Football!...is done for another season

In an e-mail to a friend last month, I wrote this regarding college football’s bowl season: “God is that a sick feeling when the championship game is over and the long wait for Labor Day weekend begins.”

Truthfully, the feeling wasn’t that sick or overwhelming when the Alabama-Texas game went final last night. The hype and excitement helped mask the other, ominous result of the game — the conclusion of another great college football season — but I still thought about it, knew the game clock was counting down to doom. After the Senior Bowl (which I may watch for a quick pick-me-up), there is nothing to do but patiently and eagerly wait for September 2, when the 2010 season kicks off. (I swear I saw a countdown to Iowa’s September 4 season opener with Eastern Illinois on GoHawks.com. It has since been removed, probably because it was too depressing to see how long we have to wait.)

Thankfully, this is all part of the natural cycle of my fanhood. College basketball, my first love, will keep me happy until early-April. After that baseball will tie me over. (The other day, when I saw Karl Ravech on EPSN, I hummed the Baseball Tonight jingle. Somewhat shamefully, it got me excited for two-seam fastballs, the crack of the bat, and sabermetrics.) The World Cup will provide a much needed fix of an alternate, and equally appealing, form of football. And just about when I tire of our past national pastime, Labor Day weekend will arrive to deliver me from my sporting doldrums. It’s better than Christmas.

There is, however, one reason to celebrate — meekly, of course — the conclusion of the 2009 season: the expiration of Fox’s BCS broadcast contract. ESPN now has the rights to air all BCS bowl games until 2014. Thank God. With minimal commercial breaks, real and familiar college football commentators and analysts, and classy production, I hope ABC’s presentation of the national championship game is a sign of things to come. Watching the Sugar, Fiesta, and Orange Bowls on Fox was, as one of my friends put it, “like watching the NFL.” I really wouldn’t know, but I can imagine. There were endless commercials before and after each change of possession, total corporate saturation (how shameless where those split second, in-game ads for Ford and Reese’s?), color commentary from NFL announcers (Brian Billick was in the booth for the Sugar Bowl, for Christ’s sake), and bland analysis from NFL personalities (Jimmy Johnson, though, did coach The U). Horrible. At least something about the BCS is being corrected.

This was my last college football season on the west coast. I’ll return to Big Ten country in the summer, and will once again be able to indulge in the splendor of college game days on Melrose Avenue. The pointless overdrinking has never been my thing, but the atmosphere and excitement is magical. If I’m still in Iowa City, the prospects of going to every Hawkeye home game are pretty good. And, no matter where I’m at, I plan on attending the Iowa-Northwestern game in Evanston (one word: revenge!). The one bad thing about not being on the west coast next fall? No more wall to wall, all day football — 9 am to whenever College Football Final or the late FSN game ends. I’ll be lucky to even get a late west coast game on TV.

Shit — the long wait until Labor Day weekend has just begun, but I’m already eager for next season to start.