Dec 2, 2010

So it's all pretty much over now.

The 2010 college football season is down to its last true Saturday--its last "full" slate of games--and so we, College Football Nation, are left to ponder that unponderable nightmare: Basketball season.

Sigh.

I don't know what to say, folks. It all goes by so fast. So unfairly fast. September was a blur. October—glorious, glorious October—was a blink (a glorious, glorious blink). And November? Well, it was, as always, a smash-mouth, blood-and-guts, punch-you-in-the-face-and-break-year-heart nanosecond. Now it is December, and we have just one last Saturday left.

One last lonely Saturday.

And I'd be lying if I said this didn't make me a little bit depressed.

***

Now, I admit there were moments this season—as there are in every college football season—when Your Editor was actually ready for it all to be over.

I mean, if you hadn't noticed, between this site, and the other one, and the occasional radio gig, and the new-to-2010 TCFA Podcast, I spend quite a bit of time writing about/talking about college football. And while, usually, all of that talking and writing is a joy, there are moments when it's not. Hell, I'm human. Which is why there are days—usually Sundays and Wednesdays, for some reason—when the (very modestly compensated) work becomes a (gasp!) burden. A pain in the ass, really.

But in those moments of writerly despair—those moments when the blank white page stares me down, and taunts me, and the words will not come, either for general lack of inspiration or for generally ho-hum results from My Beloved Nittany Lions (yes, this is a major factor)—I stop, just for a moment, and remind myself of the following: Dear Jesus you are writing about college football and getting (modestly) compensated for doing so so shut the $%^& up and do your work.

So I do. The words come. And then I feel much better.

Anyway, I digress. The point is, even when I don't feel much like writing about college football, even when I have to remind myself that I am privileged to write about college football, I never actually lose sight of the fact that I absolutely love college football. Love it as much as anything on God's Green Earth.

You've heard me say it before, so it may not bear repeating, but I am going to repeat it anyway, because it is The Truth: College football is the greatest game we have.

The most beautiful game.

The game with the greatest traditions.

The game with the greatest rivalries, the greatest uniforms, the greatest game-day atmospheres, the greatest stadiums, the greatest coaches.

It is American sport, perfected.

And we're about to lose it for another year.

***

Yes, the Army-Navy game is yet to come. And yes, we have the bowls (God bless those bowls; may the pro-playoff crowd never destroy them). In truth, we have another full damn month of college football.

But not really.

Army-Navy, the bowls, the BCS National Championship game—all of these things are but the culmination of the season. They are not the season itself. They are, for lack of a better term, dessert.

The heart of the season, as we all know, is that spectacular regular season—the greatest in all of sports—and the glorious Saturdays that stretch from late August through late November. These Saturdays—those wonderful gamedays that start at 9 a.m. (GameDay!) and stretch deep into early Sunday morning (Hawaii games!)—are the soul of our beloved sport. These Saturdays are ... holidays.

Bloody Mary's in the pre-noon hours.

Fine craft beers in the afternoon hours.

High-quality meats on the grille for dinner.

Football all day, football all night, GameDay Final to cap it all off.

Glory and heartbreak. Momentous wins, crushing defeats. Legends born. Championships won.

It's what we see every Saturday. All year. Every season.

This season was no different; it was, like every season that preceeded it, utterly spectacular.

But again, here's your buzzkill: It's now pretty much over.

***

Time moves on. We get old. Our children grow up. Friends and come go. And college football seasons end almost immediately after they begin.

Time. It's a bitch.

Though some very smart folks will tell you that linear time does not actually exist—that every moment that has ever happened and every moment that ever will happen are currently happening, have always happened and will always happen—we here in the real world world can only experience This Beautiful Life and This Beautiful Game in the way that our measly little brains are capable of experiencing anything: Sequentially.

One day onto the next. One week onto the next. On Saturday onto the next. One season unto the next.

We can try, of course, to appreciate every last moment as those very moments go racing past. We can have fleeting seconds of true appreciation. We can experience true-but-ephemeral joy. We can tell ourselves, "These are the good times; so for God's sake enjoy them." We can do everything we can to make sure we enjoy the living hell out of our lives, our seasons, our Saturdays. And we can, at times, succeed.

But the Saturdays turn into Sundays anyway. September gives way to October, which relents to November, which bows out to December. And then, all at once, the realization arrives: It's over. Goddamned over.

Yes, dear readers, the 2010 college football season is, in fact, just about over. Time is ruining everything. Again. We blinked. It's gone.

My only advice? Do not surrender to the tyranny of reality. Do not go down without a fight. Do not throw up your hands as the sands flow incessantly toward ... February.

Because, you see, you've got one last Saturday left. One last true Saturday. It will be gone before you know it, and when it is gone, you will be as sad as hell. But it ain't gone yet.

So live. Now. Today. Tonight.

