When is the SEC not intriguing?  Every season, the SEC carries national news because no conference has the fanaticism of the SEC when it comes to college football.  When you have a team getting 80,000+ coming to the spring game, you know that the fans of that conference are serious.  This season, the SEC should be another exciting, fanatical season, but there should be a ton of unknown stories throughout the season.  Can LSU keep their standing as the premier SEC team this decade?  Will Florida have the defense to make a run at their second national championship in three years?  Will Alabama become a factor in Nick Saban’s second season in Tuscaloosa?  Can Sylvester Croom keep improving the quality of football at Mississippi State?  Can Philip Fulmer keep the heat off of him in Knoxville?  Those storylines just include the coaches while the players have their own storylines to deal with.

Last year was a big season for individual players in the SEC and they are going to have a lot of new faces being productive this season.  Of course, the top returning player will be Tim Tebow of Florida, the Heisman Trophy winner last year.  Big things are expected from Tebow and Percy Harvin, who some say could challenge Tebow for the Heisman like Reggie Bush did with Matt Leinart in 2005.  Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno rushed for over 1,300 yards and scored 14 TDs as a freshman last year; no less is expected from him this season.  South Carolina has one of the top returning linebacker groups in the country as Jasper Brinkley returns from injury and Eric Norwood looks to continue his stellar play from last year.  Ole Miss continues to produce very good defensive players.  Greg Hardy looks to continue to be one of the best defensive linemen in the nation.

Yet, it will be the new names that have everyone in SEC country excited.  One of the most exciting players in the nation could very well be the 5’5 159 lbs. Trindon Holiday for LSU, but how much can he touch the ball?  Many Crimson Tide fans cannot wait to see the true frosh wide receiver Julio Jones, who some say was the best in high school last year.  Ole Miss fans are looking forward to seeing frosh running back Enrique Davis, who originally signed with Auburn in 2007, but went back to prep school.  Kentucky has a redshirt frosh named Anthony Mosley who many expect big things from immediately as well.  These new players are expected to produce immediate and special results.

No conference has the prestige of the SEC in terms of recognition, fan support, and the atmosphere from every single game.  The last two national champions have come from the SEC.  The coaches in the SEC are known better nationally than a lot of NFL coaches, especially since some of them, such as Nick Saban and Bobby Petrino, have just left the NFL for the SEC.  In terms of size of the stadiums, the SEC has 6 of the top 12 stadiums in terms of capacity (attendance) and many of them sell out every game.  Such competition brings more and more pressure every year to succeed in the conference, which also brings intrigue to each season.

Caleb Campbell is an officer of the United States Army, so he has no problem when it comes to the concept of sacrifice.  It is his duty to protect and serve his country.  This past week, Campbell faced a sacrifice that at least was a surprise.  After telling him time and time again, that he could attempt to play in the NFL this year and serve his country, Campbell was told that he could not try out for the Detroit Lions.  To anyone who understands military academies, this was not that much of a surprise, but the way it was handled may have been.  Well, maybe not if you had been paying attention.

In the past, there was a 5-year commitment if you graduated from a service academy and that was non-negotiable.  The most popular case in the NFL was Roger Staubach and he waited for 5 years before he was able to begin his NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys.  Staubach had won the Heisman Trophy in 1963 and was drafted in the 10th round by the Dallas Cowboys in 1964.  Yet, Staubach did not begin his NFL career until he was a 27-year-old rookie in 1969 because of his military commitment.  Staubach went on to a stellar NFL Hall of Fame career for the Cowboys and the service academies kept their reputation of having their athletes fulfill their military commitment.

What brought a change to the normal 5-year commitment was the case of David Robinson.  Robinson’s father was in the Navy and since Robinson was 5’9 as a junior in high school, no one could have predicted what was in store for David Robinson.  When his senior year began, David Robinson had grown to be 6’7 and unlike his junior year, he not only made his high school team, but he earned all-area and all-district honors as well.  Even with the newfound success in basketball, Robinson chose to follow in the footsteps of his father and join the Navy.  After he struggled throughout his freshman year on the basketball court, Robinson came back his sophomore year as a 6’11 giant and he began to dominate on the basketball court as he led Navy to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time in 25 years.  As his performance began to improve, so did his prospects for an NBA career and he began to have thoughts of transferring from the Naval Academy, but he decided to stay.  During his last two years at Navy, Robinson led the team to within one game from the Final 4 his junior year and was voted national player of the year his senior year.  After playing in the 1988 Summer Olympics, Navy let him out of his commitment in 1989 and Robinson went on to have a Hall of Fame NBA career.

