Want to take note of my favorites: Mike Lopresti. The long time Gannett and USA Today columnist was among those taking the buyout.

I have known Lopresti for more years than either of us care to admit. You always knew you were at a big game if Lopresti was there.

Lopresti is a pro’s pro, perhaps the ultimate compliment in this business. He shows up, works hard, and then delivers. Again, again, and again.

Earlier this week, he did it one last time for USA Today, tracing the changes that he has seen during 43 years of covering college sports.

Some samples:

Who knew that an NCAA basketball tournament with 25 teams would one day have room for 68? Or that Midnight Madness would one day be pushed back to September and March Madness would leak into April?

Television revenues for the tournament were $550,000 in 1970. Who knew that barely four decades later, that number would be off by $670 million or so?

And…

Who knew how the horizons for freshmen would change? How they went from ineligible to play in 1970 – the quaint theory being they needed time to become acclimated as college students – to the frenetic age of one-and-done?

And…

Mississippi had a dashing quarterback named Archie Manning. Who knew what his bloodlines would mean?

In 1970, Saturday meant a college football game on network television. Or maybe even two. Who knew that one day it’d be 25 on a gazillion channels?

In 1970, the Final Four was in Maryland’s Cole Field House, capacity 14,380. Who knew that the NCAA would decide one day that the last place it wanted to play its most important basketball games was a basketball arena?

Who knew AAU basketball coaches would turn into power brokers of uncertain repute, and the White House would one day call for a football playoff? Who knew that coaches would have salaries like movie stars, and the debate on recruiting rules would have to include what to do about Twitter and texting?

As always, good stuff from a pro’s pro.