Quarterback Ben Mauk lost his latest appeal to the NCAA for another year of eligibility, leaving him with one final chance to play for Cincinnati.

After a couple of days of mixed signals, the NCAA told the former Bearcats' quarterback that it had turned him down for the fourth time. Now, Mauk will appeal directly to the NCAA's reinstatement committee for another season.

Mauk will talk to the reinstatement committee by phone today, a few hours before the Bearcats open their season at home against Eastern Kentucky. He expects a decision either later in the day or tomorrow.

"We were hoping they would find in our favor, but I think it's the reinstatement committee that we really need to talk to," said Kevin Murphy, who is Mauk's lawyer. "The staff pretty much did what it has done in the past in this case, but the reinstatement committee has the authority to make its own decision. So that's where our hope lies."

Mauk led the Bearcats to 10 wins and a No. 17 final ranking last season, when he came back from serious shoulder and arm injuries. He appealed for another season on grounds that injuries had sidelined him while he was at Wake Forest.

After being turned down three times, Mauk filed a lawsuit in an Ohio court and got a temporary restraining order against the NCAA, which then agreed to reconsider.

Mauk transferred from Wake Forest to Cincinnati for his graduate studies, rehabilitated his shoulder and led the Bearcats to their breakthrough season. He threw for 31 touchdowns and 3,121 yards even though scar tissue forced him to miss an entire game and part of another.

Senior Dustin Grutza, who was Mauk's backup last season, will start for the Bearcats tonight.

The Vince Young legacy keeps growing at Texas. The quarterback who led the Longhorns to the 2005 national championship will have his No. 10 retired in a ceremony before the season opener Saturday night against Florida Atlantic. Young's name and number will be permanently displayed on the facade of the new upper deck in the north end zone of Darrell K. Royal/Texas Memorial Stadium. He also will be presented with a framed burnt-orange jersey.

The Hawkeyes will be counting heavily on two players who were forced to leave the program last season to get their grades in order. Running back Shonn Greene, who rushed for 205 yards in 2006, has been tabbed the starter after spending last season at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa. Cornerback Amari Spievey, who redshirted in 2006 and spent 2007 at Iowa Central Community College, is a first-teamer as well. The Hawkeyes open with Maine Saturday.

Two Pacific-10 Conference teams are assured of having one conference loss before the calendar reaches September. The opening weekend of play in the Pac-10 is highlighted by two conference tilts, with Stanford playing host to Oregon State tonight and Washington visiting Oregon Saturday. This is the third year in a row Stanford has opened the season against a conference team, with the Cardinal losing to UCLA and Oregon the past two seasons. The Ducks last did it in that 2006 home game against the Cardinal, while it has been 10 years since the Huskies did it and 14 years for the Beavers. Southern California won't play its first conference game for four weeks.Opening night

There are 14 NCAA Division I-A games tonight, kicking off the 2008 college football season.