The Sky is Falling!?!?!

With skyrocketing gas prices (you think you have it bad? Move here to Vancouver- $6 per gallon. I wish I were kidding), the housing crisis, and everything else going on, it seems to have people wondering just what kind of world we're living in, and what the future looks like. That's all well and good, but you know what really scares me? Do you know what kind of world I'm afraid to live in? Do you know why I think the sky is falling? Because the Kansas Freaking Jayhawks are ranked in the top 20, and in some places even the top 10, of every preseason college football poll I’ve seen. Look nothing against the Rock Chalk Jayhawks, but there's only two polls they should be ranked highly in: college basketball rankings and national wheat production. That's it. But college football? Just what the hell is going on here? And unfortunately, it doesn't stop there: go down the list and you'll find “traditional powers” such as Texas Tech, BYU, Fresno State, Oregon State, Illinois, and Wake Forest littered among the top 25.

I guess I had hoped last year's parity striken free-for-all was just a blip or one year phenomenon or some kind of bad dream. But the new preseason polls show that perhaps the Age of Parity has hit the one sport I never thought it would. And don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't enjoy a wide open race for the national title, it's just that I enjoy seeing the Big Boys being the ones in contention, and if one of the Little Guys make a miraculous run, it's better when it's truly miraculous or David vs. Goliath. Kansas getting to a BCS game after a century of awful football? Great story. Kansas being one of many non-traditional schools contending? Not such a good story. Call me crazy but I want the best of the best, and if you're a small school you need to step up to the challenge, not have the pack brought back to you. I am NOT from the school of the "best of the lousiest or the lousiest of the best". I love an upset when it's truly an upset.

However, don't think for a second that I'm not excited about the upcoming season: au contraire. I actually couldn't be more excited. The Big 10 will be better than people think (although it seems like the expectations and reputation of the conference are at an all-time low, so it shouldn’t be hard to beat national expectations. Part of that thanks can go to THE Ohio State University for getting their ass kicked 2 years in a row by an SEC team). While the Buckeyes look loaded again, Scony is a legit team, Illinois will be even better (the Zooker has been a recruiting fiend down in Champagne), and Penn State and Michigan should be good simply because they're Penn State and Michigan. The SEC will be awesome yet again, and the Pac 10 aka The Conference Nobody Pays Attention To, will be solid again. So while it's not all doom and gloom in the Age of Parity, I'd sure appreciate it if the Have-Nots would go back to being the Have-Nots, and the Big Boys would take their rightful places back. If anything can make the world right again, it would be that.