While LSU athletic director Joe Alleva said that the Tigers and Florida are both “interested in ending” their annual series, Florida sources told CBSSports.com that the Gators have given no indication they want their series to end with LSU.

The Tigers and Gators have met annually since 1971 and were designated as permanent cross-divisional rivals when the SEC expanded in 1992. With the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M, the league is considering doing away with the cross-divisional games, including Florida-LSU, Auburn-Georgia and Alabama-Tennessee.

Alleva told the Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate the Tigers and Gators were interested in ending their series, but Florida sources disputed that to CBSSports.com.

Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity also told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that there’s a possibility the Bulldogs’ rivalry with Auburn, which dates back to 1892, could be in jeopardy.

While Thursday’s release of the Sun Belt’s 2012 football schedule didn’t bring as much fanfare as the SEC or Big 12 schedule release, it did give us a chance to look at which other conferences love the Sun Belt. Specifically which of the other 10 FBS conferences love playing against the Sun Belt.

And no one loves playing/beating the Sun Belt more than the SEC, especially Mississippi State.

Three of the Bulldogs' four non-conference games are against Sun Belt members Troy, South Alabama and Middle Tennessee. Their fourth non-conference game is against FCS member Jackson State. I guess there were no Division III teams available that week.

Anyway, Mississippi State is among nine SEC schools that will play Sun Belt schools this fall in a total of 12 non-conference games. The only SEC schools without a Sun Belt team on the schedule is Missouri, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. Defending national champion Alabama’s schedule features two Sun Belt opponents: Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic.

After the SEC, Conference USA has the most schools (six) playing Sun Belt opponents with a total of eight games.

Mississippi State is one of five schools with multiple Sun Belt opponents. Alabama, Memphis, Tulane and Navy each have two Sun Belt non-conference games.

The only FBS league that isn’t playing the Sun Belt is the WAC.

Last year, the Sun Belt was only 10-25 in non-conference games against FBS opponents, including a 1-2 bowl record.

Conference (games vs. Sun Belt)

ACC (3): Duke, Georgia Tech, N.C. State
Big East (1): Louisville
Big 10 (1): Nebraska
Big 12 (3): Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma State
C-USA (6): Houston, Memphis 2, Southern Miss, Tulane 2, UAB, UCF
Independents (1): Navy 2
MAC (1): Akron
Mountain West (1): Hawaii
SEC (9): Alabama 2, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State 3, Tennessee
Pac-12 (1): Oregon
WAC (0)

Now that the 2011 college football season is finally completed – Bobby Hebert’s done ranting about Les Miles, right? – let’s take a look at how smart or, make that clueless,  the voters in the Associated Press poll were before the season.

I was one of the 60 voters that participated in the AP poll. Each summer we’re asked to produce a Top 25 out of thin air. And then come January, we discover we’re usually as accurate as a non-fiction piece from James Frey.

Surprisingly, though, this year we did a fairly decent job of predicting the future or, if you prefer, the teams did a decent job of living up to their preseason rankings.

First the good.

We nailed it! Of the AP’s preseason Top 25 teams, three schools – No. 7 Stanford, No. 14 TCU and No. 19 Georgia – finished with the same ranking in the final AP poll.

Missed it by this much: Of the remaining 22 teams ranked in the preseason, we were off by only three spots or less on six schools: Alabama (preseason No. 2, finished No. 1), Oregon (preseason No. 3, finished No. 4), LSU (preseason No. 4, finished No. 2), Boise State (preseason No. 5, finished No. 8), Wisconsin (preseason No. 10, finished No. 11) and South Carolina (preseason No. 12, finished No. 9).

At this point I’d like to mention of the preseason top 19 teams, nearly half (nine) finished within three spots in the final AP rankings. Not bad. Which brings me too …

Wow, were we wrong: Of the remaining 16 teams ranked in the preseason Top 25, nine schools finished in the final Top 25, but were nowhere close to their preseason rankings. No. 1 Oklahoma finished 16th, No. 6 Florida State finished 23rd, No. 9 Oklahoma State finished third, No. 10 Nebraska finished No. 24, No. 13 Virginia Tech finished No. 21, No. 15 Arkansas finished fifth, No. 17 Michigan State finished 11th, No. 24 West Virginia finished No. 17 and No. 25 USC finished No. 6.

That leaves seven schools that were ranked in the preseason Top 25 but plummeted out of the rankings by season’s end because (take your pick) they choked under the pressure of a preseason Top 25 ranking, didn’t deserve to be ranked, were overrated, underachieved or all of the above.

