The 2010 season is in the books and most people are already looking ahead to 2011.  We're hot on the recruiting trail with National Signing Day just a couple weeks away.  Call me sentimental, but I like to take a look back before I close the book and start looking ahead.

It's really not that 2010 was such a horrible year on the grid iron.  Hey, any year that there's college football is a good year.  We had a national championship game that lacked the usual conspiracy theories.  We had some truly special players dazzling us with unimaginable talent.  We had some underdogs step up (Baylor) and some power houses crumble (Texas).

So, why do I have such a sour taste in my mouth and a real sense of "blah" when I think about the 2010 season?

The Hype Was Too High

Let's take a quick trip down memory lane here.  A little over a year ago, the Big Ten announced that they were going to look into expansion.  Remember that?

You ought to.  Websites the world over were abuzz with discussions and wild speculations as a result.  From December of 2009 until May of 2010, everyone and their brother were predicting everything from a complete non-event to complete college football Armageddon and everything in between.  The usual discussions of SEC dominance and potential national champions were pushed completely aside in favor of prognosticating what was about to befall college football.

To make the situation even more interesting, the Pac-10 also announced plans to grow.  What's more, they threw names into the mix.

Along about May of 2010, the pieces started to fall.  The Big Ten - undoubtedly in an effort to beat the Pac-10 to the punch - announced that Nebraska was the newest member to "the conference that can't count".  Cornhusker fans were alight with excitement, as were Big Ten fans.

Hot on the heels of that revelation, the Pac-10 invited Colorado, Utah and the vast majority of the Big 12 South.  That really got the juices flowing!  If all of the teams excepted the invitation, the Pac-10 would have quickly become the Pac-16 and would have ushered in the Era of the Superconference.

However, in the 11th hour, Texas decided to stick with the Big 12 (who was allowing them to launch their own network, uncontested) which prompted Oklahoma and the other Texas schools to stay put.  The Pac-10 is now the Pac-12 with Colorado and Utah on board and will host a conference title game, as will the Big Ten.

All of this movement only built the hype heading into the 2010 season.  Suddenly, there were three teams playing their final seasons with their respective conferences and further change was in the air.

Conference re-alignment aside, Alabama was bringing back the previous season's Heisman Trophy winner and enough talent to make a concerted run at defending their national title.  From the Big Ten, Ohio State had a Heisman hopeful of their own (Terrell Pryor) and was being touted as a real possibility for crashing the national title party.

TCU and Boise State both started the season ranked inside the Top Five of the Preseason Coaches Poll - within striking distance of working their own ways into the national title game.

With all of these changes, the nation was at a fever pitch when the first ball was kicked to start the season.  What's more, that kick belonged to Boise State against Virginia Tech in a game that could make or break the Broncos' hopes of crashing the BCS party.

Where did Boise State end up?  One loss.  No championship.  Not even a BCS bowl.

Where did Ohio State end up?  One loss.  No championship.  They did get the SEC monkey off their backs by beating Arkansas, but it was anti-climactic thanks to scandal (which I'll address later).

What about 'Bama?  Three losses.  No championship.  Not even a BCS bowl.

We didn't even have good reason to argue that one of the mid-majors belonged in the national title game.  I mean, TCU did put up a perfect season, and maybe they did deserve a shot, but it was very easy to argue that Auburn/Oregon was a better national title match-up.

The action on the field just couldn't live up to the action that occurred off the field before the season even began.

Auburn Wasn't Exciting Enough

With all due respect to Tigers fans, Auburn just didn't really feel like a national champion team.  Sure, they won...a lot.

However, they barely got by Mississippi State and it wasn't exactly an offensive shootout (17-14).  They needed overtime to beat Clemson at home (27-24).  A field goal was all that separated them from Kentucky (37-34).  They managed to get by Alabama, but only by one point (28-27) and they weren't favored to win that game at all.

None of those are real pushover teams; don't get me wrong.  Still, we're used to seeing teams like Alabama destroying the likes of Kentucky, or Florida obliterating opponents like Clemson.  That Aurburn merely "got by" those teams never really allowed me to land on the conclusion that they were a team on a crash course with destiny.  In fact, I easily predicted that the Crimson Tide would end the Tigers' run at the title.

I was wrong.  So was much of the nation.

Being wrong doesn't suddenly elevate Auburn's "excitement meter".  It just means that they did the same thing Ohio State did in 2002 - they won ugly.

I know what you're thinking (especially if you're an Auburn fan): how was Cam Newton not exciting?!

Cam Newton is a special talent.  No question about that.

