Just a couple other things. From Bruce Feldman’s ESPN.com blog (Insider subs.):

In the process of working on ESPN The Magazine’s college preview, I talked to some coaches for some scouting stuff and came up with some extra that I thought was pretty intriguing. The following was compiled with the help of four different coaches:

Most underrated QB?

* “[Tyler] Palko from Pitt. He’s a gamer. Much better athlete than we thought. I think he’s a guy I’d hate to be facing on fourth-and-4 late in the game because he’s finding a way to win the game right there. [New Pitt QB coach Matt] Cavanaugh’s gonna help him get to that next level. Watch how much sharper he’ll be this year.”

Given all the credit and he keeps making lists as one of the top-10 QBs in the country, how can he still be called underrated?

I don’t have time to go into the piece right now, but ESPN.com/Blue Ribbon Yearbook has their Pitt profile available (again Insider Subs.)

Final, but probably the most important piece for college sports in general, and a rare smart move from the NCAA. They are going to actually start paying closer attention to betting lines.

One response from an NCAA task force on gambling would have the organization start checking in regularly with a longtime antagonist — the Las Vegas sports books.

Rachel Newman-Baker, the NCAA’s director of gambling activities, said Tuesday the group hoped to re-establish contact with the oddsmakers to watch for instances where heavy wagering has caused significant changes in point spreads or for the casinos to pull games off the board.

This is generally how betting scandals have been discovered. Not by investigations, but by such heavy shifts in the line that someone would finally point it out. It’s such a no-brainer that it defies belief that they haven’t before.

I don’t bet, but the anti-gambling on sports legislation stuff always struck me as moronic. It would still happen, and having the info as public knowledge is a way to keep things more honest.