Making the morning rounds.

• … but we do see what you see in us. The Austin American-Statesman’s Kurt Bohls pours cold water on Thursday’s hot ‘n heavy “Texas to Big Ten” meme, citing a pair of “higher-ups” at UT who told him “We’re the good-looking girl at the dance,” and “It ain’t going to happen.” Specifically, lumping the Longhorns in with the upper Midwest is all but impossible because of travel demands (for fans as much as teams), overwhelming political opposition (one of America’s most powerful governors is a Texas A&M grad) and the simple sanity of avoiding November dates in Madison and East Lansing. [Austin American-Statesman]

• Don’t mess with Texas’ recruiting. For the immediate future, anyway, Texas seems far more concerned with the new NCAA rule holding any publicly designated “coach-in-waiting” to the same restrictive recruiting rules currently applied to head coaches. The rule only applies to two schools with official heirs on staff, Texas (Will Muschamp) and Maryland (James Franklin), which plan to file a joint request for an exemption to the rule, arguing that both Muschamp and Franklin — both regarded as key, top-notch recruiters on their respective staffs — were appointed as successors to Mack Brown and Ralph Friedgen long before it was even proposed last summer. [Washington Post[

• You'll get there, kid. Turns out one of the former Central Florida staffers responsible for getting UCF put on two years' probation Thursday is developing quite a sheet with the NCAA: Steve Rubio, now an intern at Tennessee after several dozen instances of illegal contact with recruits at UCF (for which he'll serve a two-week suspension), has been linked to secondary violations on two separate occasions since arriving in Knoxville, including illegally accompanying coach Lane Kiffin to a Ft. Lauderdale high school on a recruiting trip late last year. Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton: "It's all behind him." [Knoxville News-Sentinel, New York Times]

• It never hurts to ask. Hawaii athletic director Jim Donovan said he has talked with Pac-10 officials about “potential opportunities” for UH as the Pac-10 begins its expansion probe. Presumably, those opportunities include “non-conference fodder” and “potential bowl destination,” because the Warriors offer nothing to the conference in terms of geography, exposure, competition or potential revenue. [Honolulu Advertiser]

Quickly … All indications are that Florida is ready to hire Teryl Austin as its new defensive coordinator, but the Gators remained tight-lipped. … Reading the writing on the wall for next year’s quarterback depth chart, one-time heir apparent Alex Cate is transferring from Oklahoma State. … And JoePa will keep on wearing the famous frames, but he doesn’t need them anymore.

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