There is an old guy that lives down the street from me who was raised not far from LSU's campus. Obviously, he has followed the SEC for decades. A few days after Utah's PAC12 invite, he stopped me in the street and told me the following: "Your football world is about to change. You are used to blowing out teams every week. You are about to go into a schedule where you will win lots of games 21-17, or 24-21. You will also lose lots of games by similar scores. You will beat the conference champion and you will lose to the worst team in the league--because now you are in good league and everyone you play will have great players and coaches. But, you know what? I think you will like that brand of football."

At the time, I thought it was just SEC arrogance. But I gotta tell you, his prediction was spot-on. I'd love to see a 9+ win season again, and I think I will on occasion. But even with fewer wins, I've seen more close, hard fought, down to the wire wins and losses in the past few years than ever before. It's been a great ride.