September doesn’t define much. It helps pad bowl eligibility and wallets. October is about starting the process of winnowing down the field for the BCS National Championship game. And on the first day of October of this season, that process starts with a buffet of big games.

On Saturday there will be five games that will feature undefeated teams playing one another.

But Nebraska at Wisconsin looms largest.

This game is huge and it’s perfect for prime time. It’s the Big Ten opener for both teams. For Nebraska the game is its first Big Ten game ever. What a way to start. The conference could have chosen to start the Cornhuskers with a patsy like Minnesota. Instead it drew a road trip to Camp Randall.

And while it will help define the race to the first Big Ten championship game, the game has larger meaning. The winner will leap into the conversation for the BCS National Championship game.

Consider this. I think there’s a strong possibility that there will be at least four undefeated teams from the four top conferences in college football – the Big Ten, the Pac-12, the Big 12 and the SEC. Virginia Tech could emerge from the ACC unscathed and that would make five.

Now, the odds of four undefeated teams are pretty low. But two? That could certainly happen and if there are two undefeated teams from BCS conferences, then there are your BCS National Championship game participants. I see the odds of a one-loss conference champion leap frogging two undefeated teams into the BCS Title game to be unlikely, though you never know with the BCS.

But if you lose a game your chances of a national title game diminish greatly. So that makes this game in Wisconsin a big one.

In one corner is Nebraska, with its vaunted defense and the dual threat of QB Taylor Martinez. Plus, RB Rex Burkhead is now a larger part of the offense and is taking heat off Martinez. They fit into the Big Ten like a glove.

In the other is Wisconsin, a team some folks around the country largely ignored during the preseason because of the void at quarterback. But then QB Russell Wilson came along, transferring from North Carolina State and taking the starting job for the opener. He’s been a revelation for the Badgers. He could have just been a caretaker quarterback and no one would have blinked. I mean, the Badgers run the ball with impunity and have two of the country’s best backs. But Wilson’s running ability has given the offense an added dimension that I’m not sure anyone in the Big Ten can defend.

Nebraska probably has the best chance of doing so. But if the Black Shirts can’t do it, what makes anyone think that Ohio State or Michigan can do it?

Wilson has made the Badgers a legitimate national title contender, though I thought they were even before Wilson transferred. Nebraska already was going into this season.

So you can see why this game matters so much on the national landscape. Sure, the season has two months ahead and plenty could happen. But the winner of this game gets something precious – the ability to control its own destiny.

And as the weeks dwindle in this season, there will be fewer teams that can say that, making that a valuable commodity.

I’ll be watching on Saturday night, skipping going to a game in person for the first time this season. It’s that big.

Miles Shouldn’t Go. Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com filed a story yesterday stating that some NFL teams are interested in LSU head coach Les Miles as a potential NFL head coach.

May I just say that if Miles were to move to the NFL it would be the worst thing he’d ever do for his career.

I’m not sure Miles is the best coach in the country. He makes some really weird decisions sometimes. But he’s the head coach of one of the best programs in the nation and I think you ride that horse until it’s dead.

Money isn’t an issue. Miles is well-paid. He has control of his program. He’s revered in Baton Rouge. Why leave, unless it’s always been his goal to coach in the NFL?

All Miles has to do is go talk to some of his SEC colleagues. South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier and Alabama’s Nick Saban were probably as well-equipped as anyone to handle the NFL straight from college. Both left with under-.500 records. Failure might be a strong word for what both did in the NFL, but their success in college football certainly didn’t translate.

If Miles knows what’s good for him, he’ll stay in Baton Rouge until they run him out of town. If he wouldn’t go back to Michigan, why go to the NFL? Makes no sense to me.

By the way, now that QB Jordan Jefferson is reinstated, that shouldn’t be an invitation for Miles to give Jefferson his job back. Jarrett Lee has provided too much consistency to even think about putting Jefferson back in that role. Miles has said Lee will start. Here’s hoping Miles doesn’t get tempted by Jefferson’s athleticism and screw this up.

Heisman watch. I had fully intended to write a full-blown Heisman update for this week. But I’ve been traveling for work and haven’t had the time. But if I had a vote and I cast one today, my top three would be QB Andrew Luck, QB Brandon Weeden and QB Landry Jones. Yes, it’s QB heavy. RB LaMichael James is right there, but I’m having a hard time with the way he was shut down those first two games of the season. I’ve always valued consistency, and all three of those quarterbacks has been consistent so far. Weeden and Jones have played at least one game against ranked competition and come out of it with great numbers. Luck was the front-runner coming into the season and he’s done nothing to hurt his chances, in my opinion.

Standing outside the Top 3, along with James, is Baylor QB Robert Griffin III and Michigan QB Denard Robinson. Both have had fantastic starts to the season. What keeps me moving Griffin into my Top 3 is that he’s only played three games and two were against relatively soft competition. Robinson and the Wolverines played Notre Dame, but the rest of their schedule was pretty weak. Both have put up great numbers, but I’ll reserve judgment for a few weeks as they get a little deeper into league play. I want to see how both handle tougher conference opponents week in and week out.

Big East Decisions Coming? The Big East is going to hold a meeting this weekend, ostensibly to talk more about what it needs to do as a league to survive the departures of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC.

The talk still surrounds adding Navy and Air Force as new members for football. While I have deep respect for both programs, I have a hard time seeing what either adds to the conference, especially when it comes time to re-negotiate their TV deal next year.

Since Connecticut won’t commit to staying in the Big East if the ACC decides to expand to 16 teams, the Big East needs to be proactive and find membership that can add value to their upcoming TV negotiations, along with the future of the conference. I’m going to spend some time this weekend thinking about what the league can do. But I’ll give you a hint – like the Big 12, it’s time to throw geography out the window.

My Top Three. These are the games I’m picking this week.

Wisconsin over Nebraska. With conference play starting, the games get harder to pick. I’ll take Wisconsin at home. Nebraska’s defense is just a little banged up and the Badgers have more weapons that I think the Cornhuskers will be able to handle.

Auburn over South Carolina. I’m not a believer in South Carolina right now. The Gamecocks barely beat Navy. They followed that by only beating Vanderbilt 21-3. Something’s not right in Columbia. I think Auburn goes in and steals one.

texas over Iowa State. Don’t sleep on the Cyclones, who are undefeated and have found a captivating player in QB Steele Jantz. texas took the week off last weekend and it gave time for their young starters to reflect on their 3-0 start. It also gave the longhorns enough time to see their rhythm disrupted. The break may mean nothing in that regard for the longhorns, but this feels like a trap game to me. Remember – Iowa State embarrassed the longhorns last year. Neither team is that much better or worse.

One More Thing. I stayed up Wednesday night and watched what might have been one of the most exciting final days of baseball’s regular season in recent memory. Four games determined the two wild card berths. Two games went extra innings and one game went through a long rain delay. Those circumstances created great theater. St. Louis watched from Houston as Philadelphia beat Atlanta in 13 innings to allow the Cardinals to make the playoffs. A few minutes later, Boston fell to Baltimore, meaning the Red Sox needed Tampa Bay to lose to stay alive and force a one-game playoff. The Red Sox got their answer three minutes later with Evan Longoria’s home run, capping the Rays’ nine-game comeback in the standings and seven-run comeback in that game. If every day in the regular season were that dramatic, well, I’d never get any sleep.

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