The speculation machine is in overdrive with chatter that Minnesota coach Richard Pitino is a target to fill the recently opened Tennessee job. Nebraska’s Tim Miles also has been mentioned. Bottom line: Neither is likely to leave their current posts. As Amelia Rayno from the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported, Minnesota Athletic Director Norwood Teague said on the Dan Barreiro show on KFAN that Pitino is not interested in the job.

Can’t get enough college player union talk? Good. Here’s more: David Jones of Pennlive.com talked to a law professor about Northwestern’s fight to unionize. Long story short: expect a long battle. Jones writes that “many hoops remain through which the process must jump before we see college athletic unions at even the private institutional level, let alone for public universities such as Penn State. Even if NU players vote to unionize, there certainly will be appeals.”

What do you get when you match major marketing power to social cause efforts to increase employment opportunities for adults on the autism spectrum? You get AutonomyWorks, winner of the 2013 Chicago Innovation Awards.

Illinois unveiled its new uniforms, as part of the school’s long-awaited Nike rebrand, Wednesday night. The designs, which were leaked Tuesday night, should please Illini fans. For starters, the rebrand brought consistency across all of the school’s sports, to the point that every team will have the same shades of orange and blue, logos and fonts. Also, the designs are clean and unobtrusive and have nods to the past and campus landmarks. See the uniforms in this post.