The Big Ten conference will send eight of its 11 members to bowl games this year. The only teams that did not receive invites were those with losing records -- Indiana, Minnesota and Purdue. 

As expected, Wisconsin earned the Big Ten's automatic BCS bid and will play TCU in the Rose Bowl. Ohio State was selected to play Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, leaving Michigan State on the outside (of the BCS) looking in. Michigan State has a tough matchup with the reigning National Champion winner, Alabama, in the Capital One Bowl. 

A seven win Iowa team was paired in the Insight Bowl with a ten win (and 12th ranked) Missouri team. Illinois will play Baylor in the Texas Bowl while Northwestern will play Texas Tech in the TicketCity Bowl (yeah, that's a real bowl game). Michigan didn't catch a break with their bowl opponent as they were selected to play Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl. The Bulldogs look like a bad matchup for Michigan, but we'll have to wait and see if Rich Rodriguez can recreate the bowl magic he had at West Virginia.

Here's the official lineup:

Insight Bowl, Dec. 28: Iowa (7-5) vs. Missouri (10-2)

Texas Bowl, Dec. 29: Illinois (6-6) vs. Baylor (7-5)

TicketCity Bowl, Jan. 1: Northwestern (7-5) vs. Texas Tech (7-5)

Gator Bowl Presented by 5-Hour Energy, Jan. 1: Michigan (7-5) vs. Mississippi State (8-4)

Outback Bowl, Jan. 1: Penn State (7-5) vs. Florida (7-5)

Capital One Bowl, Jan. 1: Michigan State (11-1) vs. Alabama (9-3)

Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio: Wisconsin (11-1) vs. TCU (12-0)

Allstate Sugar Bowl: Ohio State(11-1) vs. Arkansas (10-2)

Former Dallas Cowboy Quarterback and Monday Night Football legend Don Meredith died Sunday at age 72 after suffering from a brain hemorrhage. 

Meredith played in the NFL for nine years but is more recognized by a generation of football fans for his part in the MNF booth. Meredith’s country twang and folksy delivery set him apart from Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford and he often willingly and humorously played the ‘rube’ role to comedic perfection in the booth. 

“Dandy Don”, as he was known, played collegiately for SMU before joining the Cowboys (via a trade with Chicago). Meredith (pictured to the right between Cosell and Gifford) grew up in Mount Vernon, TX meaning he never played a single home game outside of Texas in his lifetime.

After some grand-standing that delayed the announcement, another example of what bothers many about MLB is once again in full view this weekend as San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez (with a full year left on his contract) has been traded to the Red Sox for a trio of Boston farmhands, with the two more advanced prospects figuring to spend 2011 in AA.  While the haul of prospects can be analyzed and overanalyzed (because that’s what is done with prospects), hearing that Gonzalez was headed to the East Coast reminded me of this, written last June about how the Red Sox have paid handsomely in the area of draft picks for a couple of years and have been successful in flipping their bonus baby draft picks into MLB players, with whom they can then negotiate exclusively:

The practice is likely to become more commonplace as the mid-to-small-market teams begin their rebuilds with an eye on young, cost-controlled talent who may have been high draft picks with large signing boneses. When a team like Arizona is ready to tear-down, teams like the Red Sox have the most sought-after currency in MLB – young, cheap talent whose signing bonuses have already been paid to them.

Now, teams like the Red Sox truly sit in the catbird’s seat, where they can pull the players that they truly want to keep off of the table (as they did with Buchholz last year) and give other teams a list of intriguing talents (even if they’re the second-tier of Red Sox prospects) for the team to choose from. Teams like the Indians remain beholden to the teams that have spent more money in the draft (though they do still need to pick the right players) as the only place to make up for a dry pipeline is to pick through the farm systems of teams that have young talent, but aren’t necessarily harvesting that talent for their own parent club.