We/they totally blew it: Here they are: the not-so-Magnificent Seven teams that were ranked in the preseason Top 25 but ended the season outside the Top 25. No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 16 Notre Dame, No. 18 Ohio State, No. 20 Mississippi State, No. 21 Missouri, No. 22 Florida and No. 23 Auburn all finished out of the Top 25.

We never saw them coming: There were 48 schools that received at least one vote in the preseason Top 25 poll. Yet, there were four schools that did not receive a single preseason vote that still finished in the final top 25: Baylor (finishing No. 13), Kansas State (finishing No. 15), Clemson (finishing No. 22) and Cincinnati (finishing No. 25).

Three other schools received Top 25 preseason votes and were not in the preseason Top 25 but finished in the AP final poll: No. 12 Michigan, No. 18 Houston and No. 20 Southern Miss.

So who were the biggest surprises and disappointments of 2011? Look no further than the Big 12, which had the nation's two most pleasant surprises in Baylor and Kansas State and the nation's biggest disappointment in Texas A&M.

Based on their AP preseason rankings, the biggest surprises in 2011: Baylor, Kansas State, Clemson (yes, even with the Orange Bowl seal-clubbing), Michigan, Cincinnati, USC and Houston. The biggest disappointments: Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Mississippi State, Florida, Arizona State, Miami, Utah, Iowa, Florida State, N.C. State and Oklahoma.

Listed below are the 48 schools that received a vote in the preseason Top 25 and the difference of how many spots better (+) or worse (-) it finished in the final Top 25 rankings. Following the school is each team’s preseason and final ranking. If a school started unranked and finished unranked, it was considered starting/finishing at No. 49.

Diff School (Pre-Final ranking)
+36 Baylor (NR-13)
+34 Kansas State (NR-15)
+27 Clemson (NR-22)
+26 Michigan (38-12)
+24 Cincinnati (NR-25)
+19 USC (25-6)
+18 Houston (36-18)
+15 Virginia (NR-34)
+11 Southern Miss (31-20)
+13 Northern Illinois (41-28)
+10 Arkansas (15-5)
+7 West Virginia (24-17)
+7 Brigham Young (33-26)
+6 Oklahoma State (9-3)
+6 Michigan State (17-11)
+3 South Carolina (12-9)
+2 LSU (4-2)
+1 Alabama (2-1)
+1 Wisconsin (11-10)
0 Stanford (7-7)
0 TCU (14-14)
0 Georgia (19-19)
-1 Oregon (3-4)
-3 Boise State (5-8)
-3 Nevada (46-NR)
-3 Northwestern (46-NR)
-3 Washington (46-NR)
-4 Auburn (23-27)
-4 Texas (26-30)
-5 Arizona (44-NR)
-5 Maryland (44-NR)
-6 Penn State (27-33)
-6 Tulsa (43-NR)
-8 Virginia Tech (13-21)
-8 Missouri (21-29)
-8 Hawaii (41-NR)
-9 UCF (40-NR) 5
-10 Tennessee (39-NR)
-12 Pittsburgh (37-NR)
-14 Nebraska (10-24)
-14 Air Force (35-NR)
-15 Oklahoma (1-16)
-16 N.C. State (33-NR)
-17 Florida State (6-23)
-17 Iowa (32-NR)
-19 Utah (30-NR) 25
-20 Miami (29-NR)
-21 Arizona State (28-NR)
-27 Florida (22-NR)
-29 Mississippi State (20-NR)
-31 Ohio State (18-NR)
-33 Notre Dame (16-NR)
-41 Texas A&M (8-NR)

TAMPA, Fla. – On Oct. 12 back when Urban Meyer was still retired from coaching and just a television analyst, he was in Tampa to speak at an Outback Bowl function.

Chris Sullivan, founder and director of Outback Steakhouse, walked up to Meyer inside the Belvedere Ballroom in the A La Carte Event Pavilion and embraced his friend.

“What are you doing next?” Sullivan said. “We could sure use you.”

Sullivan is a Kentucky graduate. Of course, Meyer will not be coaching at Kentucky, he is headed to Ohio State.

Less than a year after "retiring," Meyer is back

Seven weeks ago I asked Meyer what it would take for him to return to coaching.

“If I ever went back, I'd have to get back a little bit of balance I used to have,” Meyer said. “I don't know if I'm there yet. I went off the deep end. When I first went to Florida, my first Tennessee game, first SEC game, my son (Nathan) was playing that (Friday) night and was going to pitch.

“I'm in a hotel. I looked at the police officers: ‘I can't take this. Will you get in a car and drive me to go watch my son pitch?’ Everybody thought I was nuts.

