Let The Games Begin: College Football Mecca
By E.C. Mercer
Whether these guys scare you or inspire you, College Football is where it’s at this weekend. (Photo credit: Bill Frakes/SI)
I’m writing this at 30,000 feet somewhere over Montana, and I’m so excited right now I can’t sit still. Yes, I’m on vacation, a small sabbatical from my life; wife beside me, drink in hand, and nothing to do for the next two weeks but whatever I want. But, I’m not giddy just because of the trip. No, I’m this way because of the slate of College Football match ups coming at me this Saturday.
Let’s face it, overall, the first five weeks of the amateur football circuit has been less than thrilling and a bit disappointing. USC has looked less than stellar, LSU too, and frankly, are vastly over ranked. Any other team not in the SEC would be out of the top 10 by now with the play the Tigers have displayed. Oregon and West Virginia still do not play defense, but are astronomically astute at scoring. And, the Big Ten is landsliding towards ranking oblivion.
But, now, the real season starts. Let’s look at just a sampling of some great games.
(8) West Virginia @ (11) Texas
(5) Georgia @ (6) South Carolina
(4) LSU @ (10) Florida
(21) Nebraska @(12) Ohio State
There are other good ones, but these four alone have me salivating. As a fan of the college game, it bothers me to have to watch so many scrub games that allow the big boys to virtually practice while beating the snot out of crappy teams like University of Louisiana at Monroe. What? My apologies to ULM. Nice job Arkansas! But, what do you expect when your coach is John L. Smith., or as I like to call him, Uncle Snuffy.
But, I digress, this is separation weekend. From this Saturday forward we will get to see who is worthy of their rankings and who deems themselves to be just another Wisconsin, Virginia Tech or Michigan.
With conference play in full swing, it will all start to fall into place. The country will, once again, get to hear just how great the entire SEC is because they “beat each other up” and just how lousy everyone else is because they “beat each other up”.
For the record, I’ve always advocated for a mid-season re-ranking. It makes too much sense (which is why it will never happen) and this weekend would be a great place to start. Besides, it would be fun, at least for me, to watch the voters either justify keeping an undeserving team where the are, are have the balls to move some one far away from where the started.
So, enjoy the weekend of College Football. This is what it’s all about. This is why my cable box will have over a dozen games on at the same time, and as a result, cause me to be incredibly twitchy by the time I attempt sleep. I will fail greatly.
*For the record, I have WV over Texas, Florida over LSU, OSU over Nebraska, and South Carolina over Georgia.