Urban Meyer made quite a splash with a monster recruiting class at Ohio State, but some of his fellow coaches in the Big Ten weren’t too happy that he came in and “flipped” players. The whining from Bret Bielema and Mark Dantonio seemed a bit much according to David Whitley, who pointed out that recruits had every right to change their minds after a coach of Meyer’s caliber joined Ohio State.

But Whitley makes a larger point – that the Big Ten has much more honorable recruiting practices than the SEC. Yes, the SEC is currently winning all the titles, but Whitley points out some pretty pathetic actions by Les Miles and Nick Saban. The oversigning has gotten out of control.

Hopefully the push by the Big Ten towards 4-year scholarships will put even more pressure on the SEC to clean up its act.

LSU may have come into tonight’s game with Oregon missing its starting quarterback and wide receiver because of suspensions, but that didn’t matter. The LSU defense and special teams were more than enough in LSU’s 40-27 win.

It’s a real nice victory for LSU and the SEC (again). It’s a tough loss for Oregon, which is about to get the Ohio State label draped on it when it comes to big games. The Ducks, as it turns out, aren’t that difficult to defend if you have some time to prepare for them.

In their last three big-time nonconference games — Ohio State, Auburn and LSU — the Ducks offense hasn’t been anywhere near the explosive unit that it is during the season. People that are smarter than I am on Twitter claim it’s because what Oregon does is actually pretty simple, and when you have the athletes to match up with it, all you have to do is play assignment football.

That being said, shutting down Oregon is quite an accomplishment, and LSU’s defense won’t face many offenses that are more explosive. They’ll face different and more balanced offenses (Darron Thomas is woefully inadequate in the passing game), but not many that can do what the Ducks can.

It plays in the SEC West, so LSU has a hell of a lot of work to do in order to play for the title this year, but this was a huge hurdle, especially considering the suspensions. It was an even bigger hurdle for the SEC, which may have just guaranteed itself a spot in the title game again.

ESPN.com is reporting that LSU and head coach Les Miles have agreed in principle to a new contract that will run through the 2017 season.

LSU athletic director Joe Alleva says Miles’ annual pay of a little more than $3.75 million will remain the same.

Miles has won 62 games and five bowls, including a 2007 national title in his first six years with the Tigers. Alleva says the university wants to maintain stability at the top of a winning program.

Miles, who met with Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon Monday about the coaching vacancy the Wolverines had at the time, says Baton Rouge is home to his family now and that staying at LSU is “the right thing to do.”

I think it says something that Miles (presumably) had two opportunities over the past four years to leave Baton Rouge and coach at his alma mater and he chose to stay. He has shown loyalty to the LSU program and in turn, the Tigers have given it right back.

I still think the guy is bat sh*t crazy though. He obviously knows how to win but I wonder if he goes home sometimes and thinks to himself, “How the hell did I pull that one out of my ass?”

Only Miles could get called for a delay of game penalty on fourth-and-nine and then call a timeout. And only he could then get bailed out when his opponent (Tennessee) had 12 men on the field during the final play and therefore found a way to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat.

Oh, Les Miles.

Les Miles isn’t headed to Ann Arbor, which means Brady Hoke is.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that after meeting with Michigan officials about the Wolverines’ football vacancy on Monday, Miles will stay at LSU. The former UM graduate is 62-17 with the Tigers, which includes five bowl victories and one national title in his previous six seasons. Following Miles’ decision, Michigan moved quickly to hire Hoke.

When Rich Rodriguez was fired last week, two names emerged as leading candidates to replace him: Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh and San Diego State’s Hoke. And once Harbaugh agreed to terms with the 49ers, Hoke become the clear favorite to land in Ann Arbor.

It would have taken a truckload of money to get Miles to come to Michigan and in the end, it would have been a riskier move than what AD David Brandon wanted to make following the Rich-Rod debacle. Hoke is the safer choice and he may be the better long-term fit for the program, too. He has ties to the team, he’s an up-and-comer and he’s cheap. It just makes sense following what happened with Rodriguez.

Is Hoke the right fit? We’ll see. He certainly isn’t a big name but the Wolverines got a big name in Rodriguez and look how that turned out. I know some UM fans would have rather seen Rodriguez retained for another year than hire Hoke. But at least he’ll put the emphasis back on defense after Rich-Rod completely ignored that side of the ball for three years. (Maybe Hoke will actually recruit a kicker that knows that the ball is supposed to go between the uprights and not to either side of them, too.)

Hoke may be a ho-hum hire in some people’s minds, but maybe that’s exactly what UM needs right now.

According to ESPN.com, LSU’s Les Miles “anticipates” meeting with Michigan representatives to discuss the Wolverines’ head coaching vacancy.

Miles says no one from Michigan has contacted him directly yet and that he does not know when such a meeting with his alma mater might take place. According to the Detroit News, Miles and Michigan are expected to meet on Tuesday.

Miles says he cannot speculate about the substance of such a meeting and also says he is “extremely happy” at LSU and that his family is comfortable living in Baton Rouge.

