Ah, Thanksgiving, the holiday where diets get thrown aside, objects get thrown at the wall during the Lions’ game and the term “food coma” is actually used in regular conversation.

It’s that time of the year when you get the pre-exam break, a chance to relax and reload before the final stretch of the semester. It’s also usually the final stretch for the football season too; however, this Thanksgiving is a strange one at Grand Valley State University.

For the first time since Sisqo and his silver hair were rapping about thongs, the GVSU football team will be at home for the holidays. Despite ending the season on a seven-game winning streak and dominating rival Saginaw Valley State University in the season finale, the Lakers’ 10-year playoff streak was snapped and students were without a home playoff game to leave after halftime.

Don’t fret; if you’re a fan of the football team you can probably expect a return to the playoffs next year. Many called for head coach Matt Mitchell to bench sophomore quarterback Heath Parling early in the year, and if you talk to those same people today, well, they’ll probably take back what they said.

You have one of the best young quarterbacks in the country in Parling, one of the best receivers in junior Charles Johnson and a stable of running backs that might be too packed for its own good.

That’s a good problem to have though, and this was a team that despite losing early in the season was an opponent that no one wanted to face in these playoffs.

They’ll lose some key seniors on the defensive side of the ball, and they’re going to enter next season a little under the radar, but a return to the postseason is more likely than not.

Even in Division I football we’ve seen our fair share of strange happenings. Somehow we have the most prolific passer in history, Houston’s Case Keenum, moving so far under the radar that the only memorable moment from ESPN College Gameday’s trip to Houston this weekend was Lee Corso dropping a live-action f-bomb.

That’s not always a bad thing, but on the other side you’ve got the top team in the nation in LSU. This is a team, who in a 52-3 win over Ole Miss this weekend, reached the Ole Miss’ goal line and took four-consecutive knees with their third-string quarerback rather than score again.

I’m pretty sure that ranks near the top of the sports slap in the face rankings. Right behind, lose by 100 points.

The best thing about LSU is that they have no Heisman guy. There’s no prolific quarterback like Keenum, it’s just a bunch of really good football players who know how to win games.

Reall though, if you’re not a fan of LSU who cares about a team with no Heisman candidate? That’s the most exciting part of college football isn’t it? The race for an award that most likely means you are going to be an awful professional player.

Keenum is going to be in that discussion because he’s got gaudy stats, could potentially lead a small school to the big stage and fits into that awful professional player characterization. There’s Stanford’s golden-boy quarterback Andrew Luck. Likely to be the top pick in this year’s NFL draft, he’s leading a good team and has been the front-runner all year.

Alabama tailback Trent Richardson is in the discussion too because he’s the best player on the No. 2 team in the nation. He also plays in the SEC, and if ESPN has taught us anything it’s that the SEC means he’s deserving of consideration.

After that it gets a little murky. Personally, I think you’ve got to have Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III in the discussion. His win over Oklahoma was impressive this weekend, and he may very well be the best dual-threat quarterback in the nation making a very mediocre team look good.

I know you probably hate USC because their coach is Lane Kiffin, and because they’re USC, but if they weren’t on probation this year, they’d probably in the discussions for a BCS berth. Matt Barkley has guided them to a top-10 ranking and after a win at Oregon this weekend, deserves acclaim with his Pac-12 counterpart Luck.

Obviously, this season has a key stretch of games left. With a week of the regular season and then conference championships left, this group is going to be shaken up between now and the announcement in December, but these guys will be in the discussion to the end.

Oh, and once December does roll around, take Andrew Luck to win it. America loves the golden boy.

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