The most tumultuous offseason in recent memory officially ends today. Thankfully. Mercifully.
College football over the last eight months has been dominated by scandal, scoundrels and scumbags.
The controversy that is the BCS is so 2005. The outrage over college football's postseason seems like child's play compared to an offseason of discontent that forced every fan to embrace the long-held medical and political truth that no news really is good news.
THE mess at THE Ohio State University that cost coach Jim Tressel his job still will be there after the Buckeyes overpower Akron, but the talk can turn to polls and tailbacks rather than Pryor and tattoos.
Even today's highest-profile game -- the showdown between LSU and Oregon that is the first meeting of top-five teams on a neutral field in more than 25 years -- is as much about who's not playing as who is. LSU starting quarterback Jordan Jefferson and Oregon standout defensive back Cliff Harris will not play tonight after run-ins with the law.
And for the love of Beano Cook's jowls, if Nevin Shapiro never speaks into a microphonre again, it will be too soon. Yes, Shapiro, the rogue booster who dropped an NCAA nuclear bomb on the Miami program, almost bragged about how much he gave to recruits and how many NCAA rules he broke, laws he ignored and moral transgressions he committed.
Yes, Miami deserves to be in the NCAA crosshairs for associating with and turning a blind eye toward Shapiro, but the dude needs to look into the mirror, too. And yes, that the mirror he uses is in a prison cell after he was busted running a $900-plus million Ponzi scheme deserves to be mentioned.
The unknown future of the NCAA rulebook at least offers a tempest of hope. Gone should be the days of tedious and borderline comical secondary violations -- remember when a coach mentioning an unsigned recruit's name seemed like a pretty big deal? -- and bring forth an electric circle of rules that must be obeyed or the punishment be banishment.
If the NCAA powers can address the rule-breakers with penalties that are stringent enough to force coaches, administrators and boosters to consider the ramifications, that will be a positive step. That, however, is a difficult challenge indeed in the growing arms race that is major college football.
We can leave expansion talk behind. In truth, who's not already tired of hearing about Texas A&M? (Enjoy your 15 minutes, Aggies, because if you are headed to the SEC, be ready for a lot of postseason trips to Shreveport.)
Those challenges, however, can wait for a least another day, week or month. The offseason worries can be set aside and questions can be answered in the next few hours, because today is about the games.
The sordid details and the dirt and the scandal will not disappear because play starts in earnest today, but at least we can be reminded why we loved college football in the first place.
It's about tailgates and bragging rights. Today we get to watch for scores rather than details; Lee Corso putting on a silly show rather than Nevin Shapiro putting on a slimy show. It's less about good grief and big payouts and bad intentions and more about good plays and big stats and bad uniforms. (Georgia needs to burn those get-ups the Bulldogs are wearing tonight as soon as their game against Boise State is over.)
It's about the University of Tennessee starting Year 2 of the Derek Dooley era with a quiet confidence that bodes well for this season. It's about whether Vols quarterback Tyler Bray has matured to the point that the lanky sophomore can lead as well as he can throw.
Tonight it's about Georgia and Mark Richt avoiding the hot seat. It's about Alabama and Auburn and Florida and most of the SEC stretching their legs -- and their rosters -- against overmatched opponents that for the most part are happy to show up, cash the checks and see what it's like to play in front of 80,000-plus fans for a change.
It's about LSU and Oregon, two teams with big goals and bigger potential.
Today let it be about the Tigers and the Ducks and every other football team.
We'll again have time for their compliance departments in the very near future.