When massive (and massively hyped) Minnesota offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson stopped short of signing an official Letter of Intent last week binding him to his school of choice, USC, the clock began ticking: The official signing period that began on Feb. 3, the first day members of the class of 2010 could lock themselves into the scholarships most of them had been committed to for months, officially ends on April 1. That window presents an even bigger problem for Henderson than it did his top-ranked, late-signing predecessors in 2008-09, Terrelle Pryor and Bryce Brown, because Seantrel isn't just dragging the thing out for the hell of it -- USC goes before the NCAA's Committee on Infractions between Feb. 19-21, where the Trojans are expected to learn their fate re: the Reggie Bush scandal that's hung over the program for the last five years. If the damage is too severe, Henderson is a goner, probably to Ohio State or Miami.

The odds of Henderson getting any definitive word on the sanctions (or lack thereof) before April 1, though, are slim; the NCAA usually takes in the neighborhood of six weeks to announce those decisions, and keeps them under notoriously strict lock and key in the meantime. It's not clear that Henderson will have any information by then that he doesn't have now, other than maybe reading the expressions on faces around USC's football offices. Whether he signs with the Trojans or doesn't, putting his name down before he knows the extent of the sanctions (if there are any) is a gamble.

Or, if he's feeling really confident, he can take his sweet time, because the NCAA doesn't require a letter of intent to accept a scholarship and enroll in time to play next fall:

Am I required to sign a National Letter of Intent?
No. You are not required to sign a National Letter of Intent but many student-athletes sign a National Letter of Intent because they want to create certainty in the recruiting process. Specifically, by signing a National Letter of Intent, you agree to attend the institution for one year in exchange for the institution's promise, in writing, to provide you athletics financial aid for the entire academic year.

Back in 2007, Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis wondered why anyone would commit themselves to a completely voluntary process -- "They will simply sign because, well, that's what everybody does." -- but the answer is obvious: For the vast majority of players, no signature means no scholarship; impatient coaches will just move to the next person in line who jumps at the opportunity. Even a player as hyped as Bryce Brown, the No. 1 ranked player in last year's incoming class, was effectively dropped by Miami when his longstanding offer from the 'Canes expired before Brown announced his decision.

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For lack of actual events in reality, the offseason is often a time for fantasy: Sweeping, top-down conference realignments, impossible playoff brackets, hypothetical new rivalries, bizarre rules changes. One theme certain to hold at the top of the "what if?" list for the next six months is conference expansion, already a source of tentative projections and wildly irresponsible rumors in the Big Ten. From the sounds of new commissioner Larry Scott's conference call with reporters this afternoon, we might as well add the Pac-10 to the expansion watch list:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott says that if the conference is going to expand, a decision will likely be made in the next year.
[...]
Scott said it made sense to have a decision about expansion before starting to negotiate new television deals that expire following the 2011-12 academic year.

Scott says "serious evaluation" of the topic will go on in the next six to 12 months. He said the primary factor in the decision will be finding schools that fit into the conference culturally and academically and determining whether the benefits of adding extra teams outweigh the costs.

On Monday, Scott named Kevin Weiberg -- a veteran who helped oversee Big Ten expansion from 10 teams to 11 as the conference's deputy commissioner in the early '90s, and returned to help put together the Big Ten Network after doubling revenues during a nine-year stint as commissioner of the Big 12 -- as the Pac-10's new deputy commissioner, a good indication a copycat Pac-10 Network could be in the works. When the San Jose Mercury-News' Jon Wilner asked Scott if Weiberg's addition could be read as a prelude to expansion before negotiations for the conference's critical new television contract heat up next year, Scott admitted "this would be the logical time."

Is a mini-blitz in the media an indication that Scott is necessarily more serious about expansion than he was three or six months ago? He says no: "I think I’ve been consistent on that subject." Is it a starting gun for far-reaching, recklessly sourced theories about how the cards may fall if another heavy-hitting league starts to sprawl in search of fresh blood? Of course it is:

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Last November, besieged by the holy trinity of official controversy -- an unfriendly president, an enthusiastic opposition lobby and Congressmen on the bipartisan warpath in Washington -- the BCS ratcheted up the first real public relations campaign in its history to demonstrate just how un-controversial the Series is. New BCS executive director Bill Hancock, recently tasked with one of the most thankless jobs in America, even warns visitors to the Series' propaganda Web site, PlayoffProblem.com, that the BCS is one of the few strands of consensus the nation is still able to reach: "If you think the BCS is controversial," he wrote, "just wait until you realize how much more contentious a playoff would be."

