By SCOTT ADAMSON, Scripps Howard News Service

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the college football season ended on New Year's Day -- or at least during the New Year's Day holiday.

When Jan. 1 fell on a Sunday, as it did this year, the big games were contested on Monday, but it was still an off day for most folks.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association -- at least the "law enforcement" wing of the organization -- tends to get a bad rap.

Why?

Because it's deserved.

The NCAA has some of the most absurd rules of any business in the world, many of which defy logic and explanation.

The No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft represents the hopes of a brighter future, with the understanding that there is no such thing as a sure thing.

Such was the case with Cameron Jerrell Newton, the Heisman Trophy winner out of Auburn and the man the Carolina Panthers tapped as their signal-caller-in-waiting last spring.

The franchise needed a quarterback, to be sure.

I wonder if Denver quarterback Tim Tebow ever feels like telling people to shut up. Probably not.

He's too nice a guy. And by all accounts his niceness is genuine, not some manufactured image that his "handlers" have created so he can sell tires and cheeseburgers.

We've known for a couple of weeks that Jimmie Johnson's quest to win a sixth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup title would come up short. All that was missing was mathematical elimination.

That came at Phoenix for the 48 Chevrolet driver, with Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart now the only men who can claim the 2011 championship.

Just for the contrast of it all, I'd like nothing better than for the final week of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season to come down to a battle between Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart.

You needed to be wearing beer goggles to think the game was pretty.

Even so, let's allow the University of Georgia's teetotaler coach, Mark Richt, to raise a glass, drink deep and taste the glory of his team's beautiful victory over Florida on Saturday.

And when the Bulldogs boss is done, he can continue the celebration by pouring its contents on the seat he occupies.

Earning a spot on an NFL roster is a long shot, even for a college football superstar.

And when you go in the seventh round of the NFL Draft -- 216th overall -- it's probably a good idea to make contingency plans for life after (and without) football.

There are a lot of different ways to remember the 2011 fall race at Talladega Superspeedway.

One can choose to look at last Sunday's event as yet another installment of "Let's Make A Deal." Or perhaps the better title for this motorsports game show is "Let's Break A Deal."

Safety and technology advances have come so far and so fast in motorsports -- whether it's NASCAR, IndyCar or Formula One -- that sometimes we forget how very dangerous the sport of speed truly is.

Sunday at Las Vegas, we were reminded.