K-State jumps up one spot in latest BCS standings

By Ben KerchevalOct 21, 2012, 8:47 PM EDT

The second BCS rankings were released Sunday night, and there wasn’t much change among the top five. The only move? Kansas State hurdled Oregon to take over the No. 3 position after a convincing win over West Virginia on Saturday.

The SEC still holds the top two spots in the BCS with Alabama and Florida. Notre Dame stayed at No. 5 after barely beating BYU. The Irish will have a chance to move up the standings next week if they can beat No. 8 Oklahoma. LSU, the highest-ranked one-loss team, comes in at No. 6 and Oregon State continues to have a remarkable season at No. 7. USC and Georgia round out the top 10.

The SEC’s presence in the BCS continues with Mississippi State at No. 11 and Florida State comes in at No. 12. The Bulldogs will face top-ranked Alabama next. South Carolina drops six spots after getting throttled at Florida, and a pair of Big East teams, Louisville and Rutgers, land at spots 15 and 16.

West Virginia continues to slide down the polls after its second consecutive blowout loss and Texas A&M comes in at No. 20 to give the SEC seven BCS top-25 teams. Boise State, Michigan (hello again, B1G), Texas, Ohio (for the first time in school history) and Wisconsin round out the top 25.

(Many thanks to the National Football Foundation for the chart)

Gophers’ leading sacker ruled out of game vs. Nittany Lions

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Ex-LSU AD repeats claim Les Miles turned down Michigan, more money in 2011

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By John TaylorSep 28, 2016, 9:11 PM EDT

One of the biggest open secrets in all of college football has been confirmed (?) by a person who purportedly had a front-row seat to the spectacle.

Shortly after Rich Rodriguez was fired following the 2010 season, Michigan put on the full-court press to land Les Miles as his replacement. It was known at the time that then-UM athletic director David Brandon and other school officials flew down to Baton Rouge to meet with Miles, who played his football for the Wolverines in the mid-seventies and was an assistant at his alma mater a decade later.

The open secret many still swear by? That on that trip south Brandon had offered the job, along with a significant raise to what he was making at LSU, to Miles, who ultimately decided to turn it down and stay with the Tigers.

During a radio interview Wednesday, Skip Bertman, LSU athletic director from 2001-2008, confirmed that version of events

“Les Miles turned that job down for more money at Michigan. He turned it down,” Bertman told the ESPN Radio affiliate in Baton Rouge. “He would never say that because he’s a very humble guy. But I was there; he turned it down.”

Renowned Michigan historian John Bacon, however, disputes not only the 2011 claim, but the 2007 claim by Kirk Herbstreit and one made in 2014 as well.

To repeat – yet again – all my sources, very good ones, made clear UM never offered Les Miles the HC position in 2007, 2011 or 2014.

— John U. Bacon (@Johnubacon) September 28, 2016

The football program hired Rodriguez in 2007 and Brady Hoke in 2011, then stuck with Hoke through a rough 2014 season that had Miles-to-Ann Arbor speculation flying yet again. Ultimately, though, the university finally landed its Michigan Man in Jim Harbaugh. I’m thinking that’s working out just fine for the program, regardless of how exactly things transpired with Miles in the past.

Big Ten to use commemorative coin to honor Sam Foltz, Mike Sandler

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Nick Saban would ‘love’ for Blake Barnett to stay at Alabama

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By John TaylorSep 28, 2016, 8:22 PM EDT

At least from Alabama’s side of it, the door’s not completely shut on Blake Barnett‘s future being in Tuscaloosa.

Earlier Wednesday, a report surfaced that Barnett had decided to leave the football program and transfer out. In meeting with the media a short time later, Nick Saban confirmed that Barnett had “expressed some concern about his future” at a meeting earlier in the day.

The head coach said he “didn’t know” when asked if Barnett, who lost the starting quarterback job to true freshman Jalen Hurts earlier this year, was still a part of the team, although he made it clear that the redshirt freshman was still welcome in the locker room if he changes his mind.

“Blake is a fine young man,” Saban said. “He’s done a great job with his program, and we’d love to see him be a part of the program in the future, but we also want him to do what’s best for him.”

Barnett, who started the opener against USC but held on to the job for just tw series, was a five-star 2015 recruit who 247Sports.com rated as the No. 2 pro-style quarterback in the country. The California high school product originally committed to Notre Dame in November of 2013 before decommitting from the Irish in June of the following year.