College Football

The 11 college football commissioners who make up the BCS, along with Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, met for the past two days about the direction in which to take the college football post-season. Among the topics up for discussion are the creation of a four game playoff to determine the national championship, in addition to moving the bowl games closer to the traditional New Year's Day schedule, and not spreading them out a week following. The commissioners and Swarbrick issued the following statement after their meetings.

After a resounding pounding of Michigan State, Notre Dame has made a huge surge in the college football polls. The Fighting Irish jumped nine spots Sunday in the Associated Press poll to #11. The Irish were ranked 20 th heading into their trip to East Lansing, where they belted the Michigan St. Spartans Saturday night, 20-3. MSU plummeted 11 spots to #21. Next up for Notre Dame is Michigan, who is #18 after a 63-13 home win over Massachusetts. The Irish will host the Wolverines in South Bend next Saturday night.

Notre Dame senior linebacker Manti Te'o graces the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated.   Notre Dame ranks 2nd among college football teams in Sports Illustrated covers. This is Notre Dame's first cover since the college football preview issue in August 2006, which featured Brady Quinn. This SI regional edition with Te'o on the cover will be going to all of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Eastern Missouri and almost all of Ohio, as well parts of Canada.

Excise continues its increased patrols at college football tailgates around the state. Officers arrested 14 people tailgating at Notre Dame on Saturday for illegal consumption or possession - including three 17-year-olds. Police say it's part of their effort to crackdown on underage drinking. They arrested 37 people on 53 charges at Indiana State in Terre Haute.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. _ The phone call floored Bill Motta and warmed his heart all at the same time. The former cop, longtime single parent, present-day high school football sage had stopped brushing the dust off the book “A Season of Life” he had given his son, Zeke, years earlier - a gift that had never so much had received a glance at the table of contents. “I've coached for 25-plus years,” the elder Motta said, “and I've had several parents come up to me and say, ‘My son doesn't listen to me like he listens to you.' And I never really had firsthand knowledge of how that feels from the other side until last summer.

Who were those two teams on the football field Saturday night?  If you took down the scoreboard that read Notre Dame-Maryland, you wouldn't have any clue who those teams were.  My daughter actually asked during the game:  Are there three teams playing?  I don't see Notre Dame. I can't imagine anyone did. When did Notre Dame join the identity crisis conference?  As someone who covers college football, I understand why it's happened across college football.  Players like it.  It's a great way to get recruits.  But not in South Bend.  Notre Dame doesn't need it.   Just like Oklahoma, Alabama, LSU & Texas don't need it. The identity crisis should be reserved for the schools that lack an identity…which Notre Dame most certainly does not. So why are they trying to be like Oregon?

Manti Te'o is now the most decorated player in the history of college football! He's won every award he's been eligible for so far this season - six in all. But there's still one more for the taking, and it's the biggest one of them all. Te'o is already in New York getting ready for Saturday's Heisman Trophy announcement. WSBT's David McCoy, who is also in New York, reports: Stay with WSBT-TV Friday and Saturday night for more updates from David McCoy .

The long, twisted college football career of former Notre Dame quarterback Demetrius Jones took another — and perhaps final — sharp turn Tuesday. First-year University of Cincinnati head coach Butch Jones announced Tuesday that the former Parade All-America quarterback from Chicago’s Morgan Park High School is now longer with the Bearcats. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bill Koch was the first to report the separation. Demetrius Jones would have been a fifth-year senior in the fall.

The IHSAA has ruuled against South Bend Washington High School, in two cases regarding past student-athlete eligibility. The Washington High School girl's basketball team has been placed on probation for the 2011-2012 school year because of the ongoing battle over Jasmine Watson and her eligibility as a player during her senior season in 2008-09. http://www.wsbt.com/sports/wsbt-watson-ruled-ineligible-by-ind-122010,0,1747795.story Washington also has to pay $9572.51 in financial restitution to the IHSAA, for funds raised during the 2009 state tournament.

