Conference winners, sleepers, power rankings and one big, fat national championship prediction.

Enjoy.

Big Ten

Champion: Ohio State
Yes, it’s true – the Buckeyes need Terrelle Pryor to be more consistent in the passing game this year if they expect to win a national championship. But stop acting like that’s the difference between OSU winning the Big Ten and them turning into Vanderbilt. Choke on this for a second: The Buckeyes return all three leading rushers from 2009 in Pryor, Brandon Saine and Dan Herron, the secondary features three senior NFL prospects, and they own the best defensive end in the nation in Cameron Heyward. Pryor is also coming off a dominating performance against Oregon in the Rose Bowl and reports state that he has committed himself this offseason to being a better teammate. Sorry Buckeye-haters, but the gap between them and Alabama is closer than you think.

Conference Champion Sleeper: Michigan Slate
My biggest concern with the Spartans is that despite pulling off an upset nearly every year, they also manage to lose a game they shouldn’t. But they have a slew of playmakers and plenty of depth on both sides of the ball, plus feature a ton of offensive firepower in Larry Caper, Edwin Baker, Keith Nicol and Mark Dell. Oh, and linebacker Greg Jones is the best defender in the nation. If this team can avoid being tripped up by an inferior opponent, they could easily surprise this season.

Conference Power Ranking: #1 Ohio State, #2 Iowa, #3 Wisconsin, # 4 Penn State, #5 Michigan State, #6 Northwestern, #7 Michigan, #8 Purdue, #9 Illinois, #10 Indiana, #11 Minnesota.

I admit that I had Michigan rated too high when I did my Big Ten preview last week. Having any sort of trust in Rich Rodriguez right now is a dangerous proposition for obvious reasons. Just when you think he’s going to figure things out in Ann Arbor, he makes a decision to muck everything up. Penn State might be ranked a little high given their quarterback concerns. Wisconsin is going to give teams trouble this year and Northwestern is going to be a tough opponent every week as well.

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Urban Meyer is the head coach of the Florida Gators and as the head coach of the Florida Gators, he has the right to have closed practices, open practices or no practices if he wants.

And Urban gets what Urban wants.

According to a report by ESPN.com, Meyer has closed Gator practices to the public, citing problems with agents and autograph hounds.

“We can’t live the players’ lives, but we can certainly do the best we can,” he told the newspaper. “You should have the right as a player to walk from here to there without being bothered.

“When I tell my colleagues that you get dressed, you walk across and people just maul you and bother you and internet people grabbing helmets, ‘Sign this,’ and we don’t have security saying, ‘Get the heck out of here.’ You’ll see a lot more ‘get the heck out of here’ from now on and let the kids go practice and concentrate on football.”

He’s right – players should have the opportunity to walk around a practice facility without being bothered by autograph seekers. But this isn’t about agents or those crazy “internet people” bothering players – this is about Meyer’s need to control every situation.

It’s always to a coach’s benefit to have a closed practice. Players arguably stay focused longer, coaches don’t have to worry about revealing anything (plays, schemes, etc.) and they can scream at the kids without having anyone peering in from the sidelines. Meyer saw an opportunity here to cash in on Nick Saban’s comments about player agents and use it as an excuse to close practice.

Meyer is arrogant. What happened when he didn’t like how an Orlando Sentinel reporter quoted one of his players? He threatened to kick him out of practice and even deemed him a “bad guy” just for doing his job. This is the same man that also plugged Tim Tebow in the media like he was a bottle of Bud Light and now he wants practices closed because some autograph seekers are bothering the players? Come on.

I don’t like your article – you’re banned from practice. I don’t like how you asked for autographs – you’re banned from practice. What is he, the “Soup Nazi?”

I’m not suggesting that Meyer doesn’t care about his players, because he does. But does he really have their best interests at heart here, or is he satisfying his own wants?

- SPARTY & FRIENDS argues that Michael Wilbon is “full of crap” for saying that he’d physically assault Urban Meyer if he were in Jeremy Fowler’s position. It’s easy for Wilbon to say this now, but Fowler’s first instinct was to diffuse the situation.

