Reintroducing... College Football!

It's been far too long since I've posted about small-town America's national pastime. With the season kicking off this Saturday, it's time for some random thoughts and some prognostication:

* What happened to the Kickoff Classic this year? Instead of a marquee match-up of two ranked teams, we have to start the year with Oregon at Houston on ESPN2 tomorrow night?

* I really hope that Cal's Joe Ayoob wins the starting QB job, if for no other reason than his last name is "Booya" spelled backwards. This guy will be fun to root against.

* I shake my head every year when the media goes ga-ga over high profile coaches even though they have mediocre squads. As if we're supposed to start TiVo-ing South Carolina and Notre Dame games to watch Steve Spurrier and Charlie Weis scowl on the sidelines.

* Pardon me while I neglect to board the bandwagon for Ted Ginn Jr. Yes, he had some nice kick returns for Ohio St. last year, but I'm just not ready to hand the Heisman to a guy with 25 career catches.

* This will finally be the year that the wheels come off at Florida State. Their QB woes, which have lingered since Chris Weinke graduated, while finally catch up with them. I see the Seminoles as this year's Kansas State.

* I don't care about last January's stirring Rose Bowl win. I don't care how exciting Vince Young is. I don't even care that Jason White has graduated and Oklahoma has no experienced quarterbacks. I'm still don't trust the Longhorns to beat the Sooners in the Red River Shootout. I consider Texas to be guilty until proven innocent.

* Everyone who's handing USC their third straight title just doesn't know their history. Look, we all know that the Trojans are loaded and on paper, they've got the brand name QB and RB and therefore, it doesn't make sense to pick against them. But people were saying the same thing about Nebraska in 1996, before Arizona State ended their three-peat bid in a 19-0 shocker. There's a reason that no team has ever won three straight titles. In college football the margin for error is way too small-- one late-season loss submarines your chances. This year, the upset will come courtesy of Fresno State, who will go into the LA Coliseum on November 19 and shock USC.

* My attitude toward's Stanford's team is a mixture of relief, aprehension and optimism. Relief that the Buddy Teevens Offense is a thing of the past. Aprehension at the prospect that The Willingham Big Game Hex may be real (Tyrone was 11-0 against Cal as coach and assistant; we haven't won since he left). Optimisim that with two young quarterbacks and a stadium renovation next year, the program has sunny days ahead of it. Looking at the '05 schedule, I see wins over Navy, Davis, Arizona, UCLA and Notre Dame. If the ball bounces our way in Big Game, we're bowl bound.

Mr Predicto

ACC: Virginia Tech
Big East: Louisville
Big Ten: Iowa
Big Twelve: Texas
Pac Ten: USC
SEC: Florida
BCS at large: Michigan
BCS at large: Tennesse

Rose Bowl: Louisville over Virginia Tech

Yep, the media will be howling as the national title game shall feature a contest of two nontraditional football powers. With Marcus Vick finally handling the QB duties, the Hokies will put all of the pieces together and roll through a weakened ACC for their second straight league crown. As for Lousiville, the tandem of Pitino and Petrino is building quite a basketball/football juggernaut. Despite losing Stefan LeFors (who had the best name in college football) the Louisville will keep rolling with stud QB Brian Brohm. The key to their success will be the schedule: the Big East is pathetic, meaning that the Cardinals have a better chance at an undefeated regular season than anyone. Once theyr'e thrown into the national title game, the juggernaut offense will snag them the title. Who says defense wins championships?

 
Inspiration Behind the Boards

We all complain about how today's popular music is bland, unoriginal and uninspired. But while perusing MTV News today I came across two surprising stories with a common theme: unique artists making adventurous choices in the studio.

First comes the startling news that Fiona Apple is finally releasing her long-delayed martyr of an album, Extraordinary Machine. As the world's unlikeliest Fiona Apple fan, I've been following this story closely for the last two years. In that time, the legend of this notoriously bootlegged album surrounded was that Sony refused to release it because record wasn't commercial enough. While many subscribed to this theory of corporate oppression, it always seemed suspicious: why would a label pour money into an album's production, then balk at the chance to recoup costs in sales revenue, especially since both of Apple's previous albums went platinum?

Well, today's news of the album's release comes with a back story, in which a dissatisfied Apple, not Sony, was responsible for shelving the album. It turns out that she was unhappy with the production on the original cut, so she re-recorded all of the tracks with... hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo, a protege of one Dr. Dre. It's almost fitting that an eccentric artist like Apple would go completely unconventional route by hiring the producer responsible for 50 Cent's bass lines. While I'm intrigued by the possibilities, I'm a little sad that she decided to scrap the great material from her leaked album, which was produced by Jon Brion.

Speaking of Brion, he's the subject of the second article, which details his extensive participation in Kanye West's upcoming album. All of Late Registration's tracks feature Brion as executive producer and many feature his lush orchestral performances. Giving so much control to a rap novice would be baffling if Brion weren't such a wonderfully eclectic producer. For the uninitiated, Brion is the producer/composer behind such quirky soundtracks as About a Boy, Magnolia and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. As the article points out, Kanye is certainly taking a big risk by allowing Brion to encroach upon his enormous production talents. But I applaud Kanye for pairing up with a fellow virtuoso to attempt sounds that no one else in hip-hop would ever imagine.

 
Enshrinement Everywhere

Has the phrase "Hall of Fame" ever been written more in a one-week span than in the past seven days? With the Baseball HOF inductions last Sunday, rampant speculation on Rafael Palmeiro's future and the Pro Football HOF ceremonies today, the sports media is in the midst of Hall fever. People love to write about the Hall of Fame three different ways: A) Arguing about which players should be inducted; B) Arguing about which players will eventually be inducted; and C) Arguing about the best players who aren't inducted. Nowadays, sports HOF debates are more passionate more controversial and certainly more widespread than they've ever been. I understand that the Hall provides terrific fodder for discussion but I ultimately wonder-- how much does the Hall of Fame really matter?

Sport is ultimately about the games played. And I can't help but feel that too much energy is spent on these arguments that don't actually have to do with the games, but rather about how much a given player contributed to games that were played over five years ago. The Pete Rose Debate is a prime example of why the Hall is overblown. Countless people around baseball strongly advocate Rose's inclusion in the HOF despite his lifetime ban. "He's the game's most prolific hitter! His plaque deserves to be displayed in Cooperstown!" the argument goes. But even without being inducted, Rose is still in the record books, he still has his World Series rings and he's still universally recognized as a great hitter. In fact, Rose gets more notoriety now for his martyr status than he ever would being just another Hall of Famer.

Ultimately, the Hall of Fame phenomenon is about writers being gatekeepers: the HOF is the one chance for writers to directly influence the sport they've covered. While it's admirable that most journalists take their responsibility so seriously, it's a problem comes when they overestimate the actual importance of that responsibility.