College Football Month Is Here: While I Get Older, It Never Gets Old

The month of August is here, and that means we are officially within the month of college football being played.

We are three weeks away from Week 0, which will feature a Big 12 game between Kansas State and Iowa State in Dublin, Ireland. There is another Big 12 game in Week 0, as the Kansas Jayhawks take on Fresno State that Saturday night.

Then, it’s Week 1 to wrap up the month, which is a three-day extravaganza for the Big 12, with games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a premier match up as well, with Cincinnati playing Nebraska at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday, followed by Baylor vs. Auburn on Friday, and then Saturday features Utah at UCLA. And let’s not forget about Labor Day Monday, September 1st, when TCU takes on North Carolina in Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels debut.

It’s the time of year that many of us start thinking about the end of summer, and cool college football Saturdays being on the horizon. The summer vacations begin to wrap up, the kids are, in many parts of the country, on the verge of going back to school, and the days start to get noticeably shorter.

College Football Anticipation

This time of year always gives me the same feeling I got as a kid approaching Christmas. The build up, the excitement, and the anticipation is unmatched. And even as I approach my late 30’s (I’ll be 37 on August 24th, so does that still count as mid-30s?), the excitement I get has not changed. Heck, it’s arguably only grown.

My daughters are now six, four and 18 months. And as they get older, I keep waiting for my thrill around this time of year, and the approaching football season, to change. Or for me to lose that child-like excitement for the upcoming season.

I don’t. Heck, it arguably grows. Because now my kids get excited about it with me, and probably, for me, even though they don’t realize that’s what’s really going on. I’m not going to turn them into mini Kirk Herbstreits. That’s not my job as a parent.

But they start to take notice of games, understand the scores, and like to talk about the mascots as much as anything else. It’s fun.

Even my wife, who couldn’t stand college football for most of our 17 years together, admits it’s grown on her. I guess you can say it’s all becoming a family affair. It’s a passion. It’s a business. It’s a lifestyle.

And while this sport has undergone major changes, many not for the better in recent years, there’s still a pageantry, history and rivalry element to this sport that goes unmatched. And while some of the sport’s leaders are doing everything in their power to destroy all of that, they’ve failed, at least so far.

And because of that, I can’t wait for August 23rd, Week 0, to get here. It’s college football month. Let’s go.