Tuesday Top Ten: Thing I'm Looking Forward To This College Football Season

Out of nowhere, fall is unofficially here.  College football is back, beginning this Thursday night when #9 South Carolina visits Vanderbilt (7 EST, ESPN).  I love college football, so I am understandably giddy.

Here are the ten things I'm most looking forward to this college football season (in no particular order):

10.  The second season of the Kevin Wilson era at Indiana

There aren't too many people in the world, relatively speaking, who are looking forward to Kevin Wilson's second season at the helm at IU, but I am, even though I know the college football season is merely a chance for the Hoosiers to break my heart 12 times.  After an abysmal first season (winning a grand total of one game), Wilson can only go up.  Given the insane number of underclassmen that played last year, I think the Hoosiers will be better this year.  I'm not expecting a bowl or anything, but at least it looks like we're moving in the right direction, with a couple 4-star recruits already committed for next year.

9.  Crazy alternate uniforms

The last couple years have seen Nike and Adidas come out with some awesome and some not-so-awesome alternate uniforms for Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Boise State, TCU, Maryland, and others.  Here are some from this year:

Notre Dame's uniforms for their game against Navy in Dublin (not great)

Virginia Tech (yes, those are turkey feet and yes, that's camo)

Maryland (I think we've gone far enough with the Maryland flag)

Wisconsin (weird, but not terrible)

Nebraska (similar to Wisconsin, since they are both wearing the alternates when they play each other)

Oregon (decent enough, and not as chartreuse as previous alternates)

Southern Miss (throwback to their 1970 team, quarterbacked by Brett Favre)

Arkansas (I like the helmets, not sure about the unis)

West Virginia (nothing like an all-gray uniform to make your fans want to kill themselves)

Frankly, I want to see some alternate uniforms for IU, with candy-striped pants, a helmet with a basketball court pattern on it and the old center court from Assembly Hall with the "I" and the State of Indiana on both sides of the helmet.  Take "basketball on grass" to a new level.

8.  The first weekend's slate of games

There are some great games this weekend, starting off the season with a bang:

-#24 Boise State at #13 Michigan State (Friday 8pm EST, ESPN)

-Notre Dame vs. Navy (in Dublin, Ireland) (Saturday 9am, CBS)

-#14 Clemson vs. Auburn (in Atlanta) (Saturday 7pm EST, ESPN)

-#2 Alabama vs. #8 Michigan (in Dallas) (Saturday 8pm EST ABC)

-Indiana State at Indiana (Saturday 8pm EST, Big Ten Network)

-Georgia Tech at #16 Virginia Tech (Monday 8pm EST ESPN)

7.  College Game Day

There is nothing better to wake up to on a fall Saturday morning than the College Game Day crew, aside from my wife, of course.  Love ya, hon.  I'm sorry I won't be able to speak to you from 9am to 11pm for the next 14 Saturdays.  This is non-negotiable.

6.  A mid-major messing up the BCS

Every year, it seems like a team from a non-major conference gets closer and closer to getting to the BCS championship game, whether it's TCU, Boise State, Utah, Hawaii, Houston, BYU, or whoever.  TCU and Utah can no longer be considered mid-majors, now that they've joined the Big 12 and Pac-12, respectively, and Boise State and Houston have another year before they join the Big East (which is just weird).  With the tough schedules that are facing the top-ranked teams this season, it's not unreasonable to think that there will be no undefeated major-conference team.  That may allow a team like Boise State (preseason #24) to rise up the BCS rankings and steal a spot in the championship game.  Of course, to do that, they would have to go undefeated, which would mean upsetting Michigan State in East Lansing this Friday.

5.  Gunner Kiel tearing his ACL

Fuck that guy.

4.  A non-SEC BCS champion

The SEC has won the last six BCS championships.  That's disgusting, but I suppose we can expect that when they pay their players.  I've seen Johnny B. Good.  I know what goes on.  This year, I think we have a good chance of seeing the SEC's run come to an end.  LSU lost the Honey Badger, who was probably the most dynamic football player in the NCAA last year.  Alabama lost Trent Richardson and some other key players.  Georgia is in the top ten, but I think we can all expect them to lose a couple games.  South Carolina and Arkansas are known for choking down the stretch.  Unfortunately, it looks like Lane Kiffin's USC Trojans are the team to beat this year.  Someone needs to slap his smug face.  Oklahoma is also looking poised for a Big 12 title, although they have a really tough final four games.  And let's not sleep on Oregon.  This could be the Ducks' year.  Then again, when Cam Newton led Auburn to the championship a couple years ago, the Tigers weren't even in the Top 25 to begin the season, so I'm gonna throw the Hoosiers out there as a dark horse national title contender.

3.  Notre Dame's inevitable 7-win season

A couple weeks ago, Rick Reilly wrote a really good article about how Notre Dame is no longer significant and does not deserve to be considered a football power anymore.  I've been saying that for years, but I also hate Notre Dame.  The Irish have always scheduled mostly cupcakes, but then Navy and Stanford got good (and Tulsa, of course).  This year, the Irish play Navy (in Dublin), at Michigan State, Michigan, Miami, Stanford, BYU, at Oklahoma, and at USC.  I'm not saying they'll lose all of those games, but with Tommy Rees suspended for the first game and starting RB Cierre Wood suspended for the first two games (and the recent season-ending injury to their starting CB), Irish fans should be cautious with their expectations for this season.  Looking at the schedule, 6-6 or 7-5 seems realistic.

2.  The Hoosiers' 25% chance of winning the Leaders Division

Thanks to the repeated cover-up of a child rapist and free tattoos for players, Penn State and Ohio State are ineligible for a bowl or a spot in the Big Ten championship game this year.  That means IU, Illinois, Purdue, and Wisconsin technically each have a 25% chance of representing the Leaders Division in the Big Ten title game.  Realistically, this means Wisconsin has a 100% chance of representing the Leaders Division in the Big Ten title game.

1.  The end of the BCS system

This is the last year of the BCS bowl system, which means we won't have a bullshit national champion like last year, when Alabama beat LSU on a neutral field after LSU had beaten Alabama in Tuscaloosa earlier in the season.  Both teams ended with one loss (to each other), yet, thanks to the BCS, Alabama was somehow considered the national champion.  Beginning with the 2013-2014 season, there will be a four-team playoff, which isn't perfect (I would prefer 8 or 16), but it's a step in the right direction.