(US Presswire)Tennessee will need to find a new target for its obsession, as Jon Gruden has reportedly told the Vols he isn't interested in the job.

Jimmy Hyams, a radio host on the Sports Animal in Knoxville, Tenn., reported that Gruden informed UT of his decision, after having phone talks last week.

Gruden became the focus of Volunteer fans based on Gruden's track record as an NFL coach, his short stint as a graduate assistant with UT and the fact that his wife was a Tennessee cheerleader.

(US Presswire)Not surprisingly, the NCAA ruled for the big conference team that needed a break when it said it will grant Georgia Tech a waiver to be bowl eligible at 6-7, if the Yellow Jackets lose Saturday's ACC Championship Game to Florida State. That was reported by CBS and ESPN.

Because of that decision, some bowl eligible team is going to get left at home.

(US Presswire)The program that should be playing for a Big 12 Championship at Kansas State on Saturday is just a spoiler.

The other team, with the athletic budget one-third the size of its opponent, with an even smaller fraction of elite recruits, is shaking off the disappointment of losing after a 10-0 start to the season. Instead, it will be going for just a conference championship, an 11-win season and a BCS bowl bid.

By all measures, Texas should never be looking up at Kansas State, but that's exactly the position the Longhorns are in.

(Associated Press)The worst part about conference realignment is the loss of rivalries. Of course the entire ordeal is just a cash grab that doesn't take the fans into account for an instant. But most of all, losing the iconic games that are no longer played is the toughest part of the realignment mess.

Oklahoma and Nebraska agreeing to renew their rivalry as a set of nonconference games is welcomed news in the middle of another couple weeks of schools pawning their souls changing conferences.

It's not ideal. The home-and-home series won't start until a game at Oklahoma in 2021, and by then every team in college football might be in one enormous conference anyway. And for now the NU-OU contract is for just two games. The return date is in 2022 at Nebraska.

The stakes won't be as high as when these two proud programs figured into the Big 8 and Big 12 championships most years, or when they played the "Game of the Century" in 1971. But, the schools thankfully seemed to understand the importance of playing again.

(US Presswire)Southern Miss pulled off a trade with Nebraska that really doesn't jibe with the romantic and antiquated notion that college athletics aren't all about the money.

Southern Miss secured a home game in its three-year scheduling contract with Nebraska. The Golden Eagles fans, and players, had to be excited about that. But, a coach needed to be fired and bought out. And, according to Deadspin, Southern Miss agreed to let Nebraska host that 2013 game for almost exactly the amount of money that it needed to give coach Ellis Johnson when it fired him.

Deadspin, citing a letter between the schools' athletic directors that was dated last week, said Southern Miss agreed to transfer the home game to Nebraska for $2.125 million. The school had to pay Johnson $2.1 million when it fired him after an 0-12 season.

(US Presswire)On Sunday, we'll have a full bowl lineup to peruse.

Notre Dame will have a partner in the BCS Championship Game. We'll see if Kent State (or Boise State, or Northern Illinois) officially finishes in the top 16 of the BCS standings and gets a coveted spot in a BCS game. Everyone will be able to make travel plans and study their team's bowl opponent.

Until then, we have the last bowl projections. And the most interesting case with the bowl projections is Georgia Tech.

(US Presswire)There shouldn't be much surprise that Tyrann Mathieu will declare for the NFL draft.

There weren't many other options for the troubled former LSU cornerback. He had been kicked off the Tigers team before the season for failed drug tests. Sports Illustrated brought his eligibility into question, due to his likeness being used on an advertisement for a party. And then he was arrested and charged with simple possession of marijuana in October.

He wasn't going to play at LSU again. So, as ESPN reported, he will announce he is going into the NFL draft.

(Associated Press)Brian Downing, better known as the Alabama fan who exposed his genitals and rubbed them on the face of a passed-out LSU fan in New Orleans after the Crimson Tide's BCS Championship Game win last season, was sentenced to spend two years in prison.

The Times-Picayune reported that Downing pleaded guilty last month to two obscenity counts in a deal to avoid a trial on the original charge of sexual battery, which could have meant a 10-year sentence and having to register as a sex offender.