Lexington is a football town, and other such insanity

A few short days ago, it looked like ESPN College GameDay would be making its first-ever visit to basketball-centric Champaign, Illinois for next Saturday's Michigan-Illinois game. Then the Illini lost to previously hapless Iowa, taking the air out of what would have been a battle of two unbeaten-in-conference Big Ten teams. (And by the way, thanks a lot, Illinois, for reducing the conference race, again, to Ohio State vs. Michigan -- which, at this point, is about as exciting to people outside the gravitational pull of Ann Arbor and Columbus as Red Sox-Yankees is to people outside the Northeast.)

So where is GameDay going instead? To yet another locale whose residents are just discovering this wonderful game called "football": Lexington, Kentucky, that strangest of SEC towns where football comes in second to basketball in the local consciousness. Or perhaps it's third; does UK have a JV hoops team? Anyway, the Wildcats host Florida on Saturday -- which, come to think of it, would be a hell of a basketball game as well; can we tweak the b-ball schedule a bit and have a doubleheader? -- and the Kirk & Corso circus will be there.

Of course, in this season of nonsensical mayhem, Kentucky being a football powerhouse is nothing to write home about. At this rate, George Mason (of the mighty Sea Board Conference) will be cracking the BCS standings by November, with Gonzaga close behind -- and the Zags haven't played a football game since two weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked. Apropos of which, Every Day Should Be Saturday nicely summarizes the current state of college football's national championship race:

The science fiction scenario of falling asleep for decades, awakening, and finding the world inhabited only by eyeless nuclear mutants has arrived: you are, whether you like it or not, staggering around the streets yelling “IS ANYONE OUT THERE?” at the fact that South Florida is the second-ranked team in the BCS.

Ohio State claims spot one, followed by South Florida at two, Boston College at three, LSU at four, and Oklahoma at five. Army’s 1947 squad is number six, the nation of Bolivia is at seven; acclaimed chef Eric Ripert and his kitchen staff are at eight, and finally, the nine spot is occupied by a sweet 2005 Dodge Ram dualie and chrome pipes with the Idaho plates 323 AAJE. The truck’s owner, Steve Redding of Boise, Idaho: “What the f**k is my truck doing in the BCS standings?”

Heh.

Oh, and speaking of Kentucky, here's the ending of Saturday's thriller, sans commentary, seen from field level:

(Hat tip: AOL Fanhouse.) I love college football.

Comments

[Ben Sloniker]

Just because I'm like that, I have to notice that Idaho has county number-then-plate number type plates. So the above license number wouldn't exist.

I know, I know, it wasn't your post, but I'm too lazy to follow the link. (It was a funny post, though...)

[The Backer]

Have you seen the Saturday Night Live commercial mocking NBC's coverage of Irish football? Only thing on Youtube is a copy made from a TV screen.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XxUfeXazpyw

[PatGLex]

Football has always been second, with the club ice hockey team (that plays at midnight on the weekends) third. Kentucky fans have always supported the football team, but expect disaster every year, and they've rarely been disappointed -- or, rather, have always been disappointed. (See 1999, what LSU fans call the "Bluegrass Miracle" -- a Hail Mary pass to the end zone as time ran out to snatch a UK defeat from the jaws of victory...) The football fans are not sure how to act these days. But it's been fun to watch. Thankfully the students, who have experienced an ESPN Game Day crew before (though for round ball) will know how to show off.