For those who were paying close attention, you may have noticed that I spent most the last week at this year’s NFLPA Bowl. The game, which is put on by the NFL to try and get a handful of college football players noticed by pro scouts held events all of last weekend, and I was lucky enough to attend most of them.  

Unfortunately though, for those looking for information on the game itself, well, you’re going to have to go someplace else to find it. That’s not what I’m here to talk about. Not here and not now anyway. Because while most of the media was in Carson, California last week to do exactly that- to evaluate the next wave of NFL stars- that couldn’t have been further from my mind.

Instead, I was there for a completely different reason: To take in the glory that in that is Herm Edwards. That’s right, the man who once famously uttered the phrase “You play to win the game,” was in attendance last week as the coach of the National team.

And it’s safe to say that after three days around him, my life will never be the same again.

With the college football season officially done, it’s time to briefly turn our attention to college hoops (before we get back into college football recruiting next week!), where a lot has happened over the last several months. Indiana, Duke and Louisville have taken turns at No. 1, and the Pac-12 and Mountain West have emerged as college basketball power conferences, and the Big Ten has become the talk of the entire sport.

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That’s why on Thursday I decided to give my old buddy Rob Dauster of CollegeBasketballTalk.com a call to get both you and I caught up on the sport.

Rob is a wealth of college hoops knowledge and on Thursday we discussed the following subjects:

While the college football world was caught up in Manti Te’o fake-girlfriend-hysteria on Wednesday, the real story (no pun intended) in the sport came 2,000 miles in Eugene, Ore., where one of the best coaches in the game walked out the back door on an emerging dynasty. In the least surprising news of the off-season, which just so happened to come at the most surprising of times, Chip Kelly is now the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. And the strangest thing to me is that no one seems to care.

Well, ok, so “no one seems to care” is a bit of an overstatement, but in terms of great college coaches leaving the game, it barely registers as a 2.0 on the Mark Richter scale. Understand that it was just a few short years ago that we spent weeks wrestling with the idea that Jim Harbaugh would coach anywhere other than Stanford, fully expecting him to return to his alma mater at Michigan before he eventually pulled a 180 and headed off into the NFL sunset instead. Same with Pete Carroll, who had a multi-year song-and-dance with the NFL before eventually he too eventually took the plunge with Seattle in early 2010. This off-season we speculated on Bill O’Brien and Brian Kelly, Doug Marrone and for a minute, David Shaw as well.

College football season may be done, but as we all know actual football never stops. Recruiting is right around the corner, and before you know it, spring ball will be under way as well. Not to mention the NFL Draft is now creeping up on us too.

Which is why on Monday, I wanted to discuss exactly that- the NFL Draft- with my good friend Eric Galko. Eric is the Director of Scouting of OptimumScouting.com and covers the NFL Draft 365 days a year for the website. He is currently in Tampa Bay for the East-West Shrine game and took some time out of his schedule to chat about a number of very early NFL Draft topics, including Matt Barkley, another crop of elite Alabama players and who he'd take with the No. 1 pick.

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Eric and I also discussed...

- For someone who covers the NFL Draft like he does, what goes into the evaluation process? How important is character relative to the physical, on the field skills and how much can he gauge from talking to players themselves? Also, how much does Eric trust information passed on to him from agents?

Folks, before you start this article, please go ahead and grab a seat. I’ve got something to tell you and I’m not totally sure how you’re going to take it:

Ready? Ok, here goes: We... (//holding back tears//)...are about to enter our first Saturday in five months ...(//sniffling//)...without college football.

Yeah, I know, I’m hurting too. But we can work through this. I just know we can.

No, it won’t be easy. The idea that we won’t have any college football in our lives these next few months is a tough pill to swallow. There will be no more Johnny Football. No more of Les Miles’ hat or Charlie Strong’s hoodless sweatshirt. No more of Will Muschamp uncomfortably screaming at a third-string long snapper for no apparent reason. And I can’t lie, so far I haven’t taken it too well. Along with the death of my goldfish “Chip” (No, I swear, there was no particular reason I named him that), this is undoubtedly the toughest thing I’ve had to deal with so far in 2013.

At the same time, I will not let it keep me down. Yes, college football season may be over, but dammit, that doesn’t mean my life has to be! And without the sport consuming 18 hours of my day, every Saturday I’m free to live a little bit. Frankly, there are a number of things I’ve wanted to do over these past couple months that I simply haven’t had the chance to.

