Top 5 at the Pre-combine...

In  few days we will know  the best prospects... Until there this are the top 5.

Quarterback

1. Andrew Luck, Stanford
2. Robert Griffin III, Baylor
3. Ryan Tannehill, Texas A&M
4. Brandon Weeden, Oklahoma State
5. Nick Foles, Arizona

Running Back

1. Trent Richardson, Alabama
2. David Wilson, Virginia Tech
3. Lamar Miller, Miami (Fla.)
4. Doug Martin, Boise State
5. LaMichael James, Oregon

Wide Receiver

1. Justin Blackmon, Oklahoma State
2. Kendall Wright, Baylor
3. Michael Floyd, Notre Dame
4. Rueben Randle, LSU
5. Alshon Jeffery, South Carolina

Tight End

1. Orson Charles, Georgia
2. Coby Fleener, Stanford
3. Dwayne Allen, Clemson
4. Deangelo Peterson, LSU
5. Ladarius Green, Louisiana-Lafayette

Tackle

1. Matt Kalil, USC
2. Riley Reiff, Iowa
3. Jonathan Martin, Stanford
4. Mike Adams, Ohio State
5. Cordy Glenn, Georgia

Interior Offensive Lineman

1. David DeCastro, Stanford
2. Peter Konz, Wisconsin
3. Kevin Zeitler, Wisconsin
4. Amini Silatolu, Midwestern State
5. Kelechi Osemele, Iowa State

Defensive End

1. Melvin Ingram, South Carolina
2. Quinton Coples, North Carolina
3. Andre Branch, Clemson
4. Whitney Mercilus, Illinois
T-5. Vinny Curry, Marshall
T-5. Nick Perry, USC

Defensive Tackle

1. Michael Brockers, LSU
2. Jerel Worthy, Michigan State
3. Dontari Poe, Memphis
4. Devon Still, Penn State
T-5. Fletcher Cox, Mississippi St.
T-5. Kendall Reyes, UConn
T-5. Brandon Thompson, Clemson

Linebacker

1. Courtney Upshaw, Alabama
2. Luke Kuechly, Boston College
3. Dont'a Hightower, Alabama
4. Ronnell Lewis, Oklahoma
5. Sean Spence, Miami (Fla.)

Cornerback

1. Morris Claiborne, LSU
2. Dre Kirkpatrick, Alabama
3. Janoris Jenkins, North Alabama
4. Trumaine Johnson, Montana
5. Leonard Johnson, Iowa State

Safety

1. Mark Barron, Alabama
2. Harrison Smith, Notre Dame
3. George Iloka, Boise State
4. Markelle Martin, Oklahoma State
5. Phillip Thomas, Syracuse

at nfl.com .

Four-team playoff in Big Ten ??

The Big Ten, which helped squash the notion of a four-team playoff to crown a national champion in college football several years ago, is taking another look.
“All of the Big Ten athletic directors are comfortable exploring the possibility of a four-team playoff,” Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis said Tuesday. “Four is better than two.”
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith agreed and said the discussions stem from feedback “that we need to do something different,” especially after the recent BCS title game between LSU and Alabama drew lower ratings that other championship games.
“The fans have been loud and clear,” Smith said. “We also recognize that structurally there’s things that we want to try and change with the bowl system -- how teams get in the bowls. It’s time to be curious about everything.”
The BCS title game pits the nation’s top two teams based on poll and computer rankings. The Chicago Tribune reported Monday that one of the ideas before the Big Ten would put the two semifinal games on the campuses of the higher seeded teams, and the national championship would be held in cities that bid for the hosting rights.

