1998 Week 5
September 30, 1998
I've been holding my tongue, but now that September is over and October is just around the corner, I feel I can no longer keep silent. What has been bothering me lately (and I mean more so than that pretty boy Chris taking my spot on ESPN), is the lack of quality college football match-ups in the month of September. Sure, we had UM vs ND to start the month, but since then, the pick sheets have read like the Dow Jones lately. NU +63 Oregon +45. You get the idea.
We had Iowa playing Central Michigan. Remember what Florida did to them last year?? And then there was LSU playing Idaho. How about Ohio University and North Carolina State?? And the people in NC expected a game. We even had Syracuse beating up on Eastern Michigan. And for some reason, they played that game in Ann Arbor.
I guess the last straw for me was last week's game between Nebraska and Washington University of St. Louis. If NU wanted to play a team from Missouri, they could have at least booked MU. Why the need to play a great academic school from a lower Division? Did you see that score?? 55-7?? I'm glad that NU decided to pull the first string in the 4th quarter. You think a school like Wash U. would be smart enough to not book NU but I guess they needed the money for their library or something.
And I couldn't talk about schedules without mentioning Kansas City State University. I mean, Northern Illinois, Indiana State, Northeast Louisiana and Texas?? Get real. Play someone Bruce Snyder. I'm surprised you didn't try to set-up an in-state rival contest with Washington U???
But I guess if I want to blame someone, I should go back in time and blame the originator of the "cupcake". Back in the 30's, before TV revenue shaped scheduling, teams would often try to pad their schedule with a soft opponent. However, unlike today, the easy team would try to attract a powerhouse to play on their turf. The idea being, that by bringing in a Michigan or Army or ND, the easy school would attract some fans to their game and maybe build a following. The idea of creating big revenue had yet to be determined. So, back in 1932, Bennie Bierman's Minnesota Golden Buffaloes were asked to come to Drake to play a football game.
As part of the deal, the home team would often supply a meal to the visiting team the night before the game. In fact, the menu was decided by the visiting team. For this game, Minnesota wanted some baby back ribs, baked beans, corn (they were in Iowa) AND Cupcakes.
Well, Friday came and the Golden Buffaloes sat down for their meal. Out came the ribs and the beans and the corn. But no one ever brought out the cupcakes. Well, the Minnesota team was incensed (hey, it didn't take much to upset them back then). They demanded to play the game immediately - and they got their wish. They whalloped Drake 87-0. 1 point for each cupcake they had been promised. Well, the name stuck.
Before I go, I must comment on a recently disturbing trend of uniform changing for big games. The University of Miami is now wearing green uniforms at home. And I noticed that last week, the Colorado Buffaloes decided to wear a hideous light yellow uniform. The color reminded me of mom's colostomy bag.
I started to think of how this practice started. Many think Notre Dame were the first ones to wear a different color uniform back when Dan Devine pulled out the green jerseys for the 1977 USC game. But, actually, this practice started back at Michigan State University. Soon after they installed their astroturf, someone noticed how close the MSU green was to the color of the new fake grass.
So, the MSU Team came up with a new color uniform for the defensive team that was the same color as the turf. They even added some white lines and put arrows on those guys wearing 30, 40 and 50. Well, in their first game in these new uniforms, the opposing QB was constantly throwing interceptions. After the game, he said he had a hard time determining what was turf and what was a defender - they looked the same to him.
Well, here's to hoping that we get to see some real football this weekend. I hope Penn State and Ohio State lives up to its hype. And here's hoping that JoePa stays in white and OSU stays in Scarlet.