Miami fired Randy Shannon yesterday at the conclusion of a 7-5 season. Several traditional powers have fallen on hard times. Michigan, Florida, Penn State, Iowa, Notre Dame and USC are all 7-5, and Texas is at 5-7.
In the PAC-10 only three teams are bowl eligible, and the conference is in danger of not sending a team to the Holiday Bowl, let alone the Las Vegas or Emerald. 5-6 Oregon State, Washington, and Arizona State need a win in their rivalry game to make the minimum qualification for a bowl. ASU would need a special exemption after playing two non-AQs. Oregon State would need a big performance against a heavily-favored opponent.
Power has shifted in college football, and it will again. One of the biggest reasons is the 85-man scholarship limit, which creates parity. Thirty years ago the best five tailbacks and middle linebackers in the conference would all be on the five-deep at USC. The proliferation of cable television made it possible for a wider variety of schools to get exposure and a revenue boost, and the internet made it easier for a school in the rainy northwest, for example, to find, scout and recruit talented players farther from home, like a dazzling, talent-of-a-lifetime tailback from Texas. Of course it helped to have a fairy godfather to bestow gifts of facilities and top coaches.
Duck fans always hoped this year would come, and now it's seven days from completion. It's pretty heady stuff to contemplate that long, strange trip. Even as far back as August, only a lunatic fringe of die hards would declare that an undefeated, national championship game season was Oregon's destiny. Now the lunatics look like prophets. It's always been like that.
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