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.

The Carolina Panthers continued their surprising spending spree Friday when they signed center Ryan Kalil to a six-year contract worth $49 million that will make him the highest-paid center in the NFL, according to team and league sources.

Kalil was scheduled to make $10.1 million in 2011 as the team’s designated franchise player and signed a five-year extension through 2016 that was restructured to lower his salary-cap number this year, sources said.

The deal includes $28 million in guaranteed money, sources told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter. Kalil will make $30.75 million in the first three years, or an average of $10.25 million, even though the salary cap number will be lower than that.

Nick Mangold of the Jets became the league’s highest-paid center last August when he signed an extension that was valued at $54.075 million over seven years for an average of $7.725 million a season. Kalil’s deal would have to average around $8 million a year to top Mangold’s contract.

Kalil signed the contract before Friday night’s kickoff in Miami and the Panthers were expected to announce the deal, sources said.

After a flurry of free agent and trade activity that surprised many around the league, Panthers general manager Marty Hurney had identified Kalil’s long-term deal as his next priroity.

The Panthers transactions since the NFL lockout include re-signing its own pending free agents such as defensive end Charles Johnson (six-years, $72 million), running back DeAngelo Williams (five years, $43 million), linebackers Jon Beason (five years, $51.6 million), James Anderson (five years, $22 million) and Thomas Davis (five years, $12 million).

The Panthers also signed kicker Olindo Mare to a four-year, $12-million contract and added three tight ends in Greg Olsen (trade), Jeremy Shockey (free agent) and Ben Hartstock (free agent), among their other numerous transactions. The Panthers also made quarterback Cam Newton the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft and signed him to a guaranteed $22.5 million contract over five years.

Chris Mortensen is an ESPN senior NFL analyst. ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter contributed to this report.

Of all the exciting things Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman already has accomplished, the one that is least noticed is the one that should prove most vital to the Buccaneers’ success this year. Along with producing impressive numbers and solidifying himself as a franchise cornerstone, Freeman, 23, has set a precedent. It’s fine to be a young player with plenty of promise, he seemed to be saying with his Pro Bowl-worthy play last season. Just don’t forget that being young isn’t a legitimate reason for having to wait on success.

That lesson will be essential to whatever the Bucs do this season. One of the NFL’s youngest teams went from being a three-win bunch in 2010 to a 10-6 squad last year, largely because Freeman developed so quickly that he tossed 25 touchdown passes and only six interceptions in his second year. What his maturation also did was give his teammates incentive to grow up in a hurry. It’s no coincidence that an offense that had as many as four rookies starting at one point — including wide receiver Mike Williams and running back LeGarrette Blount — managed to come within a whisker of qualifying for the wild-card spot that ultimately went to Green Bay.

That growth is what it takes to make people believe in a rebuilding effort. While someone has to be the centerpiece of the blueprint — Freeman, in this case — all the other rocks in the foundation have to see the importance of keeping pace. As Freeman said, “We are a hungry team. We want to be in the playoffs year in and year out. We want to be a team that is competing for championships, and not making the playoffs last season really stung.”

“Josh’s success really propelled everyone else,” said Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber. “When you get a group of young guys together — and it was the same back in 1996, ’97 and ’98 when I came here — those young guys start to see one or a few guys playing well and then everyone wants to play well. Josh’s success really influenced guys like Mike Williams and LeGarrette Blount. They’ve got a great bond because they’re all young and they want to grow in this thing together.”

As much as we talk about the importance of veteran leadership in the NFL, the kind of chemistry the Bucs are building is even more dangerous. It can sustain itself longer because players aren’t going to retire as quickly or move on in free agency as readily. It can be more beneficial to an organization because a strong culture is bred with every year the group spends together. It’s the kind of scenario most general managers covet. Once the young talent gains confidence and experience, the rest is a matter of maintaining consistency and drive.

As Barber noted, the Bucs struck gold in the 1990s when a group of green, gifted defenders — including defensive tackle Warren Sapp, linebacker Derrick Brooks and safety John Lynch — formed a foundation that eventually led to a Super Bowl-winning season in 2002. The Indianapolis Colts have won more games than any franchise over the past decade mainly because quarterback Peyton Manning started things off with wide receiver Marvin Harrison and running back Edgerrin James back in the day. And before that bunch, there were the three-time Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys led by Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin.

Of course, there have been similar stories throughout the history of the league, but they’ve been harder to come by in recent years. The combined realities of the salary cap, free agency and fatter contracts make it harder to build what the Bucs are assembling. Plus, you have to get lucky every now and then. As the Bucs would admit, they’ve enjoyed pretty good fortune when it comes to the risk-taking department.

You want to know why the Bucs have something special? It starts with Freeman, a quarterback who was considered a first-round gamble by many people, even the very Bucs fans who booed his selection in 2009. There’s also Williams, a player who had 964 receiving yards and a team-record 11 touchdowns last season after falling into the fourth round because he quit the team at Syracuse. Finally, Blount was the franchise’s biggest success story last year. Maligned for a suspension that cost him nearly all of his senior season at Oregon, he went undrafted and was cut by Tennessee before gaining 1,007 yards in Tampa.

What all these players have in common is the same desire that can drive the Bucs for years to come. “When you think about Josh, our younger guys are looking at him and thinking why can’t they be good right now too,” Bucs general manager Mark Dominik said. “There’s no reason you have to wait until Year 2 or 3 to do that. Those younger players really believe in that because they see Josh doing it.”

The hope for the Bucs now is that more young players follow the example their star quarterback has set. They need young defenders such as Gerald McCoy and Adrian Clayborn to become dominant linemen, and they need a relatively older one, fourth-year cornerback Aqib Talib, to realize the obvious benefits of avoiding off-the-field trouble. They need their less-heralded players to embrace their roles and a few more hidden gems to materialize on the roster. More than anything, they need to remember how much it hurt to fall short of a playoff spot in 2010 … and how nobody is going to underestimate them this fall.

That’s the predictable price every team pays for enjoying a little success in the league. In the Bucs’ case, it shouldn’t change their overall fortunes. They’ve got a star quarterback, plenty of supporting talent and a greater understanding of what they can do in this league. They also have something else: the confidence that comes from knowing that youth really isn’t a barrier to anything they want to accomplish at this level.

Senior writer Jeffri Chadiha covers the NFL for ESPN.com.