Tomorrow.

out and about: news and notes you may have missed

• OK, so now that TCU has joined the Big East—not sure who comes off looking more desperate here: TCU or the Big East—here's an honest question: Instead of slumming it with Villanova or UCF or Memphis or Houston or some other second-tier program, why shouldn't the Big East powers-that-be aim a little bit, you know, higher (I know they have come to expect only the worst for themselves, but still)? The geography question has already been answered (read: obliterated) by the fact that TCU is located about 17,000 miles from its nearest Big East "rival" (TCU-Connecticut! Woo!), so with that little issue out of the way, here's what (IYEHO) the Big East should do: Identify and invite a "bridge school" between the East Coast and Forth Worth. Doing so would give TCU a travel partner. It would also create some semblance of geographic balance, which, to geography majors, at least, remains important. Heck, I'll even make things easy for John Marinatto and gang: The "bridge school" that the Big East should invite is (wait for it) ... Kansas! Yes, Kansas. Great hoops. Good school. Horrible football. I mean, it's a perfect fit. Make it happen, Big East. You'll thank me later.

• This is why Minnesota remains Minnesota: The Gophers fired coach Tim Brewster weeks and weeks and weeks ago. And yet they have made absolutely zero progress on finding his replacement. Which means that, now that several other high-profile schools have fired their coaches, the Gophers face increased competition for coaches that really don't want to coach at Minnesota anyway. Great job, Minnesota! Now, with that out of the way, let us turn to the good news (relatively speaking) for the Gophers. And yes, it would qualify as truly good news: Mike Leach says he's interested in the job [rejoice, Gopherland, rejoice]! Speaking to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune this week, Leach said he would "enjoy the challenge" that would come along with being the Gophers coach. Said Leach: "It's like buying real estate. You want a situation where it's undervalued so you can turn it into something. That's a program that's under-utilized, that has a lot of advantages but is just lying dormant." By the way, folks, Mike Leach went 83-43 at Texas Tech. Yes, 83-43. He could do the same in Minneapolis. I'm sure of it. [Note: More on Mike Leach below]

quick hits: straight and to the point

• So let me get this straight. The NCAA has concluded that, yes, Cam Newton's father shopped him around during his recruiting, asking for more than $100,000 from Mississippi State in return for his son's services. And yes, this is basically the No. 1 no-no in all of college athletics. But, no, the NCAA is not suspending Cam, or punishing Auburn, because Cam apparently didn't know that his dad was selling his services to the highest bidder and Auburn didn't pay him (so far as we know, yet). That about it? OK. Got it.

• By the way, as ludicrous as the entire situation is, I can't say that I disagree with the NCAA's lack of action. I mean, what are they supposed to do here? They don't have any proof yet that Auburn bought Newton, or that Newton took money from Auburn. Until those conclusions are reached—let's just say that, someday, I expect those conclusions to be reached—the NCAA can't punish the kid or the school. It is what it is.

• SEC Commissioner/Warden Mike Slive, on the Newton situation: "The conduct of Cam Newton's father and the involved individual is unacceptable and has no place in the SEC or in intercollegiate athletics. The actions taken by Auburn University and Mississippi State University make it clear this behavior will not be tolerated in the SEC." Um, what actions?

• Think the Big Ten aka The Domain Of Delany is done expanding? Think again, says Michigan athletic director David Brandon. As Brandon told the Ann Arbor News this week: "We’re in a really good place. Having said that, if I were a betting man, I’d say there’s more change ahead and more expansion ahead. That review continues and discussions continue, and there’s still possibilities out there." Everyone in Providence just fainted.

• Teams that will improve dramatically next season: Washington State, Syracuse, Florida State.

• Teams that will improve very, very slightly next season: Texas, Penn State, Florida.

• Teams that will not improve at all next season: Michigan, USC, Alabama.

• Teams that will regress next season: Auburn, South Carolina, Michigan State

• Jon Gruden. Blah blah blah. The right guy for Miami is Mike Leach. I explain why here. Oh, and you should know: Donald Trump agrees with me.

• More Mike Leach, on why he could win at Minnesota: "The most important positions are offensive linemen and defensive linemen. You can walk to the grocery store up there (in Minnesota) and find guys who could be good ones. And nobody in the Big Ten utilizes the skill positions like we do. The fans would rally around it, would get excited about the program. That's what I bring to the table." YEAH MIKE LEACH.

• In case you were wondering, former Indiana coach Bill Lynch is not rumored to be a candidate for any coaching jobs at the moment.

• Penn State has traditionally been a very good bowl team. One of the best bowl teams of all time, actually. But Penn State will not win its bowl game this year. There is no leadership on this team, and hence there is no chance that this team is going to take an Outback Bowl or Gator Bowl bid seriously enough.That being said, I'll still enjoy the hell out of My Beloved Nittany Lions' New Year's Day bowl appearance. Because New Year's Day bowls > non-New Year's Day bowls. All of them.

• Special TCFA thanks go out to Mike Felder, host of the In The Bleachers Podcast, for having me on the show Thursday morning. We talked Miami, Mike Leach, Auburn and more. You can check out the podcast, and Mike's site, by clicking here.

• Speaking of podcasts, you can hear the latest TCFA Podcast by clicking here. And please excuse Mike and I for talking about Jon Gruden going to Miami. We recorded this on Tuesday night, when it seemed Gruden-to-Miami was a done deal.

• Looking for picks? Well, click here.

• This is not related in any way to college football, but I just thought I would share that I absolutely love this song. The band is Explosions In The Sky. The title is "Look Into the Air." It makes me want to move to Finland and write 1,000-page novels about fishermen and farmers.