College Football

GREENSBORO, Ga. - For the 17th straight year, a Bowden-coached team is the preseason favorite in the Atlantic Coast Conference. For the first time in that span, it isn't Florida State.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Steve Spurrier laughed off questions about speculation that he's grown frustrated with trying to build South Carolina into a championship contender and could walk away from the Gamecocks before his contract runs out.

ORLANDO, Fla. - A University of Central Florida football player who died after spring drills had a pre-existing medical condition worsened by physical stress, autopsy results released Thursday showed.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Former Arizona State football coach Bruce Snyder says he has cancer.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Former West Virginia University football coach Rich Rodriguez and the University of Michigan have agreed to pay a $4 million buyout and settle a lawsuit that WVU filed after he broke his contract in December.

Let there be no doubt about the impact Ricky Jean-Francois had on LSU's national title run last year. He played in all of two games -- the SEC championship game and the BCS national title game -- and it was abundantly clear:

PITTSBURGH - Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney and his son, team president Art Rooney II, want to buy Dan Rooney's brothers' shares in the team.

Last week, we ranked the BCS non-conference schedules league by league and team by team. Now it's on to the best of the best -- and the worst of the worst.

The Pac-10 is the final installment of Matt Hayes' rankings of the BCS non-conference schedules. He previously analyzed the ACC, Big East, SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten non-conference slates.

Matt Hayes continues his rankings of BCS nonconference schedules. He previously analyzed the ACC, Big East, SEC and Big 12. Up today: Big Ten. Coming Friday: Pac-10.

Matt Hayes continues his look at the BCS non-conference schedules. Last week, he analyzed the non-conference schedules in the ACC, Big East and SEC. Up today: the Big 12. Coming Thursday: Big Ten. Coming Friday: Pac-10.

Recent changes and retirements in the BCS hierarchy could slow the negotiation of television rights for the new series contract that begins with the 2010 season. Three heavy hitters -- the Notre Dame athletic director and the Pac-10 and Big East commissioners -- must be replaced. Pac-10 presidents want former Stanford A.D. Ted Leland as the new commissioner, and he would wield a heavy hand in negotiations.

We rank and break down the nonconference schedules of the six BCS leagues, beginning today with the SEC, ACC and Big East.

I tried two years ago, I really did. I called Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese and asked him -- wait, begged him -- to say I told you so to the rest of his stuffed-shirt BCS brethren.

OXFORD, Ohio - John Pont, who guided Indiana to its only Rose Bowl appearance 40 years ago and also coached at Northwestern, Yale and Miami of Ohio, died Tuesday. He was 80.

MADISON, Wis. - An appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit brought by family members of an ABC Sports cameraman who died in 2003 after he fell from a platform at Camp Randall Stadium.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama linebacker Jimmy Johns was arrested on felony drug charges Tuesday and kicked off the team, the latest in a string of off-the-field problems for coach Nick Saban's squad.