2010 Week 1
September 8, 2010
I'm glad to be back with my commentary on college football and I'm even more glad that the season has finally started. I got tired of watching Braves vs. Pilates games on ESPN.
Other than the endless baseball, my summer was fairly enjoyable. In early June I got a call from my good friend Chris Berman. Chris invited me to go with him on what he called an "RV tour" of the country. I'd never done that before, so I filled up some suitcases and waited to get picked up in a 5th wheel.
The 5th wheel term was kind of accurate, as Chris pulled up in a Subaru station wagon with my good friend Mike Tirico and two young women. They put me in the far back while the ladies spent most of their time playing "bobbing for apples" with the guys, at least until Chris had to hit the brakes suddenly. After a couple days in the hospital Chris and Mike were ready to drive around again and the girls were sent back to Urkainia.
As for the RV tour, I misunderstood. Chris meant an Arby's tour. We hit Arby's restaurants in most of the 48 states. On our days off we visited distilleries, like the Jack Daniels plant in Lynchburg Tennessee. Then we went to Morgantown and visited Coach Bill Stewart's White Lightning Distillery.
In any event, it's great to be able to watch the world's greatest sport once again.
I had thought the entire five-day Labor Day weekend was for the college kids, not the pros. So I was a bit confused by some of the NFL exhibition games last weekend. The Jaguars came back to beat Ole Southern Miss. And a couple expansion teams played a very entertaining game on Sunday as the East Carolina Panthers threw a Hail Mary to beat the Tulsa Golden Showers.
There were other sports going on too, on the ESPN crawl I saw that Ed Waters got clobbered by Beth Cook, 70-10. Competitive eating is a fine sport. I always knew my lovely daughter Beth was among the best at eating weiners. Another sport was featured as well, as Arizona's softball team, behind the lovely Jenny Felch, won big over the Toledo Mud Hens, 41-2.
I watched that new gameday show at 9 a.m., with my good friends Aaron Andrews and Herb Street. My good friend Coach Corso made his comeback, after his health problems, on last Saturday's show. He had a very nice tan.
In one of the early season showdowns, Florida blew out Miami 34-12 to take an early lead in the SEC South race. Michigan, opening its new stadium after struggling the past two years, found an easier opponent in Yukon and mushed the Huskies back to the Klondike.
Notre Dame knocked off Purdue. Head coach Charles White has gone on a nice diet and looks great. The Irish junior varsity team, ND State, beat Kansas City State 6-3, as the JVs got three safeties while KC State had one safety and an extra point.
The big story in college football this year has been realignment. Personally I'm all for realignments. My spine was realigned recently. Even cars can get realigned. That's how the rambling wreck of Georgia Tech was built.
It all started when the SEC started seeking new teams for its northern division. In an effort to increase the scholastic standing of both the SEC and the Southwest Conference, the SEC went after Texas A&M. They were rebuffed and had to settle for adding R Kansas.
The Pac-8 then reached out to try to lure the University of Texas at Austin. That didn't work out either, so they instead got Colorado College and the University of Texas at Houston. CC and U.T.A.H. should add a lot to the west coast league. USC has also been making noise. Their new athletic director Hayden Fry is urging Southern Cal to go independent. That's a good idea. I've always said that the only two teams that could have their own TV network are Notre Dame and the Song Girls.
Once the Pac-8 failed to attract UT Austin, other leagues jumped in. The Big Ten won the battle and most of the Big Eight, like Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri, have joined the Aggies in the Big Ten. Meanwhile Nebraska stayed in the Big Eight and lured in a bunch of former Big Ten teams like Penn State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State to form a new dozen-team league called the Big 12.
As for me, nobody made me an offer, so I'm just going to sit at home and bob for my own apples.