Once upon a time, I could honestly say that I was not a very big college football fan. The National Football League? Oh yeah, I’d tap a vein and give two pints of blood to watch a game.
College? Eh.
Most of that was due to two things.
1. I grew up in suburban Washington D.C., which has always been a pro sports town, especially in regard to football.
2. I went to school at UC-Santa Barbara, which had dropped football entirely before I enrolled (the program wasn’t anything special even when they had it).
So, for many years, I cared far more about watching as many NFL games as I could every weekend. If I could slip a few college games in, well, that was fine.
Now, I realize what an idiot I was.
College football is a blast.
Flipping around the channels Saturday night in my basement, I tried to figure out what’s so cool about college football. Why am I so into it now, when I was so lukewarm before?
Well, here’s my best theory: College football is great, because it’s just so all over the place. It’s full of tradition, and rivalries, and unique little quirks that every school elevates into legend.
Sure, college football is a total joke in some ways. The fact that there are no playoffs. The dumb rules (if you fall down in the open field, you are down). The absurd BCS formula, which includes (no exaggeration) a half dozen nerds nobody has ever heard of and their “computer rankings.” The horrible special teams and kicking game -- even in big time programs. Pay-for-play opponents who gladly cash a check to get whomped, 73-3. And, there are the officials who have trouble counting to four.
But there’s just too much to love. And I love how different everything is from school to school, conference to conference, region to region.
I love how some schools like Penn State and Notre Dame have classic, austere uniforms that never change. Then I flip to Fresno State and Oregon. The Bulldogs are red-on-red, with a shiny fabric that glistens under the lights. The Ducks have pants which include words down the back, and a tire-tread pattern inexplicably printed on the knees.
I see "Bevo" the live Longhorn steer sitting placidly at the Ohio State-Texas showdown. I love how live animals are so easily worked into a college game-day spectacle. Not just Bevo, but Florida State’s horse and flaming spear act, or "Ugga" the slobbering bulldog from Georgia. Oklahoma’s horse-drawn wagon, called the "Sooner Schooner, a Conestoga wagon, pulled by two crème white ponies."
I love how every stadium has it’s own quirks. Parking garages that are attached to one side of the stands, Touchdown Jesus looking over Notre Dame, "Between the Hedges," Death Valley, and on and on...
I love how different everybody does their end zones. Some schools paint them up, full of colors, letters, and mascots. Others, like Notre Dame, just paint diagonal stripes. And then there is Tennessee, which paints an orange and white checkerboard in their endzones, but stops the paint job short of the goal-line by about a yard.
I love all the different offenses teams run: pro set, wishbone, the "Veer," the Wing-T, variants of all of the above, you name it. I love the option. I mean, how great is it to see the quarterback have to run a suicide play where he knows he’s going to get laid out just moments after pitching the ball to his back?
I love all the random numbers in college football. Linebackers who wear No. 7, kickers with No. 96, and defensive ends with No. 38. I love that some schools don’t have names on the back of the jerseys, while other schools have the player’s name on the back, AND the school name on the front!
I love how South Carolina has "Carolina" on the front of their jerseys, but felt no need apparently to include a "S." in front of it.
I love overtime in college football. It’s so incredibly random, what with the missed field goals, botched extra points, the mandatory two-point attempts after the first overtime. It’s such a beautiful mess with the second guessing, the cat-and-mouse game of wondering if a field goal will be good enough. I defy anybody to come across an overtime college football game on TV and somehow turn the channel.
And now, I love the fact that big time schools are scheduling 1-AA opponents, having to pay them big money, and losing to them. Now that’s really cool. Northwestern writing a $300,000 check to New Hampshire for a 35-17 spanking in front of horrified onlookers?
Saturdays, baby. I’m a big fan.
College? Eh.
Most of that was due to two things.
1. I grew up in suburban Washington D.C., which has always been a pro sports town, especially in regard to football.
2. I went to school at UC-Santa Barbara, which had dropped football entirely before I enrolled (the program wasn’t anything special even when they had it).
So, for many years, I cared far more about watching as many NFL games as I could every weekend. If I could slip a few college games in, well, that was fine.
Now, I realize what an idiot I was.
College football is a blast.
Flipping around the channels Saturday night in my basement, I tried to figure out what’s so cool about college football. Why am I so into it now, when I was so lukewarm before?
Well, here’s my best theory: College football is great, because it’s just so all over the place. It’s full of tradition, and rivalries, and unique little quirks that every school elevates into legend.
Sure, college football is a total joke in some ways. The fact that there are no playoffs. The dumb rules (if you fall down in the open field, you are down). The absurd BCS formula, which includes (no exaggeration) a half dozen nerds nobody has ever heard of and their “computer rankings.” The horrible special teams and kicking game -- even in big time programs. Pay-for-play opponents who gladly cash a check to get whomped, 73-3. And, there are the officials who have trouble counting to four.
But there’s just too much to love. And I love how different everything is from school to school, conference to conference, region to region.
I love how some schools like Penn State and Notre Dame have classic, austere uniforms that never change. Then I flip to Fresno State and Oregon. The Bulldogs are red-on-red, with a shiny fabric that glistens under the lights. The Ducks have pants which include words down the back, and a tire-tread pattern inexplicably printed on the knees.
I see "Bevo" the live Longhorn steer sitting placidly at the Ohio State-Texas showdown. I love how live animals are so easily worked into a college game-day spectacle. Not just Bevo, but Florida State’s horse and flaming spear act, or "Ugga" the slobbering bulldog from Georgia. Oklahoma’s horse-drawn wagon, called the "Sooner Schooner, a Conestoga wagon, pulled by two crème white ponies."
I love how every stadium has it’s own quirks. Parking garages that are attached to one side of the stands, Touchdown Jesus looking over Notre Dame, "Between the Hedges," Death Valley, and on and on...
I love how different everybody does their end zones. Some schools paint them up, full of colors, letters, and mascots. Others, like Notre Dame, just paint diagonal stripes. And then there is Tennessee, which paints an orange and white checkerboard in their endzones, but stops the paint job short of the goal-line by about a yard.
I love all the different offenses teams run: pro set, wishbone, the "Veer," the Wing-T, variants of all of the above, you name it. I love the option. I mean, how great is it to see the quarterback have to run a suicide play where he knows he’s going to get laid out just moments after pitching the ball to his back?
I love all the random numbers in college football. Linebackers who wear No. 7, kickers with No. 96, and defensive ends with No. 38. I love that some schools don’t have names on the back of the jerseys, while other schools have the player’s name on the back, AND the school name on the front!
I love how South Carolina has "Carolina" on the front of their jerseys, but felt no need apparently to include a "S." in front of it.
I love overtime in college football. It’s so incredibly random, what with the missed field goals, botched extra points, the mandatory two-point attempts after the first overtime. It’s such a beautiful mess with the second guessing, the cat-and-mouse game of wondering if a field goal will be good enough. I defy anybody to come across an overtime college football game on TV and somehow turn the channel.
And now, I love the fact that big time schools are scheduling 1-AA opponents, having to pay them big money, and losing to them. Now that’s really cool. Northwestern writing a $300,000 check to New Hampshire for a 35-17 spanking in front of horrified onlookers?
Saturdays, baby. I’m a big fan.
Steve is a native Washingtonian and has worked in sports talk radio for the last 11 years. He worked at WTEM in 1993 anchoring Team Tickers before he took a full time job with national radio network One-on-One Sports.
A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Steve has worked for WFNZ in Charlotte where his afternoon show was named "Best Radio Show." Steve continues to serve as a sports personality for WLZR in Milwaukee and does fill-in hosting for Fox Sports Radio.
