I Hate Preseason: College Preseason, That Is

I've heard plenty of complaints about the NFL preseason being too long, which it absolutely is. Four games is two too many, especially if you're a fan paying full price for the two home games. But what about college? This whole 12th game thing stinks, because nobody is using that 12th game to play anybody good. Everyone in the Top 25, with perhaps the exception of the Pac 10 (the only BCS conference who sacrificed a cupcake game to add a ninth conference game so they could have a true Pac 10 Champ. Also, nobody schedules tougher- more of necessity but still- than the Pac 10. But I digress), uses it to pay a 1-AA school to come get the crap kicked out of them so the Top 25 school can make more money- and charge their fans full price (or if you're Florida State you do this twice!!!). Jer and I use to ride Glen Mason for his ridiculous "Guaranteed 4-0" non-conference schedule, and now not only is new Gopher coach Tim Brewster doing it (I'm well aware that Bowling Green and Florida Atlantic could go bowling this year, but it's still Bowling Green and Florida Atlantic), but so is the rest of the country

(This has apparently also spread from Gopher football to basketball. Have you SEEN Tubby Smith's new schedule? What, was Edina Elementary's 7th grade team busy? What about all the D3 schools in Minnesota? I don't usually agree with Reusse, but he's bang on here. Welcome to the new era of hollow bowl and NCAA tourney appearances. And we get to pay more than ever for it!!!)

In the first five weeks of this season, do you know how many non-conference Top 25 matchups there are? Two in week 1 (#24Alabama 34 #9Clemson 10 & #6Mizzuruh 52 #20Illinois 42), ZERO THIS WEEK, two in week 3 (the Game of the Year with USC & Ohio State, and also a colossal matchup of USF and Kansas), one in week 4 (Georgia will slaughter Arizona State), and ZERO again in week 5. Let me double check my math here, but I believe that's a grand total of FIVE games in five weeks, and I'd say only two of them (USC/Ohio St and Bama/Clemson) are games I'd even make a point of watching. That's ridiculous.

Everybody wants six wins to go bowling, even if it's just to crappy bowls. There's never been more pressure and more money at stake for coaches and administrations to win, and so they're watering down the system as much as possible. I wish I had some eloquent response to this, but all I can say is that as a college football fan, that sucks. I don't know what the answer is to force teams to schedule tougher, but we need to come up with something. I've always said that college football is to America as hockey is to Canada: it's virtually impossible to kill those sports in those countries, and the people running them know it. The NHL has never, EVER been as poorly run as it is now, and it's never openly ignored the Canadian fan base more than today. And of course, the game has never been more popular in Canada.

Same with college football. No playoff system (and for the record, all I'm asking is for a Final Four. Anything more than that takes too much meaning away from the regular season), cupcake nonconferences, and higher ticket prices than ever. And of course, the game has never been more popular in America. I'm one of those sheep. For all of this complaining, will I be making every effort to watch some college football this weekend? Yes I will.

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Some other less depressing/whiny random college football thoughts...

...While I hate the SEC's non-conference scheduling, that league is head and shoulders better than everybody else right now. Hell, I think they're tougher than the NFC West at this point! Ok, ok, cheap shot, most high school conferences are tougher than the NFC West. The real question is this: is the gap bigger between the SEC and everybody else as the best conference, or the ACC and the other BCS conferences as the worst? While I will give you more proof than this, this is really all you need to know: Wake Forest is the ACC's best team this year. Let me say that again: WAKE FOREST is the best team in the ACC. I rest my case. Ok fine, here's more: Last week, ACC schools were just 2-4 in games against real schools (aka non 1-AA foes), and one of those wins- Wake over Baylor- shouldn't count because Baylor generally fields a 1-AA quality team.

ESPN.com's Bruce Feldman thinks not only is the ACC the worst BCS conference, it might be worse than the Mountain West! While that's overstating things, it's closer than you might think: true the ACC is deeper in the middle (they have five schools outside the Top 25 getting votes in the polls to the MWC's one), but both have just two ranked teams, and personally I'd rather have the MWC's (BYU and Utah) than the ACC's (Wake and Clemson- who are probably still chaffing from the gigantic deuce they took at midfield of the Georgia Dome last week. How in the name of the beard of Zeus do they stink that badly in a game that big? Oh right, Tommy Bowden is their coach). No matter, be glad you're don't have to watch the ACC this year.

...Sure we're only a week in, but it's never too early to see which coach should start updating the ol' resume:
Dave Wannstedt, Pittburgh- Wanny is a pupil of the Glen Mason School of Scheduling: Start the season with four or five wins against crappy schools, get your fans' hopes up heading into the meat of your schedule- and then lose all the games that count. When he took over the team from Walt Harris in 2004 (whom I'm betting is regretting his move to Stanford), the Panthers had finished ranked #21, and had played in the Fiesta Bowl. Since then, Wannstedt's teams went 5-6 in 2005, 6-6 in 2006 (no bowl game), and 5-7 last year (you guessed it, no bowl games). This year was going to be the year! The Panthers were even ranked to start the season and Wanny and his boys responded...with a loss to Bowling Green. Thanks for coming out, Dave!