The so-called plus-one format -- two semifinals plus the title game -- was proposed in 2008 by the commissioners of the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference. It was shot down by the leaders of the Big Ten, Pac-10, Big East, Big 12 and Notre Dame.
The 11 Bowl Championship Series conferences have already met to discuss possible changes to the system starting in 2014. NCAA President Mark Emmert has said he supports a four-team championship playoff and is strongly against a 16-team format.
Emmert has also said there has been talk of using a Final Four model, a scenario which would’ve matched LSU against Stanford and Alabama versus Oklahoma State this season, with the winners advancing to the title game.
Despite the Big Ten’s interest in a playoff, there is at least one big hurdle: The Rose Bowl, with its storied history to two of the nation’s biggest conferences.
“The Rose Bowl is extremely important to Michigan State just as it is to every school in the Big Ten and Pac-12,” Hollis said. “There are more questions than answers about how any format would work, including where the games would be played and what the bowl-type experiences would be like in a championship format.
“My eyes are always open to explore all opportunities, but I don’t think we want to exceed 15 games.”
Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon, who is open to any option that includes keeping the conference and Pac-12 tied to the Rose Bowl, said he’s not sure the plus-one model will please everybody.
“I know a lot of people would love to see one more great football game, but I’m not sure this type of playoff will make it more fair,” Brandon said. “At some point, you have to draw the line. With four teams, there will be controversies about who those four teams should be because it’s usually not clear.”
Smith said there are too many bowl games, lagging ticket sales and teams are already playing “too deep into January” with players who happen to be students, too. He had reservations about a playoff where students play back to back games.
Still, he said there was a need to discuss the format now.
“This is the window of time before we go and do something with another partner, or current partner, we don’t want to just do the same thing without trying to address some of those issues,” he said. “But if we ended up with a plus-one playoff, it would be exciting for fans but there’s a lot of issues around it.”
BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said 50 to 60 possibilities for various changes were presented during a meeting in New Orleans, where Alabama beat LSU in the BCS title game last month. Hancock anticipated it would take several more meetings to reach a conclusion in July.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, who declined comment Tuesday, has acknowledged he would consider the prospect of a four-team field.
“Four years ago, five of us didn’t want to have the conversation,” Delany told reporters last month. “Now we all want to have the conversation.”
Asked about how the revenue from a playoff would be distributed, Smith noted that was a key issue.
“You know, as we went into the BCS system and it was developed over time, the distribution of money changed over time, right?” he said. “What we need to do is if we end up there, that needs to be decided early. I agree with our commissioner that whatever we do it needs to in my view a longer-term deal as opposed to a shorter-term deal so we can lock these things in and give it a chance to work. That includes the distribution of the funds. But that has to be talked about.” at ncaa.com.

