MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / October 6, 1999

“Hello, my name is Mike and I am addicted to college football.””Hello, Mike.”Yes, I admit it, I love college football. And it’s not just the gamesthemselves. I love the pageantry that surrounds the sport. The marchingbands, the tailgating. Dotting the I at Ohio State. The Grove at Mississippi.Waiting for the band to come over the hill at LSU.

“Hail to the Victors.” “The Notre Dame Fight Song.” “Hey Fighting Tigers.””Rocky Top.” Besides “Hail to the Redskins” where can you find a betterfight song in the NFL? Where can you even find a fight song in the NFL? College football is “The Swamp” at Florida. “Death Valley” at both LSUand Clemson. “Happy Valley” at Penn State. “The Big House” at Michigan.”The Golden Dome” at Notre Dame. Besides Lambeau Field and SoldierField, name one memorable stadium in professional football.

Saturday was one of those dream days for a college football fan. ESPNGameDay at 10 a.m. Then on the same channel, Michigan and Purdue in amatchup of Top 15 teams at 11 a.m. At 11:30, change the channel to watchLSU and Georgia.

Then it was time to really give the clicker a workout. Over to Tulane andSyracuse. To ESPN2 to watch the overtime between Indiana and Illinois.Back to WWL to watch LSU fall short against Georgia. To NBC to watch theIrish rally to defeat the Sooners. Again back to CBS to catch Alabama’sdefeat of Florida in overtime.

That gave just enough time to turn over to ESPN2 to watch Virginia Tech and Virginia. Over to ESPN to catch Tennessee and Auburn. Finally,wrapping it up with Texas Tech’s upset of Texas A & M on FSS. Whew!Where’s that new battery for the remote control? That’s the beauty of college football. Every weekend there is a classicmatchup, whether it be Michigan-Notre Dame, Tennessee-Florida or Florida State-Miami. How many early season games in the NFL really catch a fan’seye? But in college football, there is a game that could impact the national championship picture almost every Saturday from late April to early December.

About that time of the season, it’s time for Army-Navy. And if you thinkthat game has no importance, just look at the Cadets and Midshipmen at the end of the contest. Then it’s on to the bowls. What other sport hasanything to match them? Sure, a playoff system is needed to determine the national championship. But please keep the bowls in the picture.Speaking of determining the national championship, there is also something to be said about keeping the polls around. They createintriguing matchups and rivalries. They encourage discussion about thesport which can help the game.

So start me on my 12-step program. I have been trying to cut down on thenumber of the games I watch every weekend.

Hey, I even miss the first half hour of the ESPN Thursday night game in order to watch “Friends” (Jennifer Aniston versus the Syracuse Orange? No contest.). But it’s going to take more than a patch to get me to curvethis habit.

Now, where’s that television schedule for this weekend’s games?

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