Five-star defensive end recruit Dee Liner has made a beeline away from Auburn. (Icon SMI)

• IMPORTANT DEE LINER, D-LINER NEWS. We did promise you at the end of the season that we wouldn’t get mired too deep in recruiting antics, not being super interested in prospects until they actually take the field in August, but exceptions will always be made for defensive ends named Dee Liner. Liner, a five-star prospect from Muscle Shoals who’s ranked by Rivals as the second-best overall recruit at his position, has decommitted from Auburn, citing the loss of his relationships with Gene Chizik and Trooper Taylor. This has been a public service announcement to remind you all that there is a defensive prospect out there named Dee Liner. Thank you.

• Coach-hirin’ follies! Coordinators snapped up by new schools since we last typed in this here box: Bill Cubit (OC) at Illinois, Josh Conklin (DC) at FIU, David Gibbs (DC) at Houston and — reportedly — Scot Loeffler at Virginia Tech.

• Roster blotter. Roster moves and non-moves since we last typed in this here box: Notre Dame’s Cierre Wood intends to turn pro; Oklahoma’s Aaron Colvin will return; Houston’s Charles Sims is staying a Cougar for one more year; and Nebraska’s Sean Fisher is forgoing a possible sixth season of eligibility in favor of medical school, the little scamp.

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The story of one afternoon in college football’s postseason, as told through social media:

Our remedy is SMASH MOUTH FOOTBALL. But also try some CARROT JUICE. RT @optoloper: I need your best hangover remedy. It’s for a friend.

— Capital One Bowl (@CapitalOneBowl) January 1, 2013

Recipe for attendance disaster at the Heart of Dallas Bowl. 11 a.m. New Year’s kick. Lopsided matchup. Big OSU hoops game on Mon. Then rain.

— David Ubben (@davidubben) January 1, 2013

Depends, what time does it start? RT @lakebuenavista: Will you be watching the @capitalonebowl today? bit.ly/TKn0TC

— Capital One Bowl (@CapitalOneBowl) January 1, 2013

First mistake of the day by Boilers RT @carminjc: #Purdue wins the toss and defers to 2nd half. Cowboys to receive.

— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoAP) January 1, 2013

The tax staggered into the street, bleeding from his chest, as the Taxslayer threw a bloody knife into the gutter and ran.

— Bobby Big Wheel (@BobbyBigWheel) January 1, 2013

@andy_staples I KNOW WE’RE DOOMED WHY EVEN PLAY THE GAME

— mgoblog (@mgoblog) January 1, 2013

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#CommitToTheG #ThatIsProjectedOnTheWall twitter.com/CapitalOneBowl…

— Capital One Bowl (@CapitalOneBowl) December 31, 2012

The 2013  Capital One Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Ben Glicksman’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? This is the Citrus Bowl! The game that was the Citrus Bowl, and also the Tangerine Bowl, way more times than the Champs Sports Bowl, which is no longer the Champs Sports Bowl, was the Tangerine Bowl! It’s also played in the Citrus Bowl, which is all kinds of helpful. Thanks, Capital One Bowl. You’re a peach.

• Where will this game be played? Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando. (This stadium was also once called the Tangerine Bowl! Have you heard quite enough about citrus this postseason, gentle readers?)

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET on ABC, with Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, Davis Pollack and Samantha Steele.

• Whom does it feature? The best teams from the Big Ten and SEC not playing in BCS games.

• What about this year? Division champs, ahoy! It’s No. 6 Georgia versus No. 23 Nebraska, for all the felted mouse ears.

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Our continued best wishes to Tulane’s Devon Walker for a complete recovery. (AP Photo/Tulane University)

• Actual good news, actually. Devon Walker is getting out of rehab and will spend the winter holidays continuing his recovery at home with his family. Here’s his statement: ”I am so happy to be going home where I can reunite with my family and friends. My family and I are very grateful for the support we continue to receive. Some days, when I think that I just can’t do this anymore, remembering my many friends and supporters (both old and new) who are praying for me gives me the strength to go on. I know that my fight is just beginning. Please continue to pray for my recovery. Thank you very much.”

• And now, humans in plush cow suits playing drums in the general direction of Dabo Swinney. The Chick-fil-A Bowl is your one-stop destination for events of this kind.

• Coach-firin’ follies. Are increasingly giving way to coach-hirin’ follies: Missouri offensive line coach Josh Henson will replace the departed Dave Yost as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator.

• Roster blotter. Stedman Bailey will pass on his senior season at West Virginia in favor of the NFL draft … also turning pro: Tennessee’s Justin Hunter, per Justin Hunter … Louis Nix will return to Notre Dame, with the intent of taking a little Senior Day stroll with his mom … Cincinnati’s Brendon Kay has been granted a sixth year of eligibility … and stop us if you’ve heard this before, but a Montana player is transferring. No, again. No, again again.

