Coping with uncertainty in the world of college football

The fact of the 2008 college football season is this: We just don’t know.

Before the 2007 football season we thought that Michigan would hammer Appalachian State, a revamped Alabama Crimson Tide would have no problem with Louisiana Monroe, and that there was no way that Oklahoma would lose in Colorado.

We thought that LSU would probably be a National Champion, but we didn’t envisage their season being one that included not one, but two overtime losses.

We were wrong.

Turn the leaf - or fall leaves, if you're already feeling that way inclined -- and we have football previews from Lindy's, Bindy's, and Cindy's, and all the articles and mailbags that the "experts" can throw at you telling you what's going to happen in the 2008-9 season. 

One of the preview magazines has Florida as a top-ranked side, while the other two think that it’s going to be sensational in Sanford Stadium, with the Georgia Bulldogs celebrating 2009 with a crystal trophy.

While it might aid and abet your Las Vegas spread bet fantasies, (Note to non-college sports fans: when someone says, “What’s the spread?”, they aren’t asking for you to locate the ketchup!), the fact is this: they don't know.

But isn’t that what’s great about the world of college football? When the calendar rolls round to the first week of the football season, every team's unbeaten and no-one (no, not even Duke or Temple!), thinks their team's going to go 0-12.

As college football fans and pundits, we'll chat until we're hoarse about the upcoming season. Never has the prediction "They're going to be great this year!" been used with certainty. Every recruitment move, every arrest (mind you, Missouri, Alabama, West Virginia and Penn State—if this keeps on going, you might not have a football team) and every preseason injury makes us believe that either a) our team's going to be great or b) our team's going to suck. And if you're Texas Tech, you once again believe that this year is the time for contending for the Big XII, even if others might argue that a team that scores 400 points and lets in 403 four games out of 12 might never get there.

But there are some certainties about the 2008 football season that are non-negotiable.

The Ohio State band will 'dot the i'. Notre Dame will still be open to Catholics. There’s going to be a "White Out" at Beaver Stadium, and a fall-out between fans of Texas and Oklahoma. The SEC will see some close games, and the conference will also see a few blowouts. And the SEC isn't special - so will every other division in college football. 

Alabama fans are going to sing “Rammer Jammer” to the opposite team after a victory, and hope to hell that Auburn doesn't sing the same back to them after beating them for the seventh straight time. When it's bowl time, people will bitch and moan about the BCS. And Texas A&M fans are still going to bitch and moan about Texas, and threaten to saw varsity's horns off.

But - like every season since college football began, there is still the fun of the unknown.

Penn State's offense might get it together. Ohio State might win National Championship....finally, or could it be Georgia? Or West Virginia? Or Florida? Or Oklahoma? Or USC?

 Who will win the Heisman—Tebow, Moreno, or (and here’s MY dark horse) Bradford?

And can every team in college football get through a season without an arrest for attempted burglary/drunkeness/sheer stupidity?

That’s the great thing about college football, we just don’t know. And that's what makes it special. It's a pity that all our questions are only going to be answered in 2009.