We’ve had another contentious offseason in American college sports, and it’s still only June. Crimson Tide LB Jimmy Johns was let go after his arrest on five charges for selling cocaine; would-be Arizona point guard Brandon Jennings might go play in Europe if he doesn’t pass his SAT exams.

The NCAA has a checkered history when it comes to cranking out student-athletes. According to this year’s Academic Progress Rate report, 36 member schools face penalties after their football programs failed to meet minimum standards. That jumps to 53 for men’s basketball, although there are also many more member institutions with basketball programs: 1,026 across all three divisions, compared to 627 for football.

Based purely on those numbers, you could draw the conclusion that basketball players are smarter. But it’s common knowledge now that the student part of the student-athlete’s college experience is a secondary consideration. Even Steve Nash skated by as a sociology major at Santa Clara.

If three-martini lunches and unlimited expense accounts are your thing, then the 21 Club in Manhattan is your kind of place. But for one day at least, football took over from Fendi as the topic of conversation.

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning was the star attraction last week at the 21. He was there to promote the launch of the National Football Foundation’s “Gridiron Club of New York,” designed to pump up interest in college football in a town where the NFL is king. Some 100 guests including former mayor Rudy Giuliani were there to press the flesh.

Manning’s father, Archie, is the chairman of the NFF and has been on the board for nearly 20 years. The group was founded in 1947 by the powerhouse trio of General Douglas MacArthur, Army coach Earl “Red” Blaik and legendary sports writer Grantland Rice. Imagine talking football over caviar and blini with those distinguished gentlemen.

Gators coach Urban Meyer

One of the quickest ways to find value in college football is to look at the teams with new coaches for 2008. Some of these coaches will be working in the national spotlight for the first time, after climbing the ranks from the lower majors up to the big time – think Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators.

All eyes are on Paul Johnson after he left a very successful run at Navy to join the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Tech is 100-1 odds to win the 2009 BCS title game; the main question is whether Johnson’s triple option will work against major-conference competition. At these odds, there’s lots of room for optimism.

Bill Stewart doesn’t have the same cachet as Johnson, as he moves up from assistant to head coach at West Virginia (25-1). But the Mountaineers still have much of that talent Rich Rodriguez left behind, and Stewart was at the helm for their 48-28 Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma.

Bears hibernate. Football fans estivate – the summer equivalent of taking a long nap in the snow. But instead of shutting their systems down during the offseason, sharp handicappers are learning about what’s on tap for 2008.

You can’t throw a virtual brick without hitting a web page dedicated to college football. Even conventional sources like ESPN and FOX provide their readers with useful content – it might be buried under headline stories about the crazy things that happen in dorms, but the Web leaves plenty of room for those niche stories about what’s happening on the field.

We’ve just been through a very informative glut of spring practices. Players and prospective players from across Division I took to the gridiron in April; their progress was documented more heavily this year than ever before, driven in part by the handicapper’s thirst for information. By studying this information now, a sharp capper will start the 2008 college football season with a sizeable knowledge gap over the betting public.