Well thankfully, now I do have that time, which is why late last night I decided to grab a pen and paper and make a list. A list of 50 Things I Plan on Doing Now That College Football Season is Over. I did it last year, and I will probably do it again next year too. They say the best way to overcome a traumatic event is to make a goofy list of ways you plan on passing the time (ok, so maybe nobody says that) and that’s what I plan on doing today.

Here is my list of 50 Things. And as always, you’re more than welcome to share a list of your own.

Although the 2012 college football season just ended a short time ago, it’s never too early to look ahead to 2013...which is exactly what I did on Thursday, when I welcomed SEC columnist Barrett Sallee to the show.

If you’re looking for your off-season college football fix you’ll get it here, as Barrett and I recapped 2012 and looked ahead to the major story lines entering 2013. Amongst the topics we discussed included the following:

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- Reflecting back on 2012, what were the biggest surprises to Barrett? Who overachieved, who underachieved and overall, did the season go as he expected?

The National Championship Game may have been played two nights ago, but it isn’t yet time to give up on the 2012 college football season. And on Tuesday, I kept the party going, by joining my good friend Justin Hull on his radio show in on WSCO in Appleton, WI.

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Justin does great work out in Wisconsin and had me on to discuss a number of the biggest story lines from Monday night’s game. We talked on a number subjects, including:

It was at this time last year, on the morning following Alabama’s 21-0 beat down of LSU in the 2012 BCS National Championship when I wrote a column proclaiming the win “Nick Saban’s Masterpiece.” That morning I explained how the victory was a beautiful convergence of a brilliant coach and talented team, executing a flawless game-plan that was as close to college football perfection as we’ll ever see.

Here is part of what I wrote following that victory:

And as I watched last night’s BCS National Championship, I couldn’t help but think back to that quote.

Because really, reflecting on Alabama’s 21-0 win, it wasn’t just about the victory itself. It wasn’t just about the Tide dominating one of the best teams we’ve seen in recent college football history. It wasn’t about sucking the life out of LSU one tackle for loss at a time. It wasn’t about Jeremy Shelley’s field goals or A.J. McCarron’s emergence. It wasn’t even about one of the best defenses of all-time finally getting their proper due.

Nope, Monday night was bigger than that. It wasn’t just about a championship, but about a team and coach achieving something that is as close to perfection on the football field as we've ever seen.

In every sense of the word, Monday night's BCS National Championship Game was Nick Saban’s masterpiece.

Well if last year’s win over LSU was a masterpiece, what does that make Monday night’s 42-14 beat down of Notre Dame? Sure Saban had a heavy hand in the victory, but he didn’t do it alone. No, no, he got plenty of supporting help from A.J. McCarron and Eddie Lacy, Barrett Jones and 11 members of a defense that made Monday night a living hell for Everett Golson and all his Notre Dame teammates.

Oh, you thought you read it all into the lead-up to Monday night’s title game between Alabama and Notre Dame? Well you had, until now.

Let’s skip the small-talk and get straight to 13 Keys to Decide the 2013 BCS National Championship.

1. Notre Dame’s Front Seven:

It’s the biggest story line entering this game, and quite arguably the biggest story line in all of 2013 outside of Kim Kardashian becoming Kanye West’s new baby momma. It is Alabama’s offensive line going head-to-head with Notre Dame’s defensive line, a battle which is quite literally the immaculate force against the immovable object.

We’ll get to ‘Bama’s offensive line in a second, but before we do, let’s start with Notre Dame, which has inarguably the best defensive front seven that Alabama has seen all year. No, the Irish aren’t quite as athletic as LSU was and don’t have a truly great pass rusher like Texas A&M’s Damontre Moore or Georgia’s Jarvis Jones. But they do have three future pros along the defensive line (you probably have heard of Kapron Lewis-Moore, Stephon Tuitt and Louis Nix) and some guy named Manti Te’o filling in behind them. Not to mention that no one plays better as a unit than the Irish do. Their sum truly is greater than its parts.

College football’s championship game is now only days away, which is why it only seemed appropriate that on Friday I welcomed regular guest of the show, Alex Scarborough of TideNation.com to the podcast to discuss the 2013 BCS National Championship Game.

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Alex has covered the Crimson Tide for each of the past two seasons and always has a wealth of information concerning this emerging college football dynasty. And on Friday we discussed a handful of subjects, including the following:

- In the preseason, Alex was one of a handful of media members who actually thought the Crimson Tide could make a run at another National Championship. Now that we’re here, how much has changed from the start of the season? Did things play out as he expected?