Bylaws in the Big East had required a school planning to leave the conference to give at least 27 months notice before leaving. West Virginia didn’t do that and sued to get out of the conference and join the Big XII.

The Big East countersued to make West Virginia stay in the conference for the full 27 months.

However, in the ensuing months between the announcement and Tuesday’s settlement; the Big East recruited several more teams to replace West Virginia. This likely played a big part in allowing the school to finally leave the conference.

WVU had previously paid $5 million to leave the conference. Monday’s settlement was for an unspecified amount of money. But, things are going to settle down for the Big East just yet.

Syracuse and Pittsburgh are scheduled to leave the conference in the coming months, but hadn’t challenged the 27 month lead time before the schools leave the conference.

If either school wanted to pay the same amount WVU paid, it’s realistic those teams could also leave for their new conference, the ACC.

The ACC is the home conference to both Florida State University and the University of Miami.

The Big East has added Boise State as a football-only member along with the University of Central Florida, the University of Houston, the University of Memphis, San Diego State University, Southern Methodist University and the Naval Academy in recent weeks.

But, with WVU officially out of the conference next season, the Big East needs one of those schools to join ahead of next year. Otherwise, the remaining seven schools will have to find a replacement game for next year.

According to multiple report, Boise State has been discussed as a team that could leave its current conference the Mountain West, and join the Big East immediately as a football-only member.

Shapiro has apparently been sending e-mails that continue to paint himself as the man who will bring down the University of Miami’s football program and make him the most hated man in the history of UM athletics.

“The public is going to hate me worse in the next coming months,” Shapiro wrote, according to the Herald. “It’s going to be severe and catastrophic. My feelings are getting inflamed and I’m going to pop off pretty soon with regards to them and the NCAA. I’m coming for them both and I’m going to be successful.”

It’s the same claim to fame that Shapiro, who sought to buy access to the university and its athletes, has been peddling since the story and scandal first broke in a Yahoo! Sports investigation.

“I’m taking that program down to Chinatown and the former players and links to that program. Why?” Shapiro wrote, according to the Herald. “Because the U.S. government lined up 47 former players to testify against me in open court if I went to trial. That in itself is motivation to shove it up their collective [butts.]”

But, with each more outlandish claim or statement, and the NCAA continuing its investigation; Shapiro’s hopes of getting UM the NCAA ‘death penalty’ seem more and more remote. It’s also casting doubt on the overall legitimacy of his claims.

According to the Herald, the Hurricanes are cautiously optimistic the NCAA may not come down quite as hard as initially expected when the claims of paying players and prospects first were broadcast.

A Canes official told the Herald that a year or two bowl ban is likely, with possible scholarship losses on top of that. But, it’s still very early in the NCAA process and so far, UM hasn’t been told anything about the overall process.

The NCAA is expected to release some of its findings as early as this summer. However, as was the case with the USC-Reggie Bush scandal, it can take several years for the NCAA to make rulings, which could drag the Shapiro scandal out for several years.

Michael Snaer had 12 points and Ian Miller finished with 11 for Florida State (17-7, 8-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), which bounced back from a disappointing 64-60 loss at Boston College on Wednesday.

The 6-foot-10 James went 7 for 8 from the field in the second half and matched his career scoring high. The 27-year-old Air Force veteran also had six rebounds, blocked four shots and added two steals while clamping down on Reggie Johnson, who managed only four points a week after scoring 27 points to lead the Hurricanes to a 78-74 overtime win at Duke.

James’ layup with 16:32 left gave the Seminoles a 32-31 lead. They never trailed again.

Kenny Kadji led Miami (15-8, 6-4) with 14 points and Durand Scott added 12.

Miller hit three crucial free throws in the final 50 seconds and Okaro White sank two more with just 2 seconds left to ice the win.

The Seminoles had a 10-point lead on two occasions in the second half, the last at 53-43 with 6:51 left on James’ three-point play.

Florida State tried to go inside early, but that strategy didn’t work as James and Xavier Gibson were just 3 of 10 down low in the first half.

Florida State shot 46 percent to Miami’s 39.3 percent. Miami had a 35-29 rebound advantage and both teams committed 15 turnovers.

Florida State, which led 28-26 at halftime, has won six straight games in the series. The teams will meet again in Miami on Feb. 26.

Miami hosts North Carolina on Wednesday and Florida State faces Virginia Tech at home Thursday.

At halftime, Florida State retired the jersey of Dave Fedor, who averaged 20.2 points a game during his college career between 1960 and 1962 and was the school’s first player selected in the NBA draft.

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Reggie Johnson scored 15 points as the Hurricanes defeated Virginia Tech 65-49 Thursday night. The win followed Miami’s victory over No. 7 Duke on Sunday.

