By BRAD SENKIW, Scripps Howard News Service

Nothing seems to change in November. The temperatures finally cool, the beautifully colored leaves fall off the trees, the Thanksgiving turkey goes in the oven and Steve Spurrier supposedly prepares for his last game at South Carolina.

It never fails.

While the NBA was celebrating Boston's championship earlier this week, the college game was in mourning.

Forty student-athletes -- 14 freshmen, 10 sophomores and 16 juniors -- gave up their college eligibility early and made entering the NBA draft official last Tuesday afternoon.

And while making the jump early is nothing new, it's frustrating nonetheless.

Now that spring football is over, playoff talk is over and the long wait for a new season has begun, it's time to take shots at the issues of college football.

There are less than 16 weeks between now and the season opener for most teams on the weekend of Aug. 30.

For those of you that were sitting on the edge of your seats waiting to hear the verdict from the Bowl Championship Series meetings in Hollywood, Fla. earlier this week, I'm guessing you didn't fall in the floor.

Moments after the Samsung 500 ended at Texas Motor Speedway last Sunday, the only person in the world doing back-flips was Carl Edwards.

The race gave NASCAR fans and drivers little to rave about. The track was rough, the cars were nearly impossible to handle and there was very little side-by-side racing.

As soon as Jason Richards' shot missed and Davidson fell short of upsetting Kansas in the Elite Eight on Sunday, I smiled.

The search for the next South Carolina coach will undoubtedly be as hot as "American Idol" for many months to come. But longtime college basketball analyst and ambassador of the game Dick Vitale threw his two cents last week in the USA Today.

Just days before Valentine's Day, the irony is amazing. Clemson and its fans had a chance to be shot by Cupid's arrow on Sunday; instead they were left with a broken heart.

Between the Giants' amazing upset and the Patriots' fall from perfection, nothing hit the sports world harder than the resignation of Texas Tech coach Bob Knight on Monday, setting up the end of his era.

In a shocking move, the college game is losing much more than the record holder for victories.

Every time I see "The Play" I get goose bumps. The game and a trip to the Final Four hung in the balance. Young men on both sides had played the contest of their lives.