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As the BCS comes to an end in 2013, so too ends what's become a huge part of the BCS era:

BCS busting.

These are the teams that have the best chance of making one final run at a BCS berth before the college football postseason changes forever. Some of these teams have produced some of the best BCS bowls in history, such as Boise State's thrilling win over Oklahoma.

Others, like NIU's big loss to Florida State, have been complete duds.

So, what five teams have a chance to bust the BCS one last time? Read on.

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As we near National Signing Day on Feb. 6, several high-profile recruits ranked in the ESPNU 150 have committed in January.

That includes athletes on both sides of the ball, ranging from defensive ends to running backs.

Here's a look at the top five commits of January 2013.

 

5. Derrick Green, RB, Michigan

Ranked No. 38 overall by ESPN, Green is a physical, downhill runner, who almost always falls forward and can push the pile, racking up yardage after contact.

At 6'0", 215 pounds, the Virginia native has the frame and strength to be an asset for Brady Hoke's pro-style offense in 2013. He's very decisive with the pigskin, and he runs with the kind of no-nonsense attitude Hoke will love.

Green is arguably Michigan's most important recruit of 2013, given his ability and how he fits in with the program.

 

4. Tim Williams, DE, Alabama

The No. 36 recruit according to ESPN, defensive end Tim Williams has the strength, burst and explosiveness to be a nightmare for opposing offensive linemen.

But Williams' appeal goes beyond his physical abilities. He's also very good at recognizing blocking schemes, and he takes direct, decisive angles to the ball. Combined with his motor, it's somewhat of a perfect storm.

The Louisiana native does need to add some bulk, and developing his pass-rush skills will make him a more complete player. But he's already an excellent run-defender, which should serve him well in the rough-and-tough SEC.

 

3. Elijah Daniel, DE, Ole Miss

The No. 34 overall recruit according to ESPN, Daniel has the size and length to hold up well in the SEC.

The Indiana native shows surprising quickness and athleticism for a 249-pounder, with the ability to bend around blocks. He's not a speed-rusher, per se, but he does have the ability to side step opposing linemen to get into the backfield.

He'll need to develop his technique to be a major player in the SEC, but he has the physical tools and motor to be an impact player in due time.

 

2. Max Redfield, S, Notre Dame

The Fighting Irish scored a touchdown when Redfield committed to them on Jan. 4.

The No. 23 recruit in the class, Redfield has the size and athleticism to step in right away for Notre Dame with Zeke Motta headed to the NFL. His speed, combined with his explosiveness, translates well to the next level.

Redfield's physical attributes, as well as his awareness and hands (he played receiver at Mission Viejo High School), could make him a hard-hitting ball hawk for Brian Kelly's defense.

After the season Notre Dame had on the defensive side of the ball, Redfield stands to continue the tradition of playing hard-nosed football at South Bend.

 

1. Laquon Treadwell, WR, Ole Miss

The No. 19 recruit in the class and the No. 1 receiver, Laquon Treadwell should have no trouble transitioning to college ball in the SEC.

The Illinois native is a graceful, explosive wideout with the ball skills and ability after the catch to weave his way through defenses in the coming years. Considering his measurements (6'3", 195 pounds), he plays with much more fluidity than you would expect.

With a natural feel for the game, deceptive speed and incredible leaping ability, it won't be long before Laquon Treadwell makes his mark on college football's landscape.

His last name isn't "Treadwell" for nothing.

 

What are your thoughts?

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As the UCLA Bruins enter winter workouts in preparation for the 2013 season, there is plenty of excitement and anticipation for the second year of the Jim Mora era.

After showing marked improvement as a program in 2012, UCLA is armed with a solid core of returning starters and a stacked recruiting class, so expectations are elevated.

But there are still a number of questions left unanswered, the most notable of which comes in the wake of RB Johnathan Franklin's graduation.

Who is going to step up to replace The Mayor's production?

Franklin was UCLA's heart and soul last season, leading the way on the field, in the locker room and just about anywhere the Bruins needed leading. The senior captain compiled 1,734 yards and 13 TDs en route to becoming the program's all-time leader in rushing and all-purpose yards.

