Nick Saban will have this many five-star running backs on scholarship by the time ‘Bama plays Wisconsin. (AP)

SABAN TO THE COWBOYS (STADIUM)—
Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) March 20, 2013

Fans of large smashy men banging themselves together on a football field while wearing varying shades of red, rejoice: 2015′s season-opening Cowboys Classic will feature Wisconsin and Alabama on September 5. You will recall that the Tide have a history of recent success in Arlington; ‘Bama returns to Atlanta for the 2013 season opener versus Virginia Tech. The move extends a streak of interesting-looking high-profile nonconference matchups, with LSU and TCU scheduled for 2013 and Florida State and Oklahoma State (States Florida-and-Oklahoma?) booked for 2014.

Following Tim Brewster’s abrupt departure from Mississippi State to join Jimbo Fisher’s staff in Tallahassee, Bulldog bloggers at For Whom The Cowbell Tolls are taking a look back at Brewster’s effusive social media antics:

Just got back from a beautiful Christmas Eve service. So blessed and thankful! Merry Christmas to all!—
Tim Brewster (@TimBrewster) December 25, 2012

How we viewed before: Man! That Tim Brewster is not only the best coach around, he’s a down home family man! I knew I liked the cut of his cloth. He’s the kind of example and man we need associated with our program.

How we view now: I kind of imagine him typing this with a huge grin on his face — like one so big it hurts. Then his wife asks him what he’s typing, and he yells the sentences back to her. I only remember him by his tweets, and since he used a lot of exclamation points, I assume he yells a lot, like Dave Chappelle in the Sam Jackson beer commercial.

It’s comforting to know that there’ll be somebody capable of filling that James Coley-shaped Twitter void in Tallahassee, no?

One thing we know we’ll be able to count on in 2020: Chris Petersen still being the head coach at Boise State. (AP)

We only just finished toasting Virginia for having the pluck to venture into a certain blue-turfed lair, and already we must congratulate another school: Florida State has just announced the scheduling of a two-game home-and-home series with Boise State. FSU will host the Broncos in Tallahassee on September 7, 2019; the Seminoles will travel to Boise for a September 12, 2020 rematch. What’s the bad news, besides having to wait that long? Hoping this game even gets to happen with all the connference square-dancing that’s bound to take place between now and then.

By 2019, we predict team-color fields will be the norm, and helmets will be outfitted with PredatorVision visors to enable players to better make out cleverly disguised defenders.

Barring a bowl matchup between now and then, the 2019 game will mark the first meeting between these two programs. For high-profile nonconference blue turf games happening sooner than 2020, check out Chadd Cripes’ list of future Broncos opponents. Boise State will visit Washington and BYU and host Southern Miss in 2013.

The logo on the cap changes, but Tim Brewster appears content to keep his services with reddish-colored teams.

Big week for unceremoniously ousted former FBS head coaches: First Neil Callaway catches on with Bobby Petrino’s merry band to coach the O-line at Western Kentucky; now Tim Brewster is leaving Mississippi State to coach tight ends for Jimbo Fisher at Florida State. This is sorta funny, because if you’ll recall, Brewster has a very recent history of suggesting a rival’s assistant may not be long for his current position:

Why yes, that’s Mississippi State receivers coach Tim Brewster, formerly of the University of Minnesota, speculating on the future of Ole Miss assistant coach Chris Kiffin, who is rumored to be taking a job with the Dallas Cowboys.

Chris Kiffin has yet to publicly respond to this latest development. But really, T-Brew — may we call you T-Brew? — take a page from what you tell your players every time they leave your care for even the shortest span of time: Never say anything on the Internet. Unlike your attachment to Starkville, it sticks forever.

See that faraway look in Jimbo Fisher’s eyes? He’s already planning for Florida State’s game against Idaho. (AP)

The ACC released its 2013 football schedule on Monday, complete with a handy graphic for those of you who prefer to schedule your fall Saturdays one colorful logo at a time. Like many FBS teams, you’ll notice Florida State has chosen to schedule a virtual bye game just prior to its season-ending rivalry contest — in this case, the Seminoles will host Idaho (still an FBS team!) one week before traveling to Gainesville to play the Gators. Here’s Jimbo Fisher on this particular scheduling stratagem, emphasis ours:

“Having the conference part of our season over heading into the stretch makes it easier for us to get ready for a huge rivalry game against Florida. It can be tough to play a game before Florida with a conference championship berth on the line. To get that part of our season handled than [sic] get a very good team like Idaho before we go into the big rivalry game is a plus.”