These two examples show what the United States Military Academies have done for their athletes.  In the case of Caleb Campbell, he played football for the Army, so this is the first big-time sports story the Army has had outside of the annual Army-Navy game in years.  The problem in the situation starts at the top simply because there was no process for the change of decision.  Campbell had been told throughout the entire process that he would be able to go after his dream of playing in the NFL and then a day before he was to report to training camp for the Detroit Lions, he was told that would not be the case.  Campbell was scheduled to work in recruiting, an area may have been better at if given an opportunity to play in the NFL.  He could have prompted kids who never gave the military a second thought a first thought, but now he is the football player that was told at the very last minute that he would not allowed to try out for an NFL team.  All this comes from the same military that is “looking for a few good men?”  After the Pat Tillman episode, you would think public relations in any case involving the NFL would be top notch with the military, but like the entire decision process, it was sloppy and ill prepared.

Now that training camps are starting all across the NFL, predictions are being made about this season. Most people are picking the Patriots to win the AFC again since their offense was the best of all-time last season. Some think the Chargers are going to break through since they now believe in Philip Rivers and Norv Turner. Some believe Jacksonville will take that next step and be the AFC’s representative in the Super Bowl. All of these predictions, but everyone seems to be forgetting about the Pittsburgh Steelers and this could be the team to watch for in the AFC.

At first glance, one could make the case that the Steelers not only are not one of the top contenders in the AFC, but they may not even be the best contender from the AFC North. Many believe the Cleveland Browns will be the best team in the AFC North. The Browns have spent a lot of money on players such as Donte Stallworth and Shaun Rogers while the Steelers never spend a lot of money in free agency. The problem is the Steelers are not going to make a ton of moves, but they are always solid in player acquisition and the draft, which could keep them on top of the AFC North.

The talent on the Steelers is deep and talented. Ben Roethlisberger was arguably the second-best quarterback in the league last season. Willie Parker rushed for more yards in the AFC than anyone not named LaDainian Tomlinson. Santonio Holmes established himself as a big-time receiver and could become the top wideout since Hines Ward is getting up in years. Heath Miller is quickly becoming one of the top tight ends in the league. In other words, the Steelers have a ton of offensive weapons and if you add their draft picks like Rashard Mendenhall or Limas Sweed, the depth on the offensive side of the football looks as good as any.

When the Pittsburgh Steelers have been good, the consistent strength of the team has always been their defense. Last year, they were one of the best in the NFL and they should be again this season. They seem to just keep a stockpile of linebackers – last year James Harrison replaced Joey Porter and was the team’s MVP and a Pro Bowler. They hope the same can happen for LaMarr Woodley who will be replacing Clark Haggans this season. Haggans, Harrison and Woodley could have the Steeler fans talking about the old “Blitzburgh” days with Kevin Greene and Greg Lloyd over a decade ago because of their ability to get to the quarterback. The defense, however, will need healthy seasons from safeties Troy Polamatu and Ryan Clark because when they went down, the defense fell apart at the end of the season.

The end of the last season should be the rally cry for the Steelers this season if they need any motivation. The Steelers lost 4 of their last 5 games, including a playoff loss in Pittsburgh to Jacksonville that the city has been talking about for the last 6 months. People forget that this team was 9-3 with the best defense in the league at the beginning of the month of December, but could not stop anyone the last 5 games. Do not expect that to happen again and expect the Steelers to make a serious noise in the AFC in the playoffs this time.

Being relatively new to Big 12 country has brought an understanding about how it works when football season comes around.  Most Big 12 fans believe the conference is the best regardless of how many players graduated or were lost to the draft.  You can’t really blame them though, especially since they have had 3 different schools (Nebraska, Texas, and Oklahoma) play for the national championship this decade and Oklahoma has played in the national title game three times this decade.  Last year, the conference was pretty underrated considering they had four teams in the top 10 at the end of the season.  This season, there should be no doubt, except to SEC fans, that the Big 12 will be the best conference in the country.

The Big 12 returned an unusual amount of talent this season, particularly at the quarterback position.  10 of the top 11 quarterbacks from last season are back this season and when you consider that 8 of the 10 threw 22 or more touchdowns, there is no doubt about the talent there.  They have their normal collection of playmakers on the offensive end with players such as Jeremy Maclin (Missouri), Michael Crabtree (Texas Tech), Marlon Lucky (Nebraska), and DeMarco Murray (Oklahoma).  They have their defensive stalwarts with players such as Auston English (Oklahoma), Joe Mortensen (Kansas), Sean Weatherspoon (Missouri), and William Moore (Missouri).  The Big 12 also has highly touted newcomers that big things are expected for this season with players such as Darrell Scott (Colorado), Beau Johnson (Oklahoma State), Malcolm Williams (Texas), and Jeffrey Fuller (Texas A&M).  Talent will definitely not be a problem in the Big 12 conference this season.