The Hurricanes have now won five straight Atlantic Coast Conference games, their longest streak since they joined the league in 2004-05.

“We’re on a good roll right now,” Johnson said. “I want to keep it going.”

Miami (15-7, 6-3) built an eight-point halftime lead and outscored Virginia Tech 10-4 in the first 4:22 of the second half. Johnson’s layup with 15:38 remaining put the Hurricanes ahead 40-26.

The Hokies (13-11, 2-7) rallied with an 8-0 run. Dorian Finney-Smith’s layup off a Miami turnover with 7:58 remaining ended the run and put Virginia Tech within 47-42.

Trey McKinney Jones and Shane Larkin hit consecutive 3-pointers and the Hurricanes re-established a double-figure lead at 53-42 with 6:34 left.

Johnson said the possibility of the Hurricanes still celebrating the win at Duke “was not an issue.”

“This game against Virginia Tech is one of our rivals,” he said. “Ever since I’ve been here we have had good battles.”

Larkin scored 14 points and Kenny Kadji finished with 11 points for Miami.

“When people look at you, they may look at a whole series of games,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “We don’t. We just look at one.

“Every team in this league is capable of beating you any time, any place. Every game is very different. Your opponent is different.”

Erick Green led Virginia Tech with 17 points and increased his double-digit scoring streak to 25 consecutive games.

The Hurricanes ran off 10 unanswered points and took the lead for good during a 3:34 span midway through the first half. DeQuan Jones’ baseline jumper with 8:38 remaining capped the run and gave Miami a 20-8 lead.

Virginia Tech was held scoreless for a 6:21 stretch until Finney Smith’s put-back basket with 6:06 left made it 20-10. The Hokies had eight turnovers and missed five shots during their scoring drought.

“We saw the enemy and it was us,” Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said.

“We had such a good practice today. It’s unbelievable how good a practice we had. We were crisp. We executed. We screened and shared the ball. Then we get in there and there was no carry-over.”

Johnson’s 3-pointer with 2:48 remaining gave the Hurricanes their largest lead of the half at 28-12.

The Hokies responded with a 10-0 run capped by Dorenzo Hudson’s 3-pointer with 23 seconds remaining. Rion Brown’s dunk off a missed shot with 3 seconds left gave the Hurricanes a 30-22 lead at halftime.

“We were very concerned at halftime that we had given them the momentum and were going to fight to get it back,” Larranaga said “But we were able to come out in the second half and pull the lead to double figures.

He initially committed to the Miami Hurricanes, but then his story went into a tailspin.

Brown’s recruiting was controversial due to the role played by another person, Brian Butler, which handled the recruiting for Bryce throughout the process.

After dropping his commitment to Miami, Brown decided to sign on at the University of Tennessee as part of Lane Kiffin’s only recruiting class at UT. Brown appeared in several games for the Vols and ran 101 times for 460 yards and three touchdowns.

Once Kiffin bolted UT, Bryce decided to follow suit. His brother Arthur, who had been a top recruit himself, had left UM for Kansas State.

Bryce followed his brother to K-State where both would play in 2011 for legendary coach Bill Snyder.

But unlike his brother, Bryce could never get on the field. He finished with three rushes for 16 yards and quit the team after just three games.

He spent the rest of the fall semester living in Tennessee, according to the Kansas City Star.

Then Tuesday, the NFL released its annual list of invitees to the NFL combine and Bryce’s name was nowhere to be found.

Now, Bryce will face an uphill climb to even be considered by an NFL team in the 2012 NFL Draft. He hasn’t been a featured back in two years and has a history of quitting on his teammates.

Most draft pundits said he will not be drafted.

If he isn’t drafted by the NFL, he may pursue a career in the Arena Football League or the Canadian Football League.

According to the Palm Beach Post, FSU has put out calls to Oklahoma, Rutgers, Texas A&M, Syracuse and Pittsburgh, but none of the schools FSU has reached out to have agreed to play the Seminoles.

FSU’s schedule now has September 8 open and the Noles have to make a decision on whether to continue pursuing a Division I opponent or schedule a team from the Football Championship Series.

The Noles would prefer a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent, but getting a school to agree to come to Tallahassee at this late of a date may be a tough sell for most respectable opponents.

The victory for Miami marked the second loss in the last three home games for the Blue Devils. Duke had its 45-game home winning streak broken by Florida State two weeks ago. But it’s hard not to understate how big a victory it was for Miami.

“To come in here and play with the kind of poise we did, play the kind of defense we did — especially in the first half and in the overtime — was something that we can be very, very proud of,” Canes head coach Jim Larranaga said.

