Pete Thamel, New York Times: With a pedestrian Heisman Trophy field, no elite team that scintillates the masses and virtually no chance of a team outside the Big Three crashing the Bowl Championship Series title game, this college football season is sputtering to the finish. It is too bad that in this great era of parity that so many teams do not have the opportunity to prove themselves.
Steve Wieberg, Jodi Upton, A.J. Perez and Steve Berkowitz, USA Today: The newspaper's annual look at compensation for coaches, with additional links to a salary database, why some schools are slow to release data and the rising salaries of assistant coaches.
Amalie Nash, Ann Arbor.com: Retiring Michigan athletic director Bill Martin has apologized for his behavior during two home games that resulted in the filing of an incident report last month with the university's department of public safety.
Glenn Guilbeau, Shreveport Times: Louisiana State coach Les Miles was careful not to criticize officials for the controversial decision on what appeared to be an interception by Tiger cornerback Patrick Peterson in the fourth quarter of Saturday's loss at Alabama.
Paul Finebaum, Mobile Press-Register: Bad officiating is costing the Southeastern Conference credibility.
Gregg Doyel, CBS Sports.com: These blatant officiating mistakes — like the potentially $17 million blown call that helped Alabama stay undefeated against LSU? It's not a conspiracy, but it's not an accident, either.
Darren Everson and David Biderman, Wall Street Journal: Why Iowa is good for college football.
Dave Altimari, Hartford Courant: Newly released documents indicate that Connecticut player Jasper Howard took the first swing at the man accused of stabbing him to death, two witnesses to the fight told police.
Ray Ratto, CBS Sports.com: Should California's medical staff or coaching staff have cleared Jahvid Best, who had incurred a concussion the week before, to play in last Saturday's game against Oregon State? When will sports teams — pro, college or even high school — be separated from the doctors who treat the players?
Mike Strange, Knoxville News-Sentinel: Tennessee's average attendance for seven home games is 98,805. That's the first time the average has fallen below 100,000 since Neyland Stadium was expanded in 1996.
Associated Press: Texas Christian will have its first sellout of 44,358-seat Amon Carter Stadium since 2006 when it plays host to Utah on Saturday night.
Mike Hlas, Cedar Rapids Gazette: The Hlist: Bob Bowlsby made a good hire at Stanford three years ago.
Sports Media Watch: The Boise State-Louisiana Tech game Friday night outdrew both games of ESPN's NBA doubleheader.
Mike Hutton, Gary Post-Tribune: Add it all up and you'll see that Notre Dame has been a mediocre team since 1993.
Chris Foster, Los Angeles Times: UCLA quarterback Kevin Prince has been cleared to practice after suffering a concussion against Washington.
Ferd Lewis, Honolulu Advertiser: Hawaii ticket sales are running "more than $250,000" below projections to this point in the season.
Ron Higgins, Memphis Commercial Appeal: A list of possible candidates to become the new coach at Memphis.
Bob Hammond, Laramie Boomerang: Wyoming took a step back in its loss to Brigham Young.
Jon Wilner, College Sports Hotline: Is Dick Tomey's run at San Jose State about to come to an end? He rebuilt the program and took the team to the New Mexico Bowl in 2006, but the Spartans have since collapsed and the program has been in a freefall throughout 2009.
In memory of Kurt Saliger. You'll be missed, my friend.
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