Five "What Ifs" for the 2009 College Football Season

While I don't do a preseason Top 25 at The Sports Chat Place, I do like to speculate on games and situations throughout the season.

I don't officially start publishing my season previews until early July, but I still like to stay on top of events and issues within the greatest game on earth: college football.

To me, preseason lists and rankings are nothing more than a compilation of predictions based on hypothetical situations.

Instead, I choose to just look at hypothetical situations and the possible implications.

Of course, if these situations occur, I'll be all over it here at Bleacher Report, at The Sports Chat Place, and on my radio show on Tuesday nights at 7 PM EST, Picks and Parlays.

In any event, as we get closer to the season, I'll continue to look at some of these situations, all of which are quite possible in the very near future. Here's the first five.

What if Notre Dame wins 10 regular-season games?

If the Irish can win 10 regular-season games, is there any chance they play for the national title above teams that have played a tougher schedule or acquired a conference championship, and thus are probably are more deserving?

Since the NCAA has totally sold out, especially regarding its bowl eligibility requirements, would they do the unthinkable and offer its football championship to the team that brings in the highest advertising dollars?

With the Irish's schedule, it's feasible they get to 10 wins without beating a team all season that has a winning record. Since teams that only win five games against Division I teams can play in New Year's Day Bowl games, nothing surprises me about how these guys run things anymore.

What if South Carolina goes .500 or worse?

Does the Old Ball Coach get shown the old back door? Does he "retire?"

This could mark the humbling end to the career of a guy who has really been one of the great contributors and competitors in the sport of college football.

Whether you like Steve Spurrier or not, the guy has an unbelievable overall record. He dominated the vaunted SEC as a head coach, won a national title as a head coach, and won a Heisman Trophy as a player.

Personally, he's always been a part of the enemy, but even I can see where he is in the big picture.

Let's hope he makes a final run of some sort and at least gets a chance to go out on his own terms at some point.

What if they find the fire behind the smoke at USC?

I think the guys that talk about an anti-West Coast bias have a real beef.

I think the West Coast teams don't get as much notoriety as they deserve and are usually underrated and underranked.

Their games don't make the 6 p.m. EST scoreboard shows, nor are they usually even in progress for the halftime scoreboard shows.

Sometimes the West Coast games aren't over by the end of the last sportscasts of the night, which is usually when much of the country outside of us "college football addicts" has had more than enough of the sport for the day.

USC has been the constant West Coast team that has made it worth waiting for the late scores. The stars love the Trojans, and the networks love showing the stars loving whatever they are showing on their network.

The last time we saw USC off the map, it took years for the West Coast to reemerge. We heard a lot of complaining out of the state of Oregon, and most of it was warranted.

If there is indeed fire behind the Reggie Bush Story, the one which still hasn't gone away, the West Coast may be even more distant for a large part of the country.

What if the Big 12 suffers another horrific bowl season?

Last season, I was ripped for talking about the Big 12's miserable record when playing teams with winning records, ranked teams, and in bowls.

The one exception to this rule was Texas.

While Texas nipped a seemingly undeserving Ohio State team in the Fiesta Bowl, Oklahoma lost again, and upstart Texas Tech was walloped by Ole Miss.

Nebraska beat a five-win Clemson team, and while that wasn't the Huskers' fault, they also lost to a ranked Virginia Tech team in Lincoln.

While we have seen many Big 12 teams ranked right on top of the weekly polls for the last several years, it seems they do best when playing bottom dwellers.

Do the voters and BCS finally make the Big 12 teams beat some good squads in order to be ranked higher than teams from other conferences?

What if TCU, Boise, Utah, BYU, and some other non-BCS schools all have great years?

Looking at the returning players, and looking at the history of these programs, it isn't too far-fetched that we have at least two non-BCS schools that run the table or finish with one loss.

Last year, we saw two very deserving non-BCS teams, with only one going to a BCS game. Utah smashed Alabama in the Sugar, and Boise State was left out and played TCU.

We now know with 100 percent certainty that is all about conferences getting a piece of the bowl money pie, as opposed to the fans getting to see the best matchups and what they deserve and want to see.

After all, the fans only foot the bill, while the conferences actually get the money.

Will all bowl tie-ins be considered monopolies, as well as BCS tie-ins? Will the outcry for a playoff grow loud enough that the NCAA will have no other choice?

Let's hope so.

Visit Mitch anytime at The Sports Chat Place.