The 2005 season was horrifically bad, and many predicted it would usher in a new era of megastorms that would ravage the U.S. for years to come. Instead, the 2006 and 2007 seasons were relatively quiet, and (knock on wood) 2008 has been quiet thus far too. Things even out and regress to the mean.
College football is also a cyclical thing. Powers come and go, some more quickly than others, and every now and then you get a peak or a valley. The 2007 season was a valley for powers being able to control the sport, and some have speculated that it ushered in a new era of parity and craziness in the polls.
I disagree.
A lot of things had to come together to enable 2007 to play out the way it did. The last time we had no one finish the year undefeated was 2003. In 2004, there were no fewer than five undefeated teams before the bowls. Things took a swing in the opposite direction to even out the prior year.
That is exactly what will happen in 2008. We will see at least one BCS conference champ go undefeated, if not more. We may not even see a BCS conference champ with two losses, depending on how the ACC works itself out. BYU or maybe Utah could go unbeaten in the MWC, and Boise State or Fresno State could do the same in the WAC.
The 2007 BCS bowls were a picture of craziness: Boise State upset Oklahoma, Florida shocked everyone by beating Ohio State by 27, and Wake Forest actually made the Orange Bowl. It almost symbolically ushered in the craziness that was the 2007 regular season.
The 2008 BCS bowls were completely different. The better team in four of the five bowls flexed its muscles and won in impressive fashion. I believe that they symbolically paved the way for a 2008 where the insanity stops.
Batman has caught the Joker, and order will be restored.
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