As the college bowl season winds down, culminating with Thursday night's BCS Championship Game between No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 2 Florida, the debates continue to ramp up.

 

Which team is truly the best in the country? Which conference is the most powerful? Which players will be the most productive at the next level?

 

While those topics are open to speculation and argument, the NFL tends to provide more definitive answers. There, games between teams in different divisions are commonplace, and a champion will eventually be decided – get this! – on the field.

 

But which college conference has seen its players make the biggest impact on the 2008 playoffs? Even the most ardent football fan would likely be surprised by that answer.

 

It's the Colonial Athletic Association.

 

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the CAA isn't even part of the Football Bowl Subdivision – still commonly referred to as I-A – where the "best team" is determined by rankings and polls. Rather, it's a member of the Football Championship Subdivision (these new names sure aren't cumbersome), which is the old I-AA.

 

Each team that won in the wild-card round got a significant contribution from a player whose alma mater now competes in the Colonial Athletic Association.

 

(A bit of history: All of the colleges mentioned below were formerly members of the now-defunct Yankee Conference, which was absorbed by the Atlantic 10 in 1997. They played under that banner through the 2006 season before joining the newly created CAA football conference.)

 

Here's how CAA players impacted the first-round games:

 

The running back had an up-and-down rookie season, but he again flashed the form that produced a team-high 10 rushing touchdowns. With 2:54 remaining in the third quarter, Hightower ran around left end for a 4-yard score that gave the Cardinals a 28-17 lead. The TD would end up providing the margin of victory, as Arizona hung on for a 30-24 win.

 

In a losing effort, Atlanta's Brian Finneran (Villanova) had two catches for 11 yards.

 

The sixth-year inside linebacker helped make the Colts one-dimensional on offense throughout the game. Indy could only muster 64 rushing yards and 2.9 YPA. Cooper led the Chargers with six tackles and two assists, and he recorded two big stops of Joseph Addai in the final minutes of regulation. Of course, the defense didn't need to take the field in overtime, since San Diego won the coin toss and subsequently scored for a 23-17 victory.

 

Like many young quarterbacks, the rookie experienced some playoff-debut struggles, completing only 9 of 23 passes for 135 yards. But he managed the game, didn't turn the ball over and made a big play with his legs. Flacco's 5-yard touchdown run with four minutes left sealed a 27-9 win for the Ravens.

 

Another rookie, Miami's Brandon London (Massachusetts), was surprisingly a factor for the Dolphins. After recording just three receptions during the regular season, he caught four passes for 38 yards.

 

The do-everything back was held in check for most of the game, limited to 30 total yards for the first 53 minutes. But with the Eagles clinging to a 16-14 lead, he took a screen pass 71 yards for the back-breaking touchdown. Westbrook finished with 121 yards from scrimmage in the 26-14 victory.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Westbrook's long scoring play came with Minnesota's Darren Sharper (William & Mary) on the sideline. The Pro Bowl safety sprained his right ankle early in the second quarter and didn't return.

 

There's absolutely no question that the playoff outcomes so far have been highly influenced by the lowly Colonial Athletic Association. In three of the games, the winning team's final touchdown was scored by a player from a CAA school. In the fourth, the CAA can claim the winning team's top tackler.

 

Those Cold, Hard Football Facts are impossible to ignore when determining which college conference is having the biggest impact on the NFL postseason.