There’s expectations management, and then there’s … whatever this is. We take back every Florida State joke we have ever made during the Fisher regime, because there was no indication in the transcript that he didn’t say this with a straight face. Honor him.

In the dystopian future of the Big East, BBVA Compass Bowl trophies will be a highly valued currency. (AP)

• “Group of five” still just sounds so ominous. Jeremy Fowler reports on the coalescing system the Big East, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt are working on to distribute playoff revenue from the new postseason system:

In this proposed system, more than half the group’s roughly $86-million playoff pot would be distributed among the Big East, Mountain West, Mid-American Conference, Conference USA and Sun Belt as guaranteed base shares, according to a source with direct knowledge of the discussions. The source expects those shares to be evenly split, but added discussions are ongoing. The second tier pays out based on a conference’s body of work — the top conference gets the highest amount, then “X” amount for the next-rated conference, and on down. The third tier pays a kicker to the conference with the highest-ranked team, which is guaranteed an access bowl bid or, if among the top-four teams in the country, a semifinal berth in the playoff.

• Harbros’ early broing days. Check out Dan Wetzel’s tale of relatively wee Harbaughs recruiting youngsters to their dad’s team at Western Kentucky, including an appearance by one Willie Taggart.

• Exactly how you would’ve guessed. Former Miami Hurricanes make up the biggest slice of Super Bowl roster pie charts, but two of the next five teams on that list are … Marshall and Utah? Marshall and Utah! Go ThunderUtes!

• From the no-jokes department. Compelling story via OTL on UCLA researchers and evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in living football players.

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There is no such thing as a compelling photo of NCAA COI deliberations, so here is Sebastian in a vaguely menacing posture. (AP)

Assorted items of varying degrees of interest which you may have missed while grudgingly watching playoff football and sending surly tweets to the Golden Globes:

• The NCAA is Lucy, and Miami football is the football, and we are Charlie Brown running toward it, or something? This metaphor holds up only to demonstrate how very much we wish for this all to be over, but here we go: The Miami Herald is calling the release of NCAA allegations against the Hurricanes football program “imminent,” just short of the investigation’s two-year anniversary. Bylaw Blogger John Infante lays out all the ways this process could still be stalled, and how the Miami case might affect Oregon’s.

• Mike Stoops also a fan of Hi Haters Friday! Friday night, 6:06 p.m., Tulsa World‘s John E. Hoover posts a transcript excerpt of a Mike Stoops radio interview, specifically a question regarding Johnny Football: “They’re gonna be tough to deal with. If they can keep him out of jail or keep him eligible, he’s gonna be pretty good.” Friday night, 10:37 p.m., Tulsa World post headline: “Mike Stoops regrets controversial comments on Manziel.” Had Stoops’ defense possessed that kind of on-the-fly adaptability in the Cotton Bowl, perhaps Manziel would not have scored four touchdowns against it, PAAAOWL.

• Roster blotter. In better news for Miami: Seantrel Henderson, Brandon Linder and Curtis Porter announced Monday morning they all intend to return to the ‘Canes in 2013 … in even better news for Profiteroles fans, Dri Archer will stay on for his senior season at Kent State … Iowa State quarterback Jared “That Kid Who Beat Oklahoma State” Barnett and linebacker C.J. Morgan intend to transfer … Texas defensive tackle Brandon Moore will enter the draft … also declaring is USC corner Nickell Robey, whom we will dearly miss watching because of his too-perfect defensive name … Oregon linebacker Anthony Wallace will transfer … Case McCoy and Jordan Hicks have been reinstated at Texas … and Casey Pachall returns to the Horned Frogs.

