Month: September 2022

There is no major American sport with a larger disparity between the haves and the have nots than college football.

At various points in its existence, the sport has run with the tagline “every game matters” or “every week is a playoff.” It’s a simple, straightforward, easy to digest advertisement that applies to roughly 55 percent of the 131 programs that compete in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The reality is there is no other major American sport where a team can win every game on its schedule and still not be assured of even a chance to compete for its sport’s top prize.

The College Football Playoff — widely (and righty, I believe) viewed as a step in the right direction — was supposed to open the national championship door to the Dalits of the sport’s caste pyramid. It’s been more like a crack.

This will be the

Week 1 of the college football season continued it’s build-up on Friday night with eight more games, a couple of which featured serious drama. A Big Ten showdown between Illinois and Indiana came down to the wire before the Hoosiers escaped with a 23-20 victory courtesy of a 1-yard touchdown run from Shaun Shivers with 23 seconds left.

The go-ahead score marked Indiana’s first touchdown since early in the second quarter, and the Hoosiers fought to run the football all night against a stingy Illinois defensive front. But after the Illini settled for a field goal with 2:16 left to make it 20-16, the Indiana offense came to life in a two-minute drill situation. Missouri transfer quarterback Connor Bazelak led the decisive 75-yard scoring drive — the Hoosiers had just 70 yards in the second half to that point — and set up Shivers’ touchdown by completing 7 of 10