08/25 (Very) Quickie

In one week, the college football season begins (technically, one week from last night, with the tantalizing Boise St at Michigan St opener), and I can't wait.

I have muted expectations for Florida.
I am pretty sure that the national champ is a foregone conclusion -- Alabama.
I am pretty sure that USC might run the table and it won't matter.
I am pretty sure that both West Virginia and TCU are going to take the Big 12 by storm.
I am pretty sure that both Mizzou and Texas A&M are in for a rough freshman season in the SEC.
I am pretty sure that Matt Barkley is a lock for the Heisman.
I am pretty sure that Urban Meyer will have Ohio State better -- but by no means great.

But I am also pretty sure that I felt as certain last year that Alabama would roll to the title -- the loss to LSU certainly could have counted as disqualifying.

(Although I think it's clear that the SEC will always have a claim -- a legitimate one -- to one of two title-game spots. In most years, the opponent should be the best non-SEC team, but as we saw last year, that doesn't always work out.)

And I (and everyone else) was pretty sure that Andrew Luck was a lock for the Heisman -- was RG3 even on the Heisman radar at all on August 25, 2011?

Despite the hegemony of the SEC's championship dynasty and the temporarily limited two-team playoff system, college football remains the best "week-in-week-out" sport and every year on the last Saturday before the season starts, I look ahead to spending the next three months' worth of Saturdays immersed.

More on the college football season over the course of the next week.

-- D.S.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox are lucky the Dodgers want to spend their way back to relevance. The trade, by the way, is a massive repudiation of the Theo Epstein Era in Boston (at least since the second title.)