Newspaper, television and Internet reports out of North Carolina this morning are unanimous: Skip Holtz has turned down an offer -- reportedly a $12 million deal -- from Syracuse after spending an extra day in New York to talk with Cuse AD Daryl Gross.

If true, this means either a) The Orange are going with Turner Gill (or another name) and Holtz wanted to pull his name out rather than be rejected; b) Holtz is angling and confident of his little-discussed prospects at Auburn; or c) Holtz is content and staying at East Carolina for at least another year. There's far more precedent for c) than you might think, although Skip is surely aware that coaching stocks, like all stocks, ebb and flow, and eventually they stop calling. In this case, a crater at Syracuse is not necessarily a step up from a secure, rising program in Greenville.

Holtz and Tuner Gill will be in front of the media today for their respective bowl press conferences in Memphis and Toronto, which should be interesting and yield nothing of substance. The potential addition of Holtz's name only ups the ante on Auburn's side of the table.

UPDATE: Confirmed: Holtz says himself he won't be taking the Syracuse job and sounds committed to ECU at least through the Liberty Bowl.