What year is this?

I know that I heard Phil Collins blaring from someone's boombox this morning and a guy in a white suit with a pink T-shirt just walked by. I could swear that it's 1988. I just need some silver-mirrored sunglasses and a look at the recent NCAA Division I football polls to complete the experience.

Has anybody but me been looking at this stuff? It's kind of freaky.

Of the teams in the top 20 at the end of the 1988 bowl season, 11 still make this week's top 25. Two more, UCLA (1988's No. 6) and Arkansas (No. 13), received votes this week. That's pretty amazing considering all of the conference changes that have happened and how many programs have been dropped or put on probation.

Sure, you won't see 1988's No. 11 team, Oklahoma State, or Indiana and Wyoming rounding out the polls, but the top 10 in 1988 included Notre Dame, Miami, Florida State, Michigan, Auburn, USC, and Nebraska. Sound familiar? All of these programs are in this week's polls and have a shot at a BCS game this season.

OU was No. 14 in 1988. The Sooners are a little bit better than that now, rolling the Schooner into the top three.

After the 1988 season the Sooners took on the Clemson Tigers in the Citrus Bowl and fell 13-6. Clemson ended the season ranked No. 8.

The two teams in the middle of the polls that have hardly moved at all are No. 15 North Carolina State (No. 17 in 1988, tied with Alabama) and No. 18 Washington State (No. 16).

Of course, there's Miami, No. 1 this season and No. 2 in '88, and Florida State, No. 3 in '88 and No. 4 this week. They've been dominant programs for the last 20 years and, obviously, haven't gone anywhere.

You aren't going to find a dominant Virginia Tech team in 1988, or a Texas team in a major bowl, but you could have a Miami/Nebraska Orange Bowl or a UCLA/Arkansas Cotton Bowl this year, just like '88.

Oklahoma State and Wyoming won't be battling it out in the Holiday Bowl, that I can promise you, and Notre Dame won't be beating up West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. But in '88 you can find an Alabama/Army Sun Bowl, that could happen. Army in a bowl? OK, maybe it's not quite the same as 1988.

Perhaps it's seeing teams like Georgia, Notre Dame and Ohio State back in the top 10 that makes me feel so nostalgic when I look at the new polls. Or maybe it's seeing JoPa and Penn State at No. 12.

Whatever it is makes me want to blow the dust off of my old "Beverly Hills Cop 2" soundtrack and drive around town listening to Kenny Loggins singing "Shakedown."

1988 was a great time for college football. Some of the greatest and proudest traditional powerhouses battled it out for an undefeated season and a national title. Well, the years have gone by, but it looks like the great programs are all finally back, and at the same time, proving that this is a great time for college football too.
hello there & you too