College football is finally here
A national holiday for college football fans takes place over the next few days as the official opening weekend of the college football season is finally here.
Pitt and No. 10 Penn State open up with home games and No. 17 West Virginia plays at Bank of American Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. All three games are scheduled to kickoff on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
The Panthers will look to gear up for next week鈥檚 home game against Penn State when it hosts Albany.
It should be an easy win for Pitt, and the secondary market agrees as tickets are available on StubHub for as low as $2.
Penn State will face a little tougher of an opponent than its western neighbors as Appalachian State comes to town.
The Mountaineers play Tennessee in what should be the best of the three games, and it is at least in name value.
Cal U opens its season Thursday night when it plays Ohio Dominican, ranked 23rd in Division II, in Columbus, Ohio.
Waynesburg is off this week and it opens its season on Sept. 8 when Westminster comes to town.
NCAA football fan happiness poll
In the Aug. 20 edition of ESPN The Magazine, the last page piece titled 鈥淎t The Buzzer鈥� looked at its annual Fan Happiness Index (FHI).
They listed 22 of the 130 Power 5 teams (plus Notre Dame) on the page and the full report should be available any day at www.ESPN.com.
Penn State finished third overall behind Georgia and Clemson while Pitt finished 109th overall.
Another scholarship video
Over the weekend, Penn State released its second surprise scholarship video in the last month.
Reserve lineman Charlie Shuman does a lot of community service work and the touching video is available at聽https://goo.gl/KQwGA4
Local Big Ten fans breathe a sigh of relief
Comcast subscribers who are fans of the Big Ten are able to relax as the two entities came to a contract agreement Friday.
The contract that had been in place between the two was going to end Friday meaning the programming on the Big Ten Channel, including Saturday鈥檚 Penn State football game, would not have aired.
However, the new deal is in place and there will be no changes.
Meyer shows true colors
As predicted in this column the last two weeks, Urban Meyer was given a three-game suspension last Wednesday for how he handled Zach Smith and the domestic abuse issues he had with his ex-wife.
However, Meyer鈥檚 words rang about as hollow as a rotted-out tree stump.
His words further damaged his reputation and the fact that he apologized to 鈥渢he 鈥淏uckeye Nation鈥� but not Courtney Smith on Wednesday were a damning indication of where Meyer鈥檚 thought process is.
On Friday, he tweeted an apology which was obviously written for him, and it also came across as superficial and forced because of not previously apologizing to Smith.
When looking at Meyer鈥檚 stance, does part of his view come from being a powerful public figure as the head coach of a major football program?
Coaches ego鈥檚 run rampant in college football, but heck, I鈥檝e seen my share of high school football coaches who think the world revolves around them as well.
As far as coaches and their power, look no further than legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban.
He has led the Crimson Tide to five national titles in nine years and he also won one as the coach at LSU.
It has been publicly stated by several national sports media members that Saban鈥檚 boss, the athletic director at Alabama, has to actually schedule meetings to talk to him.
Yes, Saban鈥檚 boss cannot just walk into Saban鈥檚 office to talk.
This by no means is saying that I support Meyer.
However, with the way coaches are put on pedestals, is it that hard to believe that Meyer, owner of three national titles, has an ego and may think he can live by his own rules?
Speaking of rules, let this one marinate.
Meyer was suspended for three games, yet former Buckeye quarterback Terrelle Pryor was suspended by Ohio State for the first five games of the 2011 season for selling memorabilia.
Something is not right here.
Waywood verbals to Cal U
Yough senior softball pitcher Kierra Waywood will be a three-year starter this coming spring, but she has gotten the recruiting process out of the way.
This past Friday, the standout ace gave a verbal to California University of Pennsylvania.
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