Needless to say, Franklin's departure raises serious doubts about the depth and experience in the UCLA backfield.

There are a few returning Bruins plenty capable of shouldering the burden, but only time will tell if any of them can handle being the go-to guy week in and week out.

As we move forward in this slideshow, it's important to consider the framework for these way-too-early stat projections.

Returning (or incoming) personnel, production lost to graduation and individual players' statistics from previous seasons will each weigh heavily in the decision to divvy up touches.

Read on for complete statistical projections of UCLA's most likely leading rushers for the 2013 college football season. 

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As the UCLA Bruins enter winter workouts in preparation for the 2013 season, there is plenty of excitement and anticipation for the second year of the Jim Mora era...

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With 22 commitments already in the fold, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer is looking to put the finishing touches on his 2013 recruiting class.

Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, that finishing touch won't include 3-star offensive tackle Dan Skipper, Meyer's top offensive line target.

The former Tennessee commit reopened his recruitment after Derek Dooley's termination, and it quickly became a two-horse race between Arkansas and Ohio State. Meyer and the Buckeyes lost that race, though, according to The Denver Post.

Arkansas landsabig recruit in Colorado prep OL Dan Skipper (6-10, 295), who also had offers from Tenn, Ohio State, Michigan and Ole Miss

— Dudley E. Dawson (@Dedsports) January 28, 2013

Despite the fact that Arkansas will be going through a transition with new head coach Bret Bielema, Skipper is very familiar with offensive coordinator Jim Chaney and offensive line coach Sam Pittman, both of whom were coaching at Tennessee when Skipper initially committed to the Volunteers. 

Meyer was looking to add depth to an offensive line that recently lost one of its most heralded members in Joey O'Connor, but he will have to look elsewhere now that Skipper is off the table.

The only other prospect on Meyer's radar is Cameron Hunt, a 4-star offensive guard who is currently committed to California. If Hunt decides to stick with the Golden Bears, Meyer will likely be stuck with what he has.

Ohio State's 2013 recruiting class features just two pure offensive lineman—4-star offensive tackle Evan Lisle and 3-star offensive tackle Tim Gardner—although defensive line prospects Billy Price and Donovan Munger could both make a switch to add depth on offense.

The Buckeyes return four starters from last year's offensive line in 2013, but all four of those starters will be graduating after the end of the season. Building depth now for 2014 and beyond is one of Meyer's top priorities. 

*All recruit rankings per ESPN

 

Follow David on Twitter @davidreg412

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Coach Brady Hoke and the Michigan Wolverines have landed the top running back recruit in the nation, according to Rivals, in Derrick Green.  

Michigan fans always cheer for the Maize and Blue, but now they will cheer for Green in the fall.  

Green is expected to have an immediate impact on the field as Michigan makes the shift to the pro-style offense.  The number one ranked running back is the center piece of Hoke's strongest recruiting class.  

However, Green's commitment has deep implications that extend beyond adding an impact player to the Wolverines offense.    

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With the 2013 season just seven months away—I know, it's never going to get here fast enough—it's never too early to start counting your losses before the spring game picks you right up again, right?

We've gone through each Pac-12 team's core units* and noted the losses in each unit. Some teams have a few holes here and there while others aren't so lucky. We then went ahead and ranked each team from the lowest to highest returning core starters. 

In other words, if you return enough guys in each unit to not have to rebuild—rather, reload—you're looking pretty good. 

 

 

*Some schools' depth charts were not official, so keep in mind that these evaluations are based on the best information we have at the time. 

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With the 2013 season just seven months away—I know, it's never going to get here fast enough—it's never too early to start counting your losses before the spring game picks ...

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Every elite recruiting class has that one recruit that holds his class together.

In the SEC, most teams have that one playmaker or key position filler that will help each team take the next step toward winning a championship in the future.

Even Alabama, who's looking to win four national championships in five years, has to find playmakers to stay on top. And boy, you better believe that's Nick Saban's bread and butter.

