As the final piece of confetti dropped to the University of Phoenix Stadium turf Monday, another college football season officially concluded. Alabama head coach Nick Saban's fifth national championship since the 2003 season gave the '15 campaign an ending that felt an awful lot like many of those written in the last 12 years.
But 2015 was hardly a repeat of seasons past, as the year's bowl season proved. An unprecedented number of bowls -- 41 -- and the second season of the College Football Playoff made for new storylines. Some of the subplots that closed out this season write the early chapters for the 2016 campaign.