In case you were wondering, the three players that San Diego netted from Boston were Casey Kelly ($3M signing bonus, the 7^th highest bonus in the 2008 draft despite being the 30^th pick), Reymond Fuentes ($1.134M signing bonus which, to be fair, was not an overslot payment), and Anthony Rizzo ($325K signing bonus, nearly three times the bonus paid by the Indians to Bo Greenwell, who was drafted 8 slots before Rizzo), who will now go to the Padres’ organization with the hopes that one (or more) of them will arrive around the 2012 season or so.  Assuming any of them make it to San Diego, the Padres will hold club control over them for the requisite six years at a controlled cost.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox are likely to lock up the 28-year-old Gonzalez (the best player that most of America has never heard of…until now) with the financial ramifications of a not-yet-signed-extension already being dissected at length in Boston.

And so it goes…

Eric Wright is, at least for now, done as a starting cornerback for the Browns.

That alone is enough to make Clevelanders smile. If you've been watching Wright get burned repeatedly in coverage this season, you'd know why.

But that's not the real story. The real story is that 2010 first round pick Joe Haden is now starting in Wright's place. And if his performance Sunday against the Dolphins is any indication, he's going to be holding down that starting spot for years to come.

His lone interception of the day came on a badly-underthrown ball by Miami QB Chad Henne., but it was his fourth straight game with a pick. On top of that, Haden had a crucial break-up of a would-be Miami touchdown pass, three other denials and five tackles. And the tackles weren't cheapies. Two of them involved bringing down star Miami running back Ronnie Brown

Together with second-round pick T.J. Ward, the Browns have the beginnings of possibly the best young secondary in the NFL. Now the trick is to keep doing it until the end of the season. Haden had a chance to look good back in Florida, where he played his college ball for the Gators. Now he's got to do it in the often-brutal cold of Ohio in December.

"Now we have to enter the frozen tundra over the next month," Eric Mangini told The Plain Dealer. "I'll get him some foot warmers and stuff and hopefully he'll continue to play at the same level."

Lil'  Dane, as we call him around here, was voted the Most Valuable Player for the 2010 Buckeyes. Sanzenbacher, a senior captain, led the Big Ten in yards per catch at 17.1, and hauled in 52 catches for 889 yards. His 10 touchdowns ranked second in the conference. Some smart NFL organization will spend a fifth-rounder on him, and have themselves a steal.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State receiver Dane Sanzenbacher was voted 2010 team Most Valuable Player as announced at the 2010 Football Appreciation Banquet this afternoon at the Ohio Union.

Sanzenbacher, a senior from Toledo, also received the Paul Warfield Award as the outstanding wide receiver and the Bo Rein Award as the most inspirational senior (voted by the team). Sanzenbacher led the Buckeyes and ranked second in the Big Ten with 10 touchdown receptions. He finished the regular season with 52 catches for 889 yards for an average of 17.1 yards per catch -- the best in the Big Ten.

Quarterback Terrelle Pryor received the Archie Griffin Award as the outstanding offensive player, and defensive lineman Cameron Heyward received the Bill Willis Award as the outstanding player on defense.

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More player awards at the link

The St. Edward's Eagles have a flair for the dramatic. Winning the school's first ever state football title wasn't enough. Neither was doing it against Huber Heights Wayne's Ohio State-bound quarterback Braxton Miller. Coming from behind? Still not enough. What the Eagles did was win their first title against Miller while coming from behind in the final minute and a half of a game played entirely in a driving snow.

And did I mention the kid that outdid the OSU recruit, Ed's QB Kevin Burke, is 5'9" tall and weighs 165lbs if you include his helmet and pads?

Burke and running back Terrell Bates supplied the offensive thrills while the Ed's defense did just enough to thwart Miller's final drive to escape with an exciting 35-28 win.

Congrats also goes out to the kids and coaches at Maple Heights High School who also took down a state title when their diminutive QB, Shaq Washington, rushed for four TDs and threw for three more.

Good to see a couple of high school championships on the North Coast.

The Tribe made a minor signing today, inking 3B Jack Hannahan to a minor league deal with a spring training invite.

Hannahan was pretty much the A's primary third baseman in 2008 while Eric Chavez battled injuries all year for them.  In 143 games that year, Hannahan hit .218/.305/.342 with 9 HR and 47 RBI.  He was dealt to the Mariners the following season and bounced between Seattle and AAA Tacoma.  He was then traded to the Red Sox last July, and spent all of last year in AAA for Seattle/Boston, playing both 2B and 3B.

