The Thundering Herd will play four teams from conferences with a top four RPI with road games at Villanova (Nov. 11) and at Kentucky (Dec. 22) as well as games against West Virginia (Dec. 5) and Cincinnati (Dec. 15) at the Charleston Civic Center.

The latest Vegas lines are out, and the Miners are a 7.5 point underdog against the Ole Miss Rebels. All things considered, that's pretty damn good.

Guys, unfortunately I've been under the weather for a few days now, and am just not feeling up to putting together a podcast this week. But, I'll talk with the guys at crimsonandcreammachine.com for a few minutes on their podcast tonight. Check it out live by clicking the link. It starts at 7:30 p.m. MT.

In case you haven't heard yet, the El Paso Times' Brett Bloomquist is reporting that senior linebacker Jamie Irving will miss the season opener against Oklahoma due to back spasms. AJ Ropati is expected to start in his place.

I can't argue with it

I gleaned a few C-USA schools for reference. Full list behind link UTEP $7,760,454 ECU $8,564,433 SMU $11,121,190 Houston $7,338,423 AB $5,715,330 CFU $7,467,781 Tulane $5,861,473 Marshall $6,737,369

Here's something to chew on this Friday. ESPN's blog, Sooner Nation, has a writeup on what is going on around Oklahoma football as preseason practices wind down. While WR is now looking like a strength for the Sooners, the depth on defense is in question. Have a read.

I recently started contributing to fellow SB Nation site Mid-Major Madness, and today I posted the top 10 players in C-USA Basketball. Check it out.

Here's a good piece from newsok.com about the new faces around the UTEP football team. Have a read.

ESPN has devised a point system to rank the 50 most successful basketball programs of the past 50 years. UTEP checks in at number 46.