Florida's greatest asset, Heisman dark horses, MJ medleys and more

If the 'Horns can get by the Sooners, they have just as good a shot at running the table as the Gators.

Given that all three Heisman finalists (Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow) came back, is there anyone else that might have a shot at winning this year?
-- @rmcmillon

That's an awfully accomplished trio for someone to try to usurp, but it's not an impossible prospect. For one thing, Tebow and Bradford will be competing not only against the other contenders, but also themselves. As we've seen in the past, voters hold reigning Heisman winners to almost unattainable standards. Tebow was a more complete player last year than he was the year before, but because he didn't score 51 touchdowns like he did during his 2007 trophy season, he finished third in Heisman voting. Realistically, Bradford isn't going to top last season's 4,464 passing yards or 48 TDs, mostly because Oklahoma's offense figures to be more balanced, and that could hurt him.

There will be plenty of other great players this fall, Cal RB Jahvid Best, Oklahoma State RB Kendall Hunter and WR Dez Bryant, Ole Miss QB Jevan Snead and Ohio State QB Terrelle Pryor chief among them. The best way for one of these guys to take home the bronze statue will be to lead his team to the national-title game -- and hope Bradford, McCoy and Tebow all fall short.

What will the NCAA do to prevent the huge amount of secondary recruiting violations?
--@gacanefan

Secondary violations have always been fairly commonplace; it's just that they're now getting more media coverage due to both the unprecedented interest in recruiting and the aggressive approaches new coaches such as Lane Kiffin, Gene Chizik and Steve Sarkisian favor. With some of the things these guys have been doing -- be it Kiffin blurting out the name of a recruit on a radio show, Chizik orchestrating a "spontaneous" rolling of Toomer's Corner or Sarkisian blowing a fog machine while recruits ran out of the stadium tunnel -- you can tell they almost want to get caught. And why not? It's free publicity, there are no real repercussions and, most important, the antics impress recruits.

The NCAA isn't in any real hurry to "prevent" such crimes because they're just not that important. That's why they're deemed "secondary" violations and not "major" violations (i.e. paying a player or [apparently] giving away textbooks). Personally, I'd love to see the NCAA slice its rulebook by two-thirds and stop wasting both the schools' and the fans' time with these piddly violations. Washington isn't gaining any "unfair competitive advantage" by blowing a smoke machine. Meanwhile, devilish publicity-hound Kiffin has actually benefited from the fact that the media now report on almost anything involving the words "NCAA violation," even when the violation in question involves something completely trivial.

Is the Big East going to be able to improve its bowl affiliations? Or put another way, is Rutgers ever going to a decent game?
-- @spudsfan

If the Big East had been able to renegotiate its bowl partnerships back in 2006, when the league's Thursday-night games were still must-see television and Louisville, West Virginia and Rutgers were all top 10 teams late into the season, you might have seen a significant upgrade. As it stands now, however, the Big East isn't bringing much leverage into the great bowl shuffle that's taking place behind closed doors as we speak. (Nearly all current bowl-conference contracts expire after this season.)

Right now, the Big East's bowl fate rests largely with the Gator Bowl. The league is pushing its Jacksonville partner to end the current four-year arrangement that forced the conference to share the New Year's slot with the Big 12 (and alternate picks with the Sun Bowl). But Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett has gone on record saying he plans to maintain a dual-league setup.