Before I begin, I note that I am writing this because I am a big college football fan. I'm probably a bigger college basketball fan, but I watch more college football these days (just the way it goes with life obligations) but know that combination as you read.
As I watched Saturday and then sat thinking Saturday night, I knew the inevitable. The good, the fun schools, the ones who made the season interesting and as such would make an invitational er... playoff interesting, wouldn't get close to being included. It was the same old, same old.
And I thought about what bowl games I could remember, and for each that were big time schools and games, the rest were the upsets and weirdo games. Of course I'll never forget the Rose Bowl I attended with Oklahoma and Georgia going toe to toe in a game that seemingly never ended and we didn't want it to and I found myself hugging complete strangers in euphoria. But, for some reason, I remember VERY old Independence Bowls, and I don't know why. I won't even bore you with the details.
These kind of reaching thoughts first started in late March of 2020. I felt selfish, but I thought back to many, many March's and their madness. Some nuttier than others, some unique, a few depressing, but a large amount of memories. Nearly all of those memories were not that North Carolina won their 2nd round game by 30. It was because they lost to Weber State in the first round.
Both of those events, a destruction and an upset loss, were because "the powers that be" long ago said even if you're great, or a "big school," you're going to have to play these games. You're going to have to travel (not always, I'm looking at you Duke) and you'll play Missouri State or Detroit or Belmont or Santa Clara, and you'll just have to go right then and there. Hell, DePaul, in its glory years, received byes (back when those were a thing) and then would lose their 1st game so often they said "we don't want to have a bye, we want to play in the first round, too) and so it was.
So bring it back to college football. And all I hear from the windbags or those brainwashed by either ESPN or a spray-tanned pile of chicken fat say "DURRR THEY'D GET SMOKED BY (insert school here)." I could list the many March Madness upsets (even when the NCAA is slowly trending to include fewer of those schools) and their automatic response is that it's "not the same." Because the sport isn't the same, not what we're talking about (upsets, all schools getting a fair shake) because...well, we're already losing brain cells.
North Carolina "would smoke that school" until they didn't. They lost. I'm not saying Alabama should play Kansas State this year. I'm saying I'd like them to play an undefeated Cincy...or Coastal Carolina...shit, I've love to see em play Army, just to fuck them up when they go on a 15 play, 42 yard drive that takes 13 minutes. Or an undefeated San Jose State, where Nick goes "Wait, why does our quarterback have to throw while running backwards?" And maybe they'd win. And they'd likely win. And SJSU would say "we gave em everything we had." Or maybe it'd go the other way around, and we'd be talking about it forever.
I always mean to watch reruns when I can't think of what to watch. I should watch "Turkey's Away" from WKRP in Cincinnati around Thanksgiving. Some years I do, some I don't. And when I don't, I know I can go through the high points in my mind, smile and shake my head. Well, college football, I've seen this shit over and over again. You don't want to show me another episode...or anything new. If the callous response, correctly or misplaced, is "It's all about money" then let's see a fandom, some of whom are upset, vote with their TVs/Computers/Phones and just not watch. When a double digit decline in viewership is reported, "they" won't be ready for a response. But if it's the same old, same old, well...that's what will continue to happen. And, also selfishly, something I enjoy will be taken away from me, and all that's left are those same memories.
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