SOONER TO LEAVE LATER

Reporter: "Sam, what do you like most about being a college football player?"

Sam Bradford: "Everything."

Midway through his press conference earlier tonight in Norman, Oklahoma, Sooner quarterback Sam Bradford was finally asked a "soup question". That is, a reporter asked him a question the object of which is to obtain information that matters to us. "How excruciating was this decision?" is not a soup question. That's a question that begs a sarcastic Bob Knight-type response in which the respondent opens his arms wide as if he's describing the size of a fish he caught. How do you answer "How excruciating...?" in a manner that could ever possibly provide pertinent information?

Not a soup question.

What do you like best about being a college football player? Now that's a soup question. And that Bradford replied as if he were Russell in Almost Famous ("So Russell, what do you love about music?" Russell adjusts his chair, leans in to the tape recorder and replies: "To begin with--everything."), well, how satisfying was that to hear?

 Sam Bradford is returning to Oklahoma for his redshirt-junior season and the smile on his face is only equaled (or at least nearly so) by the smiles on the mugs of all of us who love college football. Bradford's return means that for the first time ever a college football season will begin with not one but two Heisman Trophy winners active (Bradford and Tim Tebow). It means that the three highest-profile players in college football, the trio who finished 1-2-3 for the Heisman, will all be returning (imagine how much more intriguing college basketball would be this winter if Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley, Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo had returned for as much as a sophomore season).

In the little town that I call home, New York City, there is an excess (and an abcess) of heavily-accented sports radio hosts who attended schools such as Fordham and Hofstra, etc., who in the next 24 hours will most likely lambast Bradford for the choice he has made. For turning his back on millions.

They just don't get it. Many of them have never been any closer to Norman or Baton Rouge or Gainesville or Austin or Athens or Ann Arbor--you get the point--on a fall Saturday than their plasma screens will take them. What awaits Bradford (and McCoy and Tebow and others who will return when they could have signed with an agent) is the type of unforgettable year in their lives that they will never be able to have when they're 25...or 30, etc.

This isn't college football-related, but read the following blog entry from Notre Dame basketball forward Zach Hillesland that recently ran on The Quad, The New York Times College Sports Blog. It captures the essence between the pure fun of being a college athlete and the life of a professional. Of course, there's more to life than having one more year of behaving like Otter and Bluto (though, to be honest, not much more). But if you saw Bradford's press conference, if you saw the smile on his face when he leaked that tight end Jermaine Gresham and O-lineman Trent Williams will also return (followed by a, "Sorry, coach"), then maybe you acknowledge that there are some things more valuable then wealth.

There are certain positions in college football (running back, foremost) that have a finite time-frame of true value. And there are many college athletes whose families are in far more dire financial straits than Bradford's or Tebow's or McCoys. LeSean McCoy, the Pitt running back who was basically the entire Panther offense (often taking direct snaps out of the Wildcat formation), declared himself eligible for the NFL draft today. Good for him. McCoy takes too many hits (only three backs--Javon Ringer, Donald Brown and MiQuale Lewis--had more carries this season than McCoy's 308), and has already missed a season of his career due to an ankle injury. Running backs and wide receivers, players whose speed is a fundamental part of their value, live on borrowed time.

Quarterbacks can afford to wait. While there is a rookie QB playing (Joe Flacco, who could have been LeSean McCoy's Pitt teammate last season, but that's another story) in this weekend's NFL conference championship games, there are two others who are 32 (Donovan McNabb) and 37 (Kurt Warner) years old.

Bradford followed his heart. And at the same time he showed wisdom. Money makes life a lot easier, and if your family is destitute, who can fault you for signing with an agent and driving off campus? However, far too many of Bradford's peers have been raised to think, or brain-washed into believing, that with wealth comes respect...and self-esteem. In short, happiness. And it just doesn't (you saw Dreamgirls, didn't you?).

Looking at Bradford's face tonight, I'd say he already has happiness. And he knows right where to find it. He may be one state south of Kansas, but for that Okie native, there's no place like home.

As to the mundane matter of how Bradford's decision impacts college football? Well, with Gresham, considered the best tight end in college football, returning, along with Williams, the Sooners may just average 50 points again next season. Redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Gerald McCoy, whom some say would be the best defensive player in college football in 2009 if he were to return, is reportedly coming back as well.

The Sooners have an interesting September coming up, with games at Miami (surely they'll relish revisiting Dolphin Stadium), against BYU in Dallas, and versus Tulsa. However, with this cast returning, Bob Stoops' team will enter 2009 ranked no lower than 3rd.

Outside of Norman, no player was probably more affected by Bradford's announcement than USC quarterback Mark Sanchez. Word is that Sanchez will announce on Thursday that he is turning pro. Pete Carroll is flying back from Hawaii for the announcement. That Sanchez has waited until the deadline day to make his announcement points to Sanchez truly being undecided (reports are that his family has discouraged him from going pro). But absent Bradford in this year's draft, Sanchez becomes the 1st or 2nd quarterback on the charts, alongside Matthew Stafford of Georgia.

Why should Sanchez go? Because if he waits until next year he will be in contention with Bradford and McCoy on the draft boards--and that could cost him dearly. Because there are three teammates behind him on the Trojan depth chart, all of them five-star preps, itching for him to leave.

Why should Sanchez stay? Because it doesn't get much better than being the starting quarterback for USC. Because the Trojan O-line returns intact, because skill position studs such as C.J. Gable and Joe McKnight and Stanley Havili and Damian Williams and David Ausberry and Marc Tyler...they'll all be back. Because how many NFL games will Sanchez play in that have the electric atmosphere of next year's games at Ohio State, at Notre Dame, at Oregon and at Cal? Because the BCS Championship game, should Troy survive that odyssey, will be played in USC's backyard. Because it'll be unforgettable.

And one year later, Mark Sanchez will still be rich.

I'll be reading Sanchez's face on Thursday afternoon. Looking to see if his smile is as ear-to-ear wide as Bradford's was on Wednesday. If he's leaving because he feels he is supposed to, or because he truly wants to. If he's happy.

Either way, I hope he is. But if Sanchez leaves, he'll be missing out on one special season in college football. If he stays, he'll be an intregal component in the most accomplished crop of returning QBs in recent memory.