A trip back in college football

The endless wait is over. Months of recruiting hype, scrimmage nonsense, unsupervised drills speculation, arrests, suspensions and the tedious fall two-a-days are history.

College football is back. And what America's most traditional sport does for an encore after a 2007 season that redefined zaniness is anyone's guess.

But instead let's take a look back at where the college landscape15 years ago. Why 15? Because that's the anniversary this season marks for this column.

We all know parity is likely here to stay in college football. Just look at the nation's top three teams in the final polls of 1993 -- Florida State, Notre Dame and Nebraska. Combined those three schools went 34-3, with two losses being Notre Dame over Florida State and then the Seminoles over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.

Last year, the Seminoles, Fighting Irish and Cornhuskers went a combined 15-22. Nebraska coach Bill Callahan was fired. Another 3-9 season might earn ND coach Charlie Weis a pink slip while a growing segment of FSU boosters continue to push coach Bobby Bowden toward retirement.

And it wasn't just the results that are now different. How the game is played is now drastically different. Back in '93, ND and Nebraska still ran the option. Behind wondrous QB Tommie Frazier and miscreant RB Lawrence Phillips, the Cornhuskers ground their way to consecutive national titles, averaging nearly 400 yards a game on the ground in 1995. Last year, the Huskers averaged just 144 yards rushing.

With the more balanced spread offense now in vogue, only Navy averaged over 300 yards a game rushing last year. Whether former Midshipman coach Paul Johnson's option will work at his new Georgia Tech job this season may be the antiquated offense's last stand at the D-I level.

And considering all the offseason preening from the Southeastern Conference, it's interesting to remember where the SEC was 15 years ago. Unlike today when the Dixie Kings are coming off consecutive national titles and a 4-0 mark in BCS title games, the SEC had only two teams (Florida and Auburn) ranked in the '93 final top 10. And the Tigers were ineligible for the postseason after NCAA sanctions.

Down the rankings, defending national champ Alabama (9-3-1) finished 14th, but eventually had to forfeit every game since cornerback Antonio Langham had earlier taken cash from an agent.

Indeed in the final '94 polls, the SEC did manage to get three teams (Florida, Alabama and Auburn) in the top 10. But that postseason, the Tigers were still in NCAA jail, the Gators lost to Florida State in the Sugar Bowl while Alabama beat Ohio State in the Citrus Bowl. Funny how some things never change.

Also back then, there was something called the Southwest Conference. You might have heard of it. It was filled with proud programs like SMU, Houston, TCU and Rice.

It died two years later as the Big Eight greeded into the Big 12, which has now morphed into the kind of defense-optional league that would have made the 1980s WAC proud. Those ex-SWC schools the Big 12 turned its back on have been vagabonds ever since.

And then there's mighty Southern California. The Trojans are an amazing 70-8 the last six seasons under Pete Carroll, coming within one Vince Young scramble of becoming the first team to be ranked No. 1 in three consecutive seasons.

It wasn't so much fun back in 1994. Traveler and co. were coming off an 8-5 season in the return of coach John Robinson that included losses to N.C. State and Arizona.

And it didn't get much better the rest of the decade, the Trojans going a combined 48-34-2 from 1994-2000 with no top-10 finishes, getting Robinson and Paul Hackett fired. That set the stage for Carroll, who helped SC to the greatest comeback since John Travolta signed on to do "Pulp Fiction.''

The point of this history lesson is that there is no such thing as dominance -- or even trends -- in college football today. The grudging virtue of the BCS is that every regular season game is vital and nothing can be taken for granted. Appalachian State over Michigan drilled that point home.

So sit back and enjoy the next four months. There's no telling what the season will hold. But it's going to be a thrill finding out.

UPSET PICK: A late slide cost us that elusive first winning season last year. But 7-7 is more than respectable. We'll get off to a fast start when No. 20 Illinois bounces 9-point favorite No. 6 Missouri Saturday night in St. Louis.

LINDSAY'S LOSER: A tip of the hat to George "Liquid Paper'' O'Leary. The Central Florida coach is furious at the Orlando Sentinel. Seems the newspaper actually did some reporting on the offseason death of Knights' player Ereck Plancher.

UCF insists the paper made mistakes in its coverage of Plancher, who died during offseason drills in March. But O'Leary won't say what's wrong since he refuses to speak to the Sentinel, the only paper that covers his team regularly, outside of a laughable Op-Ed piece O'Leary penned that the paper ran last month.

What the heck, Georgie was never big on details any how, like that fictitious graduate degree from New York University or those non-existent varsity football letters at New Hampshire. Those resume whoppers cost O'Leary the Notre Dame job back in 2001. Who says coaching and credibility go hand in hand?

(John Lindsay is sports editor of Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com. Contact him at lindsayj@shns.com)