College Football: A New York City bar guide for September 4, 2010 (Week 1)
Been waiting most of the summer (... and winter ... and spring ...) for the return of college football, which is now upon us. Thing about the first weekend that kinda sucks is: most FBS (major-conference) teams play FCS (lesser-conference, i.e. "teams looking for a paycheck") teams, so there are a ton of routs. It's a necessary evil, though; the little guy gets the cheddar and the big guy (and their fan base) gets a huge win and good feelings about the new season.
By our estimation, there are five essential games this weekend. The most essential is Boise State vs. Virginia Tech on Monday night; if Boise wins, the entire goddamn BCS and power structure is subsequently on its head. The other four are: Oregon State vs. TCU (Saturday night), LSU vs. UNC (Saturday night), Michigan vs. UConn (Saturday afternoon) and Purdue vs. Notre Dame (Saturday afternoon).
Those last two might be somewhat questionable picks, but here's why: Michigan and ND must win, or else either Rich Rodriguez or Brian Kelly (or both) is 0-1 next weekend for ND vs. Michigan, which means one of them could open 0-2. Whoa.
Here's where to go watch 'em, in order of start:
Connecticut Huskies vs. Michigan Wolverines:
The biggest thing you need to know about this game is: Michigan cannot lose. It wouldn't be as bad as when they lost to Applachian State to open 2007, but still, a loss at The Big House to a team most people view as a basketball school would be deadly. If you're a Michigan fan, you can pretty much go anywhere; we'd recommend Professor Thom's or the 14th-area Brother Jimmy's, although other spots -- Blondie's West is always good for Big Ten games -- will work. UConn heads apparently go to Van Diemen's.
Purdue Boilermakers vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish:
Basic key here is: ND can't lose (not to open a new era at home), but their O-line is shoddy and Ryan Kerrigan (Purdue DE) could eat them alive. Thing is, Purdue's secondary sucks. Dayne Crist could carve them up. It's likely that the winner here scores over 35. Purdue peeps go to Galway Hooker, which is predominantly known as a USC bar; the main ND joint is Public House, although this is a NBC game, so you can get it basically anywhere.
Oregon State Beavers vs. TCU Horned Frogs:
Basic key here: TCU is coming off a great season that was undermined by Boise beating them in the Fiesta Bowl; they've got a legit wrecking ball defense and Andy Dalton (the QB) is a sleeper Heisman candidate. Oregon State -- because USC can't play in bowl games -- could get to the Rose Bowl from the Pac-10 this year; they've been knocking on that door for a few years now. The major problem here is that Oregon State's QB is a newbie (Ryan Katz), the game is in Dallas and TCU's D might destroy him. You'll notice we don't have team pages for these squads; there isn't a big New York base for either squad, although one of our all-time great stories is BS'ing at Hill Country with some TCU diehards a few years back. This is a 7:45pm ESPN game; you can get it anywhere; make sure you've got two TVs, though, because you also need this ---
Basic story: one, or both, of these coaches will be fired before the year is out. Both programs look like a mess. UNC might be a bigger mess now -- and by that we mean, a mess that will send about 11 guys to the NFL. Should be a ton of athletes on this field, that's for sure. A sleeper place to watch UNC is Firefly; the Bro Jo's by Penn Station also works. There are LSU game watches at Legends; the primary place is going to be Turtle Bay.
Boise State Broncos vs. Virginia Tech Hokies:
You should know the score here: if Boise wins, and then runs the table, the whole world as we know it is going to end. (For serious.) If Virginia Tech wins, we can keep living our lives of denial. (Whew.) The key swing factor here is that Boise has a new defensive coordinator, and VT has a pretty good offense -- oh, and Boise traveled 2,700 miles for this game, and VT traveled about 150 or so. (Math.) With no MNF (Monday Night Football) this week -- NFL starts next week -- this game should be on everywhere; if you want to be around VT peeps, try Village Pourhouse (the lower East side one).
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