- BLACK SPORTS ONLINE (still love that blog name) comments on Tim Tebow’s dad’s prediction that Tebow will go in the top 15 picks.

- DEUCE OF DAVENPORT profiles the Washington Wizards’ new owner, Ted Leonsis.

- MIDWEST SPORTS FANS lists seven memorable moments of goofy whiteness.

- SPORTS MEDIA WATCH reports that “Joe Buck Live” may very well be over and Mr. Buck doesn’t seem to care…like the rest of us.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS has a photo of Erin Andrews and her partner on “Dancing With the Stars” getting a little…um…cozy.

- DEADSPIN has a few recollections from one of the former producers of MTV’s spring break events, including a pretty funny one about Paris Hilton and still-unnamed rock star.

Urban Meyer just tongue-whipped this reporter:

Here’s the back story (from Rivals.Yahoo.com):

“You’ll be out of practice—you understand that?—if you do that again,” Meyer told the reporter. “I told you five years ago: Don’t mess with our players. Don’t do it. You did it. You do it one more time and the Orlando Sentinel’s not welcome here ever again. Is that clear? It’s yes or no.”

Meyer was reacting to a story posted on the Sentinel’s Web site following Monday’s practice. Thompson was asked what the biggest difference was between Tebow and Brantley.

“You never know with Tim,” Thompson said. “He can bolt. You’ll think he’s running, but then he’ll just come up and pass it to you. You just have to be ready at all times. With Brantley, everything’s with rhythm, time. Like, you know what I mean, a real quarterback.”

Thompson was embarrassed by the remark and the attention it got, mostly because he likes Tebow and never wanted to say anything negative about him.

You can read Fowler’s originally story here.

Meyer is out of line here. The reporter was just doing his job, which was quoting a player (not misquoting, mind you) verbatim. While Fowler wasn’t being protective of Thompson in his piece (not that he has to), he did go on to write that Thompson was “either intentional or he meant to say Brantley’s a more conventional style of quarterback.” When I read the quote, I took it as Thompson was saying that Brantley is a more conventional quarterback and didn’t mean any harm to Tebow. If other media outlets twisted Thompson’s words around and made it sound like he was ripping Tebow, then they’re the ones Meyer should be mad at.

There are some guys that would have been rational about the situation and put the fire out with water. Meyer tried to put it out with a gallon of gasoline and a sledgehammer. He could have made a public statement in defense of Thompson and moved on, but instead he had to be Tommy Tough Tits and rip a reporter to make a point. He handled the situation poorly and here’s hoping he’s ripped because of it.

So much for faith and family.

Less than 24 hours after announcing that he was stepping down has the head coach of the Florida Gators, Urban Meyer has now decided that he will not be resigning but instead will begin an indefinite leave of absence. The ESPN gang is speculating that he’ll be back by the beginning of next season, though nobody knows how long this will take.

What changed his mind? Earlier today his wife stated that Urban Meyer would NOT change his mind.

So what happened? A news conference will be starting shortly, so we’ll learn more soon. But I suspect the alumni went crazy, and I suspect that recruits were upset as well. The option of taking a leave of absence was always on the table, so he obviously had a change of heart after the reactions started coming through.

Needless to say, this is a fluid situation. Will Meyer be able to deal with his health issues while he stays involved? The guy is a control freak, and anything less than a clean break would seem to be difficult.

I guess anything is possible, but this story will be front and center for some time as Meyer, his family and the Florida athletic department work through these issues.

UPDATE: Urban Meyer is now speaking to the media. It sounds like he just couldn’t go through with his resignation after speaking to his players. He’s a hyper-competitive guy, so this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

Meyer also said he expects to be on the field as head coach for the 2010 opener. Frankly, he looks and sounds a little like a boxer who doesn’t know when to hang things up.

Surprising news out of Florida, as Urban Meyer announced that he will step down as Florida’s head coach after the Orange Bowl.

Florida coach Urban Meyer, who was admitted to a hospital because of chest pains following the Southeastern Conference championship game, is stepping down because of health concerns.

