(USA Today Sports Images)

Other than Tuscaloosa, the city in which Alabama football receives the most respect might be Las Vegas.

The folks who set the betting lines hold the Crimson Tide and coach Nick Saban in the highest esteem, and the power ranking they're giving Alabama this season might be unprecedented.

According to R.J. Bell of the gambling site Pregame.com, Alabama is favored by at least 17 points in all but two games, according to betting lines set by the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. The Golden Nugget released early lines on the college football games of the year, including 10 Alabama games. Even in Alabama's biggest game this season at probable top five team Texas A&M, Alabama is favored by six points. The Crimson Tide are favored by 11.5 points against LSU in the only other Alabama spread that's less than 17 points.

In other words, Las Vegas fully expects Alabama to roll to at least the SEC title game in its quest for an unprecedented third straight national championship.

Alabama has been favored in 41 straight games. Crimson Tide favored in all TEN 2013 games released by Golden Nugget today.

— RJ Bell (@RJinVegas) June 7, 2013

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Why hello, Katherine. It has been a while.

Katherine Webb, Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron's girlfriend who has been a fixture on television, magazines and Twitter since Brent Musburger gushed about her during the BCS Championship Game, hasn't been around much lately. Since she had to quit on "Splash," the reality diving show, we haven't seen much from her.

No reason to be too sad, because she's back. AL.com reports she'll be at Shoal Creek for the Regions Tradition golf tournament, doing all kinds of promotions.

Just when you thought she was out, she pulls you back in.

Webb, who is also Miss Alabama, will be interviewing a player in the media center, participating in a putting contest and interacting with fans, according to AL.com. Here's the good part: Webb will pose for pictures with fans (and she has taken a ton of those this year) and hopes those fans make a make a donation to Children's Hospital of Alabama.

Whatever the reason Webb has come back into the spotlight, we're glad

For most college football players, their first time on campus is their first time in the spotlight.

For C.J. Sanders, playing receiver for Stanford or Tennessee or any other major football program might be a step down from what he has already experienced.

You might not remember Sanders' name but there is a good chance you've seen him. He has nine movie or TV show acting credits to his name, according to IMDB, and had one pretty notable role as a young Ray Charles in the critically acclaimed movie "Ray." Now Sanders is a popular recruit from Brentwood (Tenn.) Academy in the class of 2015, with offers already from Mississippi State, Stanford and Tennessee, according to Rivals. He also has a pretty strong connection with Ohio State, since his father Chris Sanders was a star receiver for the Buckeyes in the 1990s and spent seven seasons with the Tennessee Titans franchise from 1995-2001.

Lining up as a FBS player would be a big deal for anyone, but that moment probably won't be too big for Sanders.

In an interview with BuckeyeGrove.com Sanders said he took some lessons from Jamie Foxx, who was the star of "Ray" and also played quarterback Willie Beamon in "Any Given Sunday," and transferred them to football.

"Just being around him, he showed me how to work hard and how to be in character for a scene, but I also took that into football, how you have to prepare and how you have to focus," Sanders, who said he was 6 years old when he was in "Ray," told BuckeyeGrove.com.

C.J. Sanders with "Ray" co-star Jamie Foxx (Getty)If his child fame and his father's football career isn't enough, Sanders' mother played basketball at Michigan

(USA Today Sports Images)

This offseason we will count down various topics from Monday through Friday, bringing you the top five of the important and definitely some not so important issues in college football. It's the Doc Five, every week until we will thankfully have actual games to discuss.

GREATEST COLLEGE PLAYERS WITH QUIETEST NFL CAREERS

NO. 2, JASON WHITE

Oklahoma quarterback Jason White came very, very close to winning two Heisman Trophies. Just think about how we'd recall him differently if he pulled that off.

White won a Heisman Trophy in 2003. On Nov. 23, 2004, only a few weeks before the trophy was awarded, White held the lead over USC quarterback Matt Leinart in a Scripps-Howard straw poll, as we can see via HeismanPundit.com's archives. HeismanPundit.com was convinced that if Leinart had a poor final regular-season game, the trophy was going to White. Well, Leinart threw for 400 yards and five touchdowns against Notre Dame that week, and that was that. Leinart won the Heisman, White ended up finishing third behind Leinart and teammate Adrian Peterson, though he had more first-place votes than Peterson. He also had just 90 fewer first-place votes than Leinart, despite Leinart's eruption against the Irish.

So if the straw polls were accurate, and you assume that Leinart's late push took more votes away from White than Peterson, with one bad performance by Leinart against Notre Dame White would have joined Archie Griffin as the only two-time Heisman winners. And again, imagine how we would view White now, and decades from now.

Instead, we've pretty much forgotten how great White's career was, in large part because he never had a NFL career.

(USA Today Sports Images)

It took some detective work, but we have confirmation that Tommy Rees was named Notre Dame's starting quarterback by Brian Kelly.

This shouldn't have become a mini-controversy, considering Rees is the only logical choice to be named starter in June following Everett Golson's suspension. But Kelly tried denying he named Rees the starter, and it forced some CSI work by reporters to confirm what he said.

