The College Football Blog: 2010 Season Preview

2010 Season Preview

*Note: The season preview will not be seen this year. The ugliness of the off-season has sapped my excitement for the upcoming year and hindered my ability to create any sort of preview. Therefore, the 2010 season preview will be replaced by the 2010 off-season review.

2010 Off-season Review

As you know, I am a sports freak. Of all the different sports that I follow, I enjoy college football the most. Actually, I need to clarify that. There’s no sport I enjoy more during the season than college football. From the first game of the year to the final bowl game I am completely wrapped up in the sport and enjoy (almost) every minute. The strange thing is that from the day after the so-called national championship game to the day before the regular season begins I really don’t like college football. It’s not that my love for the game or my interest in the sport wanes during the spring and summer months. The problem is that as much as I love the on-field action of college football, I detest almost all of the off-field action. I loathe the NCAA. I have disdain for the university presidents and the conference commissioners. I wish ill will toward agents and “advisers.” I am sickened by the recruitment process. The inevitable suspensions and sanctions and ineligibilities eat away at the excitement that should be building up as the season nears.

However, the 2010 off-season was different because for once there was no turmoil or controversy, and the powers that be let everyone else be, at least for the most part. I mean, there were some exceptions...

Crusades and Imaginary Plagues

First, some sinister and meddling outfit calling itself the Rules Committee gathered together and proved to the world that they were dead fucking serious about putting an end to the thing which has been plaguing college football for the last few years: taunting. I mean it’s almost ruined the sport, hasn’t it? All of those brawls we’ve seen; the elaborate end zone celebrations; the classless showmanship that almost ever player displays, etc. It had gotten out of control.

Oh wait; we haven’t actually seen any of that stuff, have we? Now I remember: it was actually the misguided actions of officials ruling against non-existent examples of taunting that had become a bit of a problem. The good news is that in 2011 the officials will be able to affect the outcome of the game more than ever before, as any action that draws a penalty for taunting will be a 15 yard penalty from the spot of the foul…EVEN IF THE PLAY ULTIMATELY RESULTS IN A TOUCHDOWN!!! Yes, the points will come off the board. And the best part is, taunting will carry that most dreaded of all labels. Penalizing displays of taunting will be (foreboding sound effect) a point of emphasis! So we have that to look forward to a year from now.

Concussions: The New AIDS

The Rules Committee also focused on the prevention of Global Warming—er, sorry, I mean the prevention of concussions. At this point if there is even a chance that a player may be on the verge of coming close to showing the signs of what might be a possible concussion, that player must come out of the game and cannot reenter the game or ever step onto the field again until a panel of doctors who think that football is a blood sport have determined that the player is safe to resume playing. Any other player who that player may have come into contact with before, during, or after it was determined that there was a chance that the player might be on the verge of showing the signs of what might have a chance to be a concussion must also be cleared by the panel. And of course the panel’s decision has to be ratified by the Committee on Global Concussion Scare and Related Hot Button Topics at a special meeting held every other month. All of the importance placed on prevention and treatment of concussionish like symptoms guarantees that the ridiculous and disruptive penalties for touching another player’s helmet will continue and no doubt increase.

Manifest Destiny Deferred

The next few groups of boogey men to gather together and stir up trouble were the school presidents, the AD’s, and the conference commissioners. Suddenly it was determined that there would have to be some widespread realignment and expansion among conferences across college football. It was just something that had to happen. Everyone eventually came around to the conclusion that the best thing to do would be for a few teams to move conferences, and do so in a way that might improve things in their new conference, but would certainly take away from their former conferences. Just when the Mountain West had proven to be worthy of an automatic BCS bid, it was decided that Utah should move to be in a conference with a bunch of schools from California and the Pacific Northwest. Boise State, universally accepted as a true college football powerhouse, would then leave the WAC to take Utah’s place in the MWC, thereby making the WAC about as relevant as, well, the MAC.

