Back to having a purpose!

Well, it's finally here! September 3 is the start of the college football season, and I'm pleased to note that, even though it's the first week of the season, there are some actual games!

Oregon and Boise State match up tonight in a battle on that hideous blue turf. Plus, South Carolina is about to go against NC State in a matchup of....uh....football teams!

Either way, football of the college variety has returned, and with it profoundly stupid sportswriting! Mr. Wilbon, take it away! Wilbon, who's awesome on PTI (<-Honestly not sarcasm), opens up this article with some stuff about why he's cheering for Boise State. I have no problem with this. Heck, Boise holds a soft spot in everyone outside of Oklahoma's heart. They're the team that's helped hurt the BCS. It's great. I agree with Wilbon for 3 whole sentences. Then, the idiocy begins in earnest:

College football hates party crashers

No, the BCS hates party crashers. College football loves them. For crying out loud, upsets and trick plays are some of the best viewing there is. Yeah, ratings are lower. The school's in Idaho, what do you expect? This article could get ugly...

The powers that be — that would be the people who run the BCS — want you to focus on the ACC, Big East, Southeastern Conference, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pacific-10 and divert your eyes from those little giant killers, notably Boise State, Texas Christian, Utah and Brigham Young.

Number of wins for these "Giant Killers" against BCS conference foes during the 06-08 seasons:
TCU: 5 (2 wins against Stanford and Baylor each, and 1 against Texas Tech.)
Utah: 5 (Michigan, UCLA, Louisville, Oregon State, Alabama)
BYU: 5 (Oregon, Arizona, UCLA (twice), and Washington)
Boise State: 3 (Oregon State, Oklahoma, Oregon)

Look, I appreciate good, upstart football, but this isn't giant killing. It's like beating up on Goliath's little brother. It's just not that impressive to beat Oregon State, a now-mediocre Michigan, and other teams scribbling at the bottom of their BCS-bound conferences. (Hawaii sucked, remember?)

They certainly don't want you to remember that the Mountain West was 6-1 against the Pac-10 last season and that three teams from the Mountain West (Utah, TCU and BYU) were all ranked above the ACC champion (always overrated Virginia Tech) going into the 2008 bowl season.

OK, first off, you're an idiot. "Always overrated" I guess is slang for "willing to play nonconference foes that don't suck." Seriously, if legitimate BCS schools scheduled Stanford, Baylor, and UCLA over and over again, they'd be accused of padding the schedule (*cough* Tennessee *cough*). And, as App State and Michigan proved, rankings (other than that #1 and #2 in the computer) are near meaningless. It doesn't matter if you're #3 or #30, you're going to a bowl, but it's not the national championship. Therefore, most of America won't care.

Teams from the Mountain West aren't going to a National Championship game. Not under the current system. Lobby for a playoff, don't grasp at straws!

The Broncos, voted 16th in the coaches' poll but a top-10 team in some preseason forecasts, are ranked high enough to have a chance to be No. 2 in the BCS ratings at the end of the regular season, but only if they beat Oregon impressively to start the season.

Or do. Either way.... Moving on, here in a country with a growing deficit, a terrorist threat, and a raging healthcare debate, Wilbon then stumps for some good ol' fashioned Congressional hearings. Let's see the argument:

[Inquiries] might not be out of the question given the increasing annoyance in legislative circles with some of the systematic inequities — like the ACC getting $18.6 million last year from BCS games while the Mountain West got $9.8 million, even though Mountain West teams were so much better than the ACC teams.

OK, couple of things here. 1) Where's your evidence that the MWC schools were better than the ACC. When did the conferences play one another?! The good MWC schools did well. The crappy ones did crappy. Same in the ACC, but I'll take Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech over Boise State and BYU any day.

As for the money thing...yeah, I'm in favor of a playoff. Don't drag Congress into it. This system is already unfair: Big schools take in more money than little ones by virtue of size alone. Once again: Idaho...not the center of the universe.

There's then some spotlighting of talented players from the little schools and some whining about the National Championships won by BYU and others, but it's time for this post to end.

In conclusion, college football's back, and I can't wait for the first Saturday in Review!