Lions (and Gophers and Badgers and Buckeyes) in winter? Monday's theme at the Big Ten media festival was a call from coaches to their bosses in the ivory tower: However you have to do it, extend the conference season into December. Exclamatory Minnesota coach Tim Brewster led the charge:

"I think playing into the month of December would help us," Brewster said. "I look forward to the day when we add a team and we split the divisions and we play for a [conference] championship on national TV on a Saturday night in December!

"I mean, how good would that be for this conference, for the exposure of this conference?" Brewster continued. "I think we're missing a little something there by not having that."

Brewster's characteristic enthusiasm notwithstanding, the 'championship game' meme is futile: Short of an unforeseen financial catastrophe at Notre Dame, Big Ten expansion has been a dead horse for more than a decade. Even Joe Paterno has no pull on expansion, much less a whippersnapper like Tim Brewster.

But many Big Ten teams have already begun to add non-conference dates in late November and early December, after the end of the conference season; Michigan State, Purdue and Wisconsin have made season-ending trips to Hawaii in the last five years, Wisconsin closed with I-AA Cal Poly at home last year and Illinois has two tough non-conference games this year, with Cincinnati and Fresno State, after it ends the Big Ten season with Northwestern on Nov. 14. Wisconsin has another season-ending date in Hawaii. Everyone else ends on Nov. 21, a week before most of the rest of the country and two weeks before the ACC, Big 12 and SEC championship games. Most Pac-10 teams, including USC, Cal, Oregon and Oregon State, are finishing up the first week in December. When the reality is that many league members are already going out of their way to extend the season, even Jim Delany can see the writing on the wall:

While Delany reiterated his stance on expansion -- not happening any time soon -- he seemed more open to teams playing regular-season games later.

One possibility is the addition of a second open week during the season, which would push games into the first weekend of December.

"On the issue of the schedule and the bye dates and playing games that late, it's probably worth a discussion," Delany said. "We've never had that before. There's not a rule about that. People have gone to Hawaii. We've never really questioned that. There's some coaches and athletic directors who feel more strongly than others about the need to play games late in the year to stay sharp. It is a trend."

If it helps reverse the Big Ten's 5-17 bowl record over the last three years -- especially the 0-6 mark in BCS games -- then yes, it is worth a discussion.

• On the Wolverine outbox. From Michigan's perspective, the question of the day dealt with a growing list of defections from the program under Rich Rodriguez, helpfully examined in extreme detail by the Ann Arbor News. Rodriguez, per the usual line, is only worried about players who play for him.

There's only one reason the recent attrition may have passed from "typical turbulence under a new administration" to "minor concern": Among the players leaving is receiver/quarterback Justin Feagin, the first (and so far only) departure of a player who was actually recruited primarily by Rodriguez and his staff. But to classify losing one kid as a "concern," eh, it's still a stretch. This idea that Rodriguez is somehow "on the hot seat" after one year -- and as luminous a mind as Phil Steele's actually regards Rodriguez's seat as hotter than Charlie Weis' -- remains over the top.

• Briscoe on the borderline? Kansas receiver Dezmon Briscoe -- wait, you remember Dezmin Briscoe, right?


Anyway, that spectacular grab was only one of a staggering 92 balls Briscoe hauled in last year, on top of setting the school record with 22 touchdown catches in just two seasons, making him a darkhorse All-America candidate in the Jayhwaks' bid to return to the top of the Big 12 North. So it's no small matter that Dezmon's status at KU is listed as "day-to-day":

Kansas wide receiver Dezmon Briscoe is still a part of the KU program, but isn't a lock to play for the Jayhawks in the fall.

Speaking at the Jayhawk Summer Tour stop Sunday at the Kansas Museum of History, Kansas coach Mark Mangino explained Briscoe's situation.

"He's on the team and he's day to day," Mangino said. "He's got work to do and he's got to take care of it. It's up to him."

The assumption is that said "work" is of the academic variety, which is presumably what kept Briscoe out of the spring game, as well, although he'd been reinstated to the team in April. Not that KU is desperate for targets -- converted quarterback Kerry Meier was a possession receiver par excellence with 97 catches, and Jonathan Wilson hauled in 43 -- but Briscoe's absence would leave Todd Reesing without his best target and his only consistent threat downfield.

• Catch him while you can. In other departure news, N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien said All-ACC quarterback and undisputed team MVP Russell Wilson isn't guaranteed to return after this season, despite two more years of eligibility: Wilson, entering his third year as a redshirt sophomore, will graduate early next spring and likely have an opportunity to enter the baseball draft, which may make more financial sense (just as Wilson wasn't a drooled-over recruit, he doesn't fit the mold of an NFL prospect) after his father suffered a stroke last year.

The immediate upshot for the Wolfpack: Redshirt freshman Mike Glennon, highly sought-after prospect and younger brother of ex-Hokie Sean Glennon, will play a series a game this year in anticipation of taking over full-time if Wilson leaves in 2010.

Quickly ... After 15 sellouts in 16 years, the SEC Championship game will remain in the Georgia Dome through 2015. ... Outgoing Colorado receiver/kick returner Josh Smith, initially limited to transferring to Southern Cal, seems to be leaning hard toward enrolling in UCLA, if he can overcome some academic hurdles. ... Donald Bowens, who led N.C. State in receiving in 2007 but missed all of last year with back and knee injuries, will miss almost all of 2009 due to ongoing rehab. And Texas A&M receiver Roger Holland, who also missed all of 2008, will miss 2009 due to a lingering concussion. ... Cornerback A.J. Wallace and defensive lineman Abe Koroma likely will not return to Penn State, per Joe Paterno, who said Wallace had cut some classes and Koroma has "some personal problems ... he really has got some problems." ... Talks are continuing in the push to get the Northwestern-Illinois game in Wrigley Field. ... Mike Sherman sets the tone for Texas A&M's turnaround by keeping in shape himself. ... Even coach Bret Bielema thinks 235 pounds is an unrealistic goal for massive tailback John Clay, who weighed in at 250 in the spring. And attention pundits: Bielema knows what you're saying about him and his team. ... Oregon went all out in drills despite an "excessive heat warning" in Eugene, which on Monday felt more like Texas. ... Alabama running back Jermaine Preyear is looking to transfer to a smaller school, possibly Jacksonville (Ala.) State or South Alabama. ... And sad but true: Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian are no more.