One more name in the mix for the mess at 2B and 3B for the Indians this coming season.  The team is also considering signing longtime Twin Nick Punto.

Per Paul Hoynes’ Twitter account, the Indians and Nick Punto have “mutual interest” and while the obviousness of Nick Punto not being able to hit a baseball is relevant in the discussion, he would represent an upgrade defensively at 3B over the stylistic renderings of one Jayson Nix at the hot corner.

On the former point, Punto has spent the last 7 seasons of his career with the Twins, posting a career batting line of .247 OBP / .321 OBP / .322 SLG / .644 OPS with a career 73 OPS+.  He has found himself beneath the “Tyner line” in each of the last two seasons, posting higher OBP than SLG…and his .328 OBP for those two years are below average.

No, Nick Punto cannot hit…

He can however play defense and if the Indians are interested in improving their infield defense, Punto would represent a significant step up from Nix at 3B.  While I suppose that it is possible that the Indians are looking at him for 2B, the more likely scenario (if Punto is brought in) would be Punto entering the “3B Derby” with Nix and Cord Phelps (with all of Cleveland on the edge of their collective seat) to hold down 3B until Lonnie Chisenhall (hopefully) forces his way onto the parent club after getting his sea legs under him in AAA, where he has yet to play a game.

If you followed the “Blake/LaRocca/Selby” competition in Spring Training of 2003 with bated breath, you may be in luck next Spring if Punto is signed.  If you did not…well, you have another target at which to direct your vitriol.

Truthfully, I’d be somewhere in the middle as adding a guy like Punto makes sense (assuming they’re paying him about what they paid Mike Redmond last year) as some insurance at 3B and 2B and offering a better defensive alternative at 3B on a team heavy with groundball pitchers but he certainly doesn’t add much by way of optimism or expected wins for 2011.

Given the Indians’ infield defense in 2010 however, adding a glove like Punto may make the team much less frustrating…when he’s in the field at least.

High ankle sprains or not, we haven't seen the last of Colt McCoy this season.

That's if Colt himself has anything to say about it.

In an article in The Plain Dealer Saturday, Colt admitted it has been difficult to watch from the sidelines.

"As a competitor and a quarterback, that's all you want. You want to play. You want to be involved. I'm doing everything I can to get back out there as fast as I can. It's killing me more than it ever has," said Colt, who never missed time to injury during his college career at Texas.

Colt has become the protege of veteran Jake Delhomme, who started in last Sunday's win over Carolina, and is scheduled to start in this weekend's game at Miami. Delhomme has spent the past couple of months on the sideline supporting Colt, and with Colt now sidelined, he's trying to return the favor to Jake.

"[Delhomme has] played for 15 years, so sometimes it's hard to say, 'Did you see that?', but I help him out if I can," Colt said.

If there is a silver lining to Colt's injury, he sprained his left ankle, not his right ankle, as Delhomme and Seneca Wallace did. For a right-handed quarterback, the right foot serves as the push-off foot on throws, making recovery from a sprain more difficult.

After Sunday's game against the Dolphins, Colt will have four more games to make a return, and attempt to end his rookie season with some positive momentum. Important for a guy who now has the weight of a franchise on his shoulders.

Never before has a case of professional athletes being so out of touch with their fan base been more apparent than during Thursday night's public embarrassment at The Q.  Cavs players hugged and fraternized with LeQuitter before tip off, and then went as far as to exchange playful banter with him during the game.  And when they weren't blowing him kisses, they were laying out their matador cape for him as he made a slew of uncontested shots and drives to the basket.

Couple all that with a lack of effort as a team on the court en route to a 30 point blowout loss ... and it's pretty clear - the Cavs lost a massive chunk of the fan base Thursday night.  And rightfully so.

Boobie Gibson, who is very active on Twitter and spends a lot of time making appearances around town, likely caught the wrath of the fans worse than anyone yesterday.  And he's taken to the defensive, claiming that the sweet nothings that the Cavs were whispering into The Whore of Akron's ears weren't as romantic as they appeared to be.

Whatever Boobie.