Seven up: Notre Dame Fighting Irish an expansion target? - SportingNews.com

The seven college football topics that will dominate our week:

7. Far removed from the hubbub surrounding Big 12-SEC handshakes and ACC insecurityâ€"and a metaphorical million miles from any talk of BCS playoff formattingâ€"are Idaho and New Mexico State, perhaps the least fortunate programs in all of major-college football. Which of those schools will turn out the lights in the WAC?

Note Dame is no stranger to conference flirtation, but is it time the Fighting Irish took the plunge? (AP Photo)

As the only two football-playing members left in the WAC, Idaho and NMSU are the biggest victims of FBS expansion thus far. The WAC has no real survival plan for football, but no other FBS league is offering either school a lifeline. The house is coming down on the Vandals and Aggies.

Idaho to the Big Sky? NMSU as a lame-duck independent?

“We certainly have a major challenge ahead of us to maintain our status as a viable Division I conference,” WAC interim commissioner Jeff Hurd said recently, “but I think it’s a little too early to speculate that the WAC will not be around.”

Hurd said that a couple of weeks ago, though. It’s not only safe to speculate now, but foolish not to.

6. Championships aren’t won in November, December and January. Oh, no, baby. They’re won in May, June and Julyâ€"during the long offseason months when players largely police themselves in regard to physical conditioning.

New coaching regimes likewise can be made or broken in that first offseason. Does a program overachieve or underachieve in Year 1 under a new coach? If it underachieves, well, things usually don’t get a whole lot better from there.

Which brings us to the state of Arizona, where UA’s Rich Rodriguez and ASU’s Todd Graham are trying to get off to good starts. Both coaches were disappointed with the strength-and-conditioning levels they saw in the players they inherited.

“There’s another whole level of conditioning we have to be in just to get through practice, let alone to play at the pace we want to play at,” Rodriguez said.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” said Graham.

Which school’s players are outworking the other’s to get a leg up in this rivalry?

5. The Arizona schools can forget about the Rose Bowl this season. The question is, will the Pac-12 (and Big Ten) still have a special relationship with the Rose Bowl if and when UA and ASU become good enough to compete for league championships?

The short answer: It sure looks good. The SEC-Big 12 “Champions Bowl” marriage only strengthens the bonds between the Pac-12 and the Big Ten, and between those leagues and Pasadena. But we still need to know how this is going to work, especially if the Rose Bowl is going to be in the rotation for hosting playoff games.

4. So, to have a selection committee or not to have a selection committee? That’s a topic that’ll pick up steam every week until we know who, if anyone, will be charged with picking and seeding college football’s playoff combatants beginning in 2014.

“Having some ability for a dispassionate group of experienced people to look at this whole scenario and put some sensibility to it is a good idea,” Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon said.

But is it really? Is there anyone involved with college footballâ€"throw current and former commissioners, ADs and coaches, as well as media members, into the same potâ€"whose name and reputation are above any potential charges of bias or conflict of interest?

3. What’s next for Notre Dame? Do the Irish have much choice but to re-examine their status relative to the members of the stronger-than-ever SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12? We probably should’ve included the officially resuscitated Big 12 in the previous sentence, too. Is ND an expansion target for the Big 12?

One thing we can say for sure is Notre Dame isn’t as powerful as it once was. Until its profile within the next BCS structure is defined, it isn’t necessarily any better off than the programs in the suddenly vulnerable ACC (let alone those in the sitting-duck Big East).

2. There is no doubtâ€"noneâ€"that the Big 12 wants to get back to a minimum of 12 teams, and little question that the league holds better expansion cards right now than it has at any point since Nebraska split for the Big Ten.

Florida State would be a home-run addition, for reasons of football quality and, equally important, conference footprint. Is there an ACC school that would make a good expansion “companion” to FSU? Of course there is. Virginia Tech? Sure. Clemson? Why not? Miami? Makes more than a little sense.

And how about Notre Dame? We mentioned that one already.

Louisville? The Big East Cardinals would gnaw off a wing to join the Big 12, but it isn’t likely the Big 12 has that kind of mutual affection.

1. Back to the game itself for a moment, please. Sporting News is putting the finishing touches on the preseason top 25 we’ll use to build our 2012 preview packages across our dot-com, tablet and print platforms.

It’s interestingâ€"and oddâ€"to preview a season in which there’ll be no four-team playoff, no so-called Champions Bowl, nothing new about how teams are ranked in the BCS poll, etc. It’s also extremely fun.

Here’s what we’ll say for now:

We’re not forecasting a championship repeat for Alabama.

We can’t imagine a 2012 season in whichâ€"if the Champions Bowl existedâ€"there’d be a meeting of SEC and Big 12 champs outside the playoff. In other words, our top four will include at least one SEC and/or Big 12 team.

The SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, ACC and Big East (is that all?) will have new champions this season. Oh, but that may be saying too much. We’re shutting up now.