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Running off at the typewriter

In the wake of the Big 12 getting shafted by the college-football playoff committee — in part perhaps because the conference didn’t have a championship game — league commissioner Bob Bowlsby has broached the possibility of expanding.

During an appearance on our Open Mike radio show Friday on AM 740 The Game, I asked Bowlsby flat out if UCF is on the league’s radar. His reply: “We don’t have any schools on our radar at the present time. … We don’t have any expansion initiative; we don’t have any list of prospects or any plans to expand. But as our ADs and CEOs talk about the challenges of the future and our immediate past experience we had in the playoffs, these [expansion initiatives] are things that are going to get discussed.”

Translation: Presently, the Big 12 makes as much, if not more, TV money as the SEC and the Big Ten, but in the future when the SEC Network and Big Ten Network are projected to annually bring in $40 million to $50 million per team, that’s when the Big 12 will need to investigate expanding into lucrative TV markets. The Big 12 is the only Power Five conference in the Southern part of the United States that doesn’t have a footprint in Florida — the fourth-most populous state and one of the richest recruiting hotbeds in the country.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Why wouldn’t the Big 12 add UCF and USF and dominate the I-4 corridor that runs through the center of one of the most populated, recruiting-rich, football-fanatical states in the country? Combined, the Tampa and Orlando TV markets are the fourth-largest in the nation.

Although Bowlsby said there are no immediate plans for his league to expand, the good news for UCF — the second-largest university in the nation, with the highest athletic graduation rate among public schools — is that it has everything the Big 12 covets if and when the league does expand. Bowlsby, who was at the Fiesta Bowl when UCF took down Big 12 champion Baylor last season, is obviously aware of UCF’s potential.

“Geography, electronic footprint, academic profile of the universities,” Bowlsby said when listing the prerequisites of prospective Big 12 members. “… It’s certainly about TV sets, it’s certainly about recruiting, it’s certainly about competitive implications.”

The fact is, UCF meets all of the Big 12’s criteria for expansion.

The question is when — if ever — that expansion takes place?

SHORT STUFF: Florida Gators quarterback Treon Harris has been arrested for driving without a license with marijuana being found in the car he was driving. Question: Would suspending him and leaving him home from the Birmingham Bowl be a penalty or a reward? …

When I asked FSU coach Jimbo Fisher earlier this week to assure a local third-grade Seminoles fan that Santa does exist, he replied: “There’s a Santa Claus for all of us. When Santa Claus goes out of our lives, no matter how old we are, life isn’t as fun. Everyone has that special thing, that special somebody, that brings us things, and we don’t know why they’re given. They just show up sometimes. Everybody has a Santa Claus, no matter how old you are.” How does Jimbo know this? Because every year, Santa leaves him 13 little gifts under his tree — and those gifts are otherwise known as the other teams in the ACC. …

The Dallas Mavericks, after acquiring Rajon Rondo from the tanking Boston Celtics, now might have the best starting five in all of basketball. Yet another example of why Mark Cuban might be the best owner in sports. I love an owner whose idea of building for the future involves weeks, not years. …

Three worst TV decisions in NFL history: (3) The Heidi Game; (2) Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football; (1) Jaguars-Titans in prime time. …

By the way, which is the more dysfunctional NFL franchise: the Chicago Bears or the Washington Native Americans? Isn’t this sort of like asking which is the most delicious of grandma’s Christmas cookies: the nut butterball or the snickerdoodle? There is no easy answer. …

MIKEY LIKES: UCF over NC State by 3 in St. Pete Bowl, East Carolina over Florida by 3 in Birmingham Bowl, Miami over South Carolina by 5 in Game Formerly Known as the Poulan Weed-Eater Bowl, Clemson over Oklahoma by 7 in Russell Athletic Bowl, Minnesota over Missouri by 4 in Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, USF over Nobody in Island of Misfit Toys Bowl. … Ah, what would the holiday season be without our traditional singing of the Jerry Greene “Twelve Days of Christmas”? Everybody, sing along: “And on the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 12 turkey drumsticks, 11 bags of pork rinds, 10 jelly donuts, nine chocolate éclairs, eight cans of Spam, seven pumpkin pies, six Tootsie Rolls … five chicken wings! Four Cornish hens, three French pastries, two turtle bars and a pound cake made by Sara Lee!”

Open Mike

Don’t forget, you can click on OrlandoSentinel.com and read the wildly popular Open Mike blog and interactive extravaganza to get my freshest takes on what’s happening in the world of sports. Here’s a blog on the anti-Johnny Manziel sentiment that pervades the NFL:

An actual topic on a radio show a few days ago: “Is it time for the Cleveland Browns to pull the plug on the Johnny Manziel experiment?”

Yes, this came in the wake of Manziel’s very first start — albeit an abysmal one — in which the Browns were shut out 30-0 by the Cincinnati Bengals. Manziel threw for just 80 yards and had two interceptions as Cleveland ran an NFL season-low 38 plays against Cincy.

There’s no question Johnny Football was awful, but what’s even more awful is the public reaction to his performance. It’s a good thing Jacksonville Jaguars QB Blake Bortles — the rookie from UCF — doesn’t get the same amount of scrutiny as Manziel.

I love Blake, but let’s face it, his inaugural NFL season has been fairly forgettable. Coming into this week’s games, his passer rating is lower than any full-time starter in the league with the exception of the Jets’ much-maligned Geno Smith. The Jaguars are 3-12 with one of the worst offenses in the league.

But have you heard anybody question whether the Jaguars should pull the plug on the Blake Bortles experiment? Of course not. Why? Because that’s just a dumb thing to say. What NFL team would draft a quarterback in the first round and then pull the plug on him after one game?

Manziel, I’m afraid, is heading down the Tim Tebow road to NFL oblivion. Because he’s not a prototypical NFL quarterback and he’s such a polarizing figure, I wonder if he — like Tebow — will be quickly cast aside by the NFL establishment.

Nobody will ever convince me that Tebow got a fair shot in the NFL. He started a little more than half a season with the Denver Broncos, led them to the playoffs, actually won a playoff game and then never started again in the league.

How is it that so many subpar quarterbacks (see Blaine Gabbert, Josh Freeman, Brandon Weeden, Jake Locker, etc.) get opportunity after opportunity year after year to mature and develop, but Tebow was essentially excommunicated from the league?

Manziel once followed in Tebow’s footsteps by becoming one of the most dynamic dual-threat quarterbacks in the history of SEC and college football.

Unfortunately for him, after only one start with the Cleveland Browns, Johnny Football is well on his way to following Tebow’s career path as an NFL quarterback, too.

Mail bonding

Most interesting reader retorts, radio rabble, tangy tweets and message-board mockery:

*Birmingham News columnist Kevin Scarbinsky responding to my column in which I warned Alabama fans to beware because Urban Meyer — “the Urbanator” — is back: “It’s a nice theory, but it fails to take into account one major factor. The Sabanator never went away.”

*On my longtime contention that Apopka High coach Rick Darlington would be an incredible offensive coordinator at the college level: “Bianchi, if Will Muschamp had taken your advice, he’d probably still be coaching the Gators.”

*On my column about how the Miami Dolphins should try to hire Jimbo Fisher: “What makes you think Jimbo could turn the Dolphins into winners when his mentor — Nick Saban — couldn’t?”

Notable quotables

Three of my favorite quotes about the holiday season:

*”If you don’t have Christmas in your heart, you’ll never find it under a tree.” Roy L. Smith

*”The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: The presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.” Burton Hillis

*”The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.” George Carlin

mbianchi@tribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @BianchiWrites. Listen to his radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on 740 AM.