If the powers that be in college football have any brains, they would stop the sport right here and now. There's a better chance of Rutgers playing Stanford in the Nokia Sugar Bowl a year from now than of improving upon Ohio State's 31-24 double-overtime victory over Miami.

That is, if you like well-played, gripping, exciting, historic national championship games. If not, please click on the NFL page now.

John Junker, the executive director of the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and a man who proves annually why his game is the best-run of the bowls, beamed as he stood in the north end zone amid the exultant Buckeyes.

"This is why college football is the greatest game in the world," Junker said.

Grant him the hyperbole, everywhere but in say, south Florida. The Hurricanes saw their win streak halted at 34 games and lost the chance to become only the second team in the last 23 years to repeat as national champions. They also lost their All-American tailback, Willis McGahee, whose left knee came apart in the fourth quarter after a clean, but violent, forearm delivered by the Buckeyes' Will Allen. McGahee will have surgery Sunday to repair multiple ligament tears.

Coach Larry Coker must repair the psyches of his players, stunned by the act of losing. The loss seemed to echo the most painful losses in Miami's two decades of dominance. The five turnovers brought up memories of the seven giveaways in the 14-10 loss to Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl 16 years before. The strip of safety Sean Taylor by Buckeye tailback Maurice Clarett after Taylor intercepted Craig Krenzel in the end zone conjured up the image of Alabama's George Teague ripping the ball out of Lamar Thomas's right arm in the Sugar Bowl a decade ago.

The Hurricanes will have to take solace in the fact that they have 15 returning starters, give or take an underclassman or two that may decide to enter the NFL draft. That total of starters includes McGahee. If he can't play next fall, Frank Gore, who held the starting job before injuring his knee last spring, should be ready.

Solace or no, at least one Miami player understood the magnitude of Friday's game. "I think that's the best football game I've ever been a part of," defensive tackle Matt Walters said.

Miami will start the 2003 season where it ended -- near the top. So, too, will the Oklahoma Sooners, who have most of their defense returning. In fact, among the top five, only the defending national champion is a question mark. Ohio State loses a senior class of 13 players who provided the leadership necessary to go 14-0. Given the championship and the appeal of coach Jim Tressel, it's a safe bet the Buckeyes will have an outstanding class of recruits.

More remarkable even than strong recruiting classes, though, is the group of coaches hired two years ago that enjoyed huge success across the country this season. Four of the teams in the final top five have coaches hired after the 2000 season: Tressel, Coker, Mark Richt of Georgia and Pete Carroll of USC. There may be a more successful class of coaches, managers, players, lawyers or brain surgeons somewhere, but you would be hard pressed to find it.

All four of those coaches not only performed well in 2002, they did so in the first three days of 2003, too. That includes Coker, whose team lost because of physical mistakes and odd bounces, not because of poor preparation.

If the rest of the year is as fulfilling as the first three days, the powers that be ought to go ahead and play the 2003 season. It starts in fewer than eight months.

Ivan Maisel is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.