Even though the college football season started two weeks ago, this past weekend was the real beginning. Just a few teams played last weekend, and most of the games were boring. They were so boring that even my nachos tasted funny.
But by the time you are reading this, you should have gotten a good fill of football. But don't let that stop you because there are plenty of Web sites in which you can get more in-depth analysis.
When dealing with sports, the place to start is espn.com, and for college football, this is no exception. With an updated scoreboard, schedules, statistics, message boards and video and audio clips, this is the complete package.
Not to be outdone, CNN-Sports Illustrated has put together a fairly comprehensive news site as well. It also has updated scores, standings, statistics and polls, but it doesn't have as nearly as much user interaction as espn.com does. The same holds true for FOXSports.com: a lot of info, but that's about it.
Hold on, I need to get another bag of nachos.
Next on the list is the official site of NCAA Football, NCAAFootball.net. I clicked on the top lefthand link that says "What is NCAA Football?" thinking there would be a great deal of history on this page. Instead, it tells me NCAA Football was created in 1997 as a promotional vehicle "for the betterment of college football." Was anyone else aware of this? Has college football gotten vastly better due to this creation? I'm still not sure if I understand what was even done, unless it has to do with the Bowl Coalition Series.
Although the BCS is sometimes strange in itself, there's a site to find anything you want about the rankings. Actually, CollegeBCS.com is my favorite of all the sites. It is graphically challenged but loaded with statistics and news. It's interesting to see quickly where the teams stand, especially before the season. The site also includes bowl predictions, even before the season has started. It's fun to see how far off some of these predictions might be, but then again, I won't remember the original ones anyway.
Another cool page I found was CNN/SI's list of weird college football records. There are some great ones, but none as good as the last one: the number of punts in one game, which was 77. There were 22 consecutive punts in the third and fourth quarters alone. The game was played Nov. 11, 1939, in a rainstorm, and I'm guessing the rules were a little different. For instance, I think the first team to score would get all the nacho cheese. Unfortunately, this game ended 0-0.
This links should keep you up to speed during the college football season. So grab your remote and your computer and the jar of jalapenos. I'm predicting there will be two undefeated teams this season, probably Florida and Texas, and they will play for the national title. As long as there aren't 77 punts, I think everyone will be happy.
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