BCS: As In, "Boring College Season"

I’ve never felt this way about a college football season before. Ever.

Usually when somebody says that, they’re referring to an unusual amount of excitement or drama or something else positive. I’m saying that because I’ve been bored by this year’s college football season.

Yes, you read that right. Lank. Bored. With college football. Who would’ve ever thought?

How did we get here? I have no idea. I think it has something to do with the best teams in the country all looking lame at various times. Were it not for some blocked field goals, timely penalties on the opposition, and sprained AC joints, Alabama, Florida, and Texas would all probably have a loss (or two) right now. Texas may not play a ranked team all season, Florida and Alabama have had their divisions clinched for like a month (or does it just feel that way?), and there have been no stories to replace theirs to get me charged up.

Iowa? Everybody knows I respect the heck out of the Hawkeyes, but watching them play every week (and I have), we all knew there was a loss coming.

TCU? They’re legit; it’s just that with the Mountain West conference’s ridiculous TV deal, I only get to see a handful of their games. So am I supposed to get excited about watching TCU’s gamecasts online each week? At least they’re on CBSCSTV (no really, that’s an actual channel) this week against Utah.

Cincinnati? Ah, finally a story I can get behind. I picked them to win the Big East because of Brian Kelly, and he hasn’t failed to disappoint. While Oklahoma has been complaining about playing a backup quarterback all year, the Bearcats have used theirs to continue their winning streak. Nice work, sir.

Conference races? Sure, there are some exciting races going on, but it’s hard to get excited about a bunch of 6-3 teams trying to get the crown. When you expect greatness and get mediocrity, it sucks. No, not every conference can be good, and I realize that, but what exactly do I have to do to get a strong team that takes pride in going for a conference championship and doesn’t lose games it shouldn’t (Oregon, Virginia Tech, Miami, Ohio State, all Big 12 teams not named Texas; you’re on this list).

Some people might think that the anarchy occurring in Tallahassee has dampened my college football spirit, but that’s not true. I’ve been dealing with ridiculousness coming from the Florida panhandle for 5 years now. I’m quite used to it.

Quick, name the best game of the year. I’ll wait…

...ready? What’s your answer? Oh, you couldn’t think of one? Why not, were there so many great games that you couldn’t narrow it down? No? There just weren’t any good ones to choose from? Oh, that sucks. For the record, my vote goes to Florida State-Miami…which just so happened to take place in Week 1. Sign of the times, I guess.

And I think that’s the problem: there has been no excitement to this season. No epic clashes, no memorable player performances (does anyone want the Heisman? Anyone?), no hateable teams or players (besides Notre Dame, obviously), no juggernauts we’ll be telling our kids about (thanks, Urban; no really, thanks for taking your wonderful offense down to a GED level and making me sit through a bunch of 24-13 games. I appreciate it). When they throw together those season-long highlight reels at the end of the season, I love them. Recounting all of the great moments and big games from the year is always a treat. I just have no idea how they’ll fill that space at the end of this season; nothing of note has happened.

It’s gotten so bad that I haven’t even written a “The Weekend That Was” post in like three weeks. No, I hadn’t forgotten, I just couldn’t fake writing about storylines and happenings in the college football world that I didn’t give a crap about. When I first started writing those posts, it was fun, because the season was just beginning and there were a million directions in which it could head.

Unfortunately, the 2009 college football season went in the one direction that I never thought it'd go: boring.

~~ Lank