Fortunately, we don't have to wait, because every other major team sport on every level in America settles its championship via some form of playoff with no significant input from opinion polls on the result. That includes the nation's most popular and lucrative sporting endeavor, the NFL, which just concluded its annual tournament-style championship to stunning levels of dissent according to readers of ESPN's SportsNation this morning:

So, OK, nothing that elicits that sort of rare display of unanimity among sports fans can possibly qualify as "controversial" in the big picture. But maybe the number belie a certain regional nuance, wherein overcrowded, NFL-centric megalopoli overrule the solid, BCS-loving heartland ...

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Between allegedly running up a $300,000 tab from wannabe agents and hangers-on at USC, subsequent legal fees, the occasional gun-toting goon, various petty fines from the NFL and the usual financial burdens of garish young celebrity, former Heisman winner Reggie Bush has never been accused of pinching pennies, or of keeping an especially close eye on all of them. Still, I'm sure there's a line somewhere in the ledgers for a pair of former baseball teammates at Bush's old San Diego high school. The two were forced to go to a local television station last week in search of thousands in promised scholarship money from Bush that never materialized after their benefactor showed up in person, on camera, to hand out the awards at his old stomping grounds three years ago:

In March 2007, Helix High School seniors Brandon Fountain and Matt Cobb were presented a $10,000 scholarship from Bush to use for college.
[...]
Fountain attends Cuyamaca College, and Cobb entered San Diego State University. Each received a $2,500 installment on their scholarships in their freshman year. Both ran into problems the following year when trying to contact the scholarship's trustee, Jerry Michaels.

"Mr. Michaels never responded. A couple of weeks later, [Brandon] sent a second e-mail and still no response," said Fountain's father, Bruce.

It was the same story for Cobb, and after weeks of wondering they received an answer they were not expecting.

"That's when we were told he was out of funds and due to the economy he didn't have the money," said Cobb.

Michaels (no relation, presumably, to Michael Michaels, with whom Bush reached a settlement in 2007 to keep him quiet about their alleged pay-for-play agreement at USC) told the television station that "Bush's people" contacted him about funding a scholarship through an existing program Michaels oversees, but never followed up. The existing money in the fund was tied up in investments, and ran out when the stocks tanked; Michaels is on tape saying, "We ran out of funds." Sorry, kids.

Bush is a fat, easy target for populist anger on a subject like this. On top of his multimillion-dollar salary and additional $5 million in endorsement deals, Bush also picked up an extra $500,000 for helping the Doc's beloved Saints win the Super Bowl on Sunday. Maybe, between legal fees, house-hunting with Kim Kardashian and celebrity victory parties, he'll find some way to set aside 2 percent of that championship bonus for making good on his three-year-old promise at home. Based on his track record, I'm sure the check will be in the mail any day now, guys.

Making the morning rounds.

• Show us your cards. A district court judge rejected the NCAA's request to throw out a lawsuit filed last year by former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon, who's seeking royalties for use of his image and likeness following his graduation (he's not arguing that so-called "student-athletes" should be paid while they're in school, though that's the next logical step if the suit succeeds). The upshot, according to O'Bannon's lawyers, is that the NCAA and many member schools -- public and private -- will be forced to open their books as part of the discovery phase: "... we soon can begin collecting evidence from the NCAA, taking depositions, and uncovering everything that it wanted to hide and keep from the public’s and athletes' view. ...[T]o our knowledge, no one has ever gotten behind the scenes to examine how student-athletes' current and future rights in their images are divided up and sold." [Yahoo! Sports, New York Times]

• Drankin'. Louisiana Tech quarterback Ross Jenkins, who has 20 consecutive starts for the Bulldogs and figures to become the trigger man for new coach Sonny Dykes' high-flying spread attack this fall, was arrested and charged with DWI Sunday morning at a sobriety checkpoint in Monroe, where he blew a whopping .228 on the breathalyzer -- three times Louisiana's legal limit (though, in Jenkins' defense, probaby somewhat mild compared to what most of the rest of the state would have registered just 24 hours later). [Associated Press]

In other alcoholic news, touted South Carolina recruit Victor Hampton, 17, was charged with underage drinking and faces possible reassignment to an alternative school after smuggling liquor into his high school (brandy, to be specific, which he mixed with Coke) last Friday, two days after signing with the Gamecocks. If Hampton is booted from Darlington High, his new school will be his fifth in four years. [The State]