What supports the Big 12 this season more than other is the depth of really good teams in the conference.  Oklahoma and Texas have been very good the entire decade, each has a national title this decade, and will be very good again this season.  Texas Tech has consistently been a good football team each season as well.  The difference is now Missouri and Kansas both have good teams and many think that this season will bring the reemergence of Nebraska.  People should not forget Colorado as they could very well be a sleeper team in the conference.

The SEC clearly gets the most attention of any conference in college football and their quality of football is what most people measure all of the other conferences.  The thing is that it could have easily been the Big 12 with 3 national titles this decade, but they knocked themselves out of the national title game last year when Oklahoma defeated then #1 Missouri in the Big 12 title game.  Make no mistake, this year, the best conference in the country looks to be the Big 12.

You go across the country and there is a lot of respect for Donovan McNabb.  He has been the leader of the Philadelphia Eagles since 1998 and the Eagles has been one of the best organizations in the NFL ever since.  McNabb has always handled himself with grace and always seem to have exceptional poise in almost every situation.  The only thing that he has not done for the Eagles is win a Super Bowl, something that has caused him grief in the one place where McNabb does not have considerable respect.  That place is Philadelphia.

The city of Philadelphia is one of truly sports-crazed cities in this country.  No city loves their sports or their teams more than Philadelphia.  This does not mean that they show their teams love at all times.  In fact, quite the opposite is true in Philadelphia, where their fans are known to be some of, if not the toughest in all of the country.  No team in Philadelphia gets as much tough love as the Eagles and the person who has been at the center of it all in the last decade has been Donovan McNabb.

One could argue that McNabb’s opening minutes, as a Philadelphia Eagle were the most difficult of any since he has been in the league.  The Eagle fans booed when McNabb was the #2 pick in the 1999 draft for the Eagles.  They wanted the Eagles to draft Ricky Williams and McNabb was determined to make those who booed him eat their words.  After a rookie season that saw him become the first rookie to start at quarterback for the Eagles in almost a decade, McNabb led the Eagles to the playoffs for the first time since 1996 and was the MVP runner-up (to Marshall Faulk) in the Associate Press voting.  The next season, McNabb became the fourth Eagle quarterback to throw for 3,000 yards in consecutive seasons and led the Eagles to their first NFC Championship Game since 1980 before they lost to the St. Louis Rams.  In 2002, McNabb broke his leg in week 11 and somehow made it back for the playoffs and again, led them to the NFC Championship Game, this time losing to Tampa Bay in Philadelphia.

You would think that resurrecting the Eagle franchise would be enough to give him the proper respect around the league, but this was not the case.  Early in the 2003 season, Rush Limbaugh, then a commentator on ESPN, said that Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.  Again, McNabb led the Eagles to a third consecutive NFC Championship Game, but the Eagles lost again and thus McNabb became the first quarterback to lose three consecutive NFC Championship Games since Danny White (1980-82).  McNabb’s name began to be associated with the word, “choke” but most observers agreed that McNabb had the worst group of wide receivers in the league – this and most everything else was about to change.

The Eagles improved their wide receivers considerably with one move that brought Terrell Owens to the Eagles.  McNabb and the Eagles took off with this one move.  McNabb became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw 30 or more touchdowns (31), have less than 10 interceptions (8) and led the Eagles to a 13-3 record, their best ever in a 16-game period.  This time when the Eagles made their fourth consecutive NFC Championship Game, the Eagles won, and McNabb finally got his Super Bowl berth.  Unfortunately, the Eagles lost to the Patriots in the Super Bowl and the blame went to McNabb, but the craziness had just started.

The next season, Owens wanted more money and suddenly, he and McNabb, were at odds.  The story was the most popular in the league and led to Owens being suspended; McNabb got hurt for the season and the Eagles missed the playoffs.  Owens was let go, McNabb took the most responsibility again and even the Eagles made the playoffs – the Eagle fans had again turned their back on the man who had been at the center of the Eagles’ success in the last decade.  With all of his success, his detractors only point to his inability to win the Super Bowl and thus, McNabb could be in his last season as an Eagle.  This indeed would look bad to most, but would probably be ideal for Eagle fans, who have seemed to sour on McNabb, which is quite frankly a sad ordeal.

