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The sun creeps over the horizon in Syracuse, N.Y. The Orange of Syracuse take the field for a practice. In the cool August morning, star Syracuse QB Donovan McNabb and a receiver play catch. McNabb exhibits confidence on the outside, but on the inside, he is filled with apprehension as to what 'Cuse's first season in the Big Ten might bring.

1,500 miles away, at a shop outside of Boulder, Colorado, a University of Colorado alum passing through town in the middle of the night stops to buy his son a jersey. The diehard fan chats with the cashier regarding the state of the Buffaloes as his seven-year-old son eyes a free schedule. He scans it and finds all sorts of unfamiliar names. "California? Arizona? Brigham Young? Who are those teams?" he says. Even his dad admits he barely knows.

It's the wee hours of the morning to the south in Dallas, Texas, and the 75-year-old groundskeeper at the Cotton Bowl is happier than ever. After a brief, two-year exile, he finally gets to paint on the surface of the stadium a logo of a major conference again - this time, a big fat "X-I-I" for the Big XII his team has ascended to.

These are the signs of our times entering the 1998 college football campaign. Conference realignment has fundamentally changed the face of our great game, and no more so than in the last year. In just the past six months, the Big East died, sending fragments of itself to the ACC (Miami, Boston College, and Rutgers), the Conference USA (Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pittsburgh), the Big Ten (Syracuse), and out of the football business. Meanwhile, Colorado bolted from the Big XII - where it was replaced by SMU - to the Pac Ten, BYU joined the same league, and Navy - yes, Navy - announced it would join the WAC on a temporary basis.

The predictions are being made, the helmets are being polished, and college football is ready to rock. And we can say with some certainty that in a world where Syracuse and Iowa are in the same conference, it's anybody's game.
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