Former Ohio State standout Nate Clements married Cleveland childhood sweetheart Melissa Duncan at the Hotel Derek near their Houston home last weekend, and the guest list was impressive: Minnesota Vikings and former OSU teammate Antoine Winfield, NFL players association president Troy Vincent, Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Takeo Spikes (a former Buffalo Bills teammate), the Washington Redskins' London Fletcher and numerous others with NFL connections, including former NFL standout Bobby Taylor, who played host to the couple's pre-wedding cocktail party at his downtown Houston club, The Office.

Apparently, the couple was waiting for a little security before they made the commitment, and Clements got it in early March with an eight-year, $80 million contract from the San Francisco 49ers.

Beforehand, Clements pulled a little practical joke on his agent, Todd France. Clements called him several times to talk about the boxing workouts he'd been doing to sharpen his hand speed and footwork, and then hit France with the big phone call.

"It culminates with him calling the office," France told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I answer the phone and he says, 'I've got a bout. They're paying me $3,500 and I'm going to have a fight.' This is in February, before free agency. I'm like dead silent. I'm trying to subtly go at him -- 'No, it's not a good idea.' All of a sudden he bursts out laughing. He'd been setting me up for weeks, with the patience to do that. I said, 'You give me a heart attack' and hung up."

The new Big Ten Network had an Internet chat with network president Mark Silverman last week, and a fan who identified himself as Billy from Cicero managed to slip in a prank question. Silverman's answer indicated that either he didn't wish to acknowledge the joke or that he had a few stock answers ready just in case someone asked something he couldn't answer.

The following was pulled from the transcript, so we are indebted to thewizardofoz.blogspot.com for saving a copy of it before the network could consign it to the dust bin of Internet history:

Billy: Will you show videos of boys climbing ropes? I used to really like that about gym class and would love to relive the moment. I mean, there's nothing like a good old-time rope climb to lighten the spirits. I do say I'd really enjoy a show about boys climbing rope.

Silverman: We will have 35+ HD football games, well over 100 HD basketball games, not to mention Olympic sports and women's sports.

That would apparently be a "no."

Bengals fifth-round draft pick Jeff Rowe will be under scrutiny during a mandatory minicamp this week.

Rowe, a Nevada quarterback the team selected instead of Ohio State's Troy Smith, was less than impressive during rookie minicamp. Rowe has a reputation as a highly accurate passer, and he wasn't in camp.

Why is anyone watching a guy who figures to be no more than No. 3 on the depth chart? Probably because the safety net behind Carson Palmer is much thinner than last year. Then, the Bengals had NFL veteran Anthony Wright and Doug Johnson, both former starters. Now, Johnson is No. 2, and Rowe is behind him.

One team insider said undrafted free agent Jeff Smith, who played at Georgetown College (which plays host to the Bengals training camp) and whose presence is viewed as more of a nice gesture by the team, looked better than Rowe during rookie camp.

If Bob Murray is hired as Blue Jackets general manager, he will be reunited with Sergei Fedorov, whom he helped the Anaheim Ducks trade to Columbus. Murray might be fine with Fedorov -- trading him was Ducks general manager Brian Burke's idea -- but he almost surely will be sorry not to have Francois Beauchemin among his defensemen.

Murray was the one who told Burke not to make the deal unless Beauchemin was included, and now Beauchemin is a key to the Ducks' run to the Stanley Cup Finals.

One of Murray's first priorities likely would be to strengthen the Blue Jackets' thin defense.

He should be ticked at himself.

Even though University of Florida president Bernie Machen was banging the drum for a college football playoff at the Southeastern Conference meetings this week, rumblings from around the nation indicate that not much, if anything, is likely to change.

At the Big 12 meetings, the board of directors reaffirmed its opposition to any "major" playoff proposal. Big 12 officials didn't stipulate whether they considered the plus-one proposal, which would match Nos. 1 and 4 and Nos. 2 and 3 in bowls and adds a championship game, to be major.

Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford seemed mildly receptive to that proposal but nothing else. And Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany reportedly wrote a letter to Machen that indicated that his conference didn't even want to discuss the issue.

Machen reportedly would like to set up a "corporation" apart from the NCAA and Bowl Championship Series commissioners to run the playoffs. Few seem interested in this, at least until they see how much money in can generate.

Daequan Cook told ESPN.com's Andy Katz at an NBA predraft camp this week that he plans on staying in the draft and signing with Mike Conley Sr., after the withdrawal deadline June 18. Former Ohio State teammate Mike Conley Jr. apparently will do the same thing. This leaves them a safety net should they suffer an injury during the next few weeks.

Daequan Cook's situation is still a little befuddling, in part because he hasn't exactly lit it up during camp. Daequan Cook was 3 of 10, and 0 of 1 on three-pointers, during his first game Wednesday; he also committed eight turnovers in 20 minutes.

That's not the befuddling part; Daequan Cook slumped during the last half of OSU's season. What's a little surprising is that ESPN.com reported that "a number of NBA personnel" said Cook's slump wouldn't necessarily change their minds on whether he was a first-round pick. Cook agreed with that, certainly.

"I'm getting the vibe that I'm a first-round pick, but I've got to prove it to myself and to the scouts that I'm a first-round pick," Daequan Cook said. Daequan Cook also told the Web site that he's "all the way in" as far as the draft goes.

The Crew still has some wiggle room under the salary cap, and the vibe from team officials is there are holes that could be filled on either defense or midfield or both.

Despite the team's scoring problems, the additions of Alejandro Moreno and Guillermo Barros Schelotto and the return of Andy Herron from suspension give the team an attacking unit that team officials are satisfied with.

Knoxville News-Sentinel sports editor John Adams proposed that the Southeastern Conference "present a lifetime achievement award to a school from another conference that has made a significant contribution to the success of the SEC. And there's no debating who the first winner should be."

Yeah, you guessed it.

"It's 'The Ohio State University,' " Adams wrote. He went on to detail the gory details of Florida's national championship wins in football and men's basketball, and then quoted "a former Gator by the name of Steve Spurrier as saying, "It looks like we've officially made Ohio State 'Runner-up U.' "

The diatribe goes on and on, chronicling OSU's loss to Alabama in the 1978 Sugar Bowl, both losses to South Carolina in the Outback Bowl, etc.

"Aside from the national championship game victory in 1999," Adams wrote, "Tennessee's biggest bowl win of the Phillip Fulmer era was against favored Ohio State in the 1996 Citrus Bowl. Auburn's most one-sided bowl victory of the last 30 years was against Ohio State.

"Even Georgia's Ray Goff won a bowl game against Ohio State."

Oooh.

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