The Circle of (Football) Life

We’ve all heard “it’s the circle of life” whenever a beloved family member or pet passes away.  Obviously, this phrase implies that people and animals are born and soon or later they die.  Could the same phrase imply to college football programs and conferences?

Take, for example, Baylor University.  In the ‘70s, Baylor was one of the top football programs in the Southwest Conference.  Overtime, Baylor was put through a series of poor coaching and unable to obtain spectacular players thus becoming one of the bottom feeders of the Big XII.  Then along comes Robert Griffin III and Art Bryles.  By RG3’s sophomore year, Baylor has their first bowl game in years.  By RG3’s junior year at Baylor, he was lighting up the skies with spectacular passes and torching the grass with his speed.  With his spectacular video game like stats, RG3 slid into the Heisman race.  He would go onto win and become Baylor’s first Heisman winner.  RG3 then led Baylor to their second consecutive bowl and pulled out a win in an arena football style game.  With RG3 gone, the future is unclear for the Baylor football program.  One thing is for sure, Baylor is no longer the unknown team of the Big XII anymore.

If you think Baylor was a fluke, what about the University of Florida?  In the mid 2000s, Tim Tebow shared playing time with senior quarterback Chris Leak.  Florida went onto beat Ohio State for the National Championship.  During Tebow’s sophomore season, Florida lost 3 games and ended up playing in the Gator Bowl.  Despite not making any BCS bowl, Tebow became the first sophomore to ever win the Heisman.  After suffering an upsetting loss to Ole Miss, Tebow and the Gators began to stomp every team in their path into submission on their way to another National Championship victory over Oklahoma.  Tebow’s perfect senior season was cut short by the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC championship game.  After Tebow left, Florida dwindled into a middle of the pack team.

Not every program’s circle of life is bad.  The University of Alabama was at one time the most dominant football program in the country.  However, after the NCAA put the program on suspension and limited their scholarships, Alabama became a border line bottom dweller of the SEC.  After firing Mike Shula, Alabama hired Nick Saban.  Saban was former National Champion coach with LSU and then floundered in the NFL.  After superb recruiting and game planning, Saban has led Alabama to two National Championships giving the Crimson Tide a historic total of 14 National Championships.  

So, the answer to the question is yes, there is a circle of life in college football.  However, unlike in natural life, the life of a college football program is determined by circumstances such as the coming and going of NFL caliber players and winning coaches.  The life span of a college football program is determined by factors as well.  These factors include how well a coach can recruit players and win games with those players, if a program can follow the guidelines set by the NCAA, and how long the coach stays with the program.

Currently Alabama, LSU, and Georgia are the top dogs of the SEC.  However, there will come a time when these three lives will come to an end and new top dogs will rise.  The same could be said for the SEC as a whole.  The SEC has been the king of college football for years.  However, just like the programs in this conference, the SEC’s life will come to a temporary halt and a new conference or conferences will become kings.  The point of a circle of football life is to never lose hope in your team because eventually your favorite program will have their moment in the spotlight.