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James White was part of a Badgers ground game that tallied 539 yards and eight scores. (Getty Images)

Quick hits from the Championship Saturday action. For more on Week 14, check out our Friday Snaps, coverage of Louisville-Rutgers, Oklahoma-TCU and the epic clash between Alabama and Georgia, plus our complete Top 25 review.

• Wisconsin 70, No. 14 Nebraska 31. This game wasn’t even as close as the final score indicates, which is really saying something. The Huskers were down 42-10 at the half — Wisconsin scored its final touchdown of the second quarter on a trick play with 20 seconds left on the clock, because Bret Bielema enjoys reminding folks he’s Bret Bielema — and scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter after the Badgers had already crossed the 60-point mark.

“We kind of set our minds before the game that this is our game,” Monteé Ball said afterward. “The running backs were going to set the tempo.” Offhand, with 539 yards gained on the ground alone, we would venture to suggest they succeeded in their efforts.

Fun tidbit: Ball rushed for 201 yards on 21 attempts and three touchdowns, and was neither the leading scorer nor the leading rusher for the Badgers. Melvin Gordon rang up 217 yards on nine carries with one score, while James White added four touchdowns and 109 yards on 15 carries. Lost in all that: Taylor Martinez doing this Family Circus touchdown run. Don’t forget that Taylor Martinez did this, because it was awesome.

Wisconsin trailed Nebraska 3-4 in the series before tonight’s cannon show. Has a series ever been leveled with such gusto? And what will a defense of Stanford’s caliber make of these five-loss Badgers, who wouldn’t have even been in position to claim the Big Ten title and earn a Rose Bowl berth if not for other programs’ sanctions? “It’s OK to get there,” said Bielema of the Rose Bowl, “but you need to win it.” They’ll get their shot on New Year’s Day. [BOX | RECAP]

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There are 11 conference races in FBS football, and heading into what will be their final Saturday of the regular season, only one — the WAC — has already crowned its champion. In every other league, and even among the independents where Army and Navy don’t play until next week, there’s at least a little room for movement at the top, if not an outright battle for the conference title. (For more in-depth preview content of this weekend’s SEC title game and other contests, visit Andy Staples’ Walkthrough.)

Georgia has a big game coming up. Of course there’s a song.

Actual Conference Championship Games, Actually

• Central Florida at Tulsa, 12:00 p.m. ET. In keeping with our tiebreaking theme, this game will serve as a best-of-three supremacy determiner: The Knights and Golden Hurricane are 1-1 all-time against each other when playing for the C-USA championship.

• Alabama vs. Georgia, 4:00 p.m. How many bowl scouts from games that can’t possibly hope to take Alabama or Georgia d’you reckon were awarded press credentials for this?

• Nebraska vs. Wisconsin, 8:00 p.m. If you like conference championship games featuring fewer than two division champs, this is the contest for you. Ohio State will celebrate its 12-0 regular season next Friday.

• Florida State vs. Georgia Tech, 8:00 p.m. It is technically still possible for a 6-6 team to receive a BCS bowl bid, at which point it would be a 7-6 team, which makes it all better, right? The majesty of the BCS!

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• Louisville 20, Rutgers 17. We’ll let SI.com’s Gabriel Baumgaertner tell y’all all about the antics of Teddy Bridgewater, but don’t go away without watching him let it all out postgame with offensive coordinator Shawn Watson. Bridgewater led the Cardinals to a primetime win, on the road, against the country’s fourth-ranked scoring defense. And then this happened:

How Bridgewater is even remaining upright at this point is anybody’s guess, but up he his, and no matter your particular partisanship, you must applaud. Have you a pulse? You will be moved. But don’t take our word for it. Listen to his teammates. Here’s Louisville offensive lineman Alex Kupper, after the game: “His legacy at the University of Louisville keeps building and building, and he’s only halfway through. He’s just an unbelievable player, the way he fights. When you’re playing next to him, if you do anything less, it’s shame on you.”

Rutgers still gets a share of the Big East title, and Cincinnati could force a four-way tie atop the conference standings with a win over UConn, but take it from Louisville safety Calvin Pryor, as the Cardinals mull their postseason possibilities: ”Whatever it is is better than going to the Belk Bowl!” [BOX | RECAP]

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Rex Burkhead goes out with a bang. (AP)

Snap Judgments from Friday afternoon’s action. For more, check out Saturday’s early Snaps and our complete Top 25 review.

