finally get a look at the Big 12 schedule for 2012 sometime later today, hopefully.

In the meantime, welcome West Virginia to the Big 12, again!

Yes, it's only practice. But this time of year, college football fans need something to look forward too, and that's where spring football can help fill at least some of the void.

It might not feel like spring just yet, but practice is just around the corner with Texas and Texas Tech set to get started over the next two weeks.

The Big 12 schools have been rolling out their spring schedule over the last several weeks and here's a list of how things look at the moment.  If there are any last minute changes, I'll update them here.

*Assuming West Virginia is in the Big 12, of course.

Just a random thought here, but wouldn't it be cool if team's were allowed to play a spring exhibition game?  Obviously a school wouldn't play against a school from their own conference, but you'd have to think it'd be a huge hit with the fans. After all, Red vs. White or Blue vs. Gold has a tendency to be a little bland, especially when it's the first and second string going against the third and fourth stringers.

You would have to guess the players would love it, as well.  If nothing else, it would be a great ending to the monotony of 14 straight practices going against the same guys.

I'm guessing coaches might not be crazy about it, but it certainly seems like it would be a better gauge of where a teams stands heading into summer workouts.

Your thoughts?