This college football season has been another one of surprises and teams having Cinderella seasons. With the good came the bad as some teams struggled mightily.

Michigan, Notre Dame, USC and Florida State can be thrown into the group that had disappointing seasons among other teams.

Rich Rodriguez will be on the hot seat next year after his Wolverines went 5-7 this season and did not make a bowl game. Michigan started 5-2 before losing their last five games. A 1-7 Big Ten record, in a year when the Big Ten was not considered to be tough, leaves Michigan with more questions than answers as they try to rebuild their program back to the level it once was at.

Notre Dame was expected to contend for a BCS Bowl and Jimmy Clausen was supposed to be one of the Heisman frontrunners. Instead the Fighting Irish went 6-6 and declined their bowl game. Clausen put up big numbers but could not win close games. Charlie Weis lost his job and now Notre Dame will try to start the rebuilding process once again with a new coach in 2010.

USC had its worst season in a long time. They went 8-4 and only 5-4 in the PAC 10. Unlike Michigan and Notre Dame however, USC is not necessarily thrown into a rebuilding process. They still have Pete Carroll and talented players like QB Matt Barkley, who will be a sophomore next year. I wouldn’t expect losses to Washington, Oregon, Stanford, and Arizona in 2010.

Finally, Florida State had a disappointing season and now they are finally pretty much forcing their legendary coach, Bobby Bowden, out the door. Bowden has announced he is retiring and not returning in 2010. They went 6-6 and 4-4 in the ACC and a trip to the Gator Bowl should be appreciated because quite frankly they did not deserve that good of a game.

With the bad came the great individual efforts and team efforts. Texas QB Colt McCoy, Florida QB Tim Tebow, Stanford RB Toby Gerhart, Alabama RB Mark Ingram, and Nebraska defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh are the five players that are headed to New York for the Heisman Trophy presentation. These players have had terrific individual seasons and have done wonders for their respective teams.

Five teams have also had great seasons and by great I mean undefeated.

Unfortunately for Cincinnati from the Big East, TCU from the Mountain West and Boise State from the Western Athletic Conference they will not be playing for a national title. That is because two teams from the main power conferences remained undefeated as well. No. 1 Alabama will face No. 2 Texas in the BCS National Championship Game.

Like every other college football season there was its fair share of terrific games and with the Bowl season set to kickoff on December 19 the fans of college football won’t have to wait long for the action to pick back up again.

The one thing that I still feel a little weird about is the fact that the regular season, or should I say the playoffs, is over and I am not sure I know that the best team in the country is actually getting a chance to play for the championship.

But with the money that is tied into the Bowl games and the questions of whether fans would travel game after game in a true playoff setup I guess I will once again have to just go with what the mathematical system that is the BCS says. I will put a smile on my face but doubt will no doubt be in the back of my mind.