• Tosh.Who? Rivals released its annual list of the top 25 recruiters in the nation Monday, headed by an unfamiliar face, California defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi, who was credited as the lead recruiter on six different Cal signees rated among Rivals' top 200 prospects nationally. Among those coups was a pair of late five-star additions, defensive end Chris Martin and safety Keenan Allen, who Lupoi helped lure from commitments to powerhouses Notre Dame and Alabama, respectively, and all four members of possibly the best incoming crop of linebackers in the country. [Rivals]

• All I want for Christmas is a little piece of mind. Rich Rodriguez came out ahead of the last-second-defection game in this year's recruiting class (well, depending on your opinion of Demar Dorsey, a late, potentially risky addition from Florida), but still made it a point last week to call for an early signing period in mid-December, to head off the fli-flops. (He'd include a waiver to kids who committed to a school that subsequently changed coaches between the early date and the current date in February). With two-thirds of SEC coaches (and Nick Saban, specifically) already backing an early signing period, the idea isn't going anywhere -- although, of course, neither are the athletic directors and university presidents who overwhelmingly oppose it. [AnnArbor.com]

Quickly ... Former Tulsa and Louisville head coach Steve Kragthorpe could be joining Mike Sherman's staff at Texas A&M, likely as a position coach despite the Aggies' new vacancy at offensive coordinator. ... Tim Tebow has nothing but football on his plate before April's NFL Draft. ... And outgoing Tennessee safety Eric Berry, a likely top-10 pick in April, sympathizes with Lane Kiffin's defection from the Vols to USC: "That’s his dream job. ... I can’t really say anything because I’m about to do my dream and I left college early."

Somewhere out there, some modern Machiavelli has penned a masterwork to instruct top-rated prospects on the consolidation of power in the recruiting process, beginning with one crucial rule: Delay the drama as long as possible, preferably until it becomes all about you. Two years ago, No. 1 prospect Terrelle Pryor pushed his decision to sign with Ohio State until well into March, more than a month after the vast majority of his 2008 classmates had declared their intentions long before signing day in early February. Last year, chart-topping running back Bryce Brown delayed his decision so long that his longstanding "commitment" to Miami simply evaporated when the 'Canes declined to renew an expired offer sheet; Brown defected to Tennessee instead, a school that wasn't even on his radar on signing day.

And this year's most hyped incoming name, Minnesota offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson was already a practicing diva as of last week, thanks to a nationally televised announcement/fashion show from New York City and the bucket of cold water he tossed onto his "commitment" to USC a few hours later, when he refused to sign an official letter of intent until he knows more about the consequences of the NCAA's upcoming review of major allegations against former Trojan Reggie Bush's bank account during his junior year in L.A. Officially, the towering man-child says he remains committed to USC until further notice. Today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune, though, says Henderson -- like Brown during his tortured "commitment" to Miami this time last year -- is still as good as a free agent:

As has been suspected since Wednesday -- when Cretin-Derham Hall offensive lineman Seantrel Henderson committed to play at USC but did not sign a letter of intent -- the nation's No. 1 recruit is back on the market.

During an in-studio interview with KSTP-TV sports anchor Joe Schmit on Sunday night, Henderson and his father, Sean Henderson, made it clear that Seantrel will not sign with USC if NCAA penalties are too severe. But the extent of those penalties may not be known for months, and nobody knows how long the Hendersons are willing to wait.
[...]
Sean Henderson said, "I wouldn’t lose the leverage that we have. I mean, at the end of the day it’s still a business and at the end of the day it’s still my son’s future. ... I’d rather be able to at least let him keep his options open,  because if things aren’t looking good come the 20th or the 21st [of February] or whatever, then we might have to move in a different direction, but it’s only for the sake of his future."

It's unlikely the Hendersons (or anyone else outside of the NCAA's jealously guarded inner sanctum) will have any new, reliable information after the closed-door meetings on USC's fate later this month, and the official judgment will likely come down after April 1, the last day Henderson has to sign if he plans to play anywhere next fall. It's extremely unlikely that any of the smoke surrounding the probe will disappear over the next two-to-six weeks. If those doubts are the same ones holding Henderson back now -- and given Lane Kiffin's self-professed delight in snatching top recruits away from other coaches at the eleventh hour -- there's no reason Miami or Ohio State shouldn't consider him fair game again.