However, one man does not a team make.  As exciting as Newton-the-huan-highlight-reel was, the rest of the team was pretty well...good.  They were effective, but they weren't exciting.  They were good, but not exciting.

Off the Field Issues Were Too Distracting

Speaking of Cam Newton, let's go ahead and address the 8-ton elephant in the room.

The NCAA cleared Cam to play in the national title game after concluding that Cecil Newton (Cam's father) did try to instigate a pay-for-play scheme.  What's more, it was alleged that Cam left Florida before he could be expelled for three separate incidents of cheating.  As if all of that wasn't enough, he was also implicated in some deal involving a stolen computer.

The guy just didn't have a good year.  That is, until he went on to win the Heisman Trophy and the national title.

At Ohio State, five members of their team got into trouble for selling their jerseys, uniform pants and pendants - capitalizing on their football fame.  That's on top of receiving expensive tattoos in exchange for autographs.  They were all suspended for five games, but thanks to the Sugar Bowl wanting them to play so badly, they were able to get that suspension....um...suspended...until the start of next year.

At the start of the year, North Carolina was involved in a scandal involving NFL agents.

Iowa had their all-time leading receiver busted for running a "drug house" just weeks before facing Missouri in the Insight Bowl, then lost their starting halfback as well (for academic reasons, though he also was arrested for drug posession).

It seemed that every time we started focusing on the game, something away from the field pulled us right back out of it again.

Three Major Conference were "Down"

The SEC may be the king of the hill.  Even as a Big Ten fan (and analyst), I can't argue against their dominance over the national title picture of late.  With six of the last seven titles sitting on SEC shelves, it's pretty impossible not to recognize the strength of the conference.

However, it was still a down year for the Mighty SEC.  Florida more-or-less collapsed, defending their division title with a mediocre 8-5 season.  Alabama followed up their national title season of 2009 with a merely "good" 9-3 regular season and drubbing of Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl.  South Carolina had a good year, but couldn't win the conference crown and wasn't really all that exciting (aside from Lattimore running like a madman).

LSU put up some really entertaining moments, but wasn't a real threat for the conference or national titles.  Only Auburn delivered and, as noted earlier, they weren't all that exciting either.

The Big Ten looked great on paper.  The conference boasted three teams with identical 11-1 records and crowned tri-champions in its last year without a title game.

That turned out to be something of a misconception though.  Michigan State lobbied that they belonged in a BCS game, but was humbled by Alabama to the tune of 49-7.  Wisconsin blew a prime opportunity against TCU in the Rose Bowl and dropped to the Horned Frogs in the Grandaddy of 'em all.  Ohio State beat Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, but didn't necessarily look great doing it.

Outside of those three teams, the Big Ten had nobody in the same hemisphere.  Iowa, Penn State, Michigan and Northwestern all posted 7-5 regular season records and only Iowa managed to win their bowl game.  Illinois came in at 6-6 on the regular season and beat Baylor, but...so what?

Worst of all, the conference went 0-5 on New Year's Day.

The Big 12 was good this year, but lost some of its luster as well.

For starters, the whole thing became a joke the minute Texas opted to stay on board in exchange for their own network, demonstrating once again that its Texas' conference and everybody else is just along for the ride. They single-handedly made the entire Pac-10 conference their chumps as well.  In a way, it's poetic that Texas posted a meely 5-7 record that included four straight losses starting with Iowa State - yes, Iowa State.

Oklahoma had moments, but they struggled mightily to get past Air Force and Cincinnati on back-to-back weeks.

Nebraska won the North Division, but didn't set the world on fire doing it.  They lost to Texas in a very winnable game, dropped a snoozefest at Texas A&M (6-9), and then dropped to Washington in the Holiday Bowl.

It's just tough to maintain the high level of excitement that the season started with when three of the "big boy" conferences were all merely "meh".

Time to Put it to Bed

It's really too bad.  The 2010 season started with so much promise.  We could have had a mid-major (or two) crashing the biggest game of them all.  We could have had a real showdown between the SEC and Big Ten for conference supremecy.  We could have had a lot of things.

Instead, we got a really blah year.  The SEC just wasn't as stellar as usual.  The Big Ten talked a good talk, but couldn't back it up in the bowls.  The Big 12 can't get out of Texas' shadow and looks now like a paper conference wrapped around one big Longhorn.  Players were idiots on the field and off of it, causing distraction after distraction (not to mention turnover after turnover).

As sad as I am that there won't be games on Saturdays for a long time now, I'm kind of glad too.  Finally, that miserable season can be put behind us.

Yeah, it's time to look forward to 2011.  Close the books.  It's over.  Bring on the new season.  I'm ready for some football!

Until next time...HAPPY BOWL HUNTING!