It’s over.

Another college football season in the books – one that should go down as being as memorable a year as we fans have ever seen.

Congrats to the LSU Tigers for winning the MNC. Condolences to the Ohio State Buckeyes for coming up short. Again. What OSU and its fans are going to hear over the next several months won’t be fun, but in fairness, it’s pretty impressive to play in back-to back BCS title games (and Ohio State will be back in the mix next season, too).

A few random thoughts about last night’s game:

• My 22 year old daughter, a casual fan who watched the game with me, had this to say when Urban Meyer’s mug first appeared on the TV screen: “What the hell is he doing there?” I admit that I didn’t have a good answer. We both agreed that he didn’t have much of a future in broadcasting.
• JaMarcus Russell.  Dude, have somebody else buy your clothes.  Or stay off national TV unless you’re in a football jersey.  Please.
• Stewart Mandel got one thing right. The Tigers managed to be a team that played a big game without being upset. Given the way this season has gone, that’s almost an upset in itself. Maybe it’s a harbinger of things to come in ’08.
• How long do you think Todd Boeckman is going to have his sleep disturbed by the memory of a leaping Ali Highsmith?
• I don’t know if Bo Pelini will turn out to be a better head coach than Mark Richt, but it looks like, at least to this point, he’s a better multi-tasker. After some initial rust, his defense played very well and shut OSU’s offense down in the second half until garbage time.
• Who would have thought going in that LSU would turn out to be the more disciplined team, at least from a penalty standpoint?
• Speaking of which, I thought the key moment of the game was the roughing the punter penalty that gave LSU new life after a drive had stalled because of one of Flynn’s few bad decisions of the night. LSU took advantage by going in for a touchdown that really opened the lead up for good.
• And speaking of the roughing penalty, one thing I have to give Fox credit for is that it didn’t do what everyone in the football watching universe would have expected ESPN to do in the same situation, namely, dwell endlessly on the poor kid who screwed up, a la Mack Brown’s stepson.
• On the other hand, it’s fair to say – it’s the mirrors – that ESPN is not as relentlessly – Jumpers 2.14.08 – commercial during a broadcast as Fox is. I don’t know about you, but I hope that movie flops. Big time.

SEC speed, baby.