• Truck bed imprints are so Bush administration. Oregon's last full-scale uniform re-design, in 2006, gave the Ducks 384 possible game day combinations, not even including the metallic monstrosities they trotted out at the end of that season for the Las Vegas Bowl loss to BYU. (Personally, I prefer the day-glo pants with white-on-white up top.) But that was three years ago, an eon in fashion time. So sugar daddy Phil Knight and his well-compensated, humanely treated minions at Nike are ponying up for another relaunch:

Oregon will hold a press conference [Tuesday] at 1 p.m. [Pacific] to unveil new uniforms. I haven’t seen them but am told but those who have that they’re pretty cool, and that players in particular will dig them. Last fall Nike reps said they were working toward new duds for 2010, but they apparently have moved that up a year.

I'm waiting for Nike to outfit its space age combatants with duds suitable to the intergalactic warrior of the 21st Century (like, when are these things going to actually glow already?), but as long as it's not just another lame cosmetic touch, I promise to reserve judgment. (No matter what sweat-flicking, skin-soothing microfibers the engineers come up with, anyway, they'll never top Cris Carter's shoes.)

• If the Hawk can't have you, only Pete Carroll's essence will suffice. Josh Smith is perfectly free to leave Colorado to be closer to his family or pursue a music major, or whatever it is the Buffs' all-purpose yardage leader wants to do out in that great, big world. And by "great, big world," of course, we mean the University of Southern California, and the University of Southern California only:

A transfer appeal committee upheld the decision made earlier this month by CU football coach Dan Hawkins and athletic director Mike Bohn to only grant Smith’s release to USC.

Smith, who had a list of between eight and 10 schools he was interested in contacting after informing Hawkins of his intention to transfer from CU, had appealed the decision to the three-person panel made of professors.

"That would be final," Julie Manning, CU associate athletic director for compliance, said of the decision. "There is no other recourse for the student-athlete."

Smith can still enroll in the school of his choice next year, but he'll be ineligible to receive an athletic scholarship from anyone except the Trojans until 2010. As when Miami put similar restrictions on outgoing quarterback Robert Marve last winter, the decision comes off as exceedingly petty, especially since his chances of cracking the SC depth chart are a fraction of what they'd be almost anywhere else. But if Smith's family has any money -- as Marve's apparently does, given his strong interest in paying his way for a year at Tennessee before settling for a free ride at Purdue -- he can tell Hawkins to stick it.

• America's most underrated coach gets a little richer. Cincinnati has extended the contract of coach Brian Kelly for one year, through 2013, which may or may not have any effect on actually keeping Kelly in Cincy that long, despite the coach's press conference rhetoric about "calling Cincinnati our home, not just a place where we live." That could be the case, but you know, buyouts and all. If he manages to win double- digit games for the third year in a row, at a school with exactly one 10-win season in its history before his arrival in 2007, this is only the first in a series of escalating steps UC will probably have to take to keep Kelly from being snatched up.

• At least he wasn't a wide receiver. Florida State has had its share of legal woes over the last nine months, most of them the work of Seminole receivers, but the defense was working hard Monday night to balance the ledger: Backup linebacker Maurice Harris was arrested and charged with two felonies, grand theft and possession of a motor vehicle with altered identification numbers, in addition to a misdemeanor traffic violation. I can't imagine why Bobby Bowden is suddenly looking his age these days, can you?

Quickly ... Wait, is Paul Finebaum writing about himself? Oh, it's about this guy. Wait, who is that guy? ... Somehow, Florida's athletic budget is going up next year. ... The on campus while his legal case unfolds. ... Recruits tour Minnesota's new digs, Iowa fans react as only Iowa fans can. Well, as only those Iowa fans can. ... Tennessee running back Toney Williams will miss the entire season with an ACL injury. ... Peyton Manning has his generic Lane Kiffin response down to a science. (He practices at home in the mirror.) ... Rocky Top Talk profiles Tennessee's best recruiter. ... Counting down the top-10 wins of the Mark Richt era. (Neither of his Sugar Bowl victories makes the list?) ... I hope you haven't had your Colt McCoy fix. ... And the William & Mary Tribe could be set to become the William & Mary ... Asparagus? I guess no one is offended by herbaceous perennials.