The Canes were led by 6’10”, 284 pound center Reggie Johnson who abused the Blue Devils’ front line. Johnson scored 27 points and pulled down a season-high 12 rebounds during the overtime victory.l

“I feel I had the hot hand the whole game,” Johnson said, adding that new coach Jim Larranaga “was trying to ride me a whole lot. My teammates found me in good positions — catch and score.”

The Canes tried to give the game away in the second half when they blew a 16-point lead over the Blue Devils. Kenny Kadji added 15 points to help push the Hurricanes over the top.

Miami’s poise gave the squad its first victory ever at Cameron and just its second win over Duke since joining the ACC. The Hurricanes are on their first four-game winning streak since 2008 and have won three consecutive ACC road games for the first time.

Johnson scored the Hurricanes’ first four points in overtime before Malcolm Grant’s open-court layup put Miami up 75-69 with 2:10 left.

Miami forced 14 turnovers and was cruising before going cold midway through the second half, managing only one field goal during the critical stretch that coincided with Duke’s rally.

Miami went up by 16 points three times, the last on Kadji’s open 3-pointer from the key that made it 53-37 with 14½ minutes left. But a putback by Johnson was the Hurricanes’ only field goal for quite over the next 8½ minutes.

Duke, which missed 15 of 18 shots during the stretch that put it in such a huge hole, got equally hot during the 16-2 run led by Curry that put the Blue Devils right back in it.

“For 24 minutes, I just think we were not very good at all,” Krzyzewski said. “We had no energy and they did. … Then in the last 16 minutes of regulation, I thought we played extremely well and gave ourselves an opportunity to win.”

But more distressing to Krzyzewski — once again — the Blue Devils played for too long without the all-out effort that has marked his program’s rise among the nation’s elite.

“A Duke team should play with energy for 40 minutes, or 45,” Krzyzewski said. “Go outside right now and you look at the banners — there are quite a few of them up there. They were not won without energy, without hunger, with no complacency, with people really wanting it.

Saturday, FSU Athletic Director Randy Spellman said he’d received a letter Friday afternoon, canceling the September 8th game. The two teams had a home and home agreement where West Virginia played in Tallahassee this year, and the Seminoles played in West Virginia next year.

Backing out of the contract leaves Florida in a difficult spot. It must find a team with an open date willing to play the Seminoles, well after most team’s schedules have already been set.

The West Virginia decision is seen my many as continued evidence the team is still trying to leave the Big East conference and move to the Big 12 for the start of the season.

The Mountaineers must pay up to half-a-million dollars for breaking the agreement on short notice.

Florida State and Miami were leading the way throughout the morning, but Florida wasn’t sitting on its laurels and had put together a solid recruiting class throughout Wednesday morning.

Here’s what each of the major school’s in Florida’s recruiting class looks like.

Florida State:
Eddie Goldman, 6’4′, 315 pounds, defensive tackle, Washington, DC
Mario Edwards, 6’4″, 280 pounds, defensive end/tackle, Denton, TX
Justin Shanks, 6’3″, 310 pounds, defensive tackle, Prattville, AL
Chris Casher, 6’4″, 240 pounds, defensive end, Mobile, AL
Reggie Northrup, 6’2″, 218 pounds, linebacker, Jacksonville, FL
Colin Blake, 6’3″, 185 pounds, defensive back, San Antonio, TX
Sean Maguire, 6’3″, 200 pounds, quarterback, West Orange, NJ
Marvin Bracy, 5’9″, 170 pounds, wide receiver, Orlando, FL
P.J. Williams, 6’2″, 190 pounds, defensive back, Ocala, FL
Roberto Aguayo, 6′, 183 pounds, kicker, Groveland, FL
Menelik Watson, 6’7″, 330 pounds, offensive tackle, Manchester, England
Mario Pender, 6′, 185 pounds, running back, Cape Coral, FL
Daniel Glauser, 6’6″, 317 pounds, offensive tackle, Rheinfelden, Switzerland
Cason Beatty, 6’3″, 215 pounds, punter, Charlotte, North Carolina

