Conference expansion is revving up again and there could be definitive movement before the day is done.

Conference USA and the Mountain West have jointly announced a new "Football Association" that brings both conferences together under one umbrella. But even though both conferences say their entire membership — 22 total members — will be joining the association, it's unclear whether that will actually be the case come next week.

According to CBSSports.com and the Associated Press, the Big East is set to invite Boise State, Air Force, Central Florida and Navy as part of its expansion plan, pushing membership in football to ten schools. The conference is also considering invites for Houston, SMU and Temple. Boise State, Air Force and Navy would all be football-only members while Central Florida, Houston, SMU and Temple (if Villanova approves its entrance) would be a member in all sports.

None of the aforementioned schools have confirmed whether they are going or staying with their

A weekly primer.

GAME OF THE CENTURY OF THE WEEK
ARIZONA STATE at OREGON (-14½) • 10:15 p.m. ET, ESPN.
What's at stake: The Ducks and Sun Devils are on opposite sides of the Pac-12's new divisional divide, and both are likely to emerge with the conference title game still very much in sight regardless of the final score. For Arizona State, though, there won't be a better measuring stick for its chances of actually winning the league if it eventually punches its ticket: On the road, against the reigning class of the conference, is the Devils' best chance not only to separate themselves from the rest of a middling South Division, but also to put an at-large BCS bid on the horizon down the stretch.

Oregon wants: Not that the Ducks won't miss LaMichael James in the backfield — under no circumstances does a returning Heisman Trophy finalist who leads the nation in all-purpose yards qualify as a "cog" — but his absence won't change anything Oregon does: Fellow quarkbacks Kenjon Barner and

If The State newspaper columnist Ron Morris is waiting for an apology from Steve Spurrier, he might be waiting a long time.

Spurrier said on his weekly Thursday night call-in radio show that he had no regrets about refusing to do his weekly press conference while Morris was in the room.

"I'm not proud of what I did," Spurrier said. "I'm not apologizing for it. I don't know if I was right. I don't know if I was wrong. But I can assure you this. It won't happen again. Once is enough. That won't happen again as long as I'm at South Carolina."

Spurrier was miffed at Morris for a story he wrote back in the spring regarding Spurrier recruiting then-South Carolina point guard Bruce Ellington, who is now a Gamecock receiver, away from the basketball team. So Spurrier called Morris out in front of his peers and told other reporters he would meet with them in another room, or after Morris had left:{YSP:MORE}

"I'm not gonna talk when [Morris] is in here. That's my right as a head coach. I don't

There's a time-honored hierarchy to scheduling in college football, passed down through the ages: September is for fattening up on cupcakes, October for tightening the belt. After a few weeks of morbidly obese stats and inflated final scores, conference play comes to whip even the most fine-tuned contenders into shape. At least, that's how it's supposed to work.

This year, not so much. For the top four teams in the current polls — LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma and Wisconsin — the arrival of the heavy-hitting portion of the calendar hasn't even required any heavy breathing: All four have opened October by embarrassing a ranked conference opponent by at least four touchdowns, cementing their status as cold-blooded couriers of plague and famine to almost any team between them and the BCS championship — a path that, this week, could produce TV-MA levels of gore.

In a rare, morbid confluence, the Tigers, Crimson Tide, Sooners and Badgers are all favored by at least 17 points Saturday (as are the

Making the morning rounds.

• We'll fit you in. The SEC is considering three possible scheduling options for integrating Texas A&M as its 13th member in 2012, according to the chair of the transition committee, Larry Templeton, who laid out the options to the Birmingham News:

a) Divide the Aggies' schedule evenly between both divisions, pitting them against four teams from the East and four from the West.
b) Shoehorn A&M into the West Division, which will continue to play a six-game, round-robin schedule against the rest of the division, with teams from the East continuing to play five conference games. (Templeton: "Mathematically, I don't think it can be done.")
c) Pick eight conference games for A&M regardless of division alignment.

Option a) is the least disruptive to existing schedules, Templeton said, but may require a waiver to get around NCAA rules that require a two-division, round-robin schedule to host a conference championship game. (The 13-team MAC currently plays under such

College football fans: Do not be alarmed. Tonight's game is coming to you from a "base-ball" stadium, San Francisco's AT&T Park, which is standing in tonight while Cal's usual home, Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, is retrofitted to prevent being literally ripped apart by the Hayward Fault. You know, base-ball, the popular 19th Century American sport in which grown men attempt to hit a ball with a stick? Right, anyway, there may be a little dirt on the field, but otherwise everything is totally normal.

San Franciscans, do not be alarmed: Despite being loud, questionable dressers and terrible with wine, college football fans are nice people, really. And we'll be out of your hair by morning. Theeeeenks!

• What: Thursday night live blog, USC at California. All colors and comments welcome, though preference is always given to snark.
• When: First kicks is at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN. Chat kicks roughly simultaneously, give or take a little pregame banter.
• Who: You and all your rowdy, Prius-driving,

Ohio State has suspended another player, but not because of the NCAA: This time, it's for criminal charges.

Backup cornerback Dominic Clarke has been suspended for Saturday's game against Illinois after being charged with disorderly conduct after allegedly shooting a BB gun from the top of a dormitory cafeteria on Sunday night:

According to Ohio State Deputy Chief of Police Richard Morman, Clarke was arrested after 9 p.m. Sunday after a witness reported 2-3 people shooting what was believed was a paintball or BB gun above the MarketPlace restaurant at the William H. Hall Student Residential Complex at 1578 Neil Avenue. When an officer responded, Clarke was the only one remaining on the scene.

According to Morman, Clarke said he was trying to see how far the gun would shoot and did not target any person or object. There were no injuries or property damage from the incident.

The gun reportedly belong to freshman offensive lineman Chris Carter — no stranger to the law himself — who was

Perusing the weekly lines for a straight-up shocker or two — for entertainment only, of course.

MATT HINTON: Ohio State (+3½) over Illinois.
The Buckeyes' Jekyll-and-Hyde routine at Nebraska may have left them reeling with most of their usual goals — a Big Ten championship, a BCS bid, a 10-win season — effectively off the table, but it also left them with an opportunity: Before freshman quarterback Braxton Miller's exit in the third quarter, the offense seemed to have found an identity it can live with for the rest of the season, and maybe win a few games with. Miller is expected to start in Champaign, sore ankle notwithstanding, and with the Wisconsin death machine steamrolling into Columbus next week, this looks like a drop-dead point for OSU to salvage anything resembling a successful season.

Besides, how comfortable are we really with the idea of the Illini matching their best start since the early days of the Eisenhower administration with Ron Zook on the sideline? I whiffed on