Chances are you’ve heard a lot about college football over the past few months. You’ve heard about its liars and cheaters. You’ve heard a whole lot about one particularly despicable scoundrel. You, as a Missouri fan, have heard a bunch of three letter phrases, especially “SEC” and “DGB.” You may have wondered what it all means and why you should care.
But you haven’t heard about the games. Thankfully, that’s about to change.
College football has the shortest season of all team sports, just four months, from the first week of September to the first week of January. Because the offseason is twice as long as the season — and because fans and media members have to find something to talk about in that time — it seems like you hear twice as much about the sport’s problems than the sport itself.
But for the next four months, none of that matters. When shoe meets leather on Saturday afternoon, it’s all about the games.
The games are what make college football great, and although the season is short, they pack in plenty of them. This Saturday alone features games from Dublin to Seattle, Wash., from 8 a.m. to well past midnight.
The games showcase unique playbooks and styles you won’t find in the NFL. Army and Navy, with their anachronistic option attacks, almost never pass the ball, while Washington State, under swashbuckling coach Mike Leach, will use pass plays almost exclusively. San Diego State has promised to go for it on every fourth down. What seems like strategic suicide often proves sound.
The games teach teams how good they really are, if they can live up to lofty expectations or pull off unexpected upsets. The games will humble some and reward others. The games will answer all questions about how the new guys will fare in the big, bad Southeastern Conference.
The games bring millions of fans together to root for teams that give pride to their students, their alumni, their conference and their state. They provide an excuse for six-figure crowds to gather in otherwise unassuming towns like Gainesville, Fla., or Knoxville, Tenn.
From the lowliest walk-ons to the most-hyped five-star recruits, from Alabama to Appalachian State, the games give all who play a shot at glory.
And in State College, Penn., the games give one group of men the chance to restore some pride to a beleaguered university and remove the smudges left on their reputation from the monster that once walked in their midst.
The long offseason is generally harmful for college football. Recent scandals at giant programs like USC, Ohio State and Penn State have allowed the media to shape a narrative that it’s a sport gone awry. Ad nauseam discussions of arbitrary NCAA punishments and petty recruiting melodramas turn away casual fans.
But that offseason does allow for one good thing: anticipation. Southeastern Louisiana has its Super Bowl to look forward to on Saturday here in Columbia. Missouri has the biggest game in school history the Saturday after that.
For every college football team at the dawn of this new season, the past no longer matters. There are new stars to be born, new rivals to combat, new memories to be made, new games to be played.
You’ve heard about all that’s wrong with college football. Now you’re about to experience what makes it so great.
