New Year's Day?

It is, for some. Yes, as January is the 1st day of the New Year, today was the "1st day" of the year for some rabid college football fans: the first day of major college practice.

Some don't start 'til later, some may have started before, but I really don't care what day--I'll leave that up to those that like to argue for argument's sake (and there are plenty who will waste the energy).

But, I can tell you it was day-1 for defending national champion Florida, and here in Central Texas, the Baylor Bears--and for BU, it was TRULY a new beginning, with the first "Fall Drills" practice on the new on-campus practice facility fields. Now, Baylor isn't anywhere near the Gators when it comes to tradition, and certainly not in the same sentence when it comes to recent success, but the Bears do have the right and the place to feel like they're more than a step closer now that they have state of the art digs right there on campus. Brand new fields, brand new indoor practice facility, and that means a brand new attitude they can take into the season opener at Wake Forest in less than a month.

Now, I know some of you out there will say the new digs won't make a bit of difference--that "Baylor is Baylor, after all". Well, that may or may not be true. But I bet Sooner fans would have a mini-conniption if I said the same thing about their recent bowl game record, so I think you get the picture. I'm certainly not going to make any predictions about the Bears challenging for the Big 12 South--I still think that's years away. What I am saying is that having a state of the art facility to call home will help the team's perception of itself--which has already been improved exponentially by head coach Art Briles and his staff over the last year-and-a-half, and when a team starts thinking of itself well, it starts to play well, and when it starts to play well, it starts to win, and when it wins, hello bowl season! And, again, picking on Sooner fans, I think you can go back to 1999 for an example--after suffering through the John Blake years, a certain Bob Stoops improved the team's attitude in one season--to reach the Independence Bowl. The next year? National title. Now, Baylor's much different. But the principle is the same. Change the attitude? Change the direction of the program. Stoops had the OU tradition to recruit to . Baylor now has practice facilities to lean on not only for now, but for future recruits to look at and think, "Hmmm. I could play here."

Now, as for stadiums? That's a whole 'nother talk show. I'm not going to advocate vacating Floyd Casey Stadium for an on-campus stadium until Baylor fans prove they'll fill up the current digs. But that's another attitude change for another day.

Perhaps another "New Year's Day".