In case you blinked during the pregame sideshow Sunday afternoon, or during the first quarter of the Super Bowl, here are the two versions of the most hyped, controversial ad in Super Bowl history -- one saccharine, one lighthearted, both vague, non-confrontational and out to give the term "abortion" so wide a berth even Tim Tebow's looping throwing motion couldn't hit it:

If you weren't clued in to the underlying political connotations before the game, you might confuse an ostensible anti-abortion message for a commercial meant to sway the public on the virtues of motherhood and/or existence inside a vacuum. (Which makes more sense than a commercial for the Census, actually.) The most polarizing element of either spot was probably the cooing strum/xylophone soundtrack so popular in domestic pitches at the moment. As predicted, a divided nation heeded the call of spectacle, and asked in unison, "Is that it?"

If you were too bored and/or confused by the ad to validate your own beliefs or viciously malign those of others, however, you can always go to the Web site, where the social/political message is slightly more overt (but only slightly). Big marketing pushes as political bait: Welcome to the future.

Making the morning rounds.

• They're my wins, maw. I'll do the vacatin'. After nearly a solid year of haggling and appeals with the NCAA, Florida State finally, officially vacated a dozen wins from two of the worst seasons of the Bobby Bowden era, 2006 and 2007, as penance for playing ineligible players who had been caught up in a widespread cheating scandal involving an online music. The revision will take five of seven wins from the '06 team, including the Emerald Bowl triumph over UCLA, and all seven victories from the '07 campaign. Officially, Bowden finishes with 377 career wins, and none of the results being stricken from the book came over Miami, Clemson, Florida or, soberingly, Wake Forest.

For opponents that did wind up on the wrong side of the 'Noles on the field, though, sorry: FSU's wins were vacated, not forfeited, and will still count as losses on the records of the teams the 'Noles defeated. [Tallahassee Democrat]

• Hey, pundits, leave my kid alone. ESPN Los Angeles digs a little deeper into USC's bizarre recruitment of a 13-year-old quarterback from Delaware, including a defense from the wunderkind's father, David Sills IV, who said "I'm just trying to give him every opportunity that I can" as father and son hopped a train into New York City for an interview on Good Morning America. But the most interesting detail: Lane Kiffin reportedly offered the young 'un a scholarship without ever seeing him throw or apparently even meeting him in person, based on a video tape and the recommendation of personal coach Steve Clarkson, who's previously worked with SoCal prodigees Matt Leinart, Jimmy Clausen and Matt Barkley, among others. [ESPN Los Angeles]

• Raiders don't hate, they self-flagellate. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal rounded up documents confirming that Texas Tech, hoping to avoid a more direct hit by preemptively punishing itself, self-imposed minor penalties -- a reduction of a single scholarship in the incoming class, four fewer campus visits for prospective recruits over an entire recruiting period -- in response to coaches on former head coach Mike Leach's staff text-messaging prospects well after the NCAA passed a blanket texting ban in August 2007. The case remains open with the NCAA, which could still hand down a harsher sentence (almost anything short of a "puppy penalty" would be harsher), but Tech athletic director Gerald Meyers said the case had nothing to do with Leach's sudden termination in December. [Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]

• Spartans will never surrender to exceedingly minor aesthetic change. A very long, rambling letter from Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis to Spartan fans last week amounts to this: MSU is keeping its old Spartan logo as part of a wider re-branding, thanks to public backlash against the meaner-looking replacement Nike had in store for the Spartan helmets next year. The redesigned uniforms will be scaled back to include only the Swoosh's patented "rippling abs" stitching to complete the idealized Spartan motif. [Michigan State Athletics]

Quickly ... If Oregon fulfills expectations as back-to-back Pac-10 champs next fall, Chip Kelly will be in line for a big raise. ... LSU's Trindon Holliday stole the show with 209 total yards and two touchdowns, but outgoing Tennessee quarterback and combine snub Jonathan Crompton may have helped his draft stock in Saturday's Texas vs. The Nation All-Star game. (But when did Jonathan Crompton join the staff of The Nation?) ... And I thought Forrest Gump was the Forrest Gump of football?

This is a college football blog, obviously, so for full-speed Super Bowl coverage of the most obsessive order, head over to Shutdown Corner. (MJD and friends could really use the traffic). In the meantime, allow a tired, slightly dazed Saints fan a rare moment of nostalgia and unabashed hero worship.

