Just imagine 10 years ago, heading to Miami's annual game with Florida State and proclaiming: "One decade from now, a game between Boise State and Oregon will have two higher ranked teams and more national title implications than Miami-Florida State."
You would have been laughed off the Panhandle.
But that's exactly what will happen tonight on a blue turf field more than 2,000 miles from the Sunshine State.
No. 14 Boise State will host No. 16 Oregon in a game with more buzz, relevance and national title ramifications than Monday night's tilt in Tallahassee between No. 18 Florida State and unranked Miami.
In the decade since Florida State and Miami's annual game provided a bellwether for the national title, much has changed on the college football landscape. FSU and Miami, who have met in the season opener in recent years, now just play to determine who will have a longer season. Both have become afterthoughts to Florida in the national consciousness.
The rise of remote Western programs like Boise State and Oregon epitomizes the shifting landscape in college football the past decade. More good players, spread offenses and greater television exposure have flattened the college football world.
Boise's blue field has evolved into the best marketing gimmick in the history of college sports: It has become an emblem for weeknight football and a symbol for trick plays unfolding during last call on the East Coast.
Oregon has shown it has more than just a pretty uniform, as the Ducks have used Phil Knight's war chest to become a West Coast destination program. (Oregon's locker rooms are so plush they make Club Med look like the prison from "The Shawshank Redemption.")
"There's a lot more parity in college football these days," said the former Florida State tailback Leon Washington, who fondly recalls the high stakes of games with Miami. "You see athletes going everywhere, not just concentrated at the big schools. You're not going to find as many powerhouses as you used to."
He then nodded to the locker next to him, where Jets corner Drew Coleman was getting dressed.
"You'll see athletes even ending up at Texas Christian," he said, "Other teams have gotten better."
NEW BOWL NAME: The Motor City Bowl was rechristened Wednesday as the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, with the Detroit-based pizza chain stepping up to sponsor the college football bowl game as two of the region's beleaguered automakers step down. "What can go better with football than pizza?" said Little Caesars Enterprises Inc. president David Scrivano at a news conference Wednesday unveiling the title sponsorship and name change.
The bowl began at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1997 and, since 2002, has been played at Detroit's Ford Field. It tries to pit a team from the Mid-American Conference against a team from the Big Ten and has a television contract with ESPN through the 2014 season.
This year's game will be played Dec. 26 at Ford Field.
Chrysler and General Motors, traditional backers of the bowl, have cut back sponsorships in an effort to save money. Both automakers reorganized under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year.
Auburn Hills-based Chrysler dropped out of the bowl last year, and Detroit-based GM dropped the bowl this year "to no one's surprise," said Ken Hoffman, the bowl's chairman and executive director.
Dearborn-based Ford Motor Co. remains a sponsor, Hoffman said, though details still are being worked out.
MORE TROUBLE FOR RODRIGUEZ: One of the business partners involved in the real estate venture at the root of a federal lawsuit against Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez is a man accused of felony counts who also is banned as a Clemson University booster.
The partner, Clegg Lamar Greene of Clemson, S.C., was arrested Dec. 29 and charged with multiple counts of breach of trust.
According to documents provided Wednesday by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, Green is accused of pilfering thousands of dollars from Palmetto State Enterprises LLC between 2005 and 2007.