
The season never ends, really.
It’s July 16, and we’re a little more than 40 days away from the college football season. Some of you may have started the countdown earlier, while others won’t get the football itch until late August or even Labor Day weekend. Where does your college football fandom fall in the spectrum?
Once upon a time, I spent the entire summer eagerly awaiting the college football season. This was back when college football news wasn’t as prevalent during the spring and summer months, but I did what I could to immerse myself in the sport during the offseason. This was partly due to my lack of interest in any summer activity (I was a fall and winter kind of guy back in the day). As I’ve grown older, the pendulum has gone to other way: I’m all-in on summer hikes, boating, bbqs, you name it. That’s probably why my interest in the sport has waned during the summer.
The Big 12 just wrapped up its media days, and the SEC will get going on Monday. That’s traditionally when the season gets started, but grown up me feels like it’s way too early. There are trails to hike, lakes to surf, boats to ride, rivers to float. Alas, I don’t call the shots or sell the advertising.
In my youth, my summers were spent eagerly awaiting college football season because my summers were a tad bland. Until last summer, I never really had the Mariners to keep me entertained. Occasionally, the M’s would take me to August, and that was fine since fall camp started and I just had to know what our offensive line two-deeps looked like on day one. Now? I’ve grown to embrace the stillness of summer and I couldn’t tell you who our backup linemen are (except for you, “Jacked” Wilson).
Things seemed to be pretty quiet this summer until UCLA and USC decided to announce their intentions to leave for the Big 10. It’s probably no coincidence that happened smack dab in the quiet part of summer when most people—including WSU’s Pat Chun and Kirk Schulz, not to mention Commissioner George Kliavkoff—were on vacation.
College football doesn’t allow for many vacations for those heavily involved. There’s media days in July, fall camp begins in August, the season begins Labor Day weekend, and if you make a bowl game, forget Christmas vacations. There’s a little bit of time in January but then the signing period ends in early February and then you have to get organized for spring football and of course you’re always recruiting. There are also summer football camps to run. It’s a never ending cycle and is not for the faint of heart. It’s not really a job—its a lifestyle.
So thank goodness I’ll never be a college football coach, because I enjoy my summers and offseason. I’ve found other things to keep me occupied.
When do you start to scratch that college football itch?
I don’t mind this proposed Pac-12 – Big 12 merger
I haven’t had a subscription to The Athletic for a few years, so I can’t access Stewart Mandel’s entire story. But this proposal seems good at first glance:
There’s at least one viable scenario in which both the Big 12 and Pac-12 could leverage the latter’s current instability, @slmandel writes.
They could merge.
Here’s what it could look like: https://t.co/mpNKCzL82o pic.twitter.com/cvM7VFiEg8
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) July 15, 2022
Links
Canzano: Fired up? Anxious? Awkward? What I’ve learned on the Pac-12 front
Silence is good… but so is the anger of stakeholders.
Canzano: Pac-12 looking for a friend in Bristol
ESPN working on a timeline now.
Pac-12 mailbag: Survival scenarios, Big 12 valuation, expansion options and more | The Spokesman-Review
Would Oregon and Washington split? Where might Cal land? And what did USC tell the commissioner?
2022 College Football Hot Seat Rankings: Evaluating the job security of all 131 FBS coaches – CBSSports.com
From ‘win or be fired’ to ‘untouchable,’ every college football coach gets rated by Dennis Dodd.
2022 Hot Seat Rankings: Eight college football coaches with their jobs on the line this season – CBSSports.com
These college football coaches better watch their backs throughout the 2022 season … or else.
Ranking college football’s 40 most impactful transfers over the past five years, from Joe Burrow to Caleb Williams
WSU is on the list three times. See if you can guess which transfers were included without looking.