College Football: The must-see weekends of September 2010
Two thoughts out of the gate: (a) Initially, we were going to write this article about the entire season, then we had a rare moment of clarity -- look at November 20th, for example. Ohio State visits Iowa. This game could decide the Big Ten, right? Hell, it could even decide a BCS entrant in some respects. However, maybe both teams have totally tanked by then. What do we know? We don't. If you learn anything in your 20s, learn this: you never f'n know where you're gonna be in three months. So, we decided to just look at September.
Observation (b), slightly more simple, is that we wrote a really long article, didn't save said article before trying to publish, then tried to publish and were left with jack. Hence, this article will be shorter.
Basically, there are four (4) weekends of college football in September -- there's the Opening Weekend (Sept. 2-6), then September 9-11, 16-18, and 23-25. Then October comes, and with it, more conference play. Here's how we see the weekends in order of importance/relevance/times at the bar:
1. The Opening Weekend (September 2nd-6th)
First off, this weekend has the best game of September -- Boise State vs. Virginia Tech on Monday night. Second off, you can't top the excitement of opening weekend, you know? New things are always more fun; that's the whole concept behind Christmas morning (insofar as we understand it). UNC vs. LSU is a decent game, but more importantly, it's a good "bar game" -- meaning that ultimately, the outcome isn't important; neither UNC or LSU is going to play in a BCS bowl, ya know? So it's a good game to have on in the background, refer to periodically, and basically just drink and bullshit with your friends. "Bar games." Learn and love the concept. (Almost every baseball game played between April 12th and September 15th, for example, is a "bar game.") Pittsburgh vs. Utah is another underrated game this weekend, as is ND vs. Purdue. You want bars for all these jams? We'll get to that next week.
2. The September 9th-11th Weekend
No, we're not just going in order. There are three solid games here -- Florida State vs. Oklahoma, Miami vs. Ohio State and Michigan vs. ND. The first two could be upsets -- could -- although the problem is, they're at Oklahoma and OSU, so that's an issue. Michigan vs. ND is just fun to watch; if Purdue beats ND and UConn beats Michigan in Week 1, that means either Rich Rod or Brian Kelly is starting 0-2. That's a huge deal.
Side note on the Buckeyes. Went to a wedding in Cleveland a few weekends ago. The DJ dropped this ditty about midway through the dance floor portion. Here's the thing: the wedding was in Ohio. I don't think he realized how excited this would make people; automatically I think he wished he had saved it for later in the night:
3. The Fourth Weekend (September 23-25)
There's nothing amazing about this weekend -- Miami vs. Pitt, in the Thursday night game, is pretty decent -- although Alabama travels to Arkansas. The next weekend, Alabama plays Florida. Nick Saban is a pretty focused dude and his team is loaded, but they could get caught looking ahead. If Alabama has a weakness, it's the secondary; Arkansas has a sweet QB and a ton of depth at WR, so .... do the math. Here's the thing to remember about this weekend specifically: that's a 3:30 CBS game (in all likelihood); it'll be ending around 7-7:30. Make dinner plans accordingly, because you don't want to be trapped sitting down at a nice place -- a place you could go to around 8:15 -- when this thing is ending dramatically. Hey, we're here for you.
4. The Third Weekend (September 16th - 18th)
Eh. Nothing jumps out here. Michigan State vs. ND in East Lansing is alright. Georgia Tech vs. UNC and Arkansas vs. Georgia are both games "featuring two top-25 teams," but neither seems that interesting. Admittedly, I'm ranking that ND game higher because I'll be in Chicago that weekend, and from an atmosphere standpoint, it seems like that will be fairly cool.
Next week (Wednesday hopefully, possibly Thursday; our girlfriend's birthday is Tuesday night and Wednesday could be a slog of a day), we'll look at Week 1 matchups as relates to bars.
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