Say this for the Big East: The title chase won’t be without intrigue.

Losses by Louisville and Rutgers last week gave Syracuse and Cincinnati a chance to claim shares of the Big East title. Meanwhile, the two teams that scored the upsets -- Connecticut and Pittsburgh -- still have hopes of becoming bowl eligible.

Notre Dame’s goal-line stand -- or USC’s blunders, depending on your point of view -- erased any mystery for the BCS standings as far as the national championship is concerned.

College football's bowl season is inching closer, and it's never too early to take a look at what the matchups might look like. With 13 weeks of results in the books, the bowl picture for nearly every team is starting to clear. 

The post-Week 13 bowl projections are a mixture between how things would look if the season ended today, projection of Week 14, and considering the results so far this year. 

For all the complaints of losing the tradition of rivalry week, the Thanksgiving holiday was a turn back the clocks kind of weekend.

Notre Dame wrapped up a chance to play for its first national title since 1988. And elsewhere, Ohio State and Michigan re-energized their rivalry with a Woody and Bo-type matchup with Urban Meyer and Brady Hoke on the sidelines.

Just as the Heisman race is becoming more cloudy, the field for other national awards is starting to become more clear. The finalists for the Davey O’Brien, Doak Walker, Biletnikoff, Lombardi, Nagurski and more were announced earlier this week.

Johnny Manziel, Collin Klein, Manti Te'o, Braxton Miller remain in contention for the Heisman, so it's no surprise they're showing up among the finalists for positional awards. We’ll name our picks for the awards, plus the key snubs, here.

Rutgers and Pittsburgh will play this week in what’s an important Big East game ... for now. The Scarlet Knights are seeking their first Big East title, and Pittsburgh is looking for a bowl game.

After that, it’s off to the ACC for Pittsburgh next season, and then Rutgers to the Big Ten in two years. Elsewhere, UConn and Louisville will face each other this week in a game between teams hoping to get called up to the ACC.

College football has been on a wave of non-stop realignment over the last two years, and the dominoes continued to fall with the Big Ten’s addition of Rutgers. Maryland was announced as the Big Ten’s 13^th team on Monday, while the Scarlet Knights will join as team No. 14 in 2014.

Pep bands, cheerleaders, tailgating, student sections, cornhole and especially rivalries. All of which makes college football the greatest sport on the planet. The Athlon Sports editorial staff put its collective heads together and ranked the Top 25 rivalries in college football:

Week 12 of the 2012 college football season is in the books and plenty of coaches saw the temperature on their seat increase by a few degrees. And it was a busy week in the coaching carousel, as Tennessee's Derek Dooley and Western Michigan's Bill Cubit were fired after Saturday's games. UTEP's Mike Price also announced his retirement, which means there are five FBS open jobs going into Week 13.

Texas alumni are holding their traditional Hex Rally this week, but it probably won’t be as fun. In College Station, the Aggies are holding Midnight Yell Practice in anticipation of their Thanksgiving week game.

But with TCU and Missouri on the other side the Longhorns’ and Aggies’ vitriol, it’s just not the same.