“I'm not going to let a job consume me. I think it did. I would have never done that at the end. I was so consumed about perfection. We created a monster. If I ever did get back, I would not let that control my life”

Meyer is now officially back under the brightest of spotlights, replacing Jim Tressel and interim coach Luke Fickell at Ohio State.

After the 2009 season, Meyer took a three-month leave of absence. The following a 7-5 regular season in 2010, Meyer announced his retirement from coaching on Dec. 8 because of health concerns and he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Meyer said then he had suffered chest pains and severe headaches, related to stress.

So how will he be able – as he says – not let the job control his life?

“It's discipline, personal discipline,” Meyer said on Oct. 12. “You've got to hire great people, but I can blame everybody else I want. At the end of the day, you have to have discipline: go work out, eat right, still have balance in your life.

“What I've experienced, because I do a lot of public speaking now, I don't think I'm a lone wolf that has that issue. Guys right here have that issue, balancing that. You can blame your job, you can blame your boss or you can blame the media. At the end of the day, it's you that has to take a hold of that thing. I didn't do that.”

In six seasons at Florida, Meyer was 65-15. He won national championships in 2006 and 2008. His final game was a 37-24 victory against Penn State in last season’s Outback Bowl, which turned out to be the final bowl game for Joe Paterno.

Now Paterno is out of coaching and Meyer is back in.

Texas A&M will join the SEC for all sports beginning with the 2012-13 academic year, the SEC announced Sunday.

The league's Presidents and Chancellors voted unanimously to add the Aggies as their 13th member.

The next question for the SEC is who's next? Sources have indicated if Missouri does not join the league, the SEC is prepared to go through the 2012-13 season with only 13 members. If Missouri remains in the Big 12, the most likely candidates appear Virginia Tech or Florida State, CBSSports.com's Tony Barnhart reported.

Adding Texas A&M is the first expansion for the SEC since September 1991 when the University of South Carolina joined the league. Arkansas joined the SEC in August of 1991. With the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina, the SEC was the first conference to split into divisions and add a conference championship game in 1992.

“The Southeastern Conference Presidents and Chancellors are pleased to welcome Texas A&M University to the SEC family,” Dr. Bernie Machen, chair of the SEC Presidents and Chancellors and president of the University of Florida said in a statement. “The addition of Texas A&M University as the SEC’s 13th member gives our league a prestigious academic institution with a strong athletic tradition and a culture similar to our current institutions.”

Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin, who told CBSSports.com on Saturday, he expected any legal issues to be resolved "shortly" also issued a statement.

“The Southeastern Conference provides Texas A&M the national visibility that our great university and our student-athletes deserve,” Loftin said. “We are excited to begin competition in the nation’s premier athletic conference. This is a 100-year decision that we have addressed carefully and methodically, and I believe the Southeastern Conference gives the Aggies the best situation of any conference in the country.”

Texas A&M, located in College Station, will also be the third institution in the SEC with membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities, joining Florida and Vanderbilt. Texas A&M's 50,000 enrollment ranks as the nation's sixth-largest university, with 360,000 former students worldwide.

By moving to the SEC, Texas A&M and Texas officials have hinted this might be the last season for the rivalry between the Aggies and Longhorns.

“On behalf of our presidents, chancellors, athletics directors, students and fans, I welcome Texas A&M University to the SEC family,” SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said. “Texas A&M is a nationally-prominent institution on and off the field and a great fit for the SEC tradition of excellence—athletically, academically and culturally.”

The Aggies sponsor 20 varsity sports.  Men’s sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country.  Women’s sports include basketball, equestrian, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country and volleyball.  Texas A&M participates in every sport sponsored by the SEC except gymnastics and the SEC sponsors every sport the Aggies participate in except equestrian.

Five days ago, the Big 12 institutions agreed received “written assurance” from the Big 12 that the SEC could add Texas A&M without any legal issues. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to expansion: Baylor has changed its mind and has the SEC, at least for now, in a holding pattern.

Consequently, Texas A&M officials are left in a wait-and-see mode, releasing a statement from school president R. Bowen Loftin.

"We are certainly pleased with the action taken last night by the presidents and chancellors of the Southeastern Conference to unanimously accept Texas A&M as the league’s 13th member. However, this acceptance is conditional, and we are disappointed in the threats made by one of the Big 12 member institutions to coerce Texas A&M into staying in Big 12 Conference. These actions go against the commitment that was made by this university and the Big 12 on Sept. 2. We are working diligently to resolve any and all issues as outlined by the SEC."

Can Baylor’s threat of a lawsuit really keep Texas A&M out of the SEC? Baylor's Bad News Bears is going to stop the Big 12 from crumbling? Stay tuned.