[Related: Notre Dame commit flushes letters from Alabama]

NBC Sports reported the story late last night, citing Grand Rapids Press statements, but earlier today Notre Dame told Rivals the story was inaccurate. The Chicago Tribune verified Kelly’s exact quote:

"Everett won't be with us in the fall, so I've always moved forward," Kelly said. "I don't live in the past, I don’t spent too much time in the future, I live in the present. And the present is, I've got Tommy Rees, who was a starter for us, established player, and he’ll be our starter. And we think that Andrew Hendrix and Malik Zaire are guys that can contribute. But Tommy will be our starter."

The Tribune included this: "The Tribune verified Kelly's statement via an audio clip of the question-and-answer sent by the Grand Rapids Press."

Based on the evidence, guess we can consider the case closed.

Last week Kelly said all three quarterbacks would have a chance to compete as starter, but you can understand his desire to have a little bit of stability at the position. Golson was ruled academically ineligible for the fall semester, a problem compounded by the fact that five-star recruit Gunner Kiel had transferred to Cincinnati earlier in the fall because Golson’s stranglehold on the starting gig was so strong. That left Rees as the only returning quarterback on the roster with starting experience, perhaps making Kelly’s choice relatively easy – even if he wanted to keep that a secret for whatever reason.

Rees' career has reached some incredible highs and staggering lows. Thrown into the fire as a true freshman in 2010, Rees started and won the final four games of the season, going 4-0. (Rees’ first five career starts came in Notre Dame Stadium, Yankee Stadium, the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Sun Bowl and the Big House. Not bad.) The following summer Dayne

(USA Today Sports Images)The Bedlam rivalry is one of the fiercest in the country, but the two programs — or at least their coaches — might have more in common than they think.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops told a group at an Oklahoma caravan in Plano, Texas on Wednesday evening that he supported the decision by Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy to restrict former quarterback Wes Lunt’s transfer.

Gundy came under fire after restricting Lunt, his opening day starter last season, from transferring anywhere in the Big 12, Pac-12, SEC and Central Michigan, whom the Cowboys play in 2015, and Southern Miss where former Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Todd Monken is the head coach, and receiving a scholarship for at least a year.

That didn’t leave Lunt a lot of options unless he wanted to pay for a year of school or go to a junior college and be ready to play for whomever he wants in 2014.

"I support every coach and I support Mike Gundy in every way if they have their issues because all situations are different. I mean that sincerely. Mike’s doing the right thing in his case," Stoops said. "A guy says, 'I’m coming to you' and you get a running back, and then all of a sudden you don’t have a running back. He leaves. That doesn’t leave your program in a great spot, right? So, I’m totally in agreement."

While Stoops might agree with Gundy’s decision to limit Lunt’s transfer options, it’s not a practice he actually preaches. In fact, Stoops allowed running back Brandon Williams to transfer from his program to Texas A&M. No restrictions imposed.

(USA Today Sports Images)Gundy’s decision started a firestorm about student-athlete rights and why coaches were allowed to leave without restrictions and players were not. Gundy himself flirted with leaving the Cowboys for Tennessee or Arkansas, which would have left a lot of players who came to Oklahoma State to play for Gundy and his staff in a bind. Yet, there were no limitations

(Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports)The Bedlam rivalry is heading to the courtroom, as nearly two years after a lawsuit was initially filed, a contractor’s claim against Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy is moving forward.

Back in August of 2011, Brent Loveland sued Gundy and his wife Kristen for firing him over wearing an Oklahoma baseball shirt to his first day on the job at their house in Stillwater. Loveland claims Gundy approached him said he was offending Mrs. Gundy with “that [expletive] shirt you have on.”

Gundy’s wife was later dropped from the suit, but there will be a pretrial conference on June 17. The details of Loveland’s claim, from the Tulsa World:

In the suit filed in August 2011, Brent Loveland of Choctaw seeks damages of more than $10,000 on the basis that he was fired from a construction job at Gundy’s home because he showed up wearing a University of Oklahoma baseball shirt.

Court documents state Loveland was to be paid at least $80,600 for trim installation during a 13-week period starting in March 2011. He also claims to have lost more than $30,000 in potential income because he turned down other jobs during that time.

Loveland’s reason for wearing the shirt? He got dressed in the dark. The contractor’s attorney has (understandably) asked for a change in venue due to Gundy’s (understandable) popularity in the area. The Cowboys coach must feel pretty confident to let the case go this far, considering ten grand wouldn’t make a very big dent in his approximately three-million-per-year salary.

Gundy has been in the news a lot

(USA Today Sports Images)This shouldn't be a shock, but Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett's lawsuit against the NCAA, looking to overturn penalties against Penn State on anti-trust grounds, was dismissed.

And, as Associated Press reported, U.S. Middle District Judge Yvette Kane called it a "Hail Mary pass" that was easily dismissed.

The anti-trust argument failed to measure up for Kane.

"The fact that Penn State will offer fewer scholarships over a period of four years does not plausibly support its allegation that the reduction of scholarships at Penn State will result in a market-wide anticompetitive effect, such that the 'nation's top scholastic football players' would be unable to obtain a scholarship in the nationwide market for Division I football players," Kane wrote, according to AP.

Although none of this is too surprising, there was an interesting part of Kane's decision.

Kane did acknowledge that an argument against the NCAA and its penalties could have some merit.

"In another forum the complaint's appeal to equity and common sense may win the day, but in the antitrust world these arguments fail to advance the ball," Kane said.

It's hard to say Penn State shouldn't have accepted the NCAA's harsh penalties, which seemed to overstep its bounds and were unprecedented in not giving Penn State the same due process other schools get. It was an obvious public