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Johnny Football, tiptoeing to greatness with a thunder. (AP)

• Mack Brown offered the Manning Award as a safety. College football’s first freshman Heisman Trophy winner can add another accolade to his surely sagging trophy shelf: Johnny Manziel has won the Manning Award. Manziel entered the national lexicon with last year’s shirtless mugshot follies, won the starting job at Texas A&M as an underclassman, took home the Heisman, obliterated a former conference rival in the Cotton Bowl and will — football gods willing — continue to stay on his “hi, haters” message train throughout the forthcoming offseason. It is getting perilously close to impossible to hate Johnny Football, particularly if you don’t have a rooting interest in a defense that had to play him this year. Congrats, kiddo.

• Coach-firin’ follies. The silly season rolls on in the assistants derby: OUT goes Louisiana defensive coordinator Greg Stewart … IN comes Mario Cristobal at Miami in a most excellent personnel coup for the ‘Canes … and IN comes Ted Roof, back at Georgia Tech? (Related reading: “Has the internet desensitized us to the extraordinary?”)

• Gettin’ drafty. GONE: Tennessee’s three brightest offensive stars. BACK: Tajh Boyd, whose future presence, along with Aaron Murray’s, makes Clemson’s Week 1 date with Georgia an absolute must-watch game. GONE, TEARILY: Outland Trophy winner Luke Joeckel, whose letter to the faithful of Texas A&M you simply must read.

• Roster blotter. Burnt Orange Nation has the latest on the allegations against Case McCoy and Jordan Hicks … charges are expected against Arizona’s Ka’Deem Carey.

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The story of one college football postseason game, as told through social media.

I guess let’s get pumped for the Discover Orange Bowl. youtu.be/Hqpk_oD8q74

— teamcatlab (@teamcatlab) January 1, 2013

As a MAC grad, never eating oranges again. RT @bfeldmancbs Orange Bowl to NIU: “We didn’t even want you here.” My blog cbsprt.co/U5Op2A

— John Breech (@johnbreech) January 1, 2013

Orange Bowl reps should stick to buying off athletic directors with free Caribbean cruises. They do that well

— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) January 1, 2013

Best directions of the season, from the guy at the entrance of the Sun Life Stadium parking lot: “Go four speed bumps down and turn left.”

— Holly Anderson (@SIHolly) January 1, 2013

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Jordan Lynch and the BCS-busting NIU Huskies did not slide into glass slippers filled with oranges after all. (AP)

For more on Florida State’s Orange Bowl victory over Northern Illinois, check out Pete Thamel’s take and our Laff Riot Twitter wrap.

MIAMI – ”We made some plays, too,” Rod Carey said. “We didn’t make enough of ‘em.” Northern Illinois’ new coach neatly summed up the Orange Bowl, for those who missed it. Florida State defeated his upstart team tonight, 31-10. The Huskies kept it close in the first half and briefly made things interesting in the third quarter. But as the final score indicates, the Seminoles were just too much for this year’s unlikely BCS buster. [BOX | RECAP]

Still, consider the tens of thousands of fans and press and staff who attended tonight’s Orange Bowl game, and wonder just how many set foot in Sun Life Stadium expecting a Huskies win. It can’t have been many. We were not among those who came in believing in an upset. But we don’t show up at these things because we know what’s about to happen. We show up because of what might happen.

And Northern Illinois was about the unlikeliest BCS-buster imaginable from Week 2 of the 2012 season on, seeing as the Huskies lost to Iowa at home in Week 1. Our big-game interloper hopes were pinned in September on the likes of Ohio, with its creamy-dreamy schedule and an upset of Penn State to its credit, and Louisiana Tech, with its score-anywhere offense. We didn’t even think NIU would win the MAC. (Of course, we also predicted South Florida would make an appearance in this very game. Isn’t August fun?)

The Huskies did their best to remain under the buster-radar early on, scraping by the likes of Army (one-point victory) and Kansas (seven-point victory), while the Bobcats staged a largely listless season after that first win in Happy Valley. By mid-October, we had (temporarily) written off the idea of seeing any non-AQ squad in a big-money game. So many teams would have to lose, at the same time, to give NIU the required ratings boost. It was so, so unlikely — until it happened, and off we all went to Miami.

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