Admittedly, I won't be watching any powerhouse matchups such as North Dakota at Idaho, Towson at Indiana, or perennial favorite Florida Atlantic at UAB. In all seriousness, the most interesting game on the opening night docket is Minnesota at Middle Tennessee. I stand by my prediction that Middle Tennessee will triumph.
A few more thoughts to chew on before we actually get to watch some games:
Stewart Mandel at SI wonders why Texas A&M is getting all the dark horse attention in the Big 12 instead of Texas Tech. Now, I stand by my optimism about A&M's upcoming season; however, I have to concede his point that Tommy Tuberville being better than Mike Sherman. I think the jury's still out on Sherman, but that's probably the optimism talking again.
It may be that official word on future Big Ten divisions comes down today. It will probably be stupid.
People can't stop talking about Boise State's national title merits. I still think all of the attention is going to jinx them, and they'll lose this weekend to Virginia Tech. Not because they're a worse team. Just because it's the universe's little joke to immediately make all this summer's speculation pointless.
I forgot to share this when it came out, but apparently Dan "Ten Wins and No Excuses" Hawkins (who went 3-9 last year and only avoided being fired because the University of Colorado has no money to buy out his contract) wants a contract extension. If I may share my gut reaction to this story: BWAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA [gasp] HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!
Finally, Jerrod Johnson isn't just probably the best quarterback in the Big 12, he's probably the best singing quarterback in the Big 12 (or perhaps all major conferences):
I can tell you as primarily a Tech fan that it's never unusual for Tech to receive no preseason talk. It's also not unusual for Tech to have a pretty good season and to follow that by not getting a preseason ranking the following year. But then to see A&M have a preseason ranking because they lost a lot of games the preceding year. I went back through the rankings for the last few years, and it only took me to 2007 preseason to find A&M ranked (#25). I didn't go back through records, but this is when I was at A&M, and from my small amount of memory, I have few good ones about A&M football. By the end of 2007, Tech was ranked and A&M was gone. In 2006, only Tech was ranked preseason and neither were ranked at the end (it's hard to live up to that #25 expectation). And in 2005 both were ranked preseason (A&M higher of course) and only Tech finished the year ranked. It was interesting to see that in 2008, the only "good" season at Tech, we had the same pre and post season ranking (#12). That's impressive. And yet again, Tech begins 2009 unranked, finishes ranked, and begins 2010 unranked. Therefore I have high hopes for a decent year under Tuberville. It's also pretty much understood that Tech will perpetually be the underdog and receive almost no hype, and I've become accustomed to that and welcome it. A&M can have the hype, and hopefully someday soon they'll start to live up to it again. As long as they don't beat my Red Raiders at home again.... :)
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