Monday Morning Reading Room

They meet Oct. 1 in Madison. Then they'll meet again Dec. 3 in Indianapolis.

So says Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times in his projections of BCS conference races. Dufresne pegs Iowa fourth in the Big Ten's Legends Division, but notes "Almanac says low expectations usually produce high yield."

Dufresne has Iowa State finishing eighth in the Big 12, ahead of Kansas State and Kansas.

Pete Thamel of the New York Times has a feature on new Wisconsin starting quarterback Russell Wilson and the excitement he brings to the Badgers this year. An excerpt:

It could be said that for years the fans did not have a whole lot of other reasons to jump from their seats. Wisconsin's most treasured football export has always been its beefy homegrown linemen, and the Badgers have always forged their bruising identity between the tackles. Wisconsin has traditionally relied on heady but unspectacular quarterbacks handing off to punishing tailbacks like Ron Dayne, Anthony Davis and P. J. Hill.

Wisconsin's archetype became a key recruiting tool when (Coach Bret) Bielema paraded his top eight linemen - more than 2,500 pounds of protection - into a room to meet Wilson on his visit this summer.

“He was taken aback,” Bielema said of the 5-foot-11 Wilson. “These guys are really big.”

Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News has five national-title contenders and five national-title sleepers.

In the first group: Wisconsin. In the second group: Nebraska. He has the Badgers going to the Rose Bowl, the Cornhuskers to the Orange.

Dennis Dodd of CBSsports.com has his 25 games of the year in college football.

Nebraska at Wisconsin is No. 5. Ohio State at Nebraska is No. 11. Notre Dame at Michigan is No. 14. The Big Ten title game is No. 16. Ohio State at Michigan is No. 20. Ohio State at Miami is No. 22.

Iowa at Nebraska is not listed.

A collection of the most-interesting daily snippets, links and Tweets from sports can be found at a terrific site called Quickish.com. Its founding father is Dan Shanoff, who does some blogging of his own, and has this preseason Top 25 that says Wisconsin will go unbeaten up until it contends with Alabama in the national-title game.

Shanoff's rankings don't include Iowa. They don't include Michigan State or Michigan, either. He has Nebraska No. 11, with its only two losses before the bowls coming at the hands of Wisconsin. And he has Penn State No. 25, though he projects a 7-5 record for the Nittany Lions that includes a win over Iowa.

Some good stuff was in Sunday's Omaha-World Herald. Included:

1. Rob White has a piece on the new Iowa-Nebraska rivalry.

"I think it's awesome," Nebraska center Mike Caputo said. "They're our neighbors. There's always a little tension there. There's a lot of Iowa fans in Nebraska and a lot of Nebraska fans in Iowa. It's going to be a helluva game."

As a Millard North graduate, Caputo knows players on both sides of the line. Millard North has been prime recruiting ground for Iowa, which has plucked several starters from the west Omaha school.

That includes Iowa freshman defensive back Cole Fisher, who'll be part of a house divided when the teams play. Fisher's brother, Sean, is a Nebraska linebacker. Their father, Todd, is a former Nebraska defensive back.

"It'll definitely be a fun game, just like the Colorado game was the day after Thanksgiving," said Sean Fisher. "That's a fun time to play - you're one of the few things to watch on TV that day. As close as we are geographically, it should be fun.

"And from a family standpoint, it's going to be great."

The Fisher brothers and their teammates spend little time thinking about the Nov. 25 game in Lincoln - Sean said he hadn't spoken much with his brother about the game. Fans are the ones who tend to get a little ahead of themselves.

2. Columnist Tom Shatel is predicting a Big Ten title for the Cornhuskers in their maiden voyage through the conference. He writes:

If Nebraska is the best Nebraska it can be, I say the Huskers will go 10-2, including a win against Iowa in what will be a Legends Division title game in Lincoln. Then, with their conference title game experience from the last two years, they'll finish the job and get revenge against the Badgers at Lucas Oil Stadium. And play in the little game out west they like to call the Rose Bowl.

Of course, that may be the naive approach. But if the Hawkeyes are playing the Buckeyes in the first Big Ten title tilt, I'll still have the perfect excuse.

Rookie mistake.

3. Lee Barfknecht will be the World-Herald's Big Ten writer. He has preseason Big Ten ratings. He probably annoyed some Nebraskans by putting the Cornhuskers at No. 3, behind Wisconsin and Michigan State. He probably annoyed Iowans by putting the Hawkeyes at No. 7, a spot behind Illinois and two below Michigan.

Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire, isn't trying to create a playoff for major-college football, but he is attempting to assemble the next-best thing. This Huffington Post piece details it.

Basically, the plan put forward by Cuban and Morris -- NCAA proposal 2011-87 -- calls for the NCAA to allow the creation of a four-team invitational during the two weeks after the regular season when the big conferences are holding their conference championships. Teams from those conferences who do not have championships (including Big 12 and Big East) as well as the independent schools (including Notre Dame and BYU) would be invited based on the final rankings of the regular season. (And invited teams can opt out.)

More importantly, the plan addresses an oft-overlooked (and yet another) wrong in college football's postseason -- the allowance for a postseason championship only if a conference has 12 teams. So that extra game obviously has all sorts of benefits, including extra revenue and increased exposure for the programs and the conference. Why shouldn't other conferences and schools get an extra game?