Hlas column: It's football season, and not a minute too soon

It hasn't been the mellowest offseason in college football history, but boys will be boys.

Right, Miami Hurricanes? Right, Texas A&M and the SEC?

Well, at least Jim Tressel didn't fire Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee, though Gee joked in March that he hoped Tressel wouldn't do so. Good one, Prez.

The NCAA can't put every program on probation, so the show will go on again this season. It starts this week, and let's not pretend. This 13-week block of college football is the best time of the sports year in a state where college sports rule.

Every season is an unknown, and the best seasons are the ones where everyone knows it's an unknown. You can't tell me you can look at Iowa's football team and state with any certainty that the Hawkeyes will be great, lousy, or smack-dab in the middle of the two.

James Vandenberg could become the Big Ten's best quarterback in time. Or he might just be OK. We do not know.

My gut feeling is Vandenberg has the right stuff, a combination of smarts, skills, and a personality that teammates happily rally around. But we haven't seen him lead a team over an entire season. We haven't seen him be the man. So we wait.

We don't know a lot of things about these Hawkeyes. Will the defensive line be Big Ten-worthy? Can the team execute a critical long field goal or punt when they are most needed? Will this year's team sniff out a fake punt when a situation would make one a distinct possibility for the opponents?

But we also know there are a lot of talented players in important positions, starting with the offensive line. We know, despite evidence to the contrary last season, this coaching staff's history is to get teams to improve as a season grows longer. We know Iowa's defense is better when coordinator Norm Parker is healthy enough to work for an entire season.

So, while no one is saying “BCS bowl” for the 2011 Hawkeyes, you remember few did likewise after Iowa's first game in 2009. With Nebraska's brutal Big Ten schedule, Michigan State's brutal Big Ten road schedule, and no one else in the Legends Division looking like King Kong, it isn't a huge leap of faith to picture Iowa finding its way to Indianapolis for the first Big Ten football title game.

That game, and the league's new division format, are reasons why this season is a bit more anticipated than most.

Division races. What a concept. You can have an early slip-up and still have a shot at Indianapolis and Pasadena. Best of all, there are no more co-championships. Ohio State, Michigan State and Wisconsin shared the title last year, and it took a BCS formula to determine who went to which bowl.

The Nebraska factor, of course, is a big part of the energy heading into this Big Ten season. While Iowa fans await the Nov. 25 game in Lincoln, every conference game involving the Cornhuskers this first time around will be an event.

Could Iowa fans ask for a better bye week for its team than Oct. 1? They can all be safely parked in front of a TV to watch the Huskers' league-debut, at Wisconsin in prime-time.

Where will everyone be watching the Big Ten title game two months later, and who will be they be watching?

And then there's that Ohio State-Miami game on Sept. 17 ...