Now serving ball soup

Delicious.

It gets hot in Georgia. Really, really hot. And it just so happens that the hottest days are usually in August through the beginning of September. During this time, the Weather Channel constantly tells those who are susceptible to heat to stay in air conditioning, especially between the hours of 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.

F@#& that, it's football season. Besides, heat brings out the best in the South.

That's right, Georgia Tech kicks off against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks on September 5th at 1 p.m. With a hangover-enhancing heat index that will probably push 100 degrees, the Jackets look to repeat their 41-14 victory over JSU (although last year's night Thursday night game was kind of a blessing).

Why a 1 p.m. kickoff? Honestly, probably because of the Chick-fil-A Classic season opener that pits the Crimson Tide versus the Hokies in the Georgia Dome. The two teams battle for the "WTF Does That Mean Trophy," which allows the holder to officially lay claim to the most obscure/confusing mascot-nickname combination.

Quick prediction on who come out of that game winners - we will, as we will probably be hanging out with the Hokie bloggers for that tailgate, and will finish the night by making fun of the same 'Bama fans who patroned the Cheetah that we met after the SEC Championship game. (Note that I don't bother to predict who actually wins the game - I think we will be going to the Cheetah regardless... free admission with a ticket from a sporting event!)


Anyway, other important contests happening that first weekend:

Thursday:

N.C. State gets a shot at revenge for last years beatdown at the hands of Sakerlina (reading too much Block-C... they berate their rivals extremely well, although it is kind of like playing tee ball). Russell Wilson and the Wolfpack host the Gamecocks this year.

Oregon (Winfield's current favorite NCAA09 team) plays at Boise. I'm excited, because seeing that blue field makes me realize we will never have to play on it again. All hail CPJ.


Friday:

Winfield and I will be getting drunk with alumni at the RRC Pig Roast (yes, that means Bird as well). We will mostly ignore Tulsa vs. Tulane, then, after being sufficiently plastered and full of pig flesh, will begin to argue on which team is better with 3 minutes left in the game. This argument will prove fruitless, as the drunken ramblings and misspeaking of the team names will lead to a utterly pointless shouting match, followed by more flip cup SURVIVOR FLIP CUP.


Saturday:

Honestly, I will probably pass out for the afternoon portion of the day. If not, I'll admit it, I'll be watching Oklahoma State play some other team.


Sunday:

COLLEGE FOOTBALL ON SUNDAY. It's too much effort to click back over to the schedule right now, but it doesn't matter who is playing, because it is COLLEGE FOOTBALL ON SUNDAY.


Monday:

The Sunday game was Ole Miss against Memphis, by the way.

We are going to put on clothes we wore in middle school and get super ultra excited about Miami vs. FSU. This edition of the series that I like to call "Wide Muff" (I do this after I have been drinking, when I am extremely charming and everyone loves the increase in the volume of my voice) will be an interesting watch, as we meet Miami two weeks later on national television, and play FSU at Doak-Campbell in what may be our second biggest game of the year.


My hands are shaking with child-like giddyness. Whats the countdown at now?


THWG

Easy Schedule = MNC

Georgia Tech is a decent schedule away from contending for the BCS title.
-- Southern Pigskin

A decent schedule?! Have you seen who we play this year?!

Now, now before you spit all over yourself in anger, take that comment as a compliment. More and more the BCS rewards those who don't take risks. Play OOC cupcakes, win, make money, play in the MNC. Matter of fact, don't even leave your stadium for those games (see Florida). The reward for beating a strong OOC BCS team is far less than risking a loss and thus, not worth it.

This view is shared by FSUncensored over at Tomahawk Nation who goes deeper into the numbers as he always does.

My theory is that teams should play the weakest possible non-conference schedule, because it is the pre-season rankings combined with a 0 or 1 loss season that gets a team to the National Championship. Additionally, playing cupcakes allows teams to rest their starters, leaving them less exposed to injury. Further, playing bad non-conference teams forces the national championship contender to have a greater focus on the conference games, which could potentially be overlooked when balanced with a difficult non-conference schedule.
--FSUncensored

So let's look at Tech's schedule and how it compares to the past BCS champions' schedule shown over on TN. I'll help you out: It's not a very difficult schedule.


Our schedule is a "tough" one with 2 away games vs. SEC opponents and 1 home game against Georgie. Our only cupcake is the Jacksonville State game. This is completely against the philosophy of the BCS title contenders. When it comes to debates of conference strength and who is the best, I think the best way to answer those questions is to look at OOC schedules. Beating up on each other within conference should only go so far in this argument.

Is it a tale of 2 wants? A championship in Atlanta would be a dream come true, but with a schedule like ours, history is against us. Do fans complain about easy scheduling from outside schools simply for enjoyment's sake? And then are content with the cupcake schedule for their own teams? It's something to consider. Part of all this issue is a result from the subjective decisions made by human pollsters who watch only a few games a week at most (yet another reason why the blogpoll is better). No one wants to appear like they got it wrong, and if the team with the big name wins, no matter the opponent, that team is going to get the bump up the polls.

Such goes the life of a college football fan.....

Taking a look at our opponents schedule

So we're taking a cue from Gobbler Country and looking at our opponents schedule before and after our respective games with each other. F4H also sympathizes with our October. That month is gonna be Roadtrip Month for sure.

No one has a bye game before or after us which means teams will have the minimum amount of time to prepare for our offensive attack. Jacksonville State has not been included in this list because they'll be our warm-up game.

Opponent		Date	Pre-Game	Post-Game
vs.Clemson		9/10	vs. MTSU	vs. BC
at Miami		9/17	bye	at VPISU
vs. UNC		9/26	vs. ECU	vs. UVA
at Miss. St.		10/3	vs. LSU	vs. Houston
at FSU		10/10	at BC	at UNC
vs. VPISU		10/17	vs. BC	vs. UNC
at UVA		10/24	at Maryland	vs. Duke
at Vandy		10/31	at USCeast	at Florida
vs. Wake		11/7	vs. Miami	vs. FSU
at Duke		11/14	vs. UNC	vs. Miami
vs. Georgie		11/28	vs. Kentucky

So who has a schedule closest to our October? Where we have only 1 home game against Virginia Tech and its sandwiched in-between Florida State and Virginia. Miami and Vanderbilt get the brutal schedules with Vandy having it worse. The Commodores have us followed by the Gators in The Swamp. No easy task for sure.