A rumor at the Big Ten's annual preseason football schmooze last week in Chicago had the Big 12 Conference interested in Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith to fill its vacant commissioner's chair.

Smith would not confirm whether it was true. Even if it was, he said, "I'm not interested."

Smith was athletic director at Iowa State, a Big 12 member, from 1993 to 2000 before moving to Arizona State. He came to Ohio State in 2005.

The Big 12 has been without a commissioner since July 15, when Kevin Weiberg left to become vice president of university planning and development with the nascent Big Ten Network. It also has been speculated that Weiberg is the heir apparent to Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany.

Think coach Jim Tressel might slip up at some point and inadvertently give us a clue about his thought process on the Ohio State quarterback derby?

If you do, you don't know him very well. Before his team's first official practice this week, Tressel was asked how he would like to see the four-man race unfold, and he again showed just how media savvy he is.

"I would say you'd like to have it unfold that you could have more than one quarterback have opportunities early in the season, I guess, to make sure there's fair competition," he said. "In a long, 12-game season, you're going to maybe need Scotty McMullen to come in and win a game-type thing."

McMullen hasn't played a down since the 2003 season, but this was no slipup. If Tressel intends to have an open competition for the starting job, or even just create the image of one, he wouldn't want to say "Robbie Schoenhoft," even if he were only using it as an example. In some minds, that would have confirmed the suspicion that Todd Boeckman is going to be the starting quarterback.

It would be interesting to know what Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Marc Denis thought when he heard that former Blue Jackets president and general manager Doug MacLean is not only part of a group buying the team but will take an active role in running the club.

When the Blue Jackets fired MacLean after six losing seasons, he said that if he regretted anything, "I probably made the mistake of going too young in goal. I thought Marc Denis was ready to take a step and be a real good goaltender."

Now MacLean is in Tampa, where Denis lost his starting job last season and is due $2.8 million this season and $3 million in 2008-09 as a backup.

"Marc is going to bounce back and come to training camp a very determined guy," MacLean told the St. Petersburg Times. "I'm looking forward to that."

MacLean has drawn widespread criticism for blaming the Blue Jackets' on-ice failures on ownership not spending enough money.

"If you don't get involved in spending dollars, it's tough to win in pro sports," MacLean said at the news conference Tuesday when he was introduced as one of the Lightning's owners. "I had the 28th payroll in the league last year in Columbus. I didn't like it."

What's especially interesting about that remark -- besides the inaccuracy (it was actually 24th, and three teams below the Jackets made the playoffs) -- is that MacLean wouldn't commit to spending more than the $43.67 million the Lightning has committed to payroll for next season. That is more than $6 million below the league's salary cap.

Former Ohio State men's basketball assistant coach Paul Biancardi is said to be in line for a job at an Atlantic 10 program, and he won't even have to sell his house.

Biancardi, who lost his head-coaching position at Wright State last year after the NCAA sanctioned him for violations when he was at Ohio State, supposedly has agreed to join coach Brian Gregory's staff at Dayton. The job came open in July when assistant Bob Beyer left for an NBA assistant's job with Orlando.

The Cincinnati Bengals drafted Kenny Irons to be Chris Perry. Irons, from Auburn, is quick, has a tremendous burst and might actually be better running from scrimmage than the oft-injured Perry. But there is one problem: He doesn't have Perry's hands.

Perry is good at catching the ball in stride. Although Irons has impressed training-camp observers with his running, he has dropped some easy passes.

Perry's status is uncertain because of ankle and shin injuries -- he is currently on the physically unable to perform list -- so there is a real opportunity for Irons to step in and play. How much he plays might depend on how much improvement he shows as a receiver.

It is unlikely defensive back Jerald Brown will be back with the Destroyers next season. If he does return, it probably would be at a much-reduced salary. Coming off a surprising 2006 season in which he was named the Arena Football League's defensive player of the year, Brown made a whopping $113,000 this season.

He had a tough job, usually covering the guy in motion, and although he had his moments, his play was mostly disappointing this past season.

No word on whether the Cincinnati Reds plan to exercise that $13 million option with slugging outfielder Adam Dunn next season (it could go to $16 million with incentives).

The Cincinnati Enquirer's John Fay wrote about it in his blog this week and quoted Dunn as saying, "I'd like to know sometimes what's the deal. I know they probably don't have the answer, but I'd like to see where their mind is. I don't know what they're thinking."

They're not thinking, apparently.

"It's not on my plate right now," general manager Wayne Krivsky said.

Romeo Crennel's blunt assessment of Brady Quinn's performance at the Cleveland Browns' offseason practices and minicamps indicates how far the coach thinks Quinn has to go to become the starting quarterback.

"I have the feeling that he was lost," Crennel said this week after Quinn agreed to terms, "because that's what he was."

Is some of that bitterness? Maybe. But Quinn's holdout put Crennel in a tough spot. Although neither of the other starting candidates, Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson, has played well enough to seize the job, Quinn missed 16 practices and is obviously running a distant third.

 

Sports Illustrated asked one starter from each of the 119 Division I-A teams several questions about college football and the upcoming season. Their response to one question -- Which coach besides your own would you most like to play for? -- would surprise a lot of Ohioans.

Tressel not only wasn't among the leaders, he barely made the list. He and Notre Dame's Charlie Weis received only two votes each, although that was double what Michigan's Lloyd Carr received.

The leaders?

Southern California's Pete Carroll with 34 votes, Florida's Urban Meyer (13), Penn State's Joe Paterno (12), Florida State's Bobby Bowden (11), South Carolina's Steve Spurrier (eight) and California's Jeff Tedford (four).

One Mid-American Conference player voted for the late Michigan coach Bo Schembechler.

Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch.

bhunter@dispatch.com