I’ll be honest, I spent most of last night thinking about what to write about week 0. Already we have a few storylines that I wanted to talk about. After some thought, I decided to write about all of them! Hence: College Football Smorsgasbord.
What Happened in LA?
Unfortunately my first storyline I wanted to address was maybe the most covered story of the week. It’s week 0, there isn’t a lot to talk about.
USC entered the LA Coliseum this week for their game against San Jose State to a half empty stadium inciting takes about everything from “This is USC under Lincoln Riley” to “It’s week 0, no one goes to these games” to “It was too humid” to “No one out west cares about college football”.
I ask: What did you expect for a college football team in LA? This isn’t the first time USC or UCLA had bad attendance even when their team has been good. Let’s face it, there are plenty more things you can do in LA than watch USC play San Jose State on a Saturday afternoon in August. When they reach peak levels of hype, the atmosphere looks insane (see Caleb Williams and Lincoln Riley’s first season). It’s year five for Lincoln Riley, LA people have lost interest (for now). I bet when we get to Sept. 26 where USC hosts Oregon, it’ll be rocking. However, if they lose that game, you are going to see more crowds like we did this week. It’s just what LA does.
RIP Week 0
For the past decade or so we have been blessed with week 0. I call it an appetizer for the college football season. Just a little something to get our eyes used to seeing ball after 200+ days away. Week 0 started as a rule loophole of sorts for teams to play this week if they wanted. To play week 0, you could play an international game, play Hawaii at some point in the season, or get a waiver to play in week 0. The games almost never live up to the hype, but we usually get one fireworks game. This year it was UNLV vs Memphis.
Next season that ends though. Rule changes in 2027 are killing week 0. Teams now have a 14-game window to schedule in, including what is now the week of week 0. I’ll miss it, like I miss everything that gets killed in college football. Not because it was great, but it was tradition to get way too excited for week 0 games.
Fightin’ Taters
My move to Boise, Idaho has allowed me to find yet another college football team to root for. I did it when I moved to Utah, so why not try it out again. Friends of mine I know out here went to the University of Idaho, so it was an easy pick. I will get to a Boise State game for sure and hope they win some games, but I’ve decided I’m a Vandal. Plus I have been obsessed with the Kibbie Dome for years. You’ll hear me echo this sentiment a lot, but the weirdness of college sports is why I love it. The Kibbie Dome is exactly that. It only has 15,200 seats. That is only 2,000 more than UW-Whitewater (my alma mater), which is a D3 school. Before they moved to FBS it was the second smallest stadium in the division.
My friend took me last week to the team store so I could make my fandom official ahead of the big game. I came away with an amazing “Fightin’ Taters” shirt. I sat down to watch the game Friday night, and oh boy, that was a painful first game as a Vandal fan. Ahead with a minute left, and up 3, the Vandals gave up a touchdown late to break my heart for the first time.
Welcome North Dakota State
The last big thing I wanted to briefly touch on was how cool it is to have North Dakota State in FBS. They have been awesome at the FCS level for years and have given FBS teams hell before in the non-conference. I actually started my College Football 27 dynasty with them and just kept staying there because it was so fun.
The atmosphere looked awesome and I am so excited to see what they can do in the Mountain West this year. I have an odd amount of knowledge about them now given that I used them in College Football 27. I really like their offense, specifically their run game with Myles Mitchell and DJ Scott. Watch out for them this season!
Overtime
My overtime take this week is that I love when college football teams do little touches to their uniforms for big games. However, I do not like it when it triggers a bad memory for me. TCU had the frog on their helmet with a shamrock in its mouth as they kicked-off their season in Ireland. If you know me, you know exactly where my head went.
There I was just trying to enjoy week 0. Bam! Remember the time Bret Bielema forgot he had a backfield of James White, Montee Ball, and John Clay? Well, I do, so you have to remember it too now.
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