Jackson Free Press

I have been away for the last couple of weeks helping my wife with our new daughter. At certain points, I felt like I was going through sports withdrawal. Thank goodness for the all-night showing of SportsCenter for those 2 a.m. feedings.

A lot happened in sports since we last met; here are a few thoughts.

The Heisman Trophy will be handed out this Saturday on ESPN. Many believe Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel is the frontrunner.

Manziel has had a great season, but I hate that the media make it seem as if he’s making plays in the SEC right out of high school. This is not the case. He is a red-shirt freshman because he was on the A&M campus last season. That is not to minimize the season Manziel has put together. He should be considered for the Heisman, but he should not win it.

I don’t have a Heisman vote, but if I did, my vote would go to Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o. No player has meant as much to his team as Te’o has to the Irish, and the team rallied around their star after the death of his grandmother and girlfriend in the same week.

Te’o made big play after big play and loaded the Irish on his back at times—physically and emotionally—while playing on defense this season. There are no stats to point to for a defensive player, but if you watched Notre Dame games this season, you know what I am talking about.

The bowl matchups were released Sunday, and two things stood out to me. This year more than any other is the year of the football academic.

Northwestern, Notre Dame, Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford, Rice and Baylor all reached bowl games. These schools are normally known for their academic prowess, not their athletic pursuits. It just goes to show that you can be successful in football and in the classroom as well.

There was a lot of conversation about it, but Northern Illinois is playing in a BCS game. That is due in part to rules (can’t have more than two team per conference) and to how bad the Big East and Big Ten were this year.

Finally, with Wisconsin winning the Big Ten title game, is the conference hosed this bowl season? Look at the matchups: TCU against Michigan State, Mississippi State versus Northwestern, Oklahoma State against Purdue, South Carolina against Michigan, Georgia versus Nebraska and Stanford against Wisconsin.

The Big Ten probably won’t be favored any of these games. It doesn’t help the conference that its two best teams, undefeated Ohio State and Penn State, have to sit at home due to NCAA issues.

Follow Bryan Flynn at jfpsports.com, @jfpsports and at facebook.com/jfpsports.