Big Games, Big Bucks

When it comes to college football, I'm a bit of a traditionalist.  I'd just as soon that we go back to the old bowl system, where we had intense controversy every once in a while but also had, I would argue, an overall better slate of games with more at stake.  The fact that most of the key rivalry games have moved after Thanksgiving also bugs me.

But, I get it - more games means more money, and it's silly for me to complain too loudly since all of this means more football (although another thing I miss is NFL games on Saturdays in December, which seems to have gone by the wayside with the proliferation of late season college games and early bowls).  And I can't argue with the fact that with gems like Ohio State-Michigan and Auburn-Alabama being played on a regular basis on the weekend after Thanksgiving, that four-day Thanksgiving holiday period may be the best football weekend of the entire year, including the NFL playoffs.

Of course, the particular games this weekend may be swaying my opinion.  But in all the years I've been watching college football, I can't remember ever seeing two games as exciting and dramatic as this year's OSU-UM and AU-UA games.  Seeing a coach go for two when trailing 42-41 against an undefeated team, in most years, would certainly go down as being the most dramatic moment of the weekend.  But thanks to the second miracle in three weeks at Jordan-Hare, that moment dropped to #2.  And after that moment, one that a lot of people in Alabama will remember for the rest of their lives as if it were yesterday, we still had Stanford-Notre Dame and UCLA-USC on tap.  The fact that those two games didn't come close to the drama that preceded them hardly mattered - they had their own storylines that made them worth watching.

All I can say at this point is that I hope they don't move The Big Game to that weekend - because I don't want to have to miss all those other classics.