And the official College Football Playoff logo is....

After a full week of voting, an official logo for the College Football Playoff has been chosen.

Fans had four choices, shown below, and the winner was option No. 2 on the top right.

Described on the playoff's official website as "representing the ascent of teams to the playoffs, two gold brackets surround a 'virtual' football, and allude to the championship trophy," Logo 2 was a runaway winner, garnering 38 percent of the vote, outpacing Logos 1 and 3 by more than a dozen percentage points each. Logo 4 came in fourth with 13 percent of the vote.

Here is a rendering of how the playoff logo could look on Jan. 12, 2015, the night of the inaugural College Football Championship at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The conference commissioners have stated nothing has been decided about a trophy for the new system. The crystal football was one of the BCS's few victories, but the powers that be may throw the baby out with the bathwater in an attempt to cleanse the game from a decade and a half of toxic BCS fumes. If the crystal football is indeed retired after the final BCS National Championship at the Rose Bowl, one would have to think its replacement will be modeled  after the logo and its majestic golden brackets.

Video: The Gary Andersen era

Gary Andersen hasn't been in Madison long, but this video does a good job capturing the excitement that has surrounded the program since Andersen and his staff took over.

Hang in there, college football is just a few short months away.

Georgia Tech's new business cards are one of a kind

Georgia Tech's staff has some unique new business cards.

Not only is the metal business card pretty unique, but the shape is surely the first of its kind in college football.

Any other interesting designs out there?

(H/T to Georgia Tech assistant director of football ops Mike Huff) 

Mic'd up with the defensive line at Illinois

At this time last year Greg Colby was the head coach at Millersville University, a Division II program in Pennsylvania.

This spring, Colby has been working to put his stamp on the Fighting Illini defensive line, and you can tell by his attention to detail and knowledge of the game and overall approach to the game that he's got a few years under his belt being the head man in charge.

Colby will have his work cut out for him, as two of Illinois' defensive lineman were taken in the NFL draft over the past few days.

Excellent off the field look at Steve Spurrier and his motivation

Every time that Steve Spurrier approaches a microphone every one in attendance sits on the edge of their seat waiting for the old ball coach to drop some old school wisdom or give his unique (and often controversial) perspective on things.

Off the field, things aren't a whole lot little different for the coaching veteran and his family, as there is never a dull moment around Spurrier, according to the Post and Courier who did a nice write up yesterday detailing Spurrier's life off the field. The article has some interesting insight from his wife and kids on what life is like for Steve away from the sidelines.

As Jerri (Spurrier's wife of 46 years) puts it, being married to Spurrier is "like hanging on to the back of a train. You just hang on you go and it's never boring. It's always fun. We never stop."

Like we said, never a dull moment around the old ball coach.

Every Sunday the kids and grandkids get together for family dinner, and maybe a round of golf, and Wednesday they all go to the football facility for dinner with the coaching staff and their familie. For Spurrier, having the entire family close by makes the coaching life much more enjoyable.

“It makes it very comfortable to continue coaching when you’ve got just about your entire family and grandkids in your hometown. Once you think about it, if my family was all in Florida doing something else, it would be hard to just try to say, ‘I’m way off doing my own job.’ Especially if you don’t have to.” Spurrier explained

Take a look at the whole article here, which delves further in Spurrier's family, a little of his childhood, and what his father taught him about sports and the importance of winning ball games.

Photo: Jim Tressel suits up for charity game

The guys over at Eleven Warriors put together a good read on what Jim Tressel is up to now, beyond his duties as the vice president of strategic engagement at Akron.

For example, this past Saturday Tressel laced up his sneakers and joined a handful of his former players on the hardwood for a charity basketball game dubbed "The Comeback Project". The charity event raised money for a youth center in Youngstown, OH. Tressel, who was introduced to the crowd as "the President of Youngstown" reunited with players like Maurice Clarett and Prescott Burgess for the event.

"It's one of the blessings about growing up in Ohio, and I'm sure everyone has pride in where they grew up. Our good folks never forget about one another, and they invest their most valuable things, which is their time to help their communities." Tressel said about the even

During our Midwest tour through Ann Arbor, East Lansing, South Bend and Columbus, we heard from a number of coaches that they; expect coach Tressel to return to the sidelines sooner than some might expect (but it would take a good opportunity, not a rebuild). 

The Eleven Warriors article points out the impact that Tressel has made in the lives of his players, the value he places on developing relationships through the good times and the bad, and serves as a perfect example of why he'll don the headset sooner rather than later.

Below is a look at Tressel during the game.

Here's one reason why the Texas Tech staff is having so much fun...

Texas Tech offensive line coach Lee Hays has been a part of some quality staffs at Baylor and Houston, but as he explains in this video, the staff environment at Texas Tech is unlike any other place he's ever coached, and he's having a blast.

"It's like no place I've ever worked. These guys make you feel like you're in your twenties again. You don't have a chance to be 40. If they catch you slipping, it's over."

Then Hays explains the staff prank war that has him feeling young and keeps him on his toes all day.

This is some good stuff.

Big Ten announces divisional alignment, 9-game schedule for 2016

Long-awaited news became official Sunday as the Big Ten at last confirmed (via Twitter) that it will switch to an East-West divisional alignment when Maryland and Rutgers join the league in 2014, and that the conference will transition to a nine-game schedule in 2016.

After the Legends and Leaders debacle and floating the idea of an inter-outer alignment that would have placed Northwestern and Michigan in the same division, but also gerrymandered Minnesota and Maryland as well as Nebraska and Rutgers as divisional bunk-mates, the Big Ten kept it simple for its intraconference realignment.

East Division
Indiana
Maryland
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Rutgers

West Division
Illinois
Iowa
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Purdue
Wisconsin

Geography buffs will note that the entire East Division lies in the Eastern time zone while the West Division (save for Purdue) sits in the Central Time Zone. Also, the Big Ten avoids the potentially awkward scenario of Michigan and Ohio State meeting in the regular-season finale and then playing again a week later in the league title game, as is a possibility in the current format.

The extra conference games joins the Big Ten with the Big 12 and Pac-12 among major conferences to employ a nine-game conference schedule. (The ACC, growing to 14 teams this fall with the additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse, had also planned on playing a nine-game schedule until the partial-member agreement with Notre Dame came to fruition.) The Indiana-Purdue rivalry will be the only protected cross-over series, which allows the likes of Iowa and Minnesota the important opportunity to get Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State on campus as often as possible. As the conference noted Sunday, every player will have the opportunity to face every league foe at least once during a four-year career. 

As is unavoidable with a nine-game schedule, half the league will be burdened with five away games and only four home games every other fall, however, the Big Ten has a smart plan to deal with that reality. East Division teams will host five games in even-numbered years, while West Division teams will take their turn in odd-numbered years. Though an extra road game is a disadvantage, as coaches will surely note, each squad will be at the same disadvantage as the teams it is fighting with to reach Indianapolis and the Big Ten title game.