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The one thing that is for certain about college sports is that change often takes time. The NCAA’s Bowl Championship Series is one example of that. Since the founding of the BCSA system, preference in postseason BCS match ups had initially been given to what were (and still are) considered the major Conferences in college football – the SEC, Big Eight, Big Ten, Pac-10, and so on. As most fans of the game know, however, recent years have seen several teams from smaller conferences finally being given the attention they deserve by the BCS, with last year’s Texas Christian and Boise State teams being the best example of that trend. The true breakthrough for the BCS, however, began years before, beginning with the Utah Utes’ hiring of Urban Meyer for two seasons as Head Coach. Utah, a Mountain West Conference member, was not eligible for an automatic selection in a BCS game, and like other teams from the smaller conferences, had never been invited to play in one. Breaking that BCS wall would be one of Urban Meyer’s greatest accomplishments as coach.

Football is still one of the most popular games among youngsters the world over, with millions of kids aspiring to play the sport professionally one day. There are a lot of advantages to playing football. It has been said that footballers have the most stable minds and probably the strongest legs of all the athletes.

The baseball team that represents the University of Alabama which has been playing for the NCCA Division I college baseball league for some time now is known as the Crimson Tide.

Deep in the heart of the Big Twelve Conference the Texas Tech Raiders – otherwise known as “Tech” have been playing hard-nosed football since the year 1925. Given the importance of football in Texas, this should come as no surprise to any football fan anywhere. The program has not been a powerhouse on the national stage, but it has had a great degree of success within its conference affiliation, winning 11 conference titles and remaining competitive over the course of its existence. Over its long history, there is one period that definitely stands out when it comes to success, and that period was from 2001 until 2009 – a series of consecutive seasons that saw the Red Raiders of Texas Tech garner a winning season in every year. The oddest part of that is that their coach during that period was one of the rare coaches who had no experience playing the game.

Nobody would argue with the notion that the University of Georgia Bulldogs football program has had a continuing impact on the game of college football. With an impressive record of wins and losses – nearly two wins for every game they have lost in the last century-plus of football, the Bulldogs occupy a place among the sport’s best. From their position in the SEC, the Bulldogs have enjoyed many winning seasons, though recent years have not been among their best. Still, they are routinely ranked in the football polls, and always provide formidable competition for their opponents. Many of the great players in football history have won the Bulldogs’ uniform and played in their Athens, Georgia stadium – one of the largest stadiums of its kind in the world – in front of the more than ninety thousand fans that regularly fill it to capacity. One memorable Georgia player in recent decades was the Heisman Award winner of 1982 – Herschel Walker.

Trojan football has been a part of the NCAA since 1888, with the University of Southern California team having consistently been one of the teams to beat. With 11 national titles to the program’s credit, the Trojans have spent much of their history dominating the Pacific 10 Conference in which they compete, while also routinely threatening the national championship picture. Over the last decade, USC has spent much of their time ranked within the very top tier of the vote tabulations that have counted: the Associated Press (AP) and Bowl Championship Series (BCS) polls. Over the course of that decade, the Trojans were led by Coach Pete Carroll, who made a name for both himself and his team with a fast-paced style of offense and hard-nosed defense.

Are you a football fan? If so, you may be crying into your beer and pretzels come 2011. We’re looking at a good possibility for a strike, because of conflict between owners and players.

Since playing their first football game in 1889, the University of Wisconsin Badgers football program has seen its share of ups and downs. With an overall record of 614 wins and 465 losses, the ups have outweighed the downs, to be sure, but when the program has been down it has been for an extended period of time. For example, after their 1901 season, Badger teams suffered through what could only be described as a 35 year period of utter mediocrity – with the one exception being the team’s 1912 undefeated season. Another thirty year period of poor performances and mediocre results occurred after the Badgers’ 1962 loss in the Rose Bowl. It would not be until Barry Alvarez arrived as the team’s head coach in 1990 that the program’s fortunes would begin to turn around.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers have seemingly always been among the most elite of all college football programs. Their victories number in excess of 800 – only six other programs have achieved that mark – and they stand alone as the team with the most football victories of any in the NCAA over the last 50 years. With 119 season campaigns under their belt, they currently stand in fourth place among Division 1 football wins. They have also won a total of five national crowns. Three of those five titles have been achieved within the last 25 seasons, and involved teams coached by one of football’s most storied sideline generals: the great Tom Osborne, whose teams dominated the college game from 1973 through 1997.

For the casual football fan whose experience with the college game may extend no farther than catching an occasional game with his buddies at the bar, Boise State’s Broncos football team can cause quite a bit of consternation. As members of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), they first captured the attention of much of the nation in the 2006-07 campaign. That season saw the Broncos go undefeated with 13 wins, and then beat the mighty Oklahoma Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl game. For the last several seasons, the Broncos have remained one of the best – and perhaps underrated – teams in the country. Even though they managed another undefeated 14 victory season in 2009, they were never seriously considered for title contention. Oddly enough, though, for most casual fans the Boise State football’s team has not been the real attention-getter – it has been the fact that they play on a blue field!