It is January 1 and college football is everywhere.
There are 119 Division I teams, with almost double that in Division II, and each team has close to 100 players, meaning the mathematics is staggering on how many will be eligible for the 2013 draft.
Even if each Division I team has as few as 20 players that is 119 multiplied by 20 for a total of 2,380 players, all of different degrees of ability that will be fully scouted and put in different categories to be drafted, signed as free agents or not signed at all.
When you watch enough football, college to pro, pro to college you kind of get a feel or notice who can or can't play at the NFL level. It may be a body type, a flow in movement, a unique burst, just in watching the bowl game you can tell.
From the Capital One Bowl, to the Rose Bowl, to the Orange Bowl, you notice the different aspects of players that do or do not transfer and every player wants a shot.
College football players give great effort, pro football players are great players.
There was an interesting conversation out there in what would happen if University of Alabama played the Kansas City Chiefs or the Jacksonville Jaguars. Who would win?
Some people think Alabama could win, because when you watch them on Monday Night you're watching early round draft picks throughout.
However, you're talking about grown men playing University students and that level of physical maturity, emotional maturity and football intelligence, you can't compare.
On a week where seven head coaches and the majority of their staff members lost their jobs it truly relates that football for those directly involved is very much an experience than a career. Players should think about that dynamic, that time is not on your side so make the experience the best possible.
I would estimate that over the next week 90 percent of the college football players playing feel they can make an NFL team and want it bad.
Heck, even the seniors that are not playing as starters 50 percent of them want their shot and believe they can make it.
I sit on the fence when it comes to university players getting paid. I feel a free education is pay in its self.
On the other side, a high per cent of the players we will watch all week will never come close to any consistent paycheck from the NFL. As many know the money is out there to be spread around.
In the end, if you have played high school, college or pro you had an experience and probably a good one.
It truly is an amazing feeling to be on a winning team, as I watch Stanford Cardinals accept the Rose Bowl trophy after a 20-14 win over Wisconsin.
It drives you to relive the feeling as many times as you can and they will all try over and over again.
Enjoy it while you got it, because it may never happen again.