COTTRELL COLUMN: What did we learn in 2008?

Another year in the books, another SEC national champion.

It’s becoming a bit of a trend.

Even in a year when, by almost any measure, the conference as a whole was not very good it still managed to go 6-2 in bowls and claim the BCS title.

That’s not bad.

After a shaky start, we learned just how much Tim Tebow is really able to rally his national champion Florida Gators, from the 10-game winning streak to close this season to the fourth-quarter dominance to close out Oklahoma.

But we learned a lot of other things, too.

This has been the year that, without a doubt, the new breed of coaches asserted their dominance. We’ve learned the likes of Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops, Pete Carroll and Nick Saban aren’t going anywhere for a while. The days of the Bobby Bowdens and Joe Paternos are over.

We learned that even if Oklahoma has been an even bigger no-show for big games than Ohio State, the Buckeyes will still be the only ones getting called on it.

And speaking of Ohio State, even if they did put on a good performance in a loss to Texas, we learned that the Big Ten is relegated to second-class citizen status until further notice. Just in case there was any doubt before.

We learned that the Mountain West not only deserves an automatic BCS bid, but that it’s also better than the ACC or Big East. And maybe even the Big Ten.

With Georgia’s Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno, Ohio State’s Beanie Wells, Pittsburgh’s LeSean McCoy, Missouri’s Jeremy Maclin, Texas Tech’s Michael Crabtree and others entering the 2009 NFL Draft, we learned that we have to enjoy these guys as much as we can while they’re in college, because it doesn’t last long.

With the departures of Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville and Tennessee’s Phil Fulmer, we learned that long and relatively (in Tuberville’s case) or very (in Fulmer’s) successful careers don’t necessarily buy you a reprieve anymore.

With Ball State dropping its final two games in relatively embarrassing fashion after a 12-0 start, we learned it helps to make your case on the field, and not in trying to set up hypothetical bowl matchups.

We also learned that — and who would’ve thunk it? — Michigan can actually have a losing season. They’ll be back though.

But most of all we learned that no matter how many tweaks the BCS puts into the system, no matter how good we think any team is, there’s no way to avoid having some controversy in who the national champion is.

There’s no way any of us can say with any certainty that Florida is better than Texas, USC or Utah.

And a plus-one wouldn’t have been enough to fix it.

We’ve learned that a playoff is coming.

The only question now is when we’ll learn when that will be.

Tim Cottrell is sports designer of the Opelika-Auburn News. His college football column will return the Tuesday after SEC Media Days. You can also read him on the O-A Sports Blog at oanow.com. He can be reached at 737-2511 or .

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