But of all of these great recruits that teams like Alabama, Florida, LSU, Ole Miss and Georgia are collecting, which player is the most important? Here are the most significant commitments for each SEC school.

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Recruits come and go, but some are more memorable than others. The 2013 recruiting class has very special talent entering the college scene this fall. 

CFB national analyst Marc Kohn breaks down the top five recruits in the 2013 class and how they will be used at the next level. 

These recruits haven't played a second of college football, but we believe a few have the potential to be first-round NFL draft picks. 

Watch to see which recruit Marc thinks is the best in the 2013 class. 

 

Full Ride is Bleacher Report's weekly college football recruiting show that pulls back the curtain to give you the hottest news, analysis, interviews and highlights. Follow Full Ride on Twitter.

Unless otherwise noted, all recruiting star ratings are courtesy of 247Sports' composite system. 

Read more College Football news on BleacherReport.com

Another neat aspect to recruiting is that your program can stockpile talent at various positions. Some recruits may shy away signing with a school that has another player committed at their same position, but others relish it.

With the ability to sign multiple players at any position, many times schools end up signing recruits who go on to form great duos and tandems on the field. I'm sure that this 2013 class is home to a wealth of future standouts who will team with others from this class to make fantastic one-two punches.

In this read, let's look at 11 future great duos on the offensive side of the ball. Not all the duos on my list are at the skill positions. Luke Joeckel and Jake Matthews may have been the best offensive duo in the country this past season and they are both offensive tackles.

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Raise your hands if you think the Big Ten's going to be sticking around at 14 teams for the foreseeable future. You had better not have your hand up. No way, no how.

Aside from the fact that 14 is just a weird, ugly number for membership (and in that sense alone; you're beautiful, 14; no seriously, we love you please don't cry), Ohio State president Gordon Gee told his trustees that the Big Ten was still in the process of expansion. Here's more from the Columbus Dispatch:

It doesn’t appear that the Big Ten is necessarily content to stay at 14 members. According to the minutes of the Dec. 5 Athletic Council meeting obtained by the Dispatch, Gee said “there has been ongoing discussion” about expansion and “believes there is movement towards three or four super conferences that are made up of 16-20 teams.”

When a student member of the Athletic Council asked Gee what direction the Big Ten might take, Gee said “there are opportunities to move further south in the (E)ast and possibly a couple of Midwest universities.”

For one, there's the first sense of why the Big Ten is going after more schools: because everyone else is too. Or at the least, whatever "everyone else" is going to look like in the future, because "three or four super conferences" isn't a whole lot. 

This is also the clearest sign yet that the Big Ten absolutely still has malevolent intentions when it comes to the survival of the ACC. The "opportunities to move further south in the (East)" sure as heck aren't coming from the SEC—though making a run at Kentucky would be funny for everybody involved—and if there are three super conferences left, one of them won't be the ACC.

Of course, the Big Ten is still an academic consortium first and foremost. Its 14 members and the University of Chicago comprise the "Committee on Institutional Cooperation," and that's a strong enough consortium that it merited this announcement from the Big Ten in December:

All CIC universities share a very strong research emphasis. Together CIC universities engage in $8.4 billion in funded research each year—the addition of these two universities will push that to $9.3 billion, and will add another 8 million library volumes and over 5,600 more full-time faculty to the collective resources of the consortium.  In addition, these new colleagues bring leading-edge collaborative research projects in areas as diverse as biotechnology, transportation, cyber-security, and food safety research.

CIC Chair and Michigan State University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Kim A. Wilcox said, "We welcome Rutgers University and the University of Maryland, two top-tier public research institutions that share the academic values, aspirations and challenges of the CIC member universities."

So if the Big Ten adds two more institutions, it'll likely top $10 billion in funded research—yes, that is a one with 10 zeroes behind it—so when Gee mentions the fact that any new school will have "like-minded academic integrity," you can rest assured that he means that, and the Big Ten takes that every bit as seriously as anything that happens in a stadium or on the hardwood.

