Never in the history of modern football has parity been more evident.
Beginning with FCS powerhouse Appalachian State going to Ann Arbor and beating the University of Michigan on opening weekend, to ULM beating the South’s most noted program, Alabama, in the last game played in Tuscaloosa in front of 92,000 fans in November.

The NCAA has accomplished its goal: any weekend, anything can happen.
Bowl season has come and gone; a national champion has been crowned and 20-plus coaching jobs at Division I have been filled.

With 2008 upon us, it’s time for college basketball, football recruiting and the Daytona 500. Basketball in the South has become a sport of interest of late with the Florida Gators winning back-to-back championships. Bruce Pearl has the Tennessee Vols in the hunt for a Final Four berth, and Billy Gillespie will “redo” Kentucky back to national prominence. North Carolina and Duke will be Southern contenders for the NCAA Tourney. No longer does the Atlantic Coast Conference lay claim to the best basketball conference in America; the SEC will be more than competitive in 2008, and beyond.

Football recruiting is and has been a season within itself. Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide, Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators, Tennessee, and LSU all will be ranked nationally when the academic scores are in. These programs all know the consequences of poor recruiting, both athletically and academically. If an athlete can’t get in school or stay in school, all is lost on the universities’ efforts. Then it becomes a matter of time before a coaching change is in the works.

With the Hendrix Motorsports group of drivers – Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and now Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 2008 could be a trifecta; when you have the most money, the most experience and the most talent, the expectations are very high. At the Daytona 500 in February, the Hendrix group did an outstanding job. The next 25 races will reflect Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota), Richard Childress Racing and maybe even DEI grabbing some of the spotlight. It looks to me like it could be Hendrix Motorsports winning it all in Homestead, Fla., in November. The sporting world and people like me who enjoy covering it anxiously await the rewards of ‘08. The 2007 seasons were exciting, but my guess is that this year will be more so.
Catch my radio show MAX’d OUT on www.maxhowell.com daily, 3-6 p.m. CT. We’ve done over 4,000 interviews in the three years we have aired…and this spring will bring many more.

See ya next time,
Max