Miami:
Tracy Howard, 6′, 175 pounds, cornerback, Miramar, FL
Antonio Crawford, 5’11″, 180 pounds, cornerback, Tampa, FL
Deon Bush, 6’1″, 185 pounds, safety, Miami, FL
Robert Lockhart, 6’2″, 180 pounds, wide receiver, Fort Union, VA
Tyriq McCord, 6’3″, 223 pounds, defensive end, Tampa, FL
Jacoby Briscoe, 6’4″, 310 pounds, defensive tackle, Lafayette, LA
Ladarius Gunter, 6’2″, 200 pounds, cornerback, Fort Scott, KS
Danny Isidora, 6’4″, 300 pounds, offensive guard, Weston, FL
Gabriel Terry, 6’3″, 210 pounds, outside linebacker, Weston, FL
Malcolm Lewis, 6′, 185 pounds, wide receiver, Miramar, FL
Rayshawn Jenkins, 6’1″, 190 pounds, safety, St. Petersburg, FL
Danny Dillard, 6’2″, 200 pounds, running back, Venice, FL
Earl Moore, 6’2″, 280 pounds, defensive tackle, Tampa, FL
Nate Dortch, 6’1″, 165 pounds, cornerback, Fort Myers, FL
Herbert Waters, 6′, 170 pounds, wide receiver, Homestead, FL
Josh Witt, 6’3″, 210 pounds, outside linebacker, Weston, FL
Jelani Hamilton, 6’5″, 245 pounds, defensive end, Fort Lauderdale, FL
D’Mauri Jones, 6’4″, 185 pounds, wide receiver, Leesburg, FL
Vernon Davis, 5’10″, 170 pounds, cornerback, Miami, FL
Dwayne Hoilett, 6’3″, 215 pounds, defensive end, Vero Beach, FL
Jake O’Donnell, 6’6″, 215 pounds, defensive end, Doylestown, PA
Preston Dewey, 6’3″, 196 pounds, quarterback, Austin, TX
Larry Hope, 6′, 160 pounds, cornerback, Hialeah, FL
Ereck Flowers, 6’6″, 300 pounds, offensive tackle, Miami, FL
Raphael Kirby, 6’2″, 218 pounds, outside linebacker, Stone Mountain, GA
Angelo Jean-Louis, 6′, 185 pounds, wide receiver, Wellington, FL
Jontavious Carter, 6’4″, 190 pounds, wide receiver, Cordele, GA
David Thompson, 6’1″, 215 pounds, quarterback, Miami, FL
Gray Crow, 6’4″, 220 pounds, quarterback, Clearwater, FL
Taylor Gadbois, 6’8″, 300 pounds, offensive tackle, Fork Union, VA
Duke Johnson, 5’9″, 188 pounds, running back, Miami, FL

Florida Gators
Willie Bailey, 6’1″, 165 pounds defensive back, Hallandale, FL
Jonathan Bullard, 6’4″, 255 pounds, defensive end, Shelby, NC
Bryan Cox Jr., 6’4″, 240 pounds, defensive end, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Jessamen Dunker, 6’6″, 315 pounds, offensive lineman, Boynton Beach, FL
Austin Hardin, 5’11″, 200 pounds, kicker, Atlanta, GA
D.J. Humphries, 6’5″, 265 pounds, offensive lineman, Charlotte, NC
Damien Jacobs, 6’4″, 290 pounds, defensive tackle, Scooba, MS
Rhaheim Ledbetter, 5’11″, 190 pounds, defensive back, Boiling Springs, NC
Marcus Maye, 6’1″, 195 pounds, defensive back, Melbourne, FL
Alex McCalister, 6’7″, 212 pounds, defensive end, Clemmons, NC
Antonio Morrison, 6’3″, 220 pounds, linebacker, Bolingbrook, IL
Dante Phillips, 6’6″, 268 pounds, defensive tackle, Venice, FL
Latroy Pittman, 6’1″, 190 pounds, wide receiver, Citra, FL
Brian Poole, 5’11″, 187 pounds, defensive back, Bradenton, FL
Kent Taylor, 6’5″, 220 pounds, tight end, Land O’ Lakes, FL
Colin Thompson, 6’5″, 255 pounds, tight end, Warminster, PA

As National Signing Day dawned Wednesday, Muschamp began to collect letters of intent from all parts of the country and all over the state of Florida.

All total, UF signed 23 players to national letters of intent.

The biggest signing early in the class was offensive lineman D.J. Humphries of Charlotte, North Carolina.

The 6’5”, 265 pound offensive lineman was rated a five-star recruit by Rivals.com and has been committed to the Gators since last August.

The Gators loaded up on the defensive side of the ball by inking junior college defensive tackle Damien Jacobs, 6’4”, 290lbs; and Dante Phillips, 6’6”, 268lbs.

Both were listed as four-star recruits by Rivals.com.

Possibly showing a sign of where the offense might be headed, the Gators signed two massive tight ends in the class, both of whom were rated as four-star players. Kent Taylor of Land O’ Lakes, Florida stayed home for the Gators and UF reached up to Warminster, Pennsylvania for 6’5”, 255lb Colin Thompson.

The Gators also stocked up on the defensive line by adding 6’4”, 255lb defensive end Jonathan Bullard from Shelby, North Carolina.

The five-star defensive end only recently committed to the Gators, but followed through on his verbal commitment Wednesday with his signed letter of intent.

One player whose name may ring a bell for Dolphins fans, Bryan Cox, Jr., son of former NFL linebacker Bryan Cox, also signed with the Gators.

Cox played his high school ball for St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale.