Around this time every year, for as long as I can remember, I get excited for football. Sure, baseball is going on, but it's the dog days of summer, it's been going on forever and by this point the Yankees are usually (knock on wood) a lock for the playoffs. So my attention fades slightly from America's Pastime to America's Passion. I look forward to the NFL, inasmuch as I can before wanting to kill myself from the ridiculous coverage of it at this point.

But more than the NFL, I look towards the college football season. It's a special time, a time of hope, a time to look forward to Heinz Field and drinking some whiskey. It's a time of bliss before the realization by mid-November that the entire premise of NCAA Division One (Bowl Subdivision) football is kind of a joke.

But that's alright, it's not about November. It's about now, and a fresh new season, where I haven't had to deal with an amazing amount of hype quite like ESPN has put into the NFL throughout the entirety of the League's off-season. That is until The Big Lead hepped me to this USA Today article, and just how The World Wide Leader is getting ready for this year's college football season: A 25-hour long pre-game show!

FANTASTIC! I was just wondering how ESPN was going to handle that much anticipated Louisiana State - Mississippi State match-up. It's good to know that we'll have every angle covered. I was somewhat excited to go to that first Pitt game on September 1st, but fuck that. Now I'm excited that I'll get to watch The University of Hawaii Fightin' Rainbow Warriors practice at 3:00AM.

ESPN is also reporting that the 5:00AM-7:00AM slot will cover Kirk Herbstreit's morning primping routine. While the afternoon-hours of this death march will be filled mostly with College GameDay's "Greatest Hits." Favorites such as: "East Coast Bias (Hey! Check out that Pac-10)", "The Regular Season IS a Playoff", "That White QB Sure Is A Great Heisman Candidate", "The Wearin' This Goofy Mascot Head Twist", "That Sign Implies An Opposing Player's Homosexuality! HA HA HA!” and "Whorish FSU Fan.”

But why just once? In the words of Puff Daddy, "Shit, we can do this every weekend." Can we shoehorn 'round-the-clock coverage of Saturday's Big Game in between NFL Live? No? We can't? Well alright, I guess we'll just have to settle for this being a one time thing and move on with it.

Can you just promise to not hype anything more than this for the rest of the season? No, you can't? Alright then, fair enough.