GRANGER - Penn high school senior center Gabe Miller has been invited to play in the prestigious Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl. "It's a great honor to have been chosen to play in the Semper Fidelis Bowl," Miller said Monday evening.  "I have been working extremely hard at long snapping.   It's also a great honor to represent my family, Penn High School, Nebraska and (Gabe's long snapping coach) Chris Rubio. " Miller has committed to play college football at Nebraska.  The Huskers recruited Gabe to long snap.

It closed three months ago, but you might be surprised to see how much stuff is still inside the former College Football Hall of Fame building.  “Once you take all this stuff out, the amount of room you have here is just awesome,” said South Bend City Council President Derek Dieter. The city has said it plans to sell much of that city-owned memorabilia at a public auction. After that and a little design work from an architect, Dieter said the building would be the perfect spot for City Hall.

Until Tuesday, Brian Kelly hadn't spoken to reporters since the night of the national title game. In the time between, he interviewed with the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, intimating that leaving Notre Dame, in fact, was "an option. " And then there was that whole matter of the death of his star linebacker's girlfriend who never really died because she never actually existed at all. Eight days away from National Signing Day, Brian Kelly has been criss-crossing the country, recruiting hard.

SOUTH BEND - The College Football Hall of Fame in downtown South Bend is closed for for good, but it continues to be a financial burden on the city. Visitors walked through the Hall for the last time on Sunday. The Hall of Fame cut admission prices to $2 over the weekend to give people extra incentive to visit. The attraction never lived up to expectations. When the city first announced the Hall would be coming to South Bend in 1992, then Mayor Joe Kernan said it would draw 200,000 people a year.

SOUTH BEND -  Sunday is your last chance to check out the College Football Hall of Fame, at least in South Bend. The National Football Foundation is moving the Hall to Atlanta as we've known for years now. The Hall opened here 17 years ago, but money trouble plagued the facility almost from the get go. The lines have been endless this weekend. The cash registers won't stop ringing. "This is the first break I've had all day. It's been a constant line here at the ticket counter and gift shop," said Kent Stephens, historian and curator.

Manti Te'o is now the most decorated player in the history of college football! He's won every award he's been eligible for so far this season - six in all. But there's still one more for the taking, and it's the biggest one of them all. Te'o is already in New York getting ready for Saturday's Heisman Trophy announcement. WSBT's David McCoy, who is also in New York, reports: Stay with WSBT-TV Friday and Saturday night for more updates from David McCoy .

SOUTH BEND -- City planners will soon have to think pretty seriously about what to do with the downtown property that the College Football Hall of Fame is about leave behind. The last thing neighbors want to see is another empty building. There are a lot of ideas about what to put there, but the city needs something practical, and the structure, which was designed and built to be a museum, just might have to go. “I think what you have to do is begin to take a real serious look at what you got and what the practical solutions are,” said David Varner, a South Bend Common Council member.

There is nothing objective about this column. It is very personal and it comes from the heart and facts are facts  - in many ways Notre Dame has been a part of my entire adult life. I came here as a student in 1963 and for all of you younger than me it might be hard to understand just how low an ebb Notre Dame football had reached by then. There was a lot of talk on campus then that Notre Dame needed to give up trying to be a football power. Take my word, it was a lot worse than the most recent era when some were saying Notre Dame had become irrelevant.

Excise continues its increased patrols at college football tailgates around the state. Officers arrested 14 people tailgating at Notre Dame on Saturday for illegal consumption or possession - including three 17-year-olds. Police say it's part of their effort to crackdown on underage drinking. They arrested 37 people on 53 charges at Indiana State in Terre Haute.

Notre Dame senior linebacker Manti Te'o graces the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated.   Notre Dame ranks 2nd among college football teams in Sports Illustrated covers. This is Notre Dame's first cover since the college football preview issue in August 2006, which featured Brady Quinn. This SI regional edition with Te'o on the cover will be going to all of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Eastern Missouri and almost all of Ohio, as well parts of Canada.