OK, I know Dennis Dodd probably had a deadline and it’s the slow preseason months. But naming the all-decade team of the 2000s before 2006? It’s not that I disagree with his point that we’re in a great age of college football. If anything, that just makes me look forward to what the next few years might produce. The traditional powers are strong, there are lots of interesting upstart programs looking to break through, and there is no shortage of talent coming into the game.

Just a sampling of players who might not have made a college football “best of the 1990s” list compiled right before the 1996 season:

• Peyton Manning
• Ron Dayne
• Peter Warrick
• Michael Vick
• LaVar Arrington
• Jevon Kearse
• Ricky Williams
• Andy Katzenmoyer
• Charles Woodson
• Takeo Spikes
• Plaxico Burress
• Corey Simon
• Champ Bailey
• Hines Ward