Normally, college football Week 0 is filled with games that don’t really matter but at least allow avid fans something to watch a week before the season really gets going. This year is already not the norm.
Of course, the highlight of the day was when Georgia Tech took down No. 10 Florida State in Ireland, but other games had pretty big implications for the rest of the season. Here are the Top 3 takeaways from the weekend.
The Transfer Portal Matters
The biggest knock against the transfer portal is that it is tough to build a full-functioning team with only a few weeks of Spring and Fall Camp, and that made itself clear in the games we saw during Week 0. The teams that had the most turnover from last year seemed to struggle to execute on the basics on both sides of the ball.
For example, Florida State brought in 17 transfers, including DJ Uiagalelei and others, at key positions, and it became very evident that although talented, the timing and comfort in the offense and defensive assignments were lacking. This became very evident in the fourth quarter when the Seminoles finally went with a very basic offense, and Uiagalelei looked like a Heisman trophy candidate. For the rest of the game, he was missing throws and hesitating to make reads, and the defense seemed to lack trust in each other in their roles.
The 2-Minute Warning is Lame
Remember the past few years when the College Football rule makers tried to tell us that the reason they were changing rules was to shorten the game? They changed the rule to have a running clock after first downs, only stopped the clock out of bounds in the final two minutes of each half, and upheaved the overtime rules to only allow two true overtime periods before going to a two-point conversion shootout.
Fans didn’t like these changes, but some understood because it helped to shorten the game. At least that is what they told us.
Then, they added the two-minute warning. All that time that was saved by shortening the game with the recent rule changes was added back to the game, but instead of having an actual game to watch, that time has been filled with commercials.
Yay, more commercials! At least it helps pay for the media deals…I guess.
College Football is Back
The transfer portal makes roster turnover hard to get a real connection with players. Additional scholarships are killing the walk-on player program, schools are playing for conferences that make zero sense, and NIL is making players unrelatable to the average college student.
But it is still football.
Once the games kicked off, I found myself no longer upset or down about the changes that are happening in the game. Sure, I still think there should be roster limits, NIL maximums, and transfer restrictions, but college football is still college football, and it is the greatest sport on the planet.
