The Alabama Crimson Tide finished the 2009-10 season perfect. Coach Nick Saban’s team went undefeated in the regular season, culminating in a 37-21 victory over the Texas Longhorns in the BCS National Championship Game. The fans in Tuscaloosa will have two of their leading men back from the 2009 season in quarterback Greg McElroy and running back Mark Ingram. McElroy returns to campus for his senior year with a National Championship ring around his finger, and something to prove before next year’s NFL draft. Ingram is fresh off winning the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore last year, and is expected be one of the best runners in the country once again. The Crimson Tide really, however, won their national championship on the defensive side of the ball. Only Ndamukong Suh and the Nebraska Cornhuskers allowed fewer points per game than Alabama. Add the fact that Saban corralled one of the nation’s best recruiting classes this off season, the Tide should roll over most of its opponents this season. Look for Alabama’s meeting with Penn State the second week of the season to be a good indicator of the team’s BCS potential.

Very few expected the NCAA’s punishment of USC to be so severe, but the 67-page document detailing how Reggie Bush took money from prospective agents while a Trojan leaves little doubt about the program’s innocence. Every game USC won with Reggie Bush has been officially vacated by the NCAA and it’s possible their 2005 National Championship and Bush’s Heisman Trophy could be taken away as well. Head coach Pete Carroll’s timely move to the NFL also looks incriminating. It’s perplexing to think that the man running the football program when these indiscretions were committed pays no consequence other than a tarnished image. One would assume USC athletic director Mike Garrett would eventually get the axe for the amount of scandals his football and basketball program has undergone the past few years. The NCAA’s rulings doesn’t bode well for the University of Michigan who awaits their rulings in four or five months. The hope is that the NCAA’s rulings can reinforce the reality that your football program can be drastically damaged if not run cleanly.

After missing the 2009 season because of a battle with rare form of cancer, Ewing’s Sarcoma, Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich suited up for practice Thursday. Herzlich underwent treatments of radiations and cemotherapy in 2009 and announced this past September that he was cancer free. ESPN ran stories on the inspirational 22-year-old who throughout his year battling the disease supported team mates on the Boston College sideline, met with cancer patients, and raised over $200,000 for cancer research.

Herzlich in 2008 was an All-American, ACC Defensive Player of the Year winner, and NFL draft prospect leading the Golden Eagles in tackles and the nation in incterception by a linebacker. Though back to full health it is unclear if Herzlich will be able to return to Boston College’s starting lineup. Nonetheless, when Herzlich runs out on to field Alumni Stadium in all his pads for the first time since his bout with cancer he will be subject to a standing ovation.