In other words, those nice, shiny, well-funded schools in the ACC, with the bustling research departments? Those are the targets that the rest of the Big Ten's presidents want—and thus what Jim Delany wants.

That they exist in an area where the Big Ten's looking to expand its footprint, and in a conference that doesn't have the history or media clout to keep them around in perpetuity is, of course, a nice bonus.

Read more College Football news on BleacherReport.com

With national signing day less than two weeks away, the UCLA Bruins hope to finish well with what should be considered an already strong recruiting class.

This past week alone, the Bruins garnered pledges from four very highly rated defensive backs in Johnny Johnson, Tyler Foreman, Tahaan Goodman and Priest Willis.

Johnson, Foreman and Goodman are consensus 4-star recruits by the majority of the recruiting services. Wills has been denoted as a 5-star prospect by Scout. With depth in the secondary relatively thin, the aforementioned quartet has a viable shot at play time next season. 

The Bruins are pursuing a handful of uncommitted players right now—the majority of whom are big time prospects. 

Here is a look at the top priorities for UCLA as signing day rolls around. 

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With national signing day less than two weeks away, the UCLA Bruins hope to finish well with what should be considered an already strong recruiting class...

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I tried to watch Katie Couric interview Manti Te'o about his imaginary girlfriend, but the dying braincells made it sound like someone was inside my skull, walking around on bubble wrap. So I decided to stop.

Now, I hear the clown who supposedly perpetrated the hoax is going to be interviewed by Dr. Phil. You don't even have to watch that travesty.

Mere awareness of the fact is enough to make your IQ flatline.

Here's what I know beyond a shadow of a doubt about this fiasco:

1. The story being told is not the truth, at least not all of it.

2. That doesn't matter because this whole story is idiotic to the point of making me physically angry.

3. Notre Dame's star linebacker is far, faaaaar from gay.

Beyond that, I don't know what the hell is going on and I don't care. The longer this story goes and the more people it pulls into the vortex, the dumber everyone looks.

Look at some of these stories: "Manti Te'o was talking to a man," "Face of Manti Te'o's girlfriend says Ronaiah Tuiasosopo confessed to hoax," "Manti Te'o has got goodness," "Report: Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend did not exist," and on and on. It's like an Onion story come to life.

Meanwhile, "journalists" keep lining up at the trough and each one has come away looking more foolish than the last.

Deadspin isn't exactly smelling like a rose, thanks to a heavy does of he-was-in-on-it innuendo contained in the story that started us down this road. Not to mention this little gem.

ESPN looks even worse.

The sports leader sat on the story initially, then came of as a cup-out beggar instead of the industry pacesetter by agreeing to an off-camera interview. I don't know what you'd call the parading around of Jeremy Schaap to "reflect" on the conversation afterwards, but it ain't flattering.

And then there's ol' Katie.

Oof.

That wasn't journalism; it wasn't even an attempt to bleed additional details from the affair. It was a propaganda piece more akin to an actor talking about how brilliant his upcoming film is and just as self-serving.

Oh, really? It's the best work you've ever done? The director is a genius? Your costars are one-of-a-kind artists? The script left you speechless? Next, you're gonna tell me I should go buy a ticket for this thing.

For those of you who missed it, Couric and Te'o share the same publicist (via The LA Times).

But that's soft-selling the relationship, really, because the former Notre Dame linebacker hired this dude specifically to help manage the fallout from the hoax. Meanwhile, Mr. Publicist has a long-standing business relationship with Couric.

Translation: Neither individual is likely to ignore or otherwise contradict his advice. The man's goal is to make his clients look as good as possible so what do you think his advice would've been?

"Really hold Manti's feet to the flames. Make him squirm and let's get to the bottom of this!"

Nah, probably not.

If you want proof, look no further than the absurd question about Manti's sexuality.

There was absolutely no legitimate reason to ask that question. None. I understand "he's gay" is one of the popular conspiracy theories currently bandied about cyberspace to explain the farce. So what? A rumor does not have substance to it simply because some yahoo floats it and another yahoo repeats it.

Unless I missed something and we're all back in high school.

