ATLANTA — They had gathered around a conference table in the wealth management office of SunTrust Bank on Peachtree Street for a wide-ranging discussion about a topic that would rule their lives for the next five months: the ecstasy and agony of college football.

It wasn’t heavy lifting — they spend most of their autumns pondering the imponderable anyway. How did my Georgia Bulldogs get trampled by Boise State? Will A J McCarron bring another title to Alabama? Is this the season Jumbo Fisher returns the Florida State Seminoles to the promised land?

The mood was light because it was the end of July and all of their teams were undefeated. Last season’s triumphs and tragedies were forgotten. The stinging Saturday night e-mails rocketed toward one another’s in-boxes after a particularly embarrassing loss and the poster board with the lopsided scores pounded to their office doors were weeks away.

They are an affable bunch representing a half-dozen teams playing in the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast Conferences. Some have families, and all are gainfully employed. They are thoughtful. So what exactly is it about college football that will lure them to the message boards for dozens of lost hours, prompt them to bet lunches and beers on their team’s games, and stick themselves to the couch on Saturdays as if they had each put on a pair of Velcro pants?