• No. 17 Nebraska 13, Iowa 7. Bo Pelini was asked in his postgame on-field interview whose decision it was to insert the oft-injured Rex Burkhead into the Huskers’ final regular-season game. He laughed. “His!” The senior standout, absent for much of this season while nursing a knee injury, made the most of his time on the turf, leading Nebraska’s ground attack (69 yards on 16 carries) and scoring the Huskers’ only touchdown of the contest on a three-yard run in the third quarter.

Those of you who find our occasional gleeful odes to MACtion tacky are in for a real treat with today’s box score, where you will find just one player with an individual stat line totaling more than 100 yards. (The lucky lad: Taylor Martinez, who completed 9 of 14 passes for 63 yards and rushed for an additional 41.) Burkhead was trailed  by Ameer Abdullah (50 rushing yards on 14 carries) and Braylon Heard (46 yards on four carries). For the Hawkeyes, James Vandenberg completed 11 of 24 pass attempts for 92 yards and threw two interceptions. Mark Weisman led Iowa in rushing with 91 yards on 29 attempts.

Vandenberg also gave the Hawkeyes their only lead of the game, with a one-yard rushing touchdown late in the first quarter, a lead Iowa hung onto until Burkhead’s run. And for a moment there, late in the fourth quarter, it looked as though we might have a ballgame on our hands again. Given the ball on a Nebraska punt at their own 27 with about three and a half minutes to play, the Hawkeyes executed two consecutive six-yard plays before Vandenberg threw his second interception with just 2:11 remaining on the clock. And practically before time had expired in the stadium, we had that all-important BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME TICKETS: ON SALE NOW email land in our inbox. The Huskers have earned at least a share of the division title and will play Wisconsin in Indianapolis on Saturday, December 1. Nebraska won their first meeting in September, 30-27. [BOX | RECAP]

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@martinrickman I vote for a picture of Dianne Wiest since it’s the Big Wiest.

— Dan Weiner (@DanWeiner) November 13, 2012

• Let’s settle this now. Behold, the divisions of the new Big East: Central Florida, South Florida, Connecticut, Louisville, Cincinnati and Rutgers in the East East, and Boise State, Houston, Memphis, San Diego State, SMU and Temple in the East West. The ease of remembering mostly geographically based divisions aside (lookin’ riiiight at you, Increasingly Inaccurately Named Big Ten and ACC), new divisions mean new opportunities for mnemonic acronyms and Lovecraftian anagrams. IMPORTANT NOTE: For reasons relating to not wanting to come up with a bunch of U-words, we’re going with Central Florida instead of UCF here, South Florida instead of USF and Connecticut instead of UConn. Thank you for your understanding.

Our best suggestions in the clubhouse thus far:

East: Crooked Stepping Creeping Landscape Creep Rust, Considering Shaken Chosen Lawyer Creator Rake and Change Shrewd Cremini Lump Craze Riot.

West: Blistered High Mockery S‘more Stereo Turtle, Blended Holding Minor Sopping Sleepy Tangent and Broad Headache Manic Stiff Solace Toad.

Almost none of these words have anything to do with anything, which is sort of what we get for putting South Florida, Connecticut, Boise and San Diego State in the same conference. Please feel free to leave your own suggestions below.

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Johnny Manziel (2) and Texas A&M dealt Alabama its first loss since last November. (Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)

Snap Judgments from the Week 11 midday slate. For more, check out early Snaps, late Snaps, our recaps of Texas A&M-Alabama and Kansas State-TCU and our complete Top 25 review.

• No. 15 Texas A&M 29, No. 1 Alabama 24. We are reminded tonight of how Kevin Sumlin’s first round of interviews went at last summer’s SEC Media Days. No reporter actually stood up, shoved a mic in his face and asked, “HEY COACH, YOU SKEERED?” but something like that wasn’t all that far from happening by the time the Q&A ended. Sumlin dispensed with those questions back in July with gracious humor, some quips and a few dagger stares. Tonight, his Aggies dispensed with the No. 1 team in the country.

Heading into Week 11, Alabama had a perfect record in 2012, one loss in nearly two full seasons of football and a unanimous lock on the No. 1 spot in the AP Poll. And tonight, in Tuscaloosa, the Tide were rudely introduced to a Kliff Kingsbury offense that put them in a 20-0 hole, at home, by the end of the first quarter. ‘Bama answered with two touchdowns and a field goal over the next two quarters, but it surrendered nine more points to the Aggies in the fourth. The Tide pulled to within a five-point, 29-24 deficit on a 54-yard AJ McCarron-to-Amari Cooper score halfway through the final period and held A&M to a three-and-out on the subsequent possession. But a costly McCarron interception inside the five-yard line on what could have been the game-winning drive, plus a ‘Bama offsides penalty with A&M set to punt in the final minute, sealed the stunning upset.

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