They're baaaack!!

The secret is out now. Everybody knows.

          And we are sort of going forward into the past.

          At the end of the 2011 college football season, Alabama and LSU were the best college teams in the country. They were the right choices to play in the national championship game despite Alabama’s regular season loss to the Tigers. They were clearly the best choices available.

          The best choices available.

          But there was one choice unavailable for that game and that ineligible team was the only team in the country capable of competing with the two Southeastern Conference juggernauts at the end of the season. The only team big enough, fast enough and tough enough to play either LSU or the Crimson Tide for the title.

          That team was the University of Southern California and now the Trojans are ranked third or better by most preseason polls for the 2012 season.

          Half a century ago, you would automatically include John McKay’s Trojans and Bear Bryant’s ‘Bama boys in the national championship conversation. USC was the standard Pacific Eight (that was the name of the conference back then) representative in the Rose Bowl and Alabama typically played in the Sugar Bowl or some bowl somewhere. Bowl games meant something back then because there were so few of them and bowl organizations loved Bear Bryant.

          All these years later, most of the polls you see this month show Alabama, LSU and USC filling the top three positions. It’s very early in the year for the polls to mean anything, especially since LSU has already lost an impact player for the season and Alabama lost so many starters to graduation last year. But college football needs USC and Alabama in the championship argument. These are two great programs with historically significant names attached to them. Tradition is a big part of the sport and those two schools have plenty of tradition.

          USC’s return to the elite gives us a blueprint for what Penn State should be able to accomplish when that school’s program comes off the NCAA’s penalty laden, five year apology for the terrible things that happened to children on that campus.

          Read this with confidence: The Nittany Lions will redshirt every freshman for the next three years. They will redshirt every sophomore with real talent now in the program that has not already redshirted. They will convert the current juniors and seniors into sacrificial, uh, Lions, along with any others on the roster who are out of redshirt years or disinterested in sitting.

          Penn State will aim its program at the first year after the NCAA sanctions end. Its best players will have been nurtured and will be ready. The seniors and juniors still in the program by then will provide the experience needed for effective leadership.

          While all that stuff is going on, the school and the athletic department will make occasional announcements about accomplishing the administrative changes required by the NCAA.

          And Penn State will play winning football.

          Many commentators said when the NCAA sanctions were announced that Penn State’s program would be set back for a decade by the penalties. Don’t you believe it. Heck, the Lions weren’t playing all that well in recent seasons anyway. When you look at it, the penalties give Penn State a chance to get its house in order and spend time generating a better on-field product.

          Doubt me? Check the college football rankings of your choice. Look for USC. A few years in the doghouse and now the Trojans are ranked number one by at least one writer. Penn State can do the same thing.

          Elder’s Law #2: When life hands you lemons, make lemonade and call it a bowl game.

          Thanks for reading.