NCAA attendance hits new high

"A record number of fans attended games at the 638 NCAA football-sponsoring schools this past year, including home games, neutral-site games and postseason contests. The total of 49,699,419 surpasses the previous high set last year. NCAA football has experienced record-breaking years in five of the past six seasons.
Although overall attendance was up, the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision saw a decline from its record numbers of 2010. The FBS had its fourth-highest total ever with 37,411,795 fans for an average of 46,074 per game, which was down 544 fans a game from the previous year.
However, the Football Championship Subdivision and Division II set records to more than make up for the drop in the FBS. The FCS totaled 6,407,059 fans to break a record set in 1994. Division II had 3,035,696 spectators to break its mark set in 2007. With 2,381,454 fans, Division III recorded his second-highest total ever and the most since its record-breaking year of 1978.
Michigan’s 112,179 fans per game during eight home contests set an all-time mark for individual schools. The Wolverines broke their own record of 111,825 set in 2010. It was Michigan’s 14th consecutive attendance title.
Four other programs also topped the 100,000 mark -- Ohio State at 105,231, Alabama at 101,821, Penn State at 101,427, and Texas at 100,524. This was the fifth consecutive year that Big Ten Conference teams held the top three spots.
Despite that, though, the Southeastern Conference was the best Division I league draw for the 14th consecutive year. SEC schools claimed six of the top 11 spots.
Other highlights
• The SEC totaled 6,369,898 fans while averaging 75,832 per game, just shy of the SEC’s all-time conference record of 76,844 in 2008.
• The Big Ten (71,439), Big 12 (63,265), Pac 12 (52,249) and Atlantic Coast (51,406) rounded out the top five in conference attendance.
• Four FBS and three FCS conferences set personal highs for total attendance. The FBS conferences were the Big Ten, Pac-12, Big East and Sun Belt. The FCS conferences were the Colonial, Missouri Valley Football and Big South.
• The average number of fans attending an FCS game was 9,620, an increase of 196 fans per game from 2010.
• The FBS postseason featured 35 bowl games that attracted 1,765,224 spectators for an average of 50,435 per contest.
• As for NCAA championship tournaments, total attendance for the FCS tournament was 256,384 for a 13,494 average across 19 playoff games. The Division II tournament totaled 123,528 fans for a 5,371 average in 23 games. The Division III tournament had 58,746 total fans for a 1,895 average across 31 games.
• Michigan, which was the first school to average more than 100,000 a game (in 1976), has captured the attendance title 42 times since 1949, including 36 since 1974.
• For all-games attendance -- including home, road and neutral-site games -- Michigan was tops as 1,218,043 fans watched the Wolverines across 13 games. Thirteen teams played in front of more than 1 million fans this season.
• Five FBS teams enjoyed increased crowds of more than 7,000 fans per game from last year. Leading the way was Louisiana-Lafayette, which benefitted from the excitement of a new coach (Mark Hudspeth), winning all of its home games and tying a school mark of nine wins in a season. Louisiana-Lafayette enjoyed an 11,788-person increase per game from 2010 to 2011. The Ragin’ Cajuns were followed by Arizona State (11,064), Stanford (9,954), Iowa State (8,251) and Temple (7,545).
• Appalachian State led FCS attendance for the fourth time in five years with an average of 26,211 fans per game. Second to the Mountaineers was James Madison’s average of 25,002. Montana was tops in the subdivision in total attendance at 199,023 in eight games.
• Among FCS conferences, the Southwestern Athletic Conference enjoyed its 33rd attendance title in 34 years. The 10 SWAC teams averaged 12,944 fans per game and totaled 686,051 spectators. The Southern (679,491 fans for an average of 12,821) and the Colonial Athletic (754,705 fans for an average of 12,173) were a close second and third, respectively.
• In Division II, Morehouse captured its first attendance title by averaging 11,713 fans per game. The three other schools that averaged more than 10,000 per game were Tuskegee (11,458), Grand Valley State (10,478) and Miles (10,188).
• The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference posted its 19th Division II attendance title in 20 years. SIAC teams averaged 8,164 fans per game. Next were the Gulf South at 6,255 and the Lone Star with 6,209 fans per game.
• In Division III, Hampden-Sydney stopped a run of 10 straight attendance titles by St. John’s (Minnesota). Hampden-Sydney’s 7,997 fans per game edged St. John’s average of 7,699. The rest of the top five were Wisconsin-Whitewater (5,175), Randolph-Macon (5,169) and Concordia-Morehead (4,685).
• Also in Division III, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Conference won its sixth title in seven years with 3,503 fans per game. The Old Dominion Athletic Conference finished second by averaging 3,498 fans per game, just five less fans per game than the champion. The ODAC was the attendance champion in 14 of 16 years from 1989 to 2004." at ncaa.com

NCAA Basketball : Top 25

Women`s

Men`s

" Football News Nation’s top recruits make it official Signing day highlighted by Green-Beckham choosing Missouri "

