Preseason Hype!!!

I am a late convert to college football. I attended games as a kid with my uncle and cousin, but truth to tell I wasn’t terribly interested back then. It could have been that, never having played football, I didn’t completely grasp the game beyond the obvious “run the ball in that direction” object of the sport. It could have had something to do with the fact that, throughout my formative years, the South Carolina Gamecocks - very definitely “my team” despite my ambivalence about football - were downright mediocre. Sometimes terrible.

If the fact that my ten year old self was a little “meh” about a team I only saw win at home about three times total makes me a fairweather fan in your eyes, then fine, I’ll own it. My wife thinks I still am, when really I just have a self-preservation instinct. If I don’t turn off the television after Stephen Garcia’s second pick in as many possessions, my blood pressure will literally explode my head. But I digress.

The fact is, it was really grad school before I finally started following college football with anything approaching genuine interest. The Gamecocks were less mediocre by then, certainly, or at least more consistently not-terrible. But I also think the sport as a whole had become more interesting, or at least better marketed, than it was when I was a kid. The BCS, for all it’s loathe-worthy crapitude, has at least made the entire football season an incredibly lively affair. Every week matters in the national title race, which makes for compelling entertainment, even for someone like me who grew up with nothing but a great big shrug for most professional and collegiate sports.

I enjoy watching college football, and I’ve enjoyed watching the (relative) success of the Gamecocks over the past several seasons. I particularly like watching some of the Gamecocks’ recent all-stars in action: Marcus Lattimore and Alshon Jeffery most notably. These guys are phenomenal athletes, and the individual accolades they have received are certainly deserved in my humble opinion. Moreover, unlike so many college athletes, they and several other recent recruits appear to be decent human beings. Laying aside Stephen Garcia’s off-field shenanigans (and why shouldn’t we? After this off-season, how hard can we really be on a legal adult for drinking?) the current crop of Gamecocks appear to be a high calibre bunch... in the greater scheme of NCAA athletics at any rate.  

All of that said, the recent article by The NY Post picking USC to win the national title is a bit of a stretch for a team with single digit post-season wins. I’m not saying it can’t happen, and I certainly would love to see it happen, but lets take this thing one goal at a time?

The pick has gotten a lot of coverage, both nationally and locally. That’s exactly what The Post wanted. If The Post (not noted for its extensive sports coverage as far as I can tell) picked Oklahoma or Alabama, who honestly would have noticed? How many extra issues would they have sold of that issue?

South Carolina makes some sense as a black horse pick. They are favored to win the SEC East this year, and the winner of the SEC (not the East per se, but hey...) has won the national title pretty consistently in the past several years. There’s just that little matter of actually winning the East. Then winning the SEC. Then winning the title. I will say that I don’t remember a time in my life where such a string of event was more likely. Which is not the same as saying it is likely.

But, then again, anyone who picked Auburn to win the title this time last year would have been laughed out of town by most supposed experts. And at this point in the season, everyone has the same record, and the same shot at the crystal football. That’s one of the joys of college football. You never know. I'm looking forward to seeing how much of the hype we can live up to.