http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/11173476

You have to love this time of the season. All the individual award winners have been announced. The Heisman. The Outland. The Nagurski. The Lombardi. The mystery is over and everybody is given a big fat smiley face because love is all around.

But we always forget that there's the other side of the coin. I'm talking about the teams, players and coaches who did not come through in the clutch. In other words, who are the biggest goats of the season? The plays that, had they been made would have changed the complex of the season.

(This play never should have happened, except for the Goat Award winners that allowed it)

Here's our top five for the Goat Awards for this season.

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/11158288

Yep, the regular season has been great, riveting and surprising at every turn. Now it has come to an end. So let the satisfying regular season end and let the aggravating post-season begin.

(Amongst a sea of hands, Sam Bradford is all smiles, knowing he just obliterated Missouri and screwed rival Texas out of a more-deserved chance at the BCS title game. Again, if you were a Sooner, wouldn't you be happy about all that too?)

Here's the lessons we learned from this past weekend.

http://www.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/11142830

Polls. Computers. Politicking. Facebooking. Banner-pulling. Placard-holding.

Why do I feel like if I bore into the Earth's core in this college football world I'd find Alfred E. Newman at the controls. What, me worry?

(Sam Bradford and Oklahoma sent the college football world topsy-turvy with their win at Oklahoma State this weekend, catapulting the Sooners to No. 2 in the BCS rankings)

Look, if the Barack Obama Invitational were put in place this year, we'd have none of this Hatfield & (Colt) McCoy feuding over who deserves to go where at all.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=txweisndftr&prov=st&type=lgns

Even at his most optimistic, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis can't have imagined it to be this bad. Since moving on from Franklin Township High School in New Jersey 19 years ago, he's been considered one of football's greatest offensive minds.

(This is the kind of season it's been for Charlie Weis and Jimmy Clausen)

But Saturday night at the Los Angeles Coliseum, things hit rock bottom in a loss to USC.

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/11128201

Sam Bradford called it "the most fun he's ever had playing in a football game."

Brian Kelly said it was "the biggest win in Cincinnati school history."

Mike Leach said, "Judging by how they handled us and the fact that we beat Texas, I'd say Oklahoma deserves to be rated higher."

Joe Paterno said, "I'm planning on coming back, yeah. I never planned otherwise."

Joe Tiller said, "This win won't change my mind, I'm done with coaching."

Greg Robinson called Syracuse's win at Notre Dame "truly a great day for our program."

And Barack Obama said he "doesn't know a single fan who disagrees with him that there should be a playoff in college football."

Yes people, this was a statement week in college football. And now, as we head into Thanksgiving week, we're down to just two more weekends of action. And though it doesn’t always hold true when it comes to politicking for the BCS, action is always supposed to speak louder than words.

(The refs are howling at football players that don't hear them. Texas Tech and Oklahoma players get into a skirmish before the kickoff of their game in Norman.)

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/11111258

Yawn.

This week in college football had all the excitement of the tour of a box factory.

Just about everything went as planned. Nobody in the Top 10 lost. In fact, those teams won by an average of 30 points. Nothing Earthshaking anywhere else on the college football landscape. Okay, maybe LSU's 28-point comeback against Troy, sure. But if you look at the final score of 40-31, you just shrug your shoulders.

Don't worry. While we motor on to next week hoping for something of substance, there were still some lessons to be learned from this bland college football weekend. Tell you what, let's cue the hyperactive rave music that they use on Access Hollywood and get to the lessons. It'll give this Saturday wrap-up a totally new dynamic, I swear.

(If Tim Tebow and Company keep playing as well as they have the last few weeks, Florida will be in the driver's seat for the BCS title game. Meanwhile, he's probably telling CBS's Tracy Wolfson, "You buy a hat like that and you get a bowl of soup with it.")

by Eric Sorenson

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/11101004

In this fad-a-minute world, everything will eventually lose its "coolness" edge. Dylan went electric. Starsky and Hutch became a spoof. Miami Vice transitioned into a fashion punchline.

Sadly, even college football has its own level of lost cool as well.

(Barry Sanders had an incredible senior year in 1988, rushing for nearly 3,000 yards if you include his bowl game romp against Wyoming. Though no one will get close to breaking his single season mark, the 1,000 yard club is easier than ever for a running back to attain.)

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/11094165

There's no doubt that the best place to be on a college football Saturday has to be Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. Especially at night. The noise. The deep passion. The record crowds. The secret flasks of whiskey. That's how I spent my Saturday as I sat with 93,038 other SEC fans plastered in purple, gold, crimson and cream.

(A stadium record crowd of 93,039 was keyed up and foul-mouthed for Nick Saban's return to Baton Rouge. But the No. 1 ranked Crimson Tide made three or four key plays to win 27-21 in OT.)

Like the rest of the football nation, I watched with keen interest as Nick Saban made his return to the place he won a national title just five years ago.

http://www.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/11081158

(One of the best moments of the college football season. Cincinnati's Marshwan Gilyard flew into the crowd trying to catch a touchdown pass and went trucking over this poor little kid. Gilyard immediately helped the boy to his feet and gave him a hug before returning to the field.)

Wow. Just, wow.

The twists and turns of this college football season are becoming so... so, 2007ish. Texas Tech beats in-state big brother Texas, knocking the Longhorns from the No. 1 perch. Florida obliterates Georgia, knocking the Bulldogs from the national title chase. Penn State sits at home and gets leaped by other teams in the rankings.

If this first weekend of this month is any indication, we're in for one wild ride people. November spawned a monster. Again.

http://www.sportsline.com/print/collegefootball/story/11063282

It was kind of an ugly weekend. Not hideous, but let's say ugly like the Wendy's hamburger girl ugly. Scoreboards took a lot shots and needed a lot of replacement bulbs.

(The Big Uglies have a lot to cheer about here as win No. 381 for JoePa U. was one of his biggest. Penn State took a huge step toward the national title game with its 13-6 win at Ohio State.)

Competitively, take away the slight scare of Texas by Oklahoma State and a little bit of intrigue in the Ohio State-Penn State game and this was a bore of a weekend. Oh sure, there were a few upsets near the bottom of the Top 25, but the Top 10 had all the mystery of a Harlem Globetrotter game.

Let's get to the lessons we learned from Week nine.