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We are on the eve of a very sad event. The end of the college football season is at hand. Yes, with the playing of Monday nights BCS National Championship game between LSU and Alabama, its over. Sure, we still will have the NFL playoffs and, of course, the Super Bowl, but nothing measures up to college football in terms of passion, excitement and rivalries.

So, while there certainly is controversy surrounding the participants in Monday nights title tilt, enjoy it because it is the last time well see action on the college gridiron for the next eight months. But what a college football season it has been.

The season started out with Oklahoma in the top spot and finished with Oklahoma State knocking on the door, making a case for itself in the championship game, even if the computers did not see it that way. Lets be honest, did anybody really see that coming?

The Big 12 proved itself to be the center of college football again, both on and off the field.

Off the field, we had to endure countless weeks of speculation and rumors regarding the future of the league, thanks primarily to Texas Aamp;Ms decision to bail out, running with its Aggie tail between its legs to the SEC. Missouri decided to leave for the SEC as well. But will they really be missed?

While their departures brought about plenty of handwringing, and dire predictions proclaiming the end of the Big 12, the truth is the Big 12 will not miss a beat without them as TCU comes on board next season and West Virginia within the next two years after that. Both schools have made bigger impacts in college football in recent seasons than the two departed teams. In the end, the Big 12 will be a stronger conference with the addition of the Horned Frogs and the Mountaineers.

But on the field, the Big 12 made its biggest impact.

While quarterbacks Landry Jones from OU and Brandon Weeden from OSU were in the forefront of early season Heisman talk, it was a quarterback from a school that, until very recently, was quite comfortable being a Big 12 bottom feeder that rose to take the award as Baylors Robert Griffin III (yes, Baylor!), thanks in large part to Baylors televised wild, comeback, last-second 45-38 victory over OU Nov. 19, caught the attention of voters and claimed the Heisman Trophy for RG3.

Then there were the bowl games. The Big 12 showed again it is one of the premier football conferences in the nation this bowl season, which included a convincing 31-14 win by OU over Iowa in the Insight Bowl and OSUs thrilling 41-38 overtime win over Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl, with the game-winning field goal set up by a clutch reception by Enids Colton Chelf.

Sure, there have been some somber and troubling moments this past college football season. The sad and unpleasant child sex-abuse scandal that rocked Penn State and cost legendary coach Joe Paterno his job stands out, but that should not be what is most remembered this past season. No, thankfully, there were enough on-the-field superlatives to keep the focus in the end where it should be on the players and the games.

The NFL will give us another month of football and the over-hyped Super Bowl to keep our football appetites whetted, but for many, the real football season ends Monday night.

But its not too bad. Spring practice is just around the corner.

Ruthenberg is sports editor at the News amp; Eagle. Contact him at daver@enidnews.com.