The college landscape could change quickly, and soon. The Omaha, Neb., paper is reporting Nebraska is moving to the Big Ten, which delivers a huge blow to the already wobbly Big 12. You have to believe that means much-desired Texas will be evaluating its options.

It’s hard to imagine Texas playing in a conference with a school as far north as Minnesota, or Michigan playing in Austin in a conference game, but in this world, anything is possible. All this makes the ACC’s decision to act early and decisively look prescient, since part of John Swofford’s thinking at the time was the league wanted to be proactive on expansion, rather that reacting.

Still, any conference move has to have some sort of geographic tie. The ACC wasn’t looking to add Virginia Tech, but the Hokies have been a superb addition. Meanwhile, Boston College and Miami are in big markets but lack big fan bases. Ultimately, the ACC needs the Hurricanes to return to power in football.

The Colorado Rockies made Russell Wilson a fourth-round pick Tuesday, and as hard as it might be for Wolfpack fans to accept, the wise decision for him would be to turn pro.

Right now, Wilson is saying he plans to return.

“I know football camp starts August 3,” he told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “I haven’t talked to the Rockies and I haven’t gotten into a deep conversation with coach [Tom] O’Brien about that, either. We’ll figure all that out. The Lord has worked everything out for me so far. I expect him to continue to do the same for me. … Everything is going to work out just great.”

But remember, it’s common for prospect to use their options as leverage at this point. Wilson may love football, but if the Rockies offer significant dollars, all that can change.

Wilson accelerated his classwork to finish in three years, so he doesn’t have to return to school in the fall for academic reasons. Wilson always said he loved football and planned to return to State, but in talking to him, you got the sense that what was going on was much deeper than that.

First, the fact is there are few 5-foot-11 quarterbacks in the NFL. So his professional career in football was a longshot, at best.

He always seemed to be preparing himself for a shot at baseball – finishing in three years, playing last summer in Gastonia and then even trying pitching this year.

Wilson’s numbers aren’t spectacular – he hit .306 in 47 games, 25 of them starts, with two homers and nine steals. He took a shot as a pitcher and had an ERA of 5.84.
Wilson is listed as a center fielder in the baseball draft ,and that’s a telling bit of news. He played infield at State, but could easily project to outfield with his speed.

That Wilson went in the fourth round is surprising. Given his poor numbers in Gastonia, he didn’t project as a high prospect.

But the Rockies saw tools that they liked. And you can bet this – Colorado wasn’t making that pick unless it knew it had a chance to sign Wilson.

So Wilson may have fled the pocket one last time. And good for him – he’s a class act who deserves a professional chance.

As for N.C. State? Well, the Wolfpack is in good hands with Mike Glennon. But depth at quarterback, a luxury in college football, may have just vanished.

Former UNC player Ethan Albright, 39, may have played his last game as a long snapper in the NFL, just two years after making the Pro Bowl team. The Washington Redskins’ new coaches have brought in free agent snapper Nick Sundberg, who was signed as a rookie in May 2009 and then waived by the Carolina Panthers in September 2009.

Albright, who started out as a tight end with the Tar Heels, moved to the offensive line and started his long career as a deep snapper. The 16-year NFL veteran had been with the Redskins since 2001 and was considered the model of consistency over his career. He did have a high snap on a field goal attempt last season but the holder Hunter Smith, also a casualty of the new coaching regime, got the ball down fine only to see the 23-yard field goal shank off the leg of Shaun Suisham in an overtime loss to eventual Super Bowl champs New Orleans.

Albright, who lives in Greensboro, has not been picked up by any other team and is a free agent. While the Redskins have cleaned house, having gotten rid of 16 players from last year’s roster, I’d like to see them consider bringing Albright back if Sundberg doesn’t work out. Long snapper is a position that can be played by a 40-year old and the Redskins need to have some consistency and continuity. They already got rid of several other character guys like Ladell Betts, Rock Cartwright and Cornelius Griffin.

While there needed to be changes in the Redskins and while new coaches want to bring in their own people, I’m not sure I’d toss aside someone experienced like Albright for someone like Sundberg, who hasn’t played in an NFL regular season game and ended last season on the Ravens’ practice squad.

The ACC finds itself in a far different position today than seven years ago when the league was at the forefront of the latest expansion wave.

This year, the Pac-10, Big 10 and Big 12 are in major play with a number of scenarios possible. The Pac-10 is poised to add between two and six teams, poaching from the Big 12. Nebraska and Missouri seem destined to join the Big 10, maybe by the end of the week.

Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe must feel like his league is so much sand running through his fingers. It’s disintegrating before our eyes.

Meanwhile, John Swofford is forced to be a bit player in this latest high-stakes game. The ACC simply can’t match the massive TV revenues of the current SEC or expanded Pac-10 and Big 10. While the Big Ten Network has a high ceiling for growth depending upon which markets it adds, the ACC’s TV contract with ESPN/ABC doesn’t allow it to immediately profit from new markets.

One possibility for the ACC would be to head north and pick up a couple of Big East leftovers if that league is raided by the Big 10. Given the revenue disparity, there’s no chance any SEC teams would consider joining the ACC.

John Wooden’s phone number is still listed, and you can easily find it on whitepages.com. In an age where sports figures are increasingly remote, the fact that anyone, at any time, can call the legendary UCLA coach is amazing.

The news that Wooden, 99, is gravely ill reminds us an era is closing.

Longtime ACC basketball fans loathed and respected Wooden, who dominated college basketball through 1975. If you followed the sport then, you feared the man with the rolled-up program and old-school discipline.

N.C. State’s monumental victory over UCLA in the 1974 national semifinals – the Pack won the championship two nights later, against Marquette – remains one of the epic games in collegiate history. Wooden retired after winning the 1975 title.

I had a chance to speak with him once. I was stunned when I called and he answered the phone, taking time to talk to a young News & Observer reporter. He patiently answered my questions on college basketball, and we veered off into talk about that 1974 season.

Wooden, in a soft deep voice grown richer with age, spoke of how much he admired that N.C. State team. In basketball, he said, you need quickness and balance. And N.C. State had both.

But what I remembered from that conversation was not what he said about N.C. State, but how he related basketball to life.

In life, he said, you need love and balance. Those words came through the phone with grace and clarity and I knew that even though I was a random reporter who happened to call when he was home, he was still coaching, still teaching, still doing what he loved.

I’m not sure if today’s athletes are more wide open than athletes of yesterday but the Internet certainly exposes them more – so to speak.

NC State softballer Lauren Peters (pictured right) made frathousesports.com’s All Hot Team and was featured in a seven-picture layout online where she shows a lot of skin. The reserve outfielder finished the season for the 28-27 Wolfpack batting only .154 but she did have 33 putouts.

Meanwhile, UNC coach Roy Williams told his players, particularly Dexter Strickland, John Henson and Larry Drew Two, to tone it down with the online Tweets. He met with the team earlier this week to give them guidelines on what not to write on Twitter. The players’ Tweets certainly personalize the team but the Tweets can also be embarrassing, inappropriate and provide fodder for opponents and opponents’ fans.

Apparently, the last straw for Williams came when several of the players took part in a jokefest about why the Wear twins left the Carolina program. Williams himself Tweets but very rarely. Since January, Williams has posted four Tweets totalling just more than 80 words.

After the meeting with Williams, Henson – whose dirty-dancing with bikini-wearing babes pictures made the rounds on the Internet recently – and Strickland released a Tweet which read, “Well, coached (sic) just talked to us about twitter and told us we offend some people n what not so this is a farewell to bein’ myself.” Then, they wrote, “Yeah these people be emailin coach n stuff smh….self expression is a birthright and something you did PRIOR to hoopin…” Sounds a little bitter and snarly, not to mention the spelling and grammar errors.

Maybe they should be schooled in how to communicate as much as what they communicate.

Roy Williams had success recruiting in California as the head coach at Kansas, and he has continued to mine that state since coming to North Carolina. In fact, Williams had four Californians on his roster last season.

But the transfer of the Wear twins is a reminder that bringing kids from across the country can be risky, especially in an era where players are less loyal than before. The Wears are transferring to UCLA, they announced Tuesday, to be back in their home state. Williams also had another Californian return home when Alex Stepheson left for Southern Cal after the 2008 season.

Stepheson and the Wears weren’t great players at UNC, but the moves are a reminder that it can be tough for kids to adjust to being 2,500 miles from home. And Carolina has had to scramble for bodies with the Wears leaving, a move Williams said caught him totally off-guard.

UNC had rarely signed Californians before Williams arrived, with center Scott Williams of Hacienda Heights being one of the few exceptions.

Duke, too, had Los Angeles product Jamal Boykin depart for California.