College Football

The hangover has passed, the coaching carousel has taken a few revolutions already and the crystal trophy has been tucked away in Tuscaloosa, Ala., again. Apparently, another college football season has been put to bed.

Thank the heavens …

As blasphemous as that may read, think about it. The time had come. After months of crash-and-burns by favorites, wasted opportunities and coaches switching programs as much as programs have been switching conferences, it just needed to end.

How fitting the 2012 campaign culminated with a blowout in the BCS title game, with an SEC squad the unquestioned victor. Shocking, huh? The final chapter has read the same for seven straight seasons. All that up-and-down, hedge-your-bets, Notre Dame-rising, Southern Cal-imploding, trash-talking silliness … and, yet, we come to the same result we pretty much expected all along anyway.

It’s become a bit repetitive. The SEC dominates during the fall months, a couple of its teams lose in annual festival of non-important bowls and a nation gets the itch that, hey, maybe Alabama, Georgia and the like ain’t so tough after all.

After the departure of top pick Andrew Luck to the NFL, many wondered if the Stanford football program was doomed for a regression back to their previous status as an occasional contender for the Pac-12 title.

But then Kevin Hogan emerged as the starter, leading the Cardinal on a dominating stretch run.  First, he outdueled Marcus Mariota to lead Stanford to a 17-14 win over Oregon in what many consider the Pac-12’s game of the year.  Hogan would follow that up with back-to-back wins over Brett Hundley’s UCLA Bruins, the latter of which gave the Cardinal their first Pac-12 title since 1999.

As another season comes to a close in an exciting chapter of college football history, it now is time to reflect and rank the Top 25 in the country now that everyone has finished their season. Alabama completely thrashed the Fighting Irish in Miami last evening to silence the doubters and cement themselves as a dynasty that may continue its dominance in 2013-2014. The SEC has won the past seven national championships, leaving the rest of the country playing catch up.

​1. Alabama 13-1 (7-1 SEC)

The BS meter spontaneously combusted. Just BLAM – an explosion followed by bursts of fire until nothing but charred remains exist.

That is the real state of Bill O’Brien’s credibility right now.

Now, anyone can buy into what he’s selling through a nifty little spin-doctoring, post-NFL flirting campaign – how he’s all about Penn State, the university, the football program, the Blue & White community at large and making it just one big butt-kicking, Kumbayah experience.

IBTimes SportsNet

That’s a personal choice if you want to strap on the blinders and drink the Kool-Aid. You can hope and pray and cross your fingers on every “quality” sound-bite syllable he offers, selling your soul and giving your heart in the process, is true.

The fact is, he’s a used-car salesman in coach’s clothing. Oh, he may be great at Xs and Os. He may be a great motivator and promoter for the Nittany Lions – or, more likely, himself.

When the final horn sounded to signal the end of last year’s BCS title game, dozens of schools began setting their sights on raising the crystal ball after the 2012 season.

Locking up recruits for signing day, spring practices, off season workouts, summer programs and a grueling fall 2-a-day schedule all happen for one reason, to try and put together a team to earn the right to play for a national championship.

A three month season of ups and downs eliminates all but two teams who have earned the right to play for an opportunity to call themselves the champion.

That’s where we are.

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Number 1 Notre Dame vs. Number 2 Alabama, two of the most prestigious and storied programs in all of college football. Together, they have 25 combined national championships. The script writers for the BCS title game couldn’t have written a better screenplay.