College football may have finally found the man to handle all the violations, scandals, free boat rides and pay-for-play schemes so prevalent these days.

Everyone’s crucifying Roger Goodell for giving Ohio State QB Terrelle Pryor a dose of NFL justice – a five-game suspension before he even plays a down in the NFL, but maybe there’s a better way to look at this unprecedented penalty for a crime committed in college, miles outside the NFL’s jurisdiction.

If Goodell doesn’t take a stand to help his gazillion-dollar organization stand up for a helpless bajillion-dollar NCAA who will?

The NCAA slapped Pryor with the suspension after learning he’d violated his amateur status with his alleged role in a huge memorabilia-for-cash scandal. Then he bolted to Monday’s supplemental draft to duck punishment and “undermine the integrity of the eligibility rules of the NFL Draft,” as the league put it in a statement explaining the suspension Friday.

But to really help the NCAA reform the colossal corruption that permeates its member-schools, Goodell will need to take it up a notch: Pryor, after all, is a waste of NFL muscle-flexing, hardly good enough to play those first five games in the first place.

In the name of equal application of rules, Goodell will need to send some serious league-wide messages.

Remember Pete Carroll? The Seahawks coach who ditched USC in January 2010, just days before an NCAA report detailed Trojan recruiting violations. He claims he didn’t know what was happening right under his nose. So either he needs an ultra-powerful contact prescription or he pulled a Pryor. We’ll guess the latter.

Suspension, right?

Reggie Bush? Before he became the biggest bust in the 2006 NFL Draft, a report alleged that he accepted gifts from an agent. We’re talking cash and hotel stays and limo rides, stuff that makes Pryor’s memorabilia scheme look, well, amateur. He’s been clean in the NFL, but we’re in retro mode. Ten games.

Speaking of Heisman guys, don’t forget Cam Newton, whose father allegedly sold his son to the highest bidder. The NCAA couldn’t find enough evidence to suspend Newton, but evidence is for amateurs. Have at it.

Handle those former Miami Hurricanes, all 72 of them, who allegedly got boatloads of extra benefits. Antrel Rolle, ex-Jet Jonathan Vilma and 49ers RB Frank Gore ? we’ll fax you the whole list.

There are integrity issues galore, but stagger these suspensions, so teams don’t need replacement players.

Santonio Holmes, Jeremy Shockey, Jonathan Ogden and Ryan Leaf. All were mentioned by former agent Josh Luchs as players he paid in college in a report last year. Yeah, we’re thinking suspensions, too. Leaf and Ogden haven’t played in years, but here’s a stroke of penal creativity: If their sons ever reach the league ?

NEW YORK — Being voted preseason No. 1 is a tradition at Oklahoma, and this season is no different.

The Sooners will start out top-ranked in The Associated Press college football poll for the 10th time, more than any program in the country.

The defending Big 12 champions received 36 of 60 first-place votes and 1,464 points in the top 25 released Saturday.

Auburn, last season’s national champion, will start the season No. 23, one spot behind where it began in 2010.

If the rankings are any indication, the national title race could be a scramble.

No. 2 Alabama, one of a record eight Southeastern Conference teams in the preseason poll, wasn’t far behind OU, receiving 17 first-place votes and 1,439 points.

No. 3 Oregon got four first-place votes, No. 4 LSU received one and No. 5 Boise State got two.

Florida State was No. 6, the Seminoles’ best preseason ranking since starting the 2004 season at No. 5.

Heisman Trophy favorite Andrew Luck and Stanford were No. 7.

Rounding out the top 10 are Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Nebraska, in its first season in the Big Ten after leaving the Big 12.

No. 16 Notre Dame is ranked for the first time since early November 2009.

As for Oklahoma, no matter where it lands in the preseason, it always expects to make a run at a national championship in the end. It hasn’t won it all, however, since 2000.

That’s when coach Bob Stoops led the Sooners to their seventh AP national title in his second season in Norman. Since then, Oklahoma has lost three BCS title games.

The Sooners have won the AP national title four times when they were preseason No. 1 (1956, 1974, 1975 and 1985). The last time they started a season top-ranked was 2003. That season, they lost the BCS Championship Game to LSU.

“We’re very matter of fact,” Stoops said this week. “All we think about is doing the work.

“We’re also very aware we’re not much different than about 12, 15 other teams that’ll be competing for it that have legitimate chances to win it. What are we going to do differently to separate ourselves?”

Having the combination of quarterback Landry Jones and receiver Ryan Broyles is a good place to start.