Meyer resigned Saturday, calling it quits after five seasons in Gainesville and two national titles. He goes into the bowl game with a 56-10 record at Florida that includes a 32-8 mark in league play and a school-record 22-game winning streak ended early this month against Alabama.

Meyer, 45, says he consulted with his family, his doctors, school president Bernie Machen and athletic director Jeremy Foley before deciding it is in his best interest to focus on his health and family.

Meyer has been to the hospital multiple times since suffering chest pains after the SEC title game, a Florida source told ESPN. He has been diagnosed with a heart valve muscle defect, the source said.

The problem is not life threatening, a Florida source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen. The same source said Meyer will remain in Gainesville in a non-coaching role to be defined later.

This is a huge blow to the Florida football program, as Meyer had established himself as one of the best coaches of his generation.

Here are six quick-hit observations for Alabama’s 32-13 shellacking of Florida in Saturday’s SEC Championship Game.

1. Maybe Lane Kiffin had it right after all.
Maybe that brash Lane Kiffin had it right when he said earlier this week that, “Florida has better players, and Alabama has better coaches.” And actually, Kiffin only had it half right. Nick Saban outschemed, outcoached and outsmarted Urban Meyer for four quarters and not only did ‘Bama have the better coaches, but they proved to have the better players as well. Meyer simply didn’t have his team prepared to play today – period.

2. This was total domination at its best.
The game wasn’t even as close as the final score wound indicate. Alabama’s backfield trio of quarterback Greg McElroy (12-of-18 passing, 239 yards, 1 TD) and running backs Mark Ingram (113 yards, 3 TDs) and Trent Richardson (80 yards on 11 carries, 7.3 YPC average) played near-flawless games. The Tide dominated the Gators in every phase of the contest and never let up after smacking Florida in the mouth from the very first drive.

3. So much for Florida’s game plan.
Coming into the game, pundits figured that if Florida stopped Ingram that the Gators come out victorious. But instead, Alabama’s game plan to stay balanced was executed to perfection because not only were the Gators unable to stop Ingram, but they were unable to stop McElroy too. Florida tried a variety of different looks and in the end they just had no answer for what the Tide was doing offensively. And it really didn’t even matter that defensive end Carlos Dunlap (who was suspended after arrested for DUI earlier in the week) didn’t play because Florida just had the wrong scheme.

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Considering No. 1 Florida opened as a 24-point favorite, one would assume that they won’t face much of a challenge this Saturday night. Mississippi State is just 3-4 on the year and has lost three of their last four games. Their most significant win came on the road against a Vanderbilt team that is just 2-5 on the year.

But there are several factors that should concern the Gators as they get ready to do battle with the Bulldogs on Saturday night:

- The Gators haven’t won in Starkville since 1985. They were defeated on Mississippi State’s home turf in 1992, 2000 and most recently in 2004.

- Florida could be down three defensive starters, including linebacker Brandon Spikes, and defensive tackles Jaye Howard and Lawrence Marsh. Spikes re-injured his left groin last week and missed most of Florida’s win over Arkansas. With him on the sidelines, the Razorbacks rushed for 133 yards and finished with 357 yards of total offense.

- Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen severed as Florida’s quarterback coach and offensive coordinator from 2005 to 2008. If anyone knows how to exploit Tim Tebow and the rest of the Gators’ offense, it would be Mullen.

- Despite their losing record, the Bulldogs have the 13th best rushing offense in the nation and are averaging 219 yards per game on the ground this season. Senior Anthony Dixon has rushed for over 100 yards in each of his last five games, including a 138 and a 139-yard effort in his last two outings.

At the end of the day, Florida will have the better team on Saturday night. Even without Spikes, Howard and Marsh, they have enough depth defensively to limit how effective Mississippi State’s offense can be. But there are more than enough factors that should have Urban Meyer concerned about a potential upset, none bigger than the Gators’ poor showings in previous trips to Starkville.

Will Mississippi State shock the college football word this weekend and knock off the No. 1 team in the nation?