Outside the Huddle: Changes ahead for college football

The 2008 college football season is upon us, and with it comes an air of change.

Oh, you might not see it now, and you might not see it for some time. But it’s coming.

Coming off the most exciting regular season and most disappointing postseason of my lifetime, college football finds itself at a crossroads in 2008.

Foremost, of course, is the playoff question.

After the latest rounds of meeting with BCS commissioners, a college football playoff is once again off the table for another year.

Coming off a season in which a two-loss LSU team was rewarded for underachieving for two months while teams like Georgia, USC, Oklahoma and West Virginia were left on the outside looking in, there’s not a significant reason to think we won’t see more of the same in coming years.

Parity has arrived in college football. With numerous coaches all over the country who know how to play the recruiting game, the ever-present scholarship limitations and a variety of other factors, it’s harder than ever to build a juggernaut.

Heading into this season there are no fewer than 12 teams with a legitimate shot at the national championship, and I can only really see one of them (Oklahoma) actually going undefeated.

That means more controversy.

And the more controversy we see over the coming years, the closer we will be to a playoff as college presidents realize the kind of payday they’re missing out on.

It may take the Big Ten and Pac-10 branching off to form their own association for a playoff to happen, but it eventually will.

Second, we’re seeing a drastic change in the way offense is played.

The spread offense is everywhere, and now that it’s made its way to the SEC here at Auburn don’t look for it to go anywhere anytime soon.

The offense is a great equalizer, minimizing teams’ deficiencies and maximizing their strengths.

And as coaches continue to recruit to both run and stop that offense, the days of 300-pound offensive and defensive linemen might be numbered.

As you’re seeing, speed is everywhere. And it probably won’t be long before the spread is as prevalent as the wishbone, the run-’n-shoot or the West Coast offense were in their heyday.

And not that we’re particularly worried about them, but this is eventually going to change the way the NFL does business since there will be so few prototype players available.

Thirdly, and this is almost certainly on few minds, but it’s probably about to become a lot more expensive to be a college football fan.

I hear you saying it’s already expensive to go see a game, which is true. But if some conferences have their way you’ll be forking over big money for cable packages in the near future if you want to see your teams play.

Several conferences, most notably the SEC, are on the verge of seeing their TV deals expire.

While no one is looking to abandon the big money of the networks and ESPN, several conferences are looking at following the Big Ten’s lead and starting up their own networks.

And if cable companies treat those networks the way they have the Big Ten’s, if you want to watch your team’s game you’re going to have to fork over that extra money for the expanded sports tier from your cable or satellite provider.

Numerous other changes are on the horizon, from recruiting rules to the facilities arms race, but no matter what your mind is on you can rest assured this is going to be another exciting season.

I’ll be here all year to try to make sense of it all.

Next Week
Don’t buy the hype: Teams that won’t meet expectations in 2008.

Tim Cottrell is sports designer of the Opelika-Auburn News. He will write a weekly column on college football during the season. You can also read him on the OA Sports Blog at oanow.com. He can be reached at 737-2511 or at tcottrell@oanow.com.