Jones passed for 4,718 yards and 38 touchdowns last season, his second as a starter, and Broyles was his favorite target. The senior had 131 catches for 1,622 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Jones was forced into a starting role two years ago as a redshirt freshman when Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford went down with a shoulder injury. That was a tough season for the Sooners, who started ranked third but finished it 8-5.

Bradford was one of several key players Oklahoma lost to an injury that season, and Jones wasn’t the only underclassman who played a bigger role than expected.

“Now two years from that they have benefited from the maturity and the experience gained from being on the field at an early age,” Stoops said. “Our (offensive) line was young and now two years later they’ve got experience and some maturity to them. Same with Landry Jones. Same with Ryan Broyles.”

Earlier this month, Sooners fans must have had flashbacks to Bradford’s injury when linebacker and leading tackler Travis Lewis hurt his left foot in practice. He likely will miss at least the first four games, including a road trip to Florida State on Sept. 17.

“It’s a big blow to us, there is no denying it,” Stoops said.

Oklahoma has also been coping with the death of linebacker Austin Box, a would-be starter who overdosed on prescription painkillers in May.

“He’s very close to so many guys and … it wouldn’t be right to brush it to the side,” defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “We’re trying to move forward and deal with it as best we can.”

The SEC has won five straight BCS title games and has plenty of candidates to make it six.

“We want to come out and win a national championship, to be undefeated,” Alabama safety Mark Barron said. “Every time we step out on the field, one of our motivating factors is to be special.”

South Carolina (No. 12), Arkansas (No. 15), Georgia (No. 19), Mississippi State (No. 20) and Florida (No. 22) give the SEC more teams in the preseason poll than any previous conference.

The Big Ten placed four teams in the rankings with Wisconsin (No. 11), Michigan State (No. 17) and Ohio State (No. 18) joining Nebraska.

With No. 21 Missouri, the Big 12 had four teams, too.

The Pac-12 had three teams, with No. 25 USC joining Oregon and Stanford.

The Atlantic Coast Conference placed two teams (Florida State and No. 13 Virginia Tech), as did the Mountain West Conference (Boise State and No. 14 TCU)

The Big East, which finished last season with no ranked teams, had one team in the preseason poll, No. 24 West Virginia.

Notable by its absence is Texas. Coming off a 5-7 season, the Longhorns are missing from the preseason Top 25 for the first time since 1998.

For now, ranked or not, every team is chasing Oklahoma.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

Being voted preseason No. 1 is a tradition at Oklahoma, and this season is no different.

The Sooners will start out top-ranked in The Associated Press college football poll for the 10th time, more than any program in the country.

The defending Big 12 champions received 36 of 60 first-place votes and 1,464 points in the Top 25 released Saturday.

Auburn, last season’s national champion, will start the season No. 23, one spot behind where it began in 2010.

If the rankings are any indication, the national title race could be a scramble.

No. 2 Alabama, one of a record eight Southeastern Conference teams in the preseason poll, wasn’t far behind OU, receiving 17 first-place votes and 1,439 points.

No. 3 Oregon got four first-place votes, No. 4 LSU received one and No. 5 Boise State got two.

Florida State was No. 6, the Seminoles’ best preseason ranking since starting the 2004 season at No. 5.

Heisman Trophy favorite Andrew Luck and Stanford were No. 7.

Rounding out the top 10 are Oklahoma’s Big 12 rivals, Texas A&M (No. and Oklahoma State (No. 9), and Nebraska (No. 10), in its first season in the Big Ten after leaving the Big 12.

No. 16 Notre Dame is ranked for the first time since early November 2009.

As for Oklahoma, no matter where it lands in the preseason, it always expects to make a run at a national championship in the end. It hasn’t won it all, however, since 2000.

That’s when coach Bob Stoops led the Sooners to their seventh AP national title in his second season in Norman. Since then, Oklahoma has lost three BCS championship games.

The Sooners have won the AP national title four times when they were preseason No. 1 (1956, 1974, 1975 and 1985). The last time they started a season top-ranked was 2003. That season, they lost the BCS championship game to LSU.

“We’re very matter of fact,” Stoops said this week. “All we think about is doing the work.

“We’re also very aware we’re not much different than about 12, 15 other teams that’ll be competing for it that have legitimate chances to win it. What are we going to do differently to separate ourselves?” 

Having the combination of quarterback Landry Jones and receiver Ryan Broyles is a good place to start.

Jones passed for 4,718 yards and 38 touchdowns last season, his second as a starter, and Broyles was his favorite target. The senior had 131 catches for 1,622 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Jones was forced into a starting role two years ago as a redshirt freshman when Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford went down with a shoulder injury. That was a tough season for the Sooners, who started ranked third but finished it 8-5.