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The division between winners and losers this year is no different than any other ... they're the intangibles.

With the reduction in scholarships for athletes in college sports, parity among schools has skyrocketed. Even the most undesirable of schools get some pretty decent athletes. With decent coaching, these teams can be competitive in an atmosphere that wasn't available to them a few years ago.

If you gave Ohio State and South Florida the same exact athletes, the same schedules, and the same coaching staff, Ohio State would probably win three more games a year than South Florida. Why? Sense the theme of this article?

1. Tradition

South Florida is just that, South Florida. They can't escape from that fact, they can't go back and rewrite their football history books, and they can't slap a new name on the school to change their perception of themselves. No matter the coach, the challenge is considerable to change the entire mindset of a team, much less a university. Ask Marvin Lewis if it gets easier in the pros.

Coaches like Jim Tressel at Ohio State are fighting from a far better vantage point. With the annals of Ohio State's storied seasons fresh in the mind of every player that walks into his locker room, Tressel can build on that already solid foundation. Coaches like Jim Leavitt at South Florida almost need to construct something out of nothing, just to get their kids to believe in their program.

2. The Bounce Back

Champions are often tested throughout the course of their seasons. Miami was tested this year by Florida, only to rally and win the game. Ohio State squandered a 24-7 lead and had to fight out three overtimes with N.C. State before taking the final lead. There are countless other examples (look at Ohio State's full-season a year ago) and will be more to come this year. So what?

One of the true measures of the heart of a team is its reaction to adversity. It's one thing to see the big-name schools trounce cupcake opponents at the beginning of the season than to see a high-caliber team find a way to win when the chips are down.

Take a look at Kansas State. They routinely start their years with no-name opponents and nice, fat scores. Where are they now? Kansas State rose deep into the top-10 with blowout wins over teams like U-Mass, not even a Division 1 school. Marshall was able to come in, put some points on them, and watch as they vainly tried to weather the storm.

Whether it be off of a horrible loss or just a horrible turn of events (blocked punt, missed field-goal, bad interception, etc.), to succeed on a routine basis in college football, those mistakes must be battled back from, those setbacks overcome.

3. The Knack

This is the most important, and most difficult to define, component of these intangibles. The knack is simply finding a way to win when there seems to be none. Ohio State in particular was uncannily in perilous situations week in and week out, only to find a way to win. Miami has demonstrated this, as well.

The key here is that while personnel may change, stars may graduate, and even coaches move on, that attitude remains. Every Hurricane on that sideline believes that no matter the score, situation, or setback, Miami can win that game. It's that very belief, that desire to win, that can spur some amazing things in college football.

Teams with the knack play four-quarter games each and every week. Oregon, even after the emotionally exhilarating win over Michigan a week ago, played basically a two-quarter game on Saturday. They didn't know how to handle that success, how to compensate for that lack of focus by hanging around in a game.

These teams never find a situation out of reach, and that's why they manage to pull out the wins that maybe they don't deserve, but that's what college football is about. Sure, recruiting helps, good coaching helps, but a school that has time and time again shown that knack to succeed wins every tie-breaker, gets every break. South Florida might not have that, Ohio State does.

These components are not necessities for teams by any stretch of the imagination, but play very important roles in the development of not only a football team, but of an athletic institution. A gap in talent, even a substantial one, has the chance of being closed by these intangibles, by these measures of heart and drive.

The single most important task of a coach is to develop these traits and strains in their teams year in and year out. The faces change, the coordinators change, but that attitude must remain. This prospect of teaching courage, of teaching desire, is not on the stat-sheet or on the media guide, but can be found in one very significant place: the win column.

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