Mallett's transfer opens door for star QB recruit in Michigan; Double-digit losses in Hawaii

According to ESPN, freshman QB Ryan Mallett has decided to transfer from Michigan. Mallett, the second best QB prospect in 2007 according to Scout.com, is not mobile enough for incoming coach Rich Rodriguez's spread option offense. The Wolverines' two best receivers, juniors Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington, also feel like now is the time to leave, as both have declared for the NFL draft.

Mallett's transfer opens the door for this year's #1 QB prospect, Terrelle Pryor to step in and start right away for Michigan. Rumor has it that Pryor wants to play as a freshman, and has his eyes set on the NFL in three years. Michigan, and Rodriguez's spread option offense, would be the perfect stage for Pryor to display his skills.

According to Scout.com, Duke is now in the mix for Pryor's services, along with Michigan, Florida, Ohio State, and Penn State. Pryor wouldn't start at QB right away in Florida or Ohio State, but the other three teams all have openings. New Duke coach David Cutcliffe would love to kick things off with Pryor, and he'd definitely be the big fish for the Blue Devils.



Double-digit losses in Hawaii

Things haven't been very good for Hawaii in 2008. They inconceivably lost the best coach they'll ever have in June Jones (with no replacement in sight). That cost their Athletic Director his job. Star QB Colt Brennan is graduating. On top of that, both star receivers Ryan Grice-Mullen and Davone Bess are jumping to the pros early.

The way things are going, next season the Hawaii Warriors could reverse the amazing turnaround June Jones accomplished in his first season as coach. In 1998, a pre-Jones Hawaii team went 0-12. In '99, Jones' first year as coach, the Warriors went 9-4. With what Hawaii has been going through so far in '08, I wouldn't be surprised to see the team fall from double-digit wins to double-digit losses. The Warriors have to travel 4500+ miles to play a road game against the Florida Gators, road games against Boise State, Fresno State, and Oregon State, plus non-conference games against Washington State and Cincinnati.

Three reasons why June Jones should be the next SMU coach

ESPN is reporting that Hawaii coach June Jones has actually resigned as the Warriors' head coach and is close to signing a deal to become the new head coach of Southern Methodist University.

While the move is a step down in terms of program prestige, SMU would offer many benefits to Jones.

For one, Jones is reportedly upset at Hawaii's lack of commitment to the athletic department. Even star QB Colt Brennan has voiced his displeasure about the under-funded athletic department. If SMU is willing to pay Jones $2 million a year (more than twice his salary at Hawaii), one has to assume that they are committed to a well-funded athletic program.

Another reason for Jones to take the SMU gig is the fertile recruiting ground that is the state of Texas. Jones will have instant access to high caliber prospects and a recruiting budget that will dwarf what he has at Hawaii. Make no mistake, Jones will not steal prospects from Texas, Oklahoma, or Texas A&M. But like the state of Florida, there is plenty of talent left over after the big three take theirs (as evidenced by the recent success of Central and South Florida and Florida Atlantic). Jones would instantly compete with Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Houston and UTEP for the best of what is left.

Jones would also gain the exposure at SMU that he couldn't get playing midnight home games (Eastern/Central time)at Hawaii. Jones has to be a little upset that Hawaii's first meaningful, mainland, prime time game was a blowout loss to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. If he coaches at SMU, he'll have plenty of opportunities to show the football world how good his teams can be. From what I've been able to Google, SMU has Missouri, TCU, and Texas Tech on their schedule over the next couple years. Think ESPN would be interested in televising a Jones-led SMU team against the Texas Tech Red Raiders?

In my opinion, June Jones heading to Southern Methodist is a win-win situation for all involved (except Hawaii). The only question I have: Is the state of Texas ready for the return of Jerry Glanville?

College Football's Newest Super Conference

With Boise State and Utah cracking the BCS party over the last several years, the "mid-major" college football teams are demanding to be taken seriously. The biggest reason they are not being taken seriously? They play in weak conferences.

There are 54 NCAA Division IA schools that do not play in one of the "major" conferences (SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, Pac-10, and Big East). Excluding Notre Dame (they are in a special conference that consist of NBC's money, Beano Cook's sanity, Joe Theisman's ego, and Brady Quinn's dignity), that makes 53 teams spread across five conferences.

The solution to this problem? Create a 12 team Super Conference with teams from all across the country. Consider it Conference USA version 2 (CUSA2 for future reference).

The list of 53 teams can be narrowed down to 18 when you eliminate teams with less than 30 wins over the last five seasons. This is a reasonable requirement, as six wins a season is the minimum requirement for bowl eligibility.

This restriction narrows the field down to: Boise State, Bowling Green, BYU, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Houston, Marshall, Miami (OH), Navy, Nevada, New Mexico, Northern Illinois, Southern Miss, TCU, Toledo, Tulsa, and Utah.

Several programs that didn't make the list could be viewed as rising stars (Florida Atlantic, Troy, San Jose State and UTEP) or falling stars (Memphis, North Texas).

The final 12 were chosen based on program prestige as well as general direction of the football team. Number of bowl appearances and record against big conference schools also influenced the final 12.

CUSA2 (5 year record in parenthesis)
1. Boise State (58-7)
2. TCU (48-13)
3. Hawaii (43-24)
4. Utah (42-18)
5. Northern Illinois (41-20)
6. Toledo (40-23)
7. Bowling Green (39-22)
8. Southern Miss (39-25)
9. Fresno State (39-26)
10. Navy (37-25)
11. Miami (37-25)
12. BYU (31-29)

The easiest way to align a conference that spans the entire continent (and then some) is to divide them into an East and West. But that could easily lead to an imbalance in power, as the West under that alignment would easily be the stronger division. I prefer the single division alignment with the top two teams meeting for the conference championship at the end of the season.

I chose BYU over Marshall (34-26), Houston (31-31), New Mexico (34-29), Colorado State (31-31) and Nevada (33-28) for the final spot for two reasons: 1) BYU is a nationally known program with a long history of success and 2) With the exception of Nevada, one could argue that the other programs listed are in decline.

To really make things interesting, have a "qualification" process like they do in the European soccer leagues. Every three to five years, review the five year record, bowl record and etc of every team in the conference as well as all the other teams that didn't initially make the cut. Drop the lagging teams and replace with newer, more exciting rising teams. This gives each team in the conference incentive to do their best, as well as reward smaller programs who have excelled. If Dick Tomey's San Jose Spartans make several more bowl games and gain national prominence, they should be rewarded for their success.