Earlier this year, it took an inept game-ending call by replacement referees during a nationally televised "Monday Night Football" broadcast to fast-track negotiations between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association and to get the real refs back on the field later that week.

Nary a day goes by that the marketing trade press doesn't include further doom-and-gloom evidence of how today and tomorrow's consumer is increasingly tuning out the proliferation of brand messages that inundate us every day in traditional media. DVR skipping of TV advertising is on the rise, print media for the most part is criticized for lacking the immediacy, instant access and breadth of online media. Even the more established online channels draw skeptical cries for being commercially over-run and infiltrated by the bias of "plants" and "shills."

As some of us are still trying to work off the Thanksgiving turkey, a very real thought has now crossed all of our minds: the holiday season is officially upon us. While this thought can strike fear and stress in many parents across the nation, for college football fans, it means that we are officially in "bowl season." This bowl season feels particularly different from past years, one with more optimism than ever before. When talking about college football, the BCS usually goes from a three-letter word to a four-letter word. However, this year everyone around college football is excited …