So nothing's changed since last fall, right? Hold your fire. But I think we both can agree the dust is far from settling. Take the Big Ten + Nebraska (can't wait to see how the marketeers fit "12" into the new logo!).

The first thing you should know about the Big 11Ten plus the Cornhuskers is this...

GREAT MOVE. Not many saw it coming, thinking anyone from Missouri to Pitt and even points east were more likely candidates.

Second thing involves the Big Cash Register. At last, think$ commi$$ioner Jim Delany, we get our league playoff. Keep in mind Delany is nothing if not the sharpest commissioner in college athletics. When ABC and ESPN told him to take his bigger-time aspirations and stick-'em, he did. With his own network, the Big Ten Network. And after a little bit of early haggling with Comcast, the BTN launched amidst much fanfare and is a standard cable channel in nine states, soon to be 10, covering a marketplace of nearly 80 million potential viewers.

The inevitability of the two-division, one-game league playoff is a foregone conclusion, but there are a few key matters to be settled.

1. Who plays in what division? Do Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State and Michigan share the same side? One would hope so, particularly for the sake of college football's greatest rivalry, the Buckeyes and Wolverines. As Chicago Tribune Big Ten guru Teddy Greenstein pointed out in Thursday's paper, over 2,000 people have jumped on board with the "Don't Mess with the Ohio State/Michigan Game" site on Facebook. O.S.U. and Michigan fans agreeing on something! Who knew?

But then the potential of the Bucks and U-M facing off twice in a season had many traditionalists reaching for the maalox. Not to mention the league may consider the traditional last-Saturday before Thanksgiving nature of the rivalry getting shifted to some mid-October date.

Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon stirred an electronic hornet's nest when he appeared to refute what he'd said at the league's spring meetings and told a radio interviewer last week: "I'm just warning everybody: Change is good and change is going to happen."

Memo to Mr. B: How's about you worry about change in your football team's on-field under Rich Rodriguez and get back to us later?

Some hypocrisies never quit Dept.: The Trib's Steve Rosenbloom, usually a likable sort with an edgy sense of timing, maybe might have considered his word-choices a bit Thursday. In his Thursday "Rosenblog," Rosey wrote, "It's not enough that Notre Dame has its own network despite being one of college football's biggest embarrassments, but now the Irish have gotten NBC (N.D.'s outlet for home games) to cut down commercial breaks. Anything that helps the Irish give up touchdowns faster, fine by me."

Hookay, we get it. You don't like Notre Dame. Would it be out-of-place to suggest Rosenbloom is a U.S.C. grad? And would it not be, ahem, advisable that given the tornado that hit Troy this spring re: giving up its national championship, all sorts of student-athlete mishaps, etc., to put a sock in it?

Just askin'.

Moving right along, could Tate Forcier, who showed more than a little promise as a Michigan freshman quarterback, find himself second on the Wolverines' depth chart?

Standout cornerback Troy Woolfolk, who underwent ankle surgery and will be lost for the season, told the school's paper, the Michigan Daily, that somewhat-promising QB Denard Robinson, who played well in spring practice, should start because, in Woolfolk's words, he lost the "trust" of the team after nixing summer conditioning, according to Greenstein.

Just to add one more little dab of spice to U-M's third season under Rodriguez (8-16 in Ann Arbor), the Wolverines open against feisty Big East contender Connecticut, then play at Notre Dame. Bon voyage, M. Rodriguez. Imagine the Ann Arbor angst after an 0-2 start.

And Finally: Indiana coach Bill Lynch, liking what he's hearing from his E.F. Huttonian starting quarterback, fifth-year senior Ben Chappell, courtesy of the Trib's Chris Hine: "It's good having a fifth-year senior quarterback, because when he talks, they listen. And that's much better than having a really good receiving corps with a freshman quarterback where they're all in his ear."