Some Thoughts on the First Week of College Football

The first week of college football is behind us, and fans everywhere have had their first taste of victory and defeat. Also, the new rankings have been released, which means it's time to start complaining about how terrible the BCS system is. I spent most of the weekend watching football, (the highlight of which was James Rodgers catching an 87-yard touchdown pass on Oregon State's first offensive play), and here's a few mostly random thoughts that ran through my scatterbrained head during that time.

Not everyone gets it: I'm always interested in what creates sports fans and alliances to specific teams. In his book, The End of Autumn, Michael Oriard writes about his experience of Notre Dame game days in the '60s, "Instead of 6,000 drably attired males walking to classes and the dining halls, the campus was alive with women as well as men, all in holiday mood...and parading about the grounds to enliven every corner of the campus." College game days and the week leading up to big games really have a transformative power over the student body, and that ends up sticking with people forever. Fellow blogger and otherwise seasoned sports fan Ian doesn't give a rat's arse about college football, presumably because he went to a school with no football team. Oriard suggests that college football fandom stays with us because it becomes such a large part of a period in our lives that forms much of our adult identity. That just makes me feel bad for sports fans who can't get into college football. On the other hand, there are people like Alex, who went to Hofstra, but for some reason is a die-hard Penn State fan.

The BCS system sucks: Yep, I said the complaints would start. Boise State knocked off a then-ranked 16 Oregon, and BYU took down number 3 Oklahoma. Now, Boise State and their crazy smurfturf could go undefeated and still not have a chance to play in the BCS championship game. People will argue about them being in the WAC conference and their strength of schedule, while ignoring the fact that BSU schedule a game against a ranked opponent rather than say, Charleston Southern or Louisiana-Monroe. No, I won't say the WAC or MWC are as good as the SEC or Big12, but teams like Boise State and Utah last year earned their right to be in the BCS discussion.

Navy fans are a well-dressed group: No, this picture isn't from the Navy-Ohio State game from this weekend, but it could be. The only difference between Saturday's game and this picture taken in the 1950s is that the Navy fans weren't wearing coats this weekend. They were in uniform, but it reminded me of scenes from The Natural, A League of Their Own, and other old-timey sports films where people dressed up in their Sunday's best for sporting events. I wonder when people decided to just wear their Saturday's sloppiest to the stadium.

LaGarrette Blount: has become a verb. As for Byron Hout, I'm surprised more attention hasn't been paid to what he said or did to Blount. I won't say Blount was justified, but I am curious as to what Hout said that made his coach immediately yell at him and discouraged his teammates from coming to his defense.

University of Washington: They're going to challenge some people and even win a few games this year. Jake Locker is a very, very good quarterback.

University of Oregon: Even though they got rid of their pee-yellow pants, they still have what might be the ugliest uniforms in all of sports. (At least they're on the right track. That uni set is actually pretty damn good except for those adorable wings).

*Photo courtesy of Life photo archives