That Old Familiar Feeling: A Love Letter To College Football
From the mighty banks of the Palouse river, to the old iron horseshoe in Columbus, even down to the great swamps and Everglades of Baton Rouge there seems to be a sensational buzz sweeping all across the country whether it be on a smaller scale in high school athletics or big time collegiate athletics we the fans know. We know that it’s time for early mornings, massive cookouts (with copious amounts of alcohol involved), splendid multi-colored sunsets behind majestic scoreboards, and above all else the pageantry and tradition. Watching your team stroll down “Victory Lane” or erupting in a raucous frenzy as they stream past Howard’s Rock down in the Palmetto State. Yes friends and family it truly is the happiest time of the year and no need to double or even triple check your calendar’s. It’s the return of the prodigal son here yet again to wash away our woes and reconcile our differences whether they be real and or imagined. College Football is back, baby! The time couldn’t be more right, more earned, and more different.
On the cusp of ever changing and evolving collegiate landscape in more ways than one and I’m not just talking about the biggest headline news ladies and gents. Alas if you’re reading this in your cave or whichever hovel you’ve crawled out from under, we’re still very well in the midst of a global pandemic. The particular challenges that many teams faced last season will still be very much present and not without its fair share of news coverage. Take for instance, the Big 12 conference (or what’s left of it that is) Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has already come out and said that if a team is unable to play due to Covid-19 positive players that will count as a loss seeing as the team will have to forfeit their competition that Saturday. Incentivizes these teams to not only play smart but get fully 100% vaccinated and promote a healthy environment for the team and its fans. In addition, other shocking earth shattering news! Both the University of Texas (Horns down) & University of Oklahoma have done what one could only really categorize as the “heist of the century”! Both universities after months of careful collaboration and sneakery have pulled down the pants of the Big 12 conference and left them in the dust and on their face as they head down South to join up with their other SEC buds. Apparently, in the $EC it just means more...more MONEY cha-ching the sound of the register opening and the coffins being filled from bottom to top with that delicious South Eastern Conference money. They’re the newbies on the block looking to prove themselves but what they’ve failed to realize is that they’ve gone and set forth a chain of events that cannot and will not be rescinded.
I’m talking about Super Conferences Big Gulp size because with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the $EC the $EC now can lay claim to a 16 team conference. If the media pundits are to believe in the bell being rung for the College Football Playoff to be expanded from 4 to 12 you can already see with basic math how the $EC wins out. More or less many many schools have begun to really take a long hard look at where they fit in this new world of mega conferences. Which schools land where? Who brings in more prestige? Is College Football now NFL lite? All of these questions alongside many more were unleashed when Pandora’s box was so rudely opened. There are talks and whispers really of a potential Pac-12, Big-12, ACC, and Big 10 coalition forming to combat the $EC but of course C.R.E.A.M “dolla dolla bill y'all” seems to be the only thing anyone of any importance cares about. No one ever breached the subject of all the potential new rivalries we’ll gain with some of the conference realignment. It’s no secret within the state of Texas the Texas Longhorns (Horns Down) run that town but their little brother in College Station just up the road they fill as if they’re ready to reignite old passions again. Texas vs Texas A&M (GIG EM!) used to house some of the finest matchups College Football could’ve ever laid claim to but that was finished when A&M broke up with the Longhorns first and headed to promised land in the $EC! How about the start up again of The Backyard Brawl? Pitt vs West Virginia University (WVU) a series in which heartbreaking losses and monumental wins have graced the television sets for 100 years!! It’s the 14th oldest rivalry in the United States and such tradition shouldn’t be nixed and or forgotten just because both programs in the modern era haven’t seen much success.
My final thing for you kind readers that you oughta know before we depart is that college athletes now have the right and the luxury to earn money for their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). Notice how I didn’t say they’re being given life insurance or a liveable wage or even a salary...yet I digress this huge news only worsen and furthers the divide from the Country’s 10 best programs and everyone else. If you’re a 5-star highly touted recruit with aspirations to play at the highest level in the NFL. Not only are you going to choose a conference in which you can have a massive amount of tv exposure but you’re now going to go with the inclusion of NIL where you’ll get the best deal in representation. It’s almost ironic that after years and years of swearing up and down that the NCAA was a place for learning and the betterment of these athletes in their own lives they’ve now given up the guise and let the floodgates loose. My only concern isn’t the widening of the talent gap as that’s been on for years now but it’s going to be rather ugly when and if these young men are wrangled into bad deals that agents will prey upon them. The NCAA has let us down once again and has passed responsibility of paying the players onto the next one until I suppose there’s no one else to answer the call.
The 2021 College Football season is going to be yet another wild roller coaster of emotions. I’m hoping to see some more storming of the fields, electric and unique atmospheres, and some huge upsets along the way. Journey with me as I give you takes and opinions on the stories as they unfold this season. It’ll be one helluva ride and the more the merrier. Fight On!