1st and 10

College football kicked off this weekend, and so begins the autumn tradition of parking myself in front of the television and stitching. There were several good games this weekend. Georgia Tech beat Auburn (Go Jackets!). UCF played South Carolina well, although they didn't win. (It would have been truly sweet for UCF to have beaten Spurrier on his first game back coaching college, but that wasn't likely to happen). And for the most part, the ACC acquitted itself well.

DD is starting to get into the act - she watched the Tech-Auburn game with me, and insisted on having her stuffed Buzz (Georgia Tech mascot) with her during the game. She's not quite to the point of being able to sing the Ramblin' Wreck song, but give us time...

Once upon a time, college football was simple: Cheer for Georgia Tech, and whoever's playing UGA. With the advent of the Bowl Championship Series to determine rankings, however, the whole cheering mechanism has become a little more complex:
The Alternate Dementia Rules of College Football Support
(in order of precedence)

Cheer for Georgia Tech

Cheer for whoever's playing UGA (unless UGA has several losses and they're playing an undefeated SEC team).

Cheer for the ACC team. If two ACC teams are playing, cheer for the one that plays Tech this season (this improves Tech's "strength of schedule"). If both or neither do, cheer for the higher-ranking one. If neither are ranked, viewer's discretion.

Cheer against the SEC. If two SEC teams play, cheer for the lower-ranking one. If neither are ranked, viewer's discretion.

Cheer for Central Florida.

Cheer for Notre Dame.

If neither team is in the SEC or ACC, cheer for the lower-ranked one (to give the ACC schools a chance to move up).

Viewer's discretion.
As you can see, the BCS makes for some pretty strange bedfellows.
But it does make it simpler in some instances. Last night, for instance: 9th ranked Miami vs 14th ranked Florida State. I personally dislike both teams...but they're both in the ACC now, so by the rules above I should cheer for Miami.

As it turned out, I missed most of the game because I was watching a History Channel special on Rome. But from what I did catch, I don't think I missed much. Both teams were pretty bad....certainly not Top 25 caliber.

Which confirms the Alternate Dementia rule of college football rankings:
The major Florida college teams are consistently overranked.