We have entered a great wasteland, the period of time between the end of one sports cycle and another. Thank God for vacations.

In the last week or so, we've said so long to the Patriots as their OTAs and minicamp have concluded, farewell to the high schools as our local schools finally bowed out of their MIAA Tournaments, and au revoir to the winter sports as the NHL and NBA crowned their champions.

For the next six or seven weeks, the Red Sox will have your attention practically all to themselves. Oh, yeah, I forgot the Revolution. Easy to do.

There will be summer baseball, the Bay State Games (for whatever interest those may still hold to anyone) and the Attleboro Area Golf Association Championship Tournament, and the annual visit of Tiger Woods and the Deutsche Bank Tournament to TPC-Boston in Norton around Labor Day, so it's not as if the local sports calendar will be totally devoid of events that have appeal to a broader segment of the sports-viewing audience.

But it's generally accepted that while the new sports cycle begins with the opening of the Patriots' training camp (July 30 this year), it doesn't really kick in until they start playing exhibition games two weeks later. Then at the end of August, the high schoolers find their way back into the cycle with the beginning of fall sports practice. Already, it's looking as if this might be a very interesting fall.

The biggest story of the fall, of course, is what will happen to the Mansfield High School football team over the first four weeks as its coach, Mike Redding, serves out a four-game suspension imposed as a penalty for not reporting the presence of an ineligible player on his 2008 roster within minutes of discovering the circumstance.

Far too much has already been written on that topic, but I still maintain that the four-game suspension (a compromise proposed by Mansfield High from the MIAA's original demand for a five-game suspension) is excessive and does not fit the alleged "crime."

Still, as Bill Belichick might say, "it is what it is," and it will have to be fulfilled at the start of the season - which, as it turns out, is the most fortuitous time possible. Mansfield plays non-league games against Dartmouth and Minnechaug

Regional in the first two weeks, and Franklin and Stoughton for its first two Hockomock League games thereafter, and neither of those would appear to pose too much of a threat toward the Hornets' hopes for competing for another league title.

This fall will also mark the debut of a new team in the Eastern Athletic Conference as Martha's Vineyard joins Bishop Feehan, Bishop Stang, Somerset and Coyle-Cassidy as a full member. It may not carry the anticipation of Attleboro's pending membership in the Hockomock League beginning in the fall of 2010, but it's always refreshing to have a little new blood in the local mix.

This fall will also probably result in another round of debate over a new football playoff plan. The one currently up for debate would radically change the way high school football is conducted in this state, and while it has its merits, I'm not sure everyone understands just how radical the change will be, and if they did, whether they would be prepared to accept it.

In a nutshell, all football leagues would be abolished. There would no longer be a Hockomock League, or a Bay State Conference, Tri-Valley League, EAC, South Coast, Old Colony, Catholic Conference - you name it, at least for football. There would be six enrollment-based divisions in football state-wide, from North Adams to Nauset, and only seven weeks of a football "regular season," after which playoffs would start.

"Commissioners" for each division would handle scheduling for all member schools, and not the leagues, putting many local rivalries at risk. And once teams qualified for playoffs, those who didn't make it would be thrown into a pool to fill out the schedules for those schools that didn't qualify - again, the schedules being drawn up by the "commissioners" on short notice.

Several weeks ago, I polled the athletic directors and football coaches of our 10 football-playing schools to see where the stood on this issue. As I suspected, the response was underwhelming. Two ADs responded by e-mail and one by phone. I imaging the rest were worried about having their opinions down in writing before the issue was to be considered, thus removing the "I reserve the right to change my mind" option that Bill Parcells used to his advantage many years ago. I'll be revisiting the question as the issue moves to the front burner later this year.

So it looks to be a busy fall - and yes, I didn't forget that pro team that plays behind the Renaissance Hotel on Route 1. I hear tell that some guy named Brady will be back this fall. I guess that means a few people will be interested in those goings-on.

In the meantime, it's time to rest and regenerate. The pace will be leisurely and so will I, with several weeks of vacation booked out over the next two months before the sports clock ticks back around to the "12" position on its face - time to start this cycle all over again.

May that clock never stop.

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.