Greetings! As probably none of you know, I used to write the CFB threads over on that other site that I was unfairly permanently banned from. I enjoyed doing this mostly because I am a big time nerd and I like talking about college football a lot. Due to my inability to to post where I used to, I thought I'd try bringing things here, of course I know that the Bore is not the biggest sports site on the internet so I have decided to bring you a handy dandy guide!
Q: What is American College Football?
A: A team based sport played at many accredited Universities across the United State of America. It is relatively similar to the form of Grid Iron football played by the National Football League.
Q: Why would anyone ever want to watch a bunch of college kids when the superior pro game exists?
A: A variety of reasons, perhaps you live in a location without a pro team, perhaps you don't like the stale, corporate atmosphere and rising ticket prices of the NFL, perhaps you enjoy marching bands or coeds, or perhaps you enjoy the varying styles of play present in the college game rather than the homogeneous style of the pro game.
Q: Aren't the college players paid anyhow?
A: Well they do get scholarships, and sure a number are likely paid under the table, but most fans like to ignore this fact! Ignorance is bliss!
Q: Is it true they don't have playoffs?
A: At the
Division 1 or Football Bowl Subdivision level, yes. But this is the last season that this is the case. Starting next year there will be a mini playoff.
Q: Why only a mini playoff?
A: Because there's like 130 teams at D1 and ostensibly they do have to go to class. Also college football is kind of an elitist thing that tends to favor old money institutions over johnny come latelies.
Q: 130 teams!?! How do they make that work?
A: Most teams are members of mini leagues called
conferences. These conferences are generally (but less so these days) grouped by geographic proximity and a vague sense of ideals.
Q: Explain these conferences to me. I keep hearing about Power Conferences and the Automatic Qualifiers and so on.
A: Automatic qualifiers and power conferences are more or less the same thing. They're generally the biggest, richest, most tradition steeped conferences in college football and as such they control a lot of what goes on. When the
BCS was formed they basically struck a deal that said the champions of their conferences would get automatic bids to the big BCS bowls.
Q: BCS? What's that? Also this whole system seems biased and unfair!
A: Oh it totally is. Back in the mid/late 90s after another split title an organization was formed to help crown the official Champion of College Football (the NCAA does not award titles in Division 1 Football, unlike every other sport). This in turn lead to the creation of the BCS, an entity that basically took control of the 4 most prestigious Bowl Games (post season exhibition games) and decided that the 4 games would take turns hosting the BCS Championship game which would crown a Champion of College Football. Of course the system sucked and was biased in a number of different ways and the formula for deciding the top two teams was tweaked numerous times. Finally it was agreed upon that a playoff not unlike that of other American sports.
Q: Oh okay, well uh anything else I should know?
A: Sure, you should probably read up on the
Heisman trophy, an award that is ostensibly for the best player in CFB but actually goes to the
Quarterback or
Runningback who put up the best stats on a good team.
Q: That sounds incredibly dumb!
A: It kind of is, but its tradition and College Football is all about tradition.
Q: Well whatever, who should I root for?
A: Well the simplest answer is, whichever school you went to for undergrad. If that school did not have a D1 program then the next most common choice is generally whatever school is closest to you geographically (for ease of viewing options) or you can just bandwagon Oregon or Alabama or Notre Dame or something.
Q: When does the season start?
A: Tomorrow 8/29!
Q: Any games I should watch this week?
A: Absolutely! While week 1 is generally the warmup week where big money schools beat up on directional schools from in their state, ESPN has forced a few teams into relatively interesting week one matchups they are:
#1 Alabama vs Virginia Tech in Atlanta 5:30pm EST ESPN
#5 Georgia vs #8 Clemson 8pm EST ABC
#12 LSU vs #20 TCU 9pm EST ESPN
#19 Boise State vs Washington 10pm EST Fox Sports 1
Obviously only two of those feature 2 ranked teams, but bot Virgina Tech and the University of Washington are teams trying to prove themselves. Virtually every other game on the schedule is likely to be a blow out, or just features teams no one who didn't attend the school will be interested in.
Q: What if I have other questions?
A: Feel free to ask! I'm sure I glossed over a lot of stuff, but I have no problem going more in depth on anything people are confused on.
Q: Will you be making these threads weekly?
A: Given the smaller size of this forum, probably not. I'll do big posts on Sunday Night/Monday Morning like I did in the past. They just won't be new thread starters.
