No word yet as to where or whether Erik Gill is going to get a free agent offer from a team. Same for JJ Horne and Tez Morris.

Josh Cummings will get a shot to become a dome kicker after signing on with the St. Louis Rams. The Rams also signed UConn Power Forward Ed Nelson to come in as a Tight End.

Looks confirmed that Greg Lee has signed with the Arizona Cardinals. Lee is now getting the “What were you thinking?” treatment from pundits.

Don’t you feel dumb award: Pick a name, any name, of a poor boob who declared for the draft . . . and didn’t get drafted. My choice for biggest dunce: Pitt WR Greg Lee.

Or worse, the head-shaking, pity view.

4. Stay in school (unless you are a going on the first day): Coming out of school early is great if your name is Mario Williams, Reggie Bush, Vince Young, Vernon Davis or any of the other first-round selections. But it is really awful when a guy gives up a year of his college experience and his name is called in the seventh round or not at all. Fred Matua, Stanley McClover and Dee Webb, among others, should have stayed in school. I feel even worse for receiver Greg Lee, linebacker Kai Parham and others who went undrafted. It always amazes me how players hear what they want to hear about what will happen to them if they leave school early.

Like I said yesterday, if Lee could have come out as a Sophomore he would have been a 3d round pick on potential alone. Instead he had to come back, and was shown in his Junior season to have issues of concentration and consistency, not great speed, and his overall numbers dropped. I’m not sure any of that would have improved coming back for his Senior season. If Dickerson, Porter, Fields or any of the redshirt receivers even step up a little; Lee’s numbers drop further raising more questions about him.

Of course, he’d also be much closer to getting his degree (assuming like many other players, he doesn’t actually come back for his final semester while trying to concentrate on conditioning and training for the draft) which has to count for something.

Can the Big East really count the Houston Bowl, when no one can be sure they will find a replacement? I mean when the NCAA is unable to recertify another bowl, you know there’s a lot of problems.

On the other hand two more bowls were certified and are tied to the Big East.

In the International Bowl, the BIG EAST will meet a team from the Mid-American Conference. In the Birmingham Bowl, the BIG EAST will play a team from Conference USA.

“We’re very excited to be associated with these two new bowls and extremely pleased with the number of bowl opportunities that we have for this season and beyond,” said Tranghese. “BIG EAST football fans now have even more attractive postseason destinations.”

The International Bowl will be played in the Rogers Centre on Jan. 6. The Birmingham Bowl will be played at Legion Field on Dec. 23. Both games will be televised by one of the ESPN networks.

The BIG EAST champion automatically qualifies for a spot in the Bowl Championship Series. After the BCS representative has been determined, a BIG EAST team will go to the Toyota Gator Bowl or the Vitalis Sun Bowl.

Then, the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C. will select a BIG EAST team.

Earlier this year, the BIG EAST announced an agreement with the Houston Bowl. The NCAA Bowl Certification Committee gave the Houston Bowl a 60-day extension before making a decision on certification.

Everyone is trying to put a positive spin on match-ups against Conference USA and the MAC.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said the addition of the new bowls are yet another sign that the Big East is on the rise.

“Bowls can choose whatever conferences they want to be affiliated with, and everyone wants to be associated with a winner,” Wannstedt said.

“So this is all a very positive sign about how the Big East is perceived. It also speaks well of our commissioner and his staff and the job they have done in selling the conference based on its merits.

“The bottom line is these bowls are run by businessmen and every conference had a chance to sell their product to them. The Big East obviously has a lot to offer and it is only going to get better.”

I think the Toronto Bowl has something of a chance. At least it is within a decent driving distance for a lot of the schools, so it’s not exactly a bad road trip.

Ah, it’s easy to mock and be down on these games. Fact is, the Big East has earned this rung. The conference has a well-earned reputation of not traveling well (no matter what the conference composition was) and the conference is still trying to get itself back up to respectability in terms of overall performance.