7/9 Roundtable - The Guilty Pleasures

7/9 Roundtable - What's your college football guilty pleasure? It's the Thursday topic in the CFN Daily Roundtable Discussion.

CFN Daily Roundtables

July 9

What's your college football guilty pleasure?

Over the next several weeks, as part of the CFN 2009 Preview, we'll examine some of the key questions going into the year with a daily discussion of the big topics.

Past Roundtables
July 8 Who's the bigger BCS bust, OU or OSU?
July 7 The 5th BCS Game Should Be ... ?
July 6 Should the SEC get the benefit of the doubt?
July 3 Why there should be a playoff
July 2 Why there shouldn't be a playoff?
July 1 The most unbreakable record is ... ?
June 30 Does it matter that the BCS is going to ESPN?
June 29 What's the best non-BCS program?
June 26 What rule would you like to see changed?
June 25 What is wrong with the Big Ten?
June 24 The 3 big non-conference games
June 23 The Coach On The Biggest Hot Seat Is ... ?
June 22 The No. 5 team will be ... ?
June 19 The most underrated team will be ... ?
June 18 The most overrated team will be ... ?
June 17 The sleeper national title teams
June 16 Do 40 times really matter?
June 15 Does college football need a Rooney Rule?
June 12 Should Alabama vacate wins?
June 11 Should college football players be paid?
June 10 Is the recruiting hype too much?
June 9 If you were starting an NFL team ...
June 8 Where would you take over as head coach?
June 5 Who does the least with the most?
June 4 Who does the most with the least?
June 3 The star players of September
June 2 The star teams of September
June 1 The coach you'd want for one game
May 28 Should the Big Ten expand, and if so, then what team should be added?
May 27 Should the Pac 10 expand? If so, then what two teams should be added?
May 26 Chizik, Kiffin or Mullen?
May 25 Heisman race sleepers 
May 22 2009's most interesting teams
May 21 Is Tebow the best QB ever?
May 20 When should preseason polls come out?
May 19 Does 2008 Utah have a beef?
May 18 No BCS, No Weis?

Pete Fiutak, CFN

Yes, I'm part of the problem. You can check me out at twitter.com/CFN_Fiu and find out future roundtable topics and other random musings.

Q: What's your college football guilty pleasure?

A: August.

During the season, my under-the-radar, on the down-low college football crush is on the Thursday or Friday night game, no matter what it is. MAC, Sun Belt, Mountain West, I don't care. I'm so swamped on Saturdays that I have a hard time being able to kick back and truly savor the joy of the game, but the weeknight games, as contrived as they might be for ESPN and to generate interest for the "mid-majors," are what I end up looking forward to, especially in the middle of the season. I also like the late night Hawaii games because they're always fun, they're the only games on after a long day, and the announcing teams are always worth the price of admission.

However, my biggest joy is this time of year through Opening Day. I'm not really an anticipation is better than the actual event type, but I love the hope springs eternal aspect of late July and early August. I love the speculation about what's about to happen, the unearthing of the sleeper teams, figuring out who's overrated, underrated, and trying to come up with how it's going to all turn out.

As much work as all the previews are to do, they're probably the best part of my gig because I get to learn the ins and outs of all the teams and I get to see how all the coaches and all the insiders look at their respective programs. Everyone is jacked up for the season, no one's hopes have been dashed, and the anticipation starts to build and build and build until Christmas morning, that first glorious college football Saturday, kicks in.

My other main guilty pleasure is anything to do with the history of the sport. I wish I had more time to dive into college football's past and analyze all the great debates and misfires from the polls, Heisman races, and All-America teams. Because there isn't a playoff system, the history of college football is open to interpretation and revising based on all the information we have now that the pollsters didn't have at the time. Because the national champions were all subjectively judged, especially before the BCS was invented, there are enough debates and enough arguments to keep college football junkies rolling for years.

Richard Cirminiello, CFN

Q: What's your college football guilty pleasure?

A: Give me a human-interest story involving one of today’s college athletes or coaches, and you’ve got me hooked.

I’m a bona fide sucker for the slice-of-life stuff that defines the young men we cover on a regular basis. Sure, we all enjoy the Xs and Os, depth chart maneuvers, and Saturday afternoons, but I can never get enough of the behind-the-scenes stories that peel the onion on today’s athletes. If there have been hurdles cleared, afflictions conquered, or unique angles to success, I want to know about it. Those are the kinds of stories that’ll always be more compelling than a box score, 40 time, or cut of film. And in many ways, they become inspirational blends of the game itself and every day trials and tribulations that we all face.     

To varying degrees of interest, everyone has a story. I want to know as many of them as possible and will go to great lengths to get them. Clemson DE DaQuan Bowers freelances in his father’s gospel band. Oregon State LB Keaton Kristick has been a passionate java drinker since grammar school. If it gets me under the helmet, I’m interested, which is why a show, like HBO’s Real Sports, is a fixture on my DVR.    

Hunter Ansley, Publisher, DraftZoo.com

Q: What's your college football guilty pleasure?

A: Preview magazines.  I love em.  I spend more money getting my hands on every college football-covered dead tree I can than I do on auto care.  Seriously, I pretty much buy them all.

Sure, they’re all published way too early.  And the depth charts often include players who have transferred, failed school, quit the sport, been arrested, or sometimes graduated.  The predictions are pretty consistently around 50%, and a few of them make cover promises that don’t appear on the pages, but like I said, I love 'em.  I’m a college football fan first and foremost, and I absolutely hate the lull between the NFL Draft and the late August/early September kickoff.  I sit through the NBA playoffs, and I watch re-runs of Seinfeld while baseball is on, but if I didn’t have my preview mags, I’d probably go insane.  Literally, there are stacks of them cluttering my office going back to 1999.  I’ve got a few in another room too.  Can’t beat a private reading room.

But if I had to pick another, I’d go with EA Sports NCAA Football.  I play it almost religiously, and I spend as much time recruiting my fake players on the game as I do watching basketball, hockey, baseball, and golf combined .  So now that I’m done writing this, I’m heading back to the mags, and counting down the final six days until NCAAF 2010 comes out.  At least I’ll have something to do until September 3^rd.  Which, coincidentally, is my birthday.  You can buy me a 2010 preview mag if you want.

Jon Miller, Publisher, HawkeyeNation.com

Q: What's your college football guilty pleasure?

A: I don't know that I feel guilty for any of the pleasures I take with college football.  One can never get enough of the greatest sport in this country.  I will say 'thank you' to the inventor of the DVR, however.  This device allows me to watch a minimum of five college games each week, from a variety of conferences. 

Thursday night football, no matter who is playing, is how I start my college football week.  And with the :30 second fast forward button on my DVR, I can cue up to the next play, unless we are talking about a fast paced, no huddle spread team.  Friday night is the same way.  I don't get online or on my cell phone to look at scores, because I like to watch the games without knowing the outcome.  On Saturdays, I pretty much focus on the Iowa Hawkeye game, so I am recording at least three games on that day, in addition to the Iowa game.  I watch the Iowa game at least three times by the time I do my radio show on Monday, too. 

Saturday night, after I do a post game college football call in show, I get home and watch at least two of the games I have recorded from the day, starting with the prime time ABC game, staying away from the score of that contest.  I will also typically record Iowa's next opponent and watch that game at least twice before Monday as well.  Were it not for the DVR...well, I'd have to have three or four tv's and vcr's going in my house...and the wife would not like that one bit..