Hi, my name is Kevin, and I am a college football addict. I'm watching college football as I write this; I am probably thinking about college football as you read this. If there were a way to convince each conference to pick a different day and play its games exclusively then, thereby giving us college football every day of the week, I would make the pitch in a second.
Take Monday afternoon for example. I was about to go to the gym, when ESPN began its coverage of Texas Tech at Southern Methodist. I ended up watching for a half hour before actually leaving, and when I finally hit the treadmill I flipped the channel to the game. Now here I sit, typing this up with that same game on.
Feel free to bear in mind that I have no connection to either school or to the state of Texas at all. I probably don't even know more than five people who have been to Texas. Why in the world have I devoted precious hours of my life to a game that I seemingly have no vested interest in? That's easy: because it's college football.
I tried to warn my girlfriend about my problem. I reference Gameday on Saturday mornings, a new batch of games every few hours, and note which prime time and West Coast games are going to conflict with date functions. Then this past Saturday night -- while watching the USC-Idaho game at a party, no less -- she asked why I liked college football so much.
I explained it's the do-or-die nature of every single week. You cannot afford to lose even one game in college football if you want to guarantee a shot at a national championship. There is no other sport that establishes such a situation in the regular season, in which you are essentially playing an elimination game every Saturday. And this is the major reason why college football addicts love the sport.
Another great reason to love the sport is that there are better early-season matchups now than in the past, when national powers rarely scheduled anyone with a slight chance of beating them. At the beginning of last week when asked what I thought of Virginia's football schedule, I said our conference schedule could be a lot tougher but noted that we have the kind of non-conference schedule that would cost us if we were contending for a national championship. (Note: Obviously I knew that was a long shot; now we're just hoping not to snap Duke's 21-game losing streak.)
The reality is that teams not only have to worry about winning every week but also have to worry about how impressive their wins are in the games over which they have scheduling control (non-conference contests). The result is fewer cupcake schedules and more games between highly-ranked programs to tide us over until league matchups.
Take all of the previous ingredients, throw in some intense conference and natural rivalries, then add Lee Corso to taste. What you get is three months of regular-season football action that plays out like a continuous playoff.
Aside from my misguided optimism, that little anecdote about Virginia's schedule is also meant to display the kind of thinking that the Bowl Championship Series has fostered in college football fans. In analyzing what the Cavaliers' schedule is like, I noted how it would be judged in terms of the BCS, as the system has taken over the landscape of college football.
This idea also emerges from the biggest story from the first weekend in college football: preseason No. 5 Michigan falling to two-time Division I-AA (I refuse to call it the "championship subdivision") defending-champion Appalachian State this past weekend. The Mountaineer victory marks one of the biggest upsets in history, but there are also BCS implications as a result. Assuming the Wolverines rebound and play to the level most had previously expected of them, we could see Michigan finish with only that one loss and benefit from it coming early into the season. (It's hard to tell because the loss is so unprecedented.)
There have been a lot of examples of this since the inception of the BCS, including a situation last season. A year ago, both Florida and Michigan finished the season with one loss. Florida lost in week seven to Auburn by 10 points, and Michigan lost to Ohio State by four in the final week. Had Michigan lost to Ohio State in the middle of the season, chances are the Wolverines would have had a better chance of making it to the BCS Championship Game. The BCS over the years has had a tendency to reward teams that lose their only game early and punish those that lose late in the season.
You probably heard arguments for each side and made your decision about last year, but Florida ended up getting the nod to play Ohio State. Either way you look at it, Michigan getting crushed by USC in the Rose Bowl is exactly what BCS officials wanted, as it helped justify Florida going to the championship game against Michigan.
My point is, just as I evaluated Virginia's schedule in terms of long-term BCS implications, I seem to be conditioned to view the Michigan-Appalachian State game for how it will influence the eventual BCS results and bowl berths, rather than enjoying the upset. Instead of admiring a seeming parity that has been developing in college football (much like the rise of so-called mid-majors in NCAA basketball), I am stuck thinking about the BCS.
I guess I'll just do my best to enjoy the playoff atmosphere of college football each week and see where the BCS chips fall at the end of the season. After all, the bigger question is whether I will still be in a relationship by then.
Kevin's column runs on Thursdays and he can be reached at sports@cavalierdaily.com
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