Furthermore, Te'o's response couldn't have sounded more rehearsed had he read it off a card. And what was with the immediate cut to the cute chick laughing in the audience? You're telling me that sequence wasn't carefully orchestrated?

To paraphrase the great Clay Davis, I don't think so.

This entire thing is now about damage control and the same guy gets paid to manage the images of the principle players? That's a bit like allowing one attorney to represent both the prosecution and the defense in the same trial.

Except that would have serious consequences and this is just very, very silly.

Speaking of which, it needs a better name than "The Manti Te'o Hoax." I vote for The Girl Who Lived, but I digress.

How can you not mock the charade?

What are we even talking about at this point?

There are two options: Either Manti Te'o is telling the truth or he's lying, but really, which is worse?

If he's telling the truth, he's suspiciously stupid for a student at a school that prides itself on rigid academic standards. He's also naive to the point of being a danger to himself and others.

How can you be a high-profile athlete at a top college in the 21st century and not be suspicious when repeated attempts to turn an Internet-only relationship into a real one fail?

If he's lying, he's a callous, deceitful egomaniac who took advantage of a reckless and irresponsible media, but that's not really a story, is it? Callousness, deceit, egomania and a slew of more serious character flaws seem to be par for the course in the NFL.

Shoot, with news surfacing that Gregg Williams is close to another job in the League, it seems the bar for employment in the NFL is an easily cleared "Don't nearly decapitate two people with a butcher knife or hire a hitman to kill your pregnant girlfriend."

You're telling me Te'o's indiscretions rate against these? I think not.

If Manti is lying, fine, he's not the guy the national media made him out to be, but the bigger story there is that the national media was such a compliant patsy. Consider that some of its members tried to dig up background info, failed and still ran with the story.

If you create a system that's lost sight of what is important, then how can you be surprised when those who must navigate that system follow your lead?

Of course, those conversations—why was a star student-athlete not better prepared to handle the situation and why did the media fail its duty so horrendously—are important to have regardless of what really happened in this particular case.

We already have enough information to know either is a distinct possible and both are significant problems that should be addressed. The continued interest is nothing more than celebrity-gawking, which is cool if that's your thing.

But it's not mine. Far from it.

Faaaaar from it.

Read more College Football news on BleacherReport.com

A short time ago, we listed 10 Intangibles college recruiters look for in QB prospects. Check out that read, as it lets you in on some crucial things evaluators look for in signal callers that can't be measured or timed.

Today, let's stay on offense and move over to the RB prospects. What are some intangible traits that a 5-star back must have? I'm here to give you seven intangibles that I and many other evaluators look for in RBs.

If a runner wants to be an elite 5-star rock toter on my board and get noticed by others, he needs to possess the following characteristics. Remember, intangibles can't be weighed, measured or timed. A prospect has to just naturally possess these characteristics. They are what make him a special prospect.

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There is a good chance that someone employed at Florida International University is talking to members of the football team about proper social media practices. 

That would be as a result of some recent Twitter activity coming from the accounts of defensive tackle Isame Faciane and defensive back Demarkus Perkins.

David J. Neal of The Miami Herald reported that two FIU players shared tweets indicating that they took a recruit to a strip club.

As Neal reported, Perkins was bragging about the trip to the club. Furthermore, in a later conversation—again on Twitter—with Faciane, the defensive back made a comment (per USA Today) on the trip to the club. 

The aforementioned "proper social media practices" chat may have already happened, as it appears both accounts have been deleted. 

While the incident itself does not appear to be something that would bring the fury of the NCAA down on the school, this is not the kind of attention a coach or university is going to want around a football program. 

For starters, once a university grabs the NCAA's attention for possible rules violations, it can turn into a slippery slope. There is always the chance that the governing body of college athletics starts giving a program a serious look and finds other violations. 

In other words, it is best to not wake a sleeping giant. 

Also, this isn't the most favorable image to carry, as coaches visit the families of incoming recruits. These coaches are trying to sell them on the merits of their program to help turn young men into responsible adults. 

In the game of recruiting, image is everything. 

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