We are within a week of being within a month of college football season. It'll be here before we know it, but there is much work to be done in the interim, so, as you gear up for the arrival of the autumn and the return of gridiron glory to college campuses throughout the land, take a moment to sit back and skim what has been going on in the world around you lately:

• The big news, of course, concerns Beckham. No . . . not that Beckham . . . Gordon Beckham, the rising Georgia junior who will start at shortstop in the Cape Cod League Summer All-Star Game on Saturday, becoming the latest Diamond Dog to be a league leader. Is it any wonder why I'm expecting a trip to the College World Series next year?
• Was it something I said? I penned a lengthy treatise in the aftermath of Will Leitch's ESPN Radio interview and it appears that, like Orson Swindle, I struck a nerve. The piece garnered many links (at, e.g., Athletics Nation, Baseball Think Factory, Burnt Orange Nation, Conquest Chronicles, Gaslamp Ball, The Hardball Times, Lone Star Ball, and Sports by Brooks) and multiple responses, including a thoughtful reply from Senator Blutarsky calling attention to a thoughtful reply from Heismanpundit. I am grateful to them both for their reflections upon the subject, as I am to Stampede Blue's Big Blue Shoe for his earlier take, which I regret to admit that I missed at the time.

In atonement for my oversight, Big Blue Shoe, I hereby post a photograph of Peyton Manning.

I appreciated all the feedback, even that which took a contrary view. (Yes, I even appreciated the feedback from the guy who thought my posting "was horrible" and "was written very poorly.") One of the beauties of the blogosphere is that all of us are on an equal footing when responding to one another, allowing bloggers, commenters, and lurkers alike an identical opportunity to judge competing positions on their merits. The blogosphere is a true marketplace of ideas and that is one of the things that makes me most proud to be a part of it.

• Never one to leave well enough alone, I also argued for the umpteenth time that Georgia and Michigan should play a home-and-home series in football. Not only did the Georgia Sports Blog's Paul Westerdawg offer a cogent observation upon this point, but the suggestion was picked up over at TheWolverine.com, The Diag, and, perhaps ironically, ESPN . . . so, yeah, we were having a pretty good Monday here at Dawg Sports even before MaconDawg's discourse on recruiting helped to teach a valuable lesson.
• No matter how much I have been living up to my reputation as "college football's most verbose blogger" lately, though, I'm not the hardest working man in the blogosphere.

Not by a long shot.

• As our colleagues over at Golden State of Mind brought to our attention, The Great Sports Blogger Study of 2007 is underway. If you're a blogger (or if you just play one on the internet), go have your say . . . unless you're sitting in your parents' basement in your underwear, of course, 'cause we don't need that stereotype perpetuated.
• Finally, Doug Gillett had the guts to identify the five women he shouldn't think are hot, but does. What is disturbing to me is the fact that the cartoon gal from the esurance.com commercials is the least disturbing woman on that list.

If you're going to go with a cartoon character, though, how could you not pick Kim Possible?

That should give you enough to get you going as we push ahead through the final week before the final month before football season. Hang in there, folks; we'll make it soon enough.

Go 'Dawgs!