Well at least the fans had something new to say

It's week 3 of the college football season and things are already both looking and sounding familiar.  Florida, Texas and Southern California are assuming their usual position atop the rankings and the commentators who preview the weekly games are already falling back on their usual takes and phrases.

The popularity of the sport has resulted in countless television, radio and Internet shows all trying to fill the public's insatiable need for opinions and information about the game.  There is a lot to discuss but few different things to say.

We're not even in the final week of September and few conference games have yet been played but already coaches are on the hot seat and teams are facing that dreaded, "Must Win" situation.  At least according to the experts I've been watching.

So far, by my unofficial count, the following are all playing a "Must win game" today... Notre Dame, Michigan State, Tennessee, BYU, Virginia Tech, Georgia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, California, Florida State, Mississippi, Utah, TCU, Oregon, Nebraska and Michigan.  Why that many?  It's my guess that's it's only because I haven't been watching enough pregame shows to hear the other 103 FBS teams being tagged with the same win or else situation.

The 2008-09 NHL champions (Pittsburgh Penguins), the 2008-09 NBA champions (L.A. Lakers) and the 2008 World Series champions (Philadelphia Phillies) all lost playoff games during their championship runs that someone, somewhere, was calling a "must win" for them to be able to do so.  When the fact is, the only games they actually NEEDED to win were ones that would involve elimination from the postseason had they lost.  Wasn't anyone paying attention to the 2004 Boston Red Sox who came back from 3-0 deficit to beat the NY Yankees in ALCS?

True, college football has a different template in which only 2 teams get to play in the 1 bowl game that really matters so each week of the regular season has championship implications.  But, still, consider the reality of how the others were able to get there and win it all.

Since 2003 there have been seven college football national champions (LSU and USC split the title in 2003).  Of those seven, only two went unbeaten (USC in 2004 and Texas in 2005).  Of the other five who won the title, each of them lost games in that championship season later than in the 3rd week of September.  The 2007 national champions, the LSU Tigers, suffered a loss on November 23rd of that year and that was their second defeat of that season.

I'm ready for another exciting Saturday of college football.  And it's my guess that, once again, today will offer some surprises and unpredictable results....at least on the field.

Almost time for kickoff and I better get focused and really start paying attention.  Mel Kiper just said this week's Notre Dame and Michigan State game is the biggest ever for Charlie Weis. Hopefully Charlie will fare better than he did last week against the Michigan Wolverines when, you know, that was the biggest game of his career.

Follow on Twitter.

Join on Facebook.