NCAA Football Kickoff Weekend

It's baaaaaaack! Thursday night marks the beginning of another wonderful college football season. There are only two things wrong with that, still no playoff system in place and Jim Tressel still has a job. How is it that tOSU has managed to escape any kind of serious sanctions? Tressel ran a dirty program at Youngstown State and it has carried over to tOSU all the way back to the Maurice Clarrett days.

Hopefully the offseason conference realignment that took place will apply more pressure for the NCAA to adopt some form of playoff system to determine a National Champion in football. I think 3 of the bigger stories in college football will be in the SEC. Can Alabama repeat? What will the Gators and Urban Meyer do w/o Tebow? Can LSU be better than a 3 or 4 loss team?

Two other big stories will be Can RichRod get Michigan back on track or does another coaching search begin in Ann Arbor? and Who wins the Pac 10 now that USC has been punished for cheating? Other questions that will get answered, Is this JoePa's final year? Will Florida State return to glory without Bobby Bowden? Is Nebraska really back? Can new coaches win at Kansas and Texas Tech?  Is it Wisconsin's time to shine in the Big 10? Is this really the best team that Northern Illinois has ever had?(threw that in to see who was paying attention) Coach Jerry Kill says this is his best team in his short time at NIU but could it be that they are the best NIU team ever? I was there for 4 years I think they won 4 games.

For me there is only one question about NCAA football that even matters, Can Brian Kelly return the Irish to prominence?  I have been a Notre Dame fan for as long as I can remember and my memories began with the Lou Holtz era. I cheered on the '88 title team I watched as they were screwed out of the '93 title, I saw Lou get run out of town because he was threatening the all time wins record for a ND head coach(politics). I watched the parade of bad coaches(and liars) starring Bob Davie, George O'Leary, Tyrone Willingham, and Charlie Weis. I really thought Charlie was the answer. Now its Brian Kelly's turn. I wasn't a huge fan of the hire but all the news about the program has been positive and hopefully the tarnish has been polished from the golden dome.

The first half of the 2010 schedule should be an indication of how far Coach Kelly and the Irish have come or how much work still needs to be done. The second half of the schedule should be a big confidence boost for the program going forward. I am expecting no worse than 9-3 from the 2010 Irish and hoping big things are on the horizon.  The Irish open at home with Purdue on Saturday.

The season kicks off Thursday night with an ESPN doubleheader and the NIU Huskies traveling to Iowa State which is on TV in Chicagoland on CSN.  It's finally football season!