BCS executive director Bill Hancock has said before that the four-team playoff model that will begin being used in the 2014 season is locked in with four teams through the 12 years of the new format contract. But how long until that playoff pool expands, as many seem to believe is bound to happen at some point now that the door to a playoff has been opened? Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson suggested it could be expanded before 2026, despite Hancock's previous statements.

"I'm probably in the minority in that I don't know we're going to stay at four [teams] for the next 12 years," Thompson said during an interview with SiriusXM College Sports Nation on Tuesday (quoted by CBS Sports). "I know that's what the contracts say and everybody's following the script these days. We'll see. Who knows where we'll be down the road."

Paul Finebaum is coming back to radio later this summer.

Paul Finebaum, the voice of the SEC, is returning to radio August 1. Finebaum has been off the air for the past four months after his previous contract expired. Now, Finebaum will begin emerging as  a national radio voice for ESPN with a carefully structured roll out covering the next year of Finebaum's show.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Finebaum will have a significant presence in the ESPN family. His nationally-syndicated radio show will begin airing in the southeast first, his natural home field in radio. Over time the show will be spread t other markets and eventually will be simulcast on ESPN's SEC Network starting in August 2014. On top of that, Finebaum will have a reported 100 television appearances on ESPN programming. Finebaum has been a recurring panelist on ESPN's Outside the Lines program, so he could be expected to continue popping up there from time to time. We should also count on seeing Finebaum have an appearance on some of ESPN's college football programming when possible, including the weekday College Football Live program. I think it is safe to say once the SEC Network goes live, Finebaum will have a voice in addition to his radio simulcast.

If you are like me, you might be wondering just how much of Finebaum's show will remain untouched and how much will be changed.

(Photo Courtesy: @CoachArtBriles)

Over the past few seasons, Art Briles has quietly positioned himself as one of the most underrated coaches in all of college football.

Sure, some of it was thanks to a magical, RGIII-induced 10-win season in 2011. But when you evaluate the big-picture, it’s really so much more than that.

It’s about three-straight seven-win seasons, the first time that’s happened at Baylor since 1949-1951.

Here at Crystal Ball Run, we often joke that sometimes, the world of college football really does seem stranger than fiction. Only for ESPN analyst Ed Cunningham, his life is almost the exactly opposite; the wacky world of Les Miles and conference realignment is nothing compared to the work he does away from the football field.

That’s because when Cunningham isn’t sitting in a press box every fall Saturday, he spends his hours on Monday through Friday as a noted documentary film producer. Cunningham’s IMDB page is pretty extensive, with work on such prominent titles as “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” and the Academy Award winning “Undefeated” about a Memphis-area high school football team.

Yet it’s the film that Cunningham is currently working on- and needs your help to complete- which is his wackiest yet. It’s called “Finders Keepers” and well, it redefines the term “stranger than fiction.”

It's Mountain West week, you know, the conference that's home to eternal underdog and BCS buster Boise State. Yesterday we gave you a look at what went down in the conference last season. One could say it will it be hard to top the craziness that happened in 2012 for the Mountain West to say the least.

Today though, we take a look forward and while the Mountain West has some new parts to it, those of us who are old enough to remember what the WAC used to be like have a very strange feeling we've seen this makeup of the conference before.... Yep, what was old is now new again and in total all twelve members of the Mountain West at one point in time were members of the WAC... Including six who were there when the bitter split that caused the creation of the Mountain West happened to begin with. 

All of this adds up to old foes becoming new again for a whole new generation of students and fans. Good football may also be the result with the likes of San Jose State and Utah State showing over the past few years that they can be serious contenders. So, with that said, what games will become the most important to the new look Mountain West? Who will end up in Las Vegas for the first championship game in conference history? 

Let's take a look at the games that will be biggest in the new look Mountain West! 

(Photo Courtesy: @KoachC)

If the last few months have proven anything, it’s that 2013 may very well go down as college football’s “Summer of the Photoshop.” There, Joker Phillips and the rest of the Florida staff have taken picture cropping to new and uncomfortable levels; #ComePlayWRForTheJoker has become Instagram’s creepiest hashtag, while Brent Pease continues to “Search for a few Top Guns,” even if (based on Florida’s offensive output last year) those “Top Guns” aren’t necessarily seeking out the Gators.  

But thankfully for those fans with a bit of an artistic side, the college football photoshop revolution is no longer relegated to just Gainesville. That’s because in an attempt to keep up with the Joneses (or is it the Joker’s!! See what I did there!), Dave Christensen of Wyoming is getting into the picture cropping fun as well!

Photo: USA Today Sports

Crystal Ball Run will be previewing each conference for the 2013 season with week-by-week coverage. Today we continue our 2013 conference previews with a look at the Mountain West Conference.

College football has very few guarantees on a yearly basis, Alabama being a national championship contender aside. One thing that appears to be a near certainty though is that the Mountain West Conference will offer you some fun football to watch week in and out. Last season was no different with some wild offenses, surprising defenses and a conference that ended in a three-way tie for first place. This year things should be a bit more defined as the conference expands to 12 members and splits in to two divisions with the champions from each advancing to a true championship game. Will this be another year of Who can beat Boise State, or is the conference deeper than you might expect?

Let's begin our Mountain West Conference preview week with a look back at the 2012 season and some of the changes occurring for 2013.

The Military Bowl will be moving out of aging RFK Stadium and relocating to a more appropriate venue, Navy's Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland according to Dan Steinberg, via Twitter.

Source confirms 2013 Military Bowl will be played at Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. Announcement coming later today.

— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) May 20, 2013

As someone who has covered the past four Military Bowls in RFK Stadium, I cannot say this is much of a surprise. Attendance has not exactly been outstanding for the bowl game since it began and RFK Stadium is a dump, to put it kindly. A move to a smaller, traditional college football venue, could do the game so good. Playing it on the grounds of an actual military academy is also fitting for the bowl game designed and recently renamed to honor the military.

Hat tip to Beyond the Bets for catching that offshore site BetOnline has posted point spreads for all 44 games on the opening weekend of the college football season. Earlier this month, 5Dimes had taken the lead in posting lines for a handful of openers.

A few observations:

*Differences of opinion

Photo: USA Today Sports

Oklahoma State has blocked any transfer for quarterback Wes Lunt to anywhere in the Big 12. And the SEC. And the Pac 12, according to CBS Sports.

And Southern Mississippi.

And... Central Michigan?

For those keeping score at home, Oklahoma State has blocked Lunt from transferring to a total of 38 schools. Something about this just does not seem right. Does it?