The men’s (and women’s) college basketball season is just getting underway, a season that starts early, but really doesn’t start to get going until after the New Year.

Men’s basketball is a strange beast with strong teams scheduling weak teams in a bid to pad their win totals going into league play. By the time January rolls around, many teams already have at least ten wins with just another ten or twelve needed to qualify for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. But beating up on the little guys is no proof of later success — how many times have we seen a team start off with a 10-2 record only to end up with a losing season or falling short of a post season berth? Plenty!

This year the odds on favorite is the UNC Tarheels, one of three terrific teams in my area (Duke and NC State being the other two). North Carolina is the unanimous choice in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today Polls, a testament to just how good the team is this year. After losing to the Kansas Jayhawks 84-66 in the last championship game, Carolina is ready to rebound and take it all. And, thanks to ongoing great recruiting, future teams look to be topflight as well.

As dominating as the Tarheels appear on paper, the conference with the strongest teams appears to be the Big East. This year, the conference has four pre-season Top Ten picks with UCONN and Louisville #2 and #3 respectively followed by Pittsburgh at #5 and Notre Dame coming in at #9 (AP poll). Marquette, Georgetown, and Villanova are three more Big East teams in the Top 25, reflecting just how deep the conference is.

Davidson, which was the Cinderella team the last season won’t be surprising anyone this year. Pollsters have pegged the Wildcats to finish #20 which would guarantee a fairly high seed in the tournament. Credit Stephen Curry with the Wildcats success, a team that nearly knocked off eventual champion Kansas in the Final 8 last year.

Early season games are often played within tournaments which are created to stir up fan interest and give fans a warm place to travel to. A noticeable exception to a warm place is the annual Great Alaska Shootout, a one-time big time contest that got a lot of attention and brought in teams from all over the country. Alas, cold temperatures and difficulty getting to Alaska has taken its toll on the tournament and this year ESPN has decided not to show the tournament. Give it one more year and it’ll be R.I.P.

By the beginning of the year, you’ll start to see endless ads touting the “Road to the Final Four” which will be played in Detroit in April. Games will be played on a court plunked down in the middle of Ford Field (home to the NFL Lions) which will allow a record 70,000 people to watch all three games. Naturally, viewing any game from the nosebleed section will require binoculars but for rabid sportsmen, they’ll take all of that in stride.

Tags: Big East Conference, Davidson, Detroit, Final Four, Great Alaska Shootout, Kansas Jayhawks, men's basketball, NCAA, NFL, UNC Tarheels, University of North Carolina

I’m not sure how most college football fans feel about the topic, but I’m finding that weekday college football games are getting out of hand.  Call me a traditionalist, but taking in a game in the early afternoon on a Saturday is the best way to play the sport or, if the weather is particularly hot, playing that game under the lights on Saturday night is fine for me.

Exciting Contests Should Still Be Played On Saturdays

There have been some excellent games played on Thursday nights, perhaps my favorite being when Rutgers came from behind to beat Louisville 28-25 in 2006. That game was sold out, viewed by millions on ESPN, and was nothing short of exciting. But, weekday games make it difficult for students to attend class and for fans to watch games when then they have to get up early the following morning for work.

This week I noticed that Florida Atlantic and Troy were playing, on a Tuesday night of all things. I’ve been seeing some Wednesday night contests too, so spreading the football week over several days seems to be the way college sports is going. Just give me a nice tailgate party in the lot of a favored school’s stadium on warm afternoon — I prefer that to the chill of a night game anytime!

This Weekend’s Predictions

Enough about my thoughts on college football, other than my predictions for the week ahead starting with tonight’s tilt (Friday) between Louisville and Memphis:

Louisville 28, Memphis 23 (Neither team inspires me)

Oklahoma 41, Texas 31 (Game of the Week!)

Utah 45, Wyoming 14 (Only BYU can stop Utah this year)

Mississippi State 24, Vanderbilt 23 (Upset special!)

Texas Tech 31, Nebraska 27 (The Red Raiders 6 & Oh? Say it ain’t so!)

North Carolina 27, Notre Dame 17 (UNC is better than expected)

Northwestern 33, Michigan State 28 (The Wildcats stay unbeaten and get a national ranking)

BYU 54, New Mexico 10 (The Cougars empty the bench for the second half)

Ball State 27, Western Kentucky 24 (Closer game than many will think)

Missouri 30, Oklahoma State 26 (The Big 12 gives us the two best games of the week)

Florida 28, LSU 24 (The Tigers fall to the Gators in the Swamp)

Penn State 34, Wisconsin 14 (Two close losses for the Badgers, but not this one)

Boise State 29, Southern MIss 27 (This one could be an upset)

Mid Season Form

Some of the schools playing this weekend will be playing their sixth game of the season while a handful will be playing their seventh. With twelve games to the season, we’re seeing everyone at mid season form — no excuses for anyone if they play like turkeys this weekend!

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Tags: Big 12, Big Ten, college football, NCAA, SEC, sports, Top Ten