Boy, Michigan fans have to be torn on this one. On one hand, Miles isn’t Brady Hoke, who could be one of the favorites to replace Rich Rodriguez. Hoke has done a nice job at San Diego State, but he doesn’t exactly rock UM fans’ boat.

On the other hand, Miles is freaking nuts. I swear he uses one of those origami fortunetellers that girls used to make in grade school to make decisions during games (especially in the fourth quarter). He may win, but it’s only by the stroke of God that he’s able to get away with some of the things he does during games.

It’ll also cost a small fortunate to convince him to leave Baton Rouge. He makes roughly $3.7 million a year at LSU and if Michigan AD David Brandon isn’t prepared to fork over that kind of money with what happened with Rodriguez, then he’ll have to “settle” for someone like Hoke instead.

That said, Miles is a true “Michigan Man” in every sense of the word. He knows that he can’t go winless against Ohio State or lose to Michigan State (ever). He gets what Michigan is about and in the end, that might be worth it to someone like Brandon, who obviously needs to hit a home run with his next hire.

My wife essentially makes the schedule in our house. My job is to make sure I stay gainfully employed and just show up to the things she’s set up for us. It’s normally pretty easy and painless, to be honest. And since I’m a scatter-brain most of the time, I completely relinquish the scheduling.

But she messed up this weekend. Big time. We’re signed up for a wine tasting at 6 p.m. (EDT) today, which will be smack dab in the middle of some of the best college football finishes of the day. It also means I’ll be out of commission after 6 p.m. (never drink and blog kids, it never ends up well), so expect heavier blogging early in the day, and not much later. I’ll let you decide if that’s good or bad.

After the jump, I’ll dissect some of the great matchups of the day (there a couple of huge ones), and introduce a couple of new features for this morning forecast post.

Last week I was 1-4. Straight up. No spread. I was 1-4. Time to step my game up.

No. 7 Michigan State at Northwestern, noon: One of my greatest friends is a Michigan State grad, and he’s crapping himself over this game. The Spartans biggest defensive deficiency is in the pass game, but only one opponent so far has been able to take advantage of that (Notre Dame). Three opponents were toothless, while the others (Michigan and Illinois) don’t have passing games that scare you. Northwestern features Dan Persa, the nation’s fourth most efficient passer. But Persa and the Wildcats have played a weak sauce schedule, barely beating the now coachless Minnesota Golden Gophers, and losing to a bad Purdue team. So, Kyle, my pants-crapping friend, put away the Depends and just sit back and enjoy another Spartan victory. Pick: 34-27.

No. 6 LSU at No. 4 Auburn, 3:30 p.m.: There are two magical forces meeting in this game, as Cam Newton’s amazing season matches up against Les Miles’ wild ride. I don’t think it’s wise to bet against either of these things. Newton will destroy you with his arm and legs. Every time he takes a snap, Urban Meyer dies a little inside, thinking of what could have been while simultaneously poking at his Steve Addazio voodoo doll. Miles, meanwhile, is forcing writers around the country to try and find whatever is beyond selling your soul to the devil, because even the devil is looking at what Miles is asking for, and saying, “you’re kidding, right?” LSU basically had an extra week to get ready for Newton, as it played McNeese State a week ago. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing, honestly. I do know, however, that this is by far the best defense Newton has seen this year. Pick: LSU 24-20.

No. 13 Wisconsin at No. 15 Iowa, 3:30 p.m.: Huge win for the Badgers last week, obviously, knocking off the then-No. 1 Buckeyes. But I still have serious doubts about Wisconsin. I can’t really explain why, and I think last week I might have said I don’t believe in Auburn (oops), but there’s something about the Badgers that I don’t like. Anyone can get up for a game against No. 1 and possibly pull an upset at home, especially any team with the talent Wisconsin has. But is that something the Badgers can maintain this week in an equally big game on the road against perhaps the Big Ten’s best team? Um, no. Pick: Iowa 27-17.

No. 16 Nebraska at No. 14 Oklahoma State, 3:30 p.m.: Oklahoma State is putting up points this season at a nearly Oregon-esque pace. Problem is, the Cowboys are giving up points at a Michigan-esque pace. Troy put up 38 on them. Louisiana-Lafayette put up 28. Texas A&M (with 70-bajillion turnovers) put up 35. In short, this is just the defense for T-Magic to rebound against. Texas was a tough matchup for Nebraska because it was coming off a bye week, and it has the athletes on defense to corral Taylor Martinez. Oklahoma State doesn’t have that, or anywhere near that. The other thing the Cowboys don’t have is previous experience against a defense anywhere near what Nebraska has. Pick: Nebraska 34-26.

