For the past 20+ years of my life, Saturday afternoons in the fall have meant one thing - college football. I woke up to Gameday, ate lunch with the early morning games, got fired up for the 3:30 SEC contests, got my second wind for the prime time offerings and sometimes even stayed up for some West Coast football before bed.Then I had two kids.
Last football season was the first hint towards my future. It was a little tougher to commit to 15 straight hours of college football with Abby running around. She needed attention. She needed food. She needed fresh diapers.
I know what you are thinking - what about your wife? Where is she? Good questions. She thinks that when I'm home, she is off-duty. It is truly disgraceful.
Okay, that is not true at all. I'm just not a big enough schmuck to sit on the couch and ask her to raise the young'ens all by herself.
I am, however, enough of a schmuck to ask her to do it for one game a day. So I'm looking ahead at the college football season for the one game I cannot miss. It may seem like a nightmare scenario for those readers without infants, but it is my reality.
One game a Saturday? I'll take what I can get.
I already have a process in place for this venture that I think will create the greatest football satisfaction possible. The first thing we must do is look for Tennessee's big games and commit to those. Then we go to big SEC games because a) it is the best football and b) those games matter the most to me. After that, we'll look for big match-ups and traditional rivalries to round out the year.
Looking at my calendar, there are about 15 college football Saturdays coming up. Not much to choose from, huh? This is going to tough, but we'll get through it together (and for the record, I'm doing this process as I write, so you really are on board for the entire experiment. I hope that adds something to posting, but it probably just means more spelling and grammar errers.).
The calendar looks like this:
August 30 -
Sept. 6 -
Sept. 13 -
Sept. 20 -
Sept. 27 -
Oct. 4 -
Oct. 11 -
Oct. 18 -
Oct. 25 -
Nov. 1 -
Nov. 8 -
Nov. 15 -
Nov. 22 -
Nov. 29 -
Dec. 6 -
Let's start with the Vols. Luckily, the UCLA game is on a Monday night so that opens up the first weekend. I'm planning on going to the UAB and Northern Illinois games, so that takes away two weekends that I might have skipped out on watching the Big Orange. Obviously, the Florida, Georgia and Alabama games are musts each year and this year we go to Auburn so chalk that one up too. I'm not going to initially commit to South Carolina, Vandy or Kentucky until I get a sense for how good each will be (this calendar is subject to change).
As a reasonably optimistic Vols fan, I'm going to block the SEC Championship game as well. I don't really believe it just yet, but if Gators keeps getting hurt and Bulldogs keep going to jail, we might have a shot.
So let's update the calendar as such:
August 30 -
Sept. 6 -
Sept. 13 - UAB at Tennessee
Sept. 20 - Florida at Tennessee
Sept. 27 - Tennessee at Auburn
Oct. 4 - Northern Illinois at Tennessee
Oct. 11 - Tennessee at Georgia
Oct. 18 -
Oct. 25 - Alabama at Tennessee
Nov. 1 -
Nov. 8 -
Nov. 15 -
Nov. 22 -
Nov. 29 -
Dec. 6 - SEC Championship
Now to the SEC. The Florida/Georgia game is a must, but so is Florida/LSU (same day as UT/UGA). Maybe we can get a baby-sitter on the 11th. The Gators also host Miami which probably won't be much of a game, but the slate is pretty thin that day.
LSU/Alabama looks great on paper, so I'll commit to that one as well as two more Bama games - the Iron Bowl and the opening game against Clemson. Georgia/Auburn looks like a winner too, so we'll add that one. I'm curious about the Arkansas/Ole Miss game (Houston Nutt vs. his old team), but not enough to actually commit to it.
Calendar update:
August 30 - Alabama at Clemson
Sept. 6 - Miami at Florida
Sept. 13 - UAB at Tennessee
Sept. 20 - Florida at Tennessee
Sept. 27 - Tennessee at Auburn
Oct. 4 - Northern Illinois at Tennessee
Oct. 11 - Tennessee at Georgia
Oct. 18 -
Oct. 25 - Alabama at Tennessee
Nov. 1 - Florida vs. Georgia
Nov. 8 - Alabama at LSU
Nov. 15 - Georgia at Auburn
Nov. 22 -
Nov. 29 - Auburn at Alabama
Dec. 6 - SEC Championship
Let's fill in the holes. Ohio State/Michigan is always fun and fits on Nov. 22nd (though I'm bummed about missing Ohio State/USC on the 13th as my calendar currently stands). That leaves us with one open date - October 18th - which is the Red River Shootout. That, my friends, fills in the calendar:
August 30 - Alabama at Clemson
Sept. 6 - Miami at Florida
Sept. 13 - UAB at Tennessee
Sept. 20 - Florida at Tennessee
Sept. 27 - Tennessee at Auburn
Oct. 4 - Northern Illinois at Tennessee
Oct. 11 - Tennessee at Georgia
Oct. 18 - Oklahoma vs. Texas
Oct. 25 - Alabama at Tennessee
Nov. 1 - Florida vs. Georgia
Nov. 8 - Alabama at LSU
Nov. 15 - Georgia at Auburn
Nov. 22 - Michigan at Ohio State
Nov. 29 - Auburn at Alabama
Dec. 6 - SEC Championship
Luckily, it looks like the Thursday offerings are much improved this year. I've already spotted Auburn/West Virginia, Clemson/Wake Forest, West Virginia/Colorado and Texas/Texas A&M for my Thursday night viewing as well as Kansas/South Florida and Memphis/Louisville on Friday nights.
At this point, I'll take what I can get. And I'm starting to want it to get here more and more.
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3 comments:
About 10 years ago, I decided I was spending waaaaay too much time in front of the Tube on Saturdays in the Fall. In our neck of the woods this is really the best time to be outside doing something active. I pretty much made up my mind then, that I would only commit to the Vols. If they are on TV, I'll watch a game. If not, no football for me and I can catch up (for the most part) right before I go to bed with a good highlight show.
It sounds good on paper, just like my calendar. We'll see...I feel like an addict checking himself into rehab right now.
I didn't really think Phelps won last night either, or at least it didn't appear conclusive at all from the tape.
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