Yesterday...

Well, Dang. Just Dang!! Yesterday was yet another banner day for college football…and a great day to be a fan. I can’t remember another year, another season, where the games have been so close (the ones that matter, anyway), and where there have been so many upsets. It’s just wild!

The hunt is open to more than a dozen teams. Instead of whittling down the list of contenders, we're expanding it.

We're at the point of talking about South Florida and Boston College as national title contenders -- with a straight face. We're at a point when Ohio State can lose the national title game by a million points and lose its Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback among eight NFL draft picks -- and probably now be ranked No. 1, thanks to the LSU loss and California's home loss to Oregon State.

We're at a point when lordly USC is defrocked by Stanford, which finished 82nd when an ESPN.com panel ranked all 119 Division I-A teams over the past decade. Then, the next week, powerful LSU is taken down by Kentucky, which ranked 73rd in the same poll.

Today, UK's ranking in the AP and coaches' polls should be rocketing back toward the top 10 after a remarkable show of poise and fortitude. Ten days earlier, a lot of people figured the Wildcats were exposed as impostors when they lost at South Carolina. Saturday night, they had their credentials re-established.

I’m talking in generalities, the linked article is specifically about the LSU – Kentucky game. That game was the best I saw yesterday, and that's serious understatement. I’m done saying “best ever,” coz I’ve used that phrase for the past three weeks running. But, word choice aside, it’s nonetheless true. What else can you say about a game that goes to triple overtime…a game where the nation’s number one-ranked team goes for a 57-yard field goal…and the win… with two seconds left in the fourth quarter and misses it, a game where that same team which was something like eight-for-eight on fourth down conversions…failed on a fourth and two situation in the third overtime and loses the game. Wow. Just WOW! It just don’t get no better than that, Gentle Reader. And Kentucky simply played their collective hearts out. This game is a sterling example of why I LOVE the college game, and why I watch religiously.

One more thing. The SEC is the best conference in college ball. Period. And I can say that without being accused of being some sort of “homer,” as I’m an ND fan…and my team doesn’t belong to any conference. Yeah, I also root for Big Blue and Air Force, but the Big Ten just ain’t that big any longer, not compared to the SEC. And the WAC? Yeahrightsure. Nope, it’s the SEC, hands down. It may not stay that way, but it’s certainly true this year. Last year, too.

(AP Photo/Ed Reinke)