Furthermore, it was decided that Colorado and Nebraska should both go to conferences made up of teams from completely different time zones. The Big Ten, which of course has been made up of 11 teams since the early 90’s, would now have 12 teams and could have a conference championship game. The Pac-10 would now have 12 teams, and that just made sense, not to mention the fact that it too could now have a conference championship game. Meanwhile, the Big XII, which had held a conference title for almost as long as the SEC, would now have 10 teams. Again, this only seemed logical. Plus, now the Big XII wouldn’t have a conference title game, so progress was made across the sport really. Things are now greatly improved and make so much more sense:

The Big Ten = 12 teams
The Pac-10 = 12 teams
The Big XII = 10 teams
The Mountain West Conference = 1 good team in, 1 good team out
The WAC = The MAC

The wisest action taken during the entire period of musical chairs was the Big XII’s decision to structure the conference so that certain member schools would take a larger portion of the profits made by the conference than other member schools. Essentially this move was made to ensure fairness and balance within the conference.

Continuing on the theme of fairness and logic, the most crucial outcome of all of this adding and subtracting was that Notre Dame was allowed to retain their independence and their ability to operate under a completely different set of rules and guidelines than the rest of college football. This was very important for everyone involved, because everyone realizes that Notre Dame is special and has to be treated that way. Obviously ND has been the most successful program over the last 20 years and they have earned the right to basically make their own rules. Expecting Notre Dame to join a conference and be subject to the same standards as the rest of the teams in college football would simply be unreasonable. Fortunately for everyone, Notre Dame avoided being forced to join a conference. Thankfully, they still have their own set of rules concerning the BCS which ensures that if Notre Dame manages to not suck they will go to one of the high profile bowls that they deserve to be in.

I Didn't Expect the Spanish Inquisition

Not to be outdone, just as the presidents and commissioners were completing their business, the great and powerful NCAA took the stage. After a lengthy and thorough investigation, the NCAA announced their findings on violations committed by USC in recent years. Basically the NCAA was not able to point to very many clear and proven violations by the Trojans, whether minor or otherwise. However, they were able to say that an agent claimed to have paid for property and travel expenses for the parents of Reggie Bush when he was at USC. Granted, if those allegations were true, they still didn’t have anything to do with Bush deciding to come to USC, and they didn’t keep him in school, as left for the pros as soon as he was eligible. But that’s really beside the point. The important thing was that the parents of one of USC’s players allegedly made a secret deal with someone unaffiliated with the program--which was only discovered after the agent sued the player’s parents for not upholding their end of the secret agreement—and USC allowed it all to happen by not maintaining complete and total supervision of the financial states of each and every family member, friend, and acquaintance of each and ever player on the team.

One of the most damning pieces of evidence against USC was the NCAA’s sense that there was a loose atmosphere around the football program. Another key element to the NCAA’s case against USC was a tactic which seemed simple and obvious after the fact, but was truly a stroke of genius. The NCAA was able to make it clear to everyone how out of line USC’s football program had been by pointing to all of the egregious violations committed by USC’s basketball program under Tim Floyd. The fact that O.J. Mayo’s decision to play his 1 season of college basketball for USC was influenced by money was the thing that really put the nail in the coffin of Pete Carroll’s football program. Floyd’s shady recruiting of Mayo to the USC basketball team amounted to DNA evidence linking Carroll’s football program to rampant violations of a very serious nature. It was a clear warning to football coaches around the country that if they want to keep their program from being put on probation, they better make damn sure that the school’s basketball program stays clean.

The NCAA was thus able to bring down the hammer upon the Trojan football program, drastically limiting their number of scholarships for the next few years, and making them ineligible for bowl games, rankings, conference championships, and the national championship. And as always there were wins to vacate and banners to take down. In the end it was a tremendous victory for the NCAA, as they were once again able to alter history, while at the same time meting out fair and just punishments. In one fowl swoop, the NCAA was able to muddy history and call into question the validity of the achievements of the single greatest program of the last decade, and keep what figures to be one of the best teams in the country over the next few years from being considered a part of the sport in any meaningful way. It was masterful.

And the NCAA served notice that their mission of purging the sport of college football was only just beginning. Indeed, new investigations into possible violations and infractions seemed to pop up every day for the remainder of the off-season. Numerous schools and a slew of the most impactful players in the sport were put on notice and placed in limbo. No one was safe; nothing was certain. The NCAA racked up a number of impressive achievements this off-season, but their single greatest accomplishment may well have been their ability to keep anyone and everyone from being able to look toward the upcoming season with any sort of idea about which teams or players would be eligible.