It has been a long, hot summer…are your ready for some football?!

Practice has begun and players are currently sweating it out across the country. Without a preseason set of games to get started, college teams routinely pad the first part of their schedule with cupcake games such as: McNeese State v. Kansas; Louisiana-Lafayette v. Oklahoma State; Montana v. Tennessee; and Troy v. Clemson.

There will be some interesting match ups that first weekend with Boise State traveling to Georgia; BYU visiting Ole Miss; Oregon v. LSU meeting in Arlington, TX; and South Florida traveling to Norte Dame. Okay, there certainly WILL be some good games to watch when the season unfolds early next month.

As always, there is plenty of pre-season buzz dominating college football including the following stories:

Fresh off the sudden dismissal of Butch Davis, the University of North Carolina has come to the realization that its athletic fund doesn’t have enough money to handle what could be a $2.7 million payout. Davis will definitely get the remainder of his $1.12 million salary for 2011, but could receive money for several more years if he doesn’t coach elsewhere reports WRAL.

The “other” Carolina has had its share of drama too. The University of South Carolina has suspended QB Stephen Garcia five times, the most recent for undisclosed unacceptable behavior states ESPN. For that offense Garcia was suspended for one week. Garcia won’t be tossed by the Gamecocks as he returns this season following a year where he threw for more than 3,000 yards and beat Alabama.

Villanova’s quest to jump up to the highest level of college football has encountered some road blocks. The school, a Big East Conference member in all other sports, was asked by the BE to move its program up from 1-AA to 1-A. Pitt, apparently, is leading the charge to keep ‘Nova out with reports that Rutgers, Syracuse and West Virginia have also set up roadblocks. SBNation is urging that Army and Navy be invited instead.

Football fanatics looking for a taste of the season to come may want to head over to the Sporting News to take in its Top 50 countdown. Yes, the chart stoppers may already need to be adjusted as #41 North Carolina is without Butch Davis at the helm. As of this writing, Sporting News has worked its way down to the #29 spot which is occupied by BYU. Other charters include Houston, South Florida, Northern Illinois (really!) and Arizona.

Barring major injuries — and you know that there will be some — coaches will be working on filling out depth charts in coming weeks to close whatever gaps remain. For some schools with deep and talented benches, that will be a formality. For schools barely competing at the BCS level, that challenge may be just one of many that can help avert a disastrous season.

The college football season is fast approaching, with the first games to be held the last weekend of this month. Yes, the lull from the January bowl games to Labor Day is about over, giving fans from Athens to Laramie and everywhere else a chance to cheer on their favorite teams.

LSU was crowned champion last season despite doing what no other #1 team had done previously — they lost two twice before knocking off Ohio State 38-24 in the BCS title game.

LSU Opens Light

This year, LSU starts the season on August 30th against Appalachian State (ASU), the top team from the formerly known as 1-AA division. That ASU team started the 2007 season with a shocking victory on the University of Michigan’s field, but don’t expect LSU to be caught looking when the Mountaineers from Boone, NC come to town. LSU follows up its opening contest with games against Troy and North Texas before heading into SEC play.

Early Season Tilt

With major college football now a twelve game season, most schools are electing to pad their schedules with a subdivision team or a weak BCS team in a bid to get that extra win and position themselves for a higher post season bowl opportunity. Not so with Ohio State and USC who will be meeting each other, Rose Bowl style, at the L.A. Coliseum on Saturday, September 13th.

Both schools have a decent conference schedule this year with most of their toughest games at home. Whether worthy of that distinction or not, the winner of this tilt will be an early season favorite to play at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, FL on January 8, 2009. Me thinks that several other programs will take exception to this theory, including several powerhouses from the SEC.

Any Fight Left In The Irish?

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish made history last year, but not the kind of history the Irish are noted for.  Fresh off a 10-3 season in 2006, Irish faithful expected much in 2007, but got very little. Three wins to be exact and a heart-wrenching home loss to Navy. The arm of Jimmy Clausen will guide the troops this year, but it is the defense that needs the most improvement, a unit that gave up 29 points per game last season.

Sporting News says that the Irish are the #28 team on their Top 50 list for 2008 and NBC recently extended their exclusive TV contract with the university through the 2015 season. Expect the team to forget last season as soon as they take the field when they open up against San Diego State on September 6th.

Big East, Not The Least

A few years back when the Big East Conference lost its top three teams, the Miami Hurricanes, Boston College Eagles, and Virginia Tech Hokies, most pundits said that the conference’s ability to compete on the national level would be limited to only one team: the West Virginia Mountaineers. Since the Big 3 fled for the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big East’s fortunes have actually improved while the ACC still remains a full step behind the SEC.

This year, West Virginia is expected to shine, but the South Florida Bulls are right up there as well. In addition, a renewed Pitt Panther team should be bowl bound while UConn, Rutgers, Louisville, and Cincinnati, battle for the two remaining post season positions.  Speaking of Rutgers, will Ray Rice’s early exit to the NFL hurt the team and will the State of New Jersey find enough money to fully fund the stadium upgrade?

Lots Of Coverage This Fall

SayCampusLife will keep an eye on big time college football this fall, but we’ll throw in a few surprises including some smaller school programs and other tidbits. The season starts early, but by the time the first fall chill is in the air, we’ll have a good idea just how far some of these teams will go.