(USA Today Sports Images)Under Sonny Dykes, Louisiana Tech had the highest scoring offense in the nation this season at 51.5 points per game. At least Cal, which hired Dykes to be its new head coach, won't be boring next season.

Multiple reports including the San Francisco Chronicle and FootballScoop.com said Dykes has been hired to replace Jeff Tedford, who was fired after a disappointing 3-9 season.

(USA Today Sports Images)When Bret Bielema left for Arkansas, there was only one coach who could rally Wisconsin's fans for the Rose Bowl: Barry Alvarez.

The scenario of Alvarez coming back for an encore at the Rose Bowl was too perfect. Alvarez has kept a close watch over Wisconsin's football program as its athletic director. Even when the Badgers hire a new coach, unless it's someone from the current staff, there's no way the new guy would know Wisconsin's personnel as well as Alvarez. And, it's very likely whoever Wisconsin hires won't have three Rose Bowl championships to their credit.

[Related: Wisconsin refuses candidate for football coach out of loyalty]

Wisconsin fans started buzzing about the possibility. The Badgers' team captains had the same thought. After the team captains asked Alvarez to come back for the Rose Bowl, Alvarez said he would and would be honored to do so, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

Hear that? It's the sound of Wisconsin fans scrambling to find plane tickets to California for New Year's Day.

Now the Bret Bielema move to Arkansas makes sense. He gets to be serenaded by Liz Honey.

You may remember Liz Honey, the Arkansas fan who enjoys firing up her laptop and filming herself singing Razorback-related parody songs. She was moved to song by Bielema leaving Wisconsin for the Arkansas job on Tuesday.

(US Presswire)Florida International didn't have a great season, at 3-9, but that was understandable. The team dealt with a rash of injuries at running back, and quarterback Jake Medlock missed three games. Five losses came by eight points or less. It wasn't the kind of season that led anyone to think that coach Mario Cristobal would be fired.

FIU thought differently. Cristobal has been fired by the school, one of the most shocking firings of the season so far.

(USA Today Sports Images)Not to be overshadowed by Arkansas' surprising coup in hiring Bret Bielema away from Wisconsin, Auburn made its own very interesting hire at about the same time on Tuesday afternoon.

Gus Malzahn will have a chance to show that he deserves the credit he (and Cam Newton) got for Auburn's 2010 national championship, because he will take over the Auburn head-coaching job from his old boss, Gene Chizik.

(USA Today Sports Images)

When reports surfaced last week that Les Miles and Arkansas were flirting with each other, which ended up with Miles getting a raise from LSU, the money figure the Razorbacks were rumored to be tossing around made almost every coach in the nation a candidate for that job.

Bret Bielema's name never really came up in connection with the Arkansas job (which is surprising, because SEC coaching search rumors usually include every good coach in college football). Bielema had a great job at Wisconsin. He finished up his third straight Big Ten championship on Saturday night.

Now, the Big Ten has to look at itself in the mirror. The coach of the three-time defending Big Ten champs just left for a team that just finished sixth in the SEC West, and probably isn't a top-five job in the SEC.

There are plenty of people who don't like Northern Illinois' inclusion in the BCS. ESPN spent a couple hours Sunday night telling us what a horror it was that NIU was playing in the Orange Bowl. Kirk Herbstreit went all Billy Packer on us and acted personally offended that a team outside the major conferences would dare get a spot over a school like Oklahoma, which will probably have a good chance to go to a BCS game next year, or the year after that.

And it's fine if you agree with all that. There's nothing criminal about thinking Oklahoma is better than NIU, that a team which lost to Iowa is undeserving or that the Huskies will get stomped by Florida State and ruin a bowl game (though, NIU certainly could change that perception by playing well).

But, at least respect what a great moment this is for Northern Illinois' players. The celebration video above should make you feel good about college sports -- and there's plenty to not feel so good about.

(Associated Press)Northern Illinois is going to do whatever it can to fill seats at the Orange Bowl, including giving a free ticket to any student who can get down to Miami for the game.

Tickets to the Orange Bowl are being sold through Northern Illinois at between $75 and $225, but NIU students can reserve their one free ticket starting Monday morning. NIU has about 22,000 students. The ticket must be picked up in Miami, but the school also planned to unveil "fan and student bus packages" to the site of the game.

That is a nice gesture, but it's also a glimpse at the tough truth for schools. Even though the excitement about getting an improbable BCS berth hasn't even started to wear off, the school and its athletic department has a potential financial issue with going to a game like the Orange Bowl.