College football is a little more than a month away and the excitement is building for the beginning of a new season.  Many questions are being asked and many predictions are being made.  A big question that has been going around is the state of Notre Dame football, clearly the most popular college football program this country has ever known.  No other program has a network that just covers their home games exclusively and you can probably add up all of the movies that have been made about Notre Dame football and it would surpass all of the other college football movies combined.  There used to be magic in Notre Dame football, but lately, the Fighting Irish have found themselves becoming a most distasteful term, “a has-been.”

When you list the accomplishments of Notre Dame football, it usually takes a while before you can finish them, even if you condense them.  Notre Dame has won 8 “wire” (AP or coaches) national championships, although they credit themselves with 11 and have no problem letting anyone know that they were voted “national champion” by at least one sector 9 other times.  They have had 12 undefeated seasons and 6 of their players have won the Heisman Trophy as well.  Notre Dame has had the most All-Americans and after USC, the Fighting Irish has had the most NFL players and NFL Hall of Famers.  The Fighting Irish also has the 2nd-highest winning percentage, .744, along  with dozens of mind-boggling records.  How could anyone think the football program is in trouble with numbers such as these?

Lately, the Notre Dame football program has fallen on tough times, especially for a program so used to success.  Since 1980, Notre Dame has won one national championship in 1988 and one Heisman Trophy winner in Tim Brown in 1987.  This was during the Lou Holtz era, the last Notre Dame coach to have big-time success there.  Since then, Notre Dame has mostly been known for what they are no longer and that is a dominant program.  The Fighting Irish have lost nine consecutive bowl games since 1994 and all but two of them were by two touchdowns or more.  Last year, Notre Dame had an awful season going 3-9.  This was Notre Dame’s fourth losing season since 1999 and they have only had 13 losing seasons ever at Notre Dame.  Ironically, as bad as they were, it was the first time since 1992 that Notre Dame ended the season with two straight wins.

With the disappointing season last year, many predict that Notre Dame will be a much-improved team in 2008.  Most still believe that Charlie Weis is still the right coach and the fact that last year’s team started nine true freshmen at some point gives Fighting Irish fans hope that better play is on the way.  The question is how much better?  Are the days of the dominant Notre Dame teams over or have they just disappeared for a while?

Last year was either super or horrible for the New England Patriots and what was even more spectacular was that there was never any in between. No team in the history of the league had gone 18-0 in one season before. No team in the history of the league had scored as many points as the Patriots had scored. No team had thoroughly dominated the first half of a season like the Patriots had. Even with all of that, the Patriots were not given any credit because they were caught illegally “spying” on the New York Jets at the beginning of the season. The thought was that their success was based on their “spying” instead of their preparation and skill. The only way to get their just due, in the Patriots’ mind, was to win the Super Bowl.

The Patriots’ offense last year was the best the NFL has ever seen. They did not score under 34 points until November and their lowest point total all season long was 20. Tom Brady threw a NFL record 50 touchdowns last year while newcomer Randy Moss caught a NFL record 23 touchdowns. Wes Welker set a team record 112 catches and the offensive line featured 3 Pro Bowls in Dan Koppen, Logan Mankins, and Matt Light. Patriot running back Lawrence Maroney, who was forgotten by most in the first half of the season, rushed for over 100 yards in four of the last six games, including the playoffs. The offense was so awesome that people forgot about the cornerstone of the franchise since they became a championship team under Bill Belichick.

When Belichick became the coach of the Patriots, his defenses again confused and dominated opponents. Nothing changed, even with the offense scoring dizzying amounts of points. The defense still excelled as they always have and the defense quietly gave up the fewest amount of points until the last game of the season. Mike Vrabel led the team in sacks with 12.5 and was third in tackles. Asante Samuel led the team in interceptions with 6 and Tedy Bruschi led the team in tackles with 92. It was business as normal for the Patriots defensively, which as always, meant bad news to the rest of the league.

The Patriot defense, being as good as normal, combined with the offense – playing at a record-breaking level – led to an 18-0 record and made them huge favorites in Super Bowl XLII. The only problem was the Giants played as though they were the favorites and pulled off the tremendous upset, beating the Patriots 17-14 in a thrilling victory. Not only did the Patriots lose the Super Bowl, but core players, like Asante Samuel (Philadelphia) and Eugene Wilson (Tampa Bay), on their defense left New England to play elsewhere. The Patriots will still be the favorites to go back to the Super Bowl this season, but one has to wonder how much of an effect last year’s loss in the Super Bowl (which ruined their “perfect” season) will have on the Patriots this season.