Here’s the SEC’s official statement from Florida President Dr. Bernie Machen, Chair of the SEC’s Presidents and Chancellors.

“After receiving unanimous written assurance from the Big 12 on September 2 that the Southeastern Conference was free to accept Texas A&M to join as a new member, the presidents and chancellors of the SEC met last night with the intention of accepting the application of Texas A&M to be the newest member of the SEC,” Machen said. “We were notified yesterday afternoon that at least one Big 12 institution had withdrawn its previous consent and was considering legal action.

“The SEC has stated that to consider an institution for membership, there must be no contractual hindrances to its departure.  The SEC voted unanimously to accept Texas A&M University as a member upon receiving acceptable reconfirmation that the Big 12 and its members have reaffirmed the letter dated September 2, 2011.”

Florida Atlantic coach Howard Schnellenberger announced Thursday afternoon he is retiring after this season.

CBSSports.com first reported Schnellenberger's decision to retire.

"After looking at the situation, Beverlee and I are delighted that the University has welcomed our decision to leave the coaching ranks following the 2011 season," Schnellenberger said. "We will continue our relationship with the University in the most pronounced way. I feel this will be the most seamless and best way to formulate a transition from coaching to an ambassador for the University."

The 77-year-old Schnellenberger began the FAU program in 2001. He is 57-63 with the Owls. He also has had head coaching jobs at Oklahoma (1995), Louisville (1985-94) and Miami (1979-83). He won the 1983 national championship with the Hurricanes. He has a 157-140-3 record in 26 seasons as a college head coach.

The Owls open this season with five consecutive road games against Florida, Michigan State, Auburn, Louisiana-Lafayette and North Texas before playing their home opener against Western Kentucky on Oct. 15.

Against WKU, FAU will debut its new 30,000-seat, $70 million football stadium, a project that Schnellenberger was instrumental in helping fundraise.

"Three university presidents were involved in this, but one coach," FAU president Mary Jane Saunders said last week. "And it's coach Schnellenberger that made this happen. The vision that this university that he came to after an incredibly illustrious career. We're grateful to have him. He's done a fabulous job with all the guys and I'm just so pleased I could share this day with you."

In 2007, Schnellenberger was named the Sun Belt’s Coach of the Year, the first time in his career he ever received a league coach of the year award. He guided the Owls to consecutive bowl games in 2007 and 2008.

Schnellenberger, who also was a head coach with the Baltimore Colts in 1973 and 1974, has been involved with college football for nearly 60 years. He played at Kentucky for Bear Bryant. His first coaching job was in 1959 as an assistant at Kentucky. He also was an assistant at Alabama and then the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and Miami Dolphins, including the Dolphins' perfect season in 1972.

After his two-year stint as the Colts head coach, he returned to the Dolphins in 1975 before taking over as the Hurricanes in 1979.

At Miami, Schnellenberger went 41-16. He won the national title in his final season with a 31-30 victory against Nebraska when NU coach Tom Osborne opted to go for the winning two-point conversion. Schnellenberger left Miami for the USFL, but he never coached a game in that league and returned to the college ranks at Louisville, where he spent 10 seasons.

He was at Oklahoma for only one season, then began building FAU's program as the Owls moved from Division I-AA to FBS status as Sun Belt members.

In part III of CBSSports.com’s series on cheating in college football, I found out that the majority of schools that have committed major violations in the past 25 years actually have had a better record after the infractions.

So much for penalizing the guilty.

Anyway, in my report, I listed the 10 schools that have been hurt the most by the infractions since 1987.

Here’s a look at the 10 schools that fared the best after getting nailed by the NCAA. And if I’m California, I start committing some violations immediately. Because the last two times Cal committed major infractions the Golden Bears improved drastically over the next five years.

OK, so maybe it’s not that simple. But after Cal’s 1988 infractions, they won 18 more games in the next five years than the previous five seasons. The 2002 violations brought a five-year improvement of 27 wins – more than five per season compared to the previous five seasons.

Well, maybe, it had something to do with Cal’s coaching changes. Bruce Snyder replaced Joe Kapp in 1987 and Jeff Tedford replaced Tom Holmoe in 2002.

In the chart below, the year designates the year of the infraction. The improvement in wins is the number for the five seasons after compared to the five seasons before the violation.

Year School Improvement in wins

2002 California +27
2003 Rutgers +22
2001 USC +20
1988 California +18
1990 Florida +17
1997 UTEP +13
1997 Georgia +11
1996 Miss. State +9
1993 Auburn +8
1987 Texas Tech +8