Of all the possible NFL stars who come out of college every year, Drew Brees -- a short, lightly recruited kid who came up in a spread offense at a non-traditional power -- didn't exactly leap off the page when he was leaving Purdue. But at least college fans remember Brees as a prolific Heisman finalist and Rose Bowl starter in his final game; I put up his greatest amateur moment because I couldn't find a college clip of key Saints teammates Darren Sharper (William & Mary), Marques Colston (Hofstra) or Jahri Evans (Bloomsburg State) if my life depended on it, or of Pierre Thomas, the hardest runner in the Super Bowl, who was lucky to make "Honorable Mention" on the All-Big Ten team and catch on as an undrafted free agent. The archives are slim on Tracy Porter, too, a second-team all-conference pick at Indiana and second round reach who just happened to pants two certain Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks in a row in the clutch to lock up a conference and then a world championship.

It's not like the Saints are a bunch of cast-offs and misfits, as most of the city and media would have you believe -- between Reggie Bush, Jeremy Shockey, Robert Meachem, Sedrick Ellis, Will Smith, Jonathan Vilma, Malcolm Jenkins and injury casualties Charles Grant and Jammal Brown, New Orleans has more than its share of first-rate college stars turned first-round picks. But Brees is the glue, the indispensable mainframe at the heart of the league's reigning Death Star of an offense, and today he wakes up as the first genuine star -- maybe a burgeoning legend, at least to the beleaguered people in his adopted hometown -- in Saints history. You could see it in him when he led his long-suffering, overmatched college mates over No. 4 Kansas State in 1998 to put Purdue in the final polls for the first time in 18 years, and past Michigan and Ohio State as a senior to break the Boilermakers into the Rose Bowl for the first time in 34 years. Before that, I know people who said they saw it in him when he led his high school team to a state championship. On the biggest stage of his life Sunday night, he was the same guy he's always been.

Not that anyone could have necessarily predicted it  -- the scrappy "it" player who flames out at the next level is so common, it's something of a cliché -- which is why Brees was snubbed by his hometown school, only a second-round pick by the Chargers, and rather easily dismissed when he suffered a major shoulder injury that ended his time in San Diego. But it was there. In fact, you might want to get used to seeing a lot more of it. Some guys are just naturals.

A season in review.

Navy sailed mostly under the radar in 2009, as usual, right up until a Texas Bowl pantsing of Missouri on New Year's Eve woke up the country to one of the best Academy outfits of the last 50 years: The Midshipmen pushed Ohio State to the brink out of the gate, initiated the Charlie Weis Death Watch by stunning Notre Dame in South Bend for the second time in three years, beat Air Force and Army for their seventh straight Commander-in-Chief's Trophy and closed it out by humiliating a Big 12 favorite on national television. The 10 wins tied a school record, and second-year coach Ken Niumatalolo quietly emerged from the shadow of his celebrated predecessor, Paul Johnson, as one of the steadiest young hands in the game.

The Good. As usual, the Midshipmen saw no good reason to put the ball in the air unless absolutely necessary, running on more plays (820) and passing on fewer (110) than any other team in the country. They beat Wake Forest in October without attempting a single pass, pureeing the Demon Deacons for 338 yards on 64 carries even without leading rusher Ricky Dobbs. And they finished off Air Force, Rice and Notre Dame -- against whom the Middies racked up 348 yards on the ground, by far the most any opposing offense gained against the Irish in the decade -- with 10 passes combined. Only two other players nationally, Stanford's Toby Gerhart and Pitt's Dion Lewis, carried the ball more often than Dobbs, and only Gerhart scored more touchdowns.

For a strictly triple option point man, though, Dobbs brought more to the downfield passing game than any Navy quarterback in years, as Ohio State found out when he hooked up with Marcus Curry for an 85-yard touchdown in the opener. That was something of a trend in the biggest games: Dobbs' only downfield completion against Notre Dame was a 52-yard touchdown strike to Greg Jones to put the Midshipmen up by two touchdowns in the third quarter of the eventual upset in South Bend, and he connected with Curry again for a 47-yard completion to set up an icing fourth-quarter touchdown against Missouri in the bowl game. When he did throw, Dobbs averaged more yards per completion (18.4) and per attempt (9.8) than any quarterback nationally except fellow triple-option gunner Josh Nesbitt at Georgia Tech, an endorsement for the system Johnson exported from Annapolis to Atlanta if ever there was one.

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