No. 1 Oklahoma at No. 11 Missouri, 8 p.m.: In case you haven’t noticed, I’m using the BCS rankings. So now that we’ve got that cleared up, there’s a reason both of these teams are ranked above where the humans have them: they’re both good. My preseason championship game pick was Boise State against Ohio State, but I really toyed with the idea of putting Oklahoma in there. If the Sooners win today, they simply have to avoid the annual Bob Stoops “Uh oh” game to get to the Big 12 championship where they’ll likely see Nebraska. So, hindsight is 20-20, but I’m giving myself some credit for thinking about it. Missouri, oddly enough, has a tough defense. It also has Blaine Gabbert and a solid offense. This will be the Sooners toughest test of the year. Including Nebraska. Pick: Oklahoma 24-23.

Hey! New features!

Player with the most on the line today

Newton, and I don’t think it’s all that close. Most have him at the top of their Heisman Trophy ballot right now, and with good reason. But as I said earlier, this is his first really big test against a very good defense. If he’s impressive in a win today, he’ll remain on the top of those Heisman lists as he and the Tigers very likely will be unbeaten going into the regular-season finale against Alabama.

Coach with the most on the line today

Brian Kelly, Notre Dame. He’s not in danger of getting fired, but a loss today to Navy and the the Irish faithful start losing faith. The 1-3 start was hard to take, but the losses were reasonable considering the opponents and the situation. Losing to Navy, however, brings up the “same as Weis” argument that Kelly desperately needs to avoid. The Midshipmen should never be a barometer game for the Notre Dame program, but that’s exactly what this is today. It’s win fairly comfortably, or feel the heat start to rise.

College football season continues to be awesome. It seems like every week I sit down to write my picks (which also continue to be awesome) there are a handful of games that are can’t miss.

I don’t know if that’s because there’s an increasing number of good teams in college football, or if all the cupcakes teams were feasting on at the beginning of the season beefed up their records artificially. Either way, I like being excited on a Friday night for what I’m about to see the next day, and I’ve been like that for a few weeks now.

This week is no different, in fact, it’s about as big as any weekend of the season. And maybe that’s artificially inflated for myself living in Michigan and seeing about 50% of my Facebook “friends” switch their profile picture to something Michigan or Michigan State related. It’s half exciting and half terribly annoying (example: New friend request from John Doe. Hmm, John Doe doesn’t ring a bell, I wonder what he looks like. Oh, he looks just like Denard Robinson. Strange. Ignore. (Not true, I never ignore. My ego can use all the friends it can get, virtual or not.)).

Enough parentheses, let’s get to the games.

I went 4-1 again last week, because I can’t seem to nail down Michigan State, which, oddly enough, is the major university closest to me geographically.

No. 1 Alabama at No. 19 South Carolina, 3:30 p.m.: A lot is being made of the fact that Alabama’s next five opponents will be playing the Tide after a week off. The first of those opponents is South Carolina, which features a solid defense, a bruising true freshman running back and a not-so-consistent passing game. I like Stephen Garcia. I don’t know why, I just do. But there’s no way in Hell he can be the reason the Gamecocks beat Alabama, which is what needs to happen. You need to be able to throw the ball better than just OK to beat the Tide this year (as Arkansas nearly proved), and South Carolina doesn’t have that luxury. Marcus Lattimore is a stud, but he’s going to get a rude awakening this weekend. Pick: Alabama 24-17.

No. 17 Michigan State at No. 18 Michigan, 3:30 p.m.: I’m not sure Denard Robinson can be stopped for a full game. He’s going to get his at some point, he’s just way too explosive not to. But you can stop him once or twice a game, which, unfortunately for Michigan, could be enough to beat the Wolverines. Seriously, if your offense doesn’t beat itself, you could literally score every time it took the field. Michigan’s defense is somewhere between putrid and whatever is worse than putrid. UMass made the Wolverines look like a D-II team, which is bad, because UMass is a I-AA team (FCS, whatever). Today is the day Michigan finally truly pays for this. Pick: MSU 38-35.

No. 12 LSU at No. 14 Florida, 7:30 p.m.: First, watch this. Now, think to yourself, how could a team that does that (even though it survived) beat a team coached by Urban Meyer? Well, here’s how: When that Urban Meyer coached team can’t score points, and is coming off a physical beatdown by Alabama, it’s beatable by anyone, including a team coached by Les Miles that relies completely on its defense. Yes, I’m predicting Les Miles to be 6-0. Pick: LSU 14-10.

No. 23 Florida State at No. 13 Miami, 8 p.m.: Florida State looks awesome this year, against teams that are awful. Miami has the strange ability to look really good and really bad in a matter of minutes of the same game. I attribute this to quarterback Jacory Harris, who personifies that ability. If he’s 75% good Jacory tonight, Miami will win. Pick: Miami 24-20.

USC at No. 16 Stanford, 8 p.m.: The thought of USC getting pounded again is kind of exciting to me, I’m not going to lie. Although, instead of “What’s your deal,” I’d imagine Lane Kiffin might just shake Jim Harbaugh’s hand and say, “Well played.” Expect several fourth down tries in this one, as well as some two-point conversion attempts. Also, expect Andrew Luck to absolutely dominate USC’s horrific passing defense. Pick: Stanford 45-31.