It's a wrap on the college football season, so let's hand out some awards. But first, a quick overview:
The Florida Gators destroyed the Ohio State Buckeyes for the national title, and all hail Urban Meyer (with a cap tip to all the couch-sits logged by Ron Zook's staff) for a job phenomenally done.
All the talk next year will be about USC and Michigan. But -- hello? -- the Gators probably have at least two more years of Tim Tebow and another year of Percy Harvin. Add to that the spiffy "National Champs" letterhead and, well, they should be the dominant team in the Sunshine State for a good long run here.
Overall, college football remains insanely popular despite the contrived BCS finish, which is just, well, insane. We're no closer to a real playoff, despite any rumblings you hear about a "Plus One" discussion. The current BCS TV deal runs through 2010, so check back with me in three years.
And now, let's hand out some hardware:
Story of the Year: Emergence of Dangerous "Mid-majors"- Boise State, West Virginia, Rutgers, L'Ville and Wake Forest. Parity is here, so everybody needs to embrace it.
Fiasco of the Year: Oregon vs. Oklahoma instant replay mistake -- How many ways can you screw up a call and a review? What does that say about the power of TVs and VCRs to erase egregious mistakes made by men in stripes?
Embarrassment of the Year: Donna Shalala, Da U! -- OK, so the ‘Canes got into a brawl. Okay, so Lamar Thomas got out of control in the broadcast booth. Not good. But when the smurf leader of the University actually BRAGGED about not having seen video of the fight, well, that's beyond idiotic. Okay Donna, you can pull your head out of the sand now.
Studs of the Year: Dwayne Jarrett, Darren McFadden, Adrian Peterson and Troy Smith - I defy you to find a better quartet.
Wipeout of the Year: JoePa getting smoked on the sidelines at Wisconsin -- Get better, you loveable old crank!
Entertainer of the Year: John L. Smith -- Slapping himself silly on the podium? Priceless. We'll miss him.
Rant of the Year: Mike Valenti, WXLT 1270 -- Without a doubt, the most well- constructed, fire breathing, from-the-pit-of-his-passionate stomach diatribe ever recorded on tape. Collectively between coach and radio host, there was no other program as entertaining as Michigan State.
Senseless Tragedy of the Year: Brian Pata, Miami - The saddest note in a tragic, tumultuous season.
Celebration of the Year: Marshawn Lynch -- Hijacking the injury cart after a victory over rival Stanford and whipping donuts amid the post-game chaos? Dangerous, but damn funny.
Uniforms of the Year: Oregon -- "This is our 46th home alternate white on white with tiny green flecks. You like them?"
Name of the Year: Jeremy "Lance" Ito, Rutgers - Louisville fans might not get a kick out of this one.
Visual of the Year: The blimp shot of Rutgers fans following L'Ville victory - Fantastic.
Show of the Year: ESPN's "College GameDay" -- How refreshing. Corso, Herbstreit, and Fowler did their thing, were highly knowledgeable and didn't resort to yelling, strutting, or shtick. Take note, NFL pre-game shows.
Prank of the Year That Never Gets Old: Punking Corso with signs.
Finish of the year: (Tie) -- My personal faves included Jeff Samardjiza's late TD escape for ND over UCLA, and Oregon State holding off USC at the goal-line. As usual, there were dozens more like this.
Prestige programs: When you look at the "prestige" programs in college football, the usual names are in pretty good shape, if not currently in a dynastic or juggernaut phase.
Juggernauts
USC, Ohio State, Florida, Michigan, Auburn, LSU.
Not Far Behind
Wisconsin, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, and Georgia.
And, consider this. Several coaches had prime chances to "move up" to bigger programs, but stayed. Rich Rodriguez remained at West Virginia, Greg Schiano stayed at Rutgers. Pete Carroll remains a white-hot candidate for the NFL while Nick Saban lied his way out of the Dolphins' gig just to get back to campus.
All in all, it was another blockbuster year for the sport. And no amount of BCS stupidity appears able to derail fan enthusiasm for Saturdays on campus.
Steve is a native Washingtonian and has worked in sports talk radio for the last 11 years. He worked at WTEM in 1993 anchoring Team Tickers before he took a full time job with national radio network One-on-One Sports.
A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Steve has worked for WFNZ in Charlotte where his afternoon show was named "Best Radio Show." Steve continues to serve as a sports personality for WLZR in Milwaukee and does fill-in hosting for Fox Sports Radio.