Alabama solid as usual -- The Tide swept through the South to reload. Alabama went to Baltimore to get wide receiver Cyrus Jones, down to Lynchburg, Va., for defensive tackle Korren Kirven -- one of the few late additions -- scooped up eight players from Georgia, three from Florida, picked up a quarterback, Alec Morris, from Texas, and even dipped into LSU territory to grab highly touted safety Landon Collins from Geismar, La.
Collins’ selection of Alabama instead of LSU last month on national TV was memorable for his mother’s obvious and vocal disapproval (“Tigers No. 1,” she said, eyes rolling at her son’s choice). On Wednesday, with mom by his side, Collins signed his letter of intent at Dutchtown High School.
Here’s a look around the nation at more of the top stories from signing day.
News Conference with Nick Saban
Meyer boosts Buckeyes' roster -- The Buckeyes’ recruiting coaches -- as opposed to their coaching coaches -- did a bang-up job with Urban Meyer’s first Ohio State class.
You might remember Michigan wasn’t pleased with the fact that Meyer and the staff he was assembling was allowed to recruit while the old staff was preparing the Buckeyes for their bowl game. The NCAA signed off on the arrangement. This just after Ohio State was handed a one-year bowl ban for transgressions under former coach Jim Tressel.
Considering Meyer’s track record, simply having him on Ohio State’s side was probably all the advantage the Buckeyes needed.
Meyer’s class was a consensus top-five, loaded with defensive linemen, including Noah Spence from Harrisburg, Pa., and Adolphus Washington from Cincinnati. The Buckeyes got a late boost when offensive tackle Kyle Dodson from Cleveland switched from Wisconsin to Ohio State on Wednesday.
“We had to have him,” Meyer said of Dodson.
Dodson was one of at least a half dozen players who switched commitments to play for Meyer.
“He’s done an amazing job flipping kids away from schools like it was easy as can be. And it’s not,” said Mike Farrell, national recruiting analyst for Rivals.com.
Michigan did OK for itself, too. Coach Brady Hoke’s recruits received high marks from the experts and stacked up nicely with Ohio State.
So signing day was just like the old days in the Big Ten. There was Ohio State and Michigan, then everybody else.
Trojans make due with fewer scholarships -- With NCAA sanctions kicking in at USC, Lane Kiffin had 10 fewer scholarships to hand out this year.
While the quantity is down, the quality of the Trojans’ class was not, and Kiffin’s crew made a couple of big scores in Florida on signing day.
Defensive end Leonard Williams from Daytona Beach, Fla., and receiver Nelson Algholor from Tampa both chose the Trojans.
After announcing his decision on ESPNU, Algholor said he was looking forward to catching passes from Matt Barkley, who decided to return for his senior season.
Looks like Kiffin can thank his quarterback for that victory.
Houston snags former Irish commit -- Did Case Keenum get a seventh year of eligibility?
Maybe the most surprising signing day flip-flop came from receiver Deontay Greenberry from Fresno, Calif., who backed off of a long-standing verbal commitment to Notre Dame and signed with Houston.
“Out of left field,” Farrell said.
Greenberry made a last visit to Houston, but was still considered a lock to end up in South Bend, Ind., as one of the top prizes of coach Brian Kelly’s class. His cousin, cornerback Tee Shepherd, has already enrolled at Notre Dame.
Instead, Greenberry is off to Houston to play for new coach Tony Levine, whose Cougars will still use a pass-heavy offense even with Keenum out of eligibility.
Last-minute surprise for Longhorns -- Signing day at Texas tends to be pretty boring. Mack Brown’s classes are usually locked up airtight weeks, if not months, before letters of intent start setting off the fax machines.
This year, however, the Longhorns swooped in late to pick up linebacker Torshiro Davis, who is from Shreveport and had committed to LSU.
For the second consecutive year, Texas signed one of the most highly regarded running backs in the country, landing Johnathan Gray from Aledo, Texas, to go with last year’s freshman sensations Joe Bergeron and the other Malcolm Brown.
Seminoles get who they wanted -- Quarterback Jameis Winston from Hueytown, Ala., said in an interview on ESPNU: “I’m a Nole.”
But he also said he won’t sign a letter of intent with Florida State until at least Friday. Winston seems intent on sticking with the Seminoles, but until it’s official Jimbo Fisher will no doubt have to sweat it out.
Stanford has at least caught Winston’s attention.
As for Florida State, Fisher signed a second consecutive class rated in the top 10 by the analysts -- which should only make Seminoles fans even more eager for their team’s long-awaited return to national championship contention.
Missouri wins DGB sweepstakes -- Dorial Green-Beckham, born in St. Louis and adopted by a family from Springfield, Mo., made the hometown fans happy by signing with the Tigers.
At 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds, the receiver already looks like an NFL prototype, comparable to stars such as Calvin Johnson and Andre Johnson.
He whittled his choices down to Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri in January, and on Wednesday morning at Hillcrest High School he picked the Tigers.
“I felt like they’ve [Missouri] been there since Day One,” Green-Beckham said.
Missouri first offered him a scholarship at the age of 15.
Rutgers class stays together without Schiano -- When Greg Schiano left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week, the fear was that Rutgers would loss much of what was being touted as its best recruiting class ever.
In the end, new coach Kyle Flood and the rest of the staff kept it together.
Rutgers lost only one player that had previously committed and came away with a class that included most of the top players in New Jersey, a typically solid state for producing football players, though often those players don’t go to Rutgers.
The cream of the class was Darius Hamilton, a defensive end from Ramsey, N.J., and the son of former NFL player Keith Hamilton.
“This shows you how good a job the assistant coaches did because in the end Schiano didn’t matter,” Farrell said. “These kids wanted to play for Rutgers.” more information at ncaa.com

Super Bowl Highlights...

On the last sunday we had one of the most amazing shows in the world, the Super Bowl XLVI...