Let the Russell Wilson Sweepstakes begin

If you were Russell Wilson, and you were currently earning a paycheck in the minor leagues of the sport that could be your bread and butter for the next decade, at least, getting your release papers from N.C. State might be the sign you've been waiting for to go ahead and put the football thing to bed. Which is just one more reason you're not Russell Wilson: The former All-ACC pick not only wants to ride out his final season of eligibility under center next fall, but he — or a source close to him speaking to ESPN's Joe Schad —�is "95 percent" certain it's going to happen. A dozen schools reportedly lit up Wilson's phone over the weekend after he was handed his walking papers from N.C. State on Friday.

As the early round of suitors suggests, the market for versatile, veteran signal callers who can play right away (Wilson needs a waiver to avoid the usual season on the bench, likely a formality) never runs dry — especially in a place like South Carolina, where the demand only recently came into existence. With the Gamecocks' own versatile, veteran signal caller on the fence for the fall and the top backup looking even further behind the curve lately than he was last year, Carolina has an unexpected vacancy Wilson could fill immediately with minimal drop-off from Stephen Garcia in a do-or-die year for winning the SEC East.

Elsewhere, Auburn's green new quarterbacks were overshadowed this spring by the even greener Auburn defense. The crowd at Wisconsin's spring game was "frightened" by what it saw from the trio vying to replace Scott Tolzien. Kansas State is breaking in a new QB and is certainly no stranger to integrating transfers into the program. Rick Neuheisel might crawl from UCLA with a scholarship clinched in his teeth if he thought there was any chance of solving the circle of doom that threatens to put him in the unemployment line. Et cetera.

Not that Wilson is any kind of savior: He's a second-team All-ACC pick. But like Jeremiah Masoli during the vision quest that led him to Ole Miss last year, wherever Wilson lands is certain to welcome him as an instant and undeniable upgrade over the unsettling question marks it faces at the moment, while everyone else's roster stands still. Feed "instant upgrade" through the magazines, message boards and depth charts that make up the preseason optimism machine, and a new star — or at least the expectation of one — is born.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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