The third time's the charm, at least for my personal attendance with NC State. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s talk about a week of firsts for me. Some of my faithful readers (or at least the ones who read last week’s post at Mercer) may be saying, “Hang on a minute. Weren’t you supposed to be at Oregon this weekend? Why are you in North Carolina?” That a fair question, and it has a painful answer. I left my wallet at home before I took the airport shuttle to ATL, and so I wasn’t going to be able to check into the hotels I had arranged. The airline was unhelpful, and I was going to have to book an entirely new flight after going back to Athens and then to the airport again, and ... read more

It’s one month into college football, and I’ve now been to stadiums in four of the Power Five conferences (only the Pac-12 is left). And in five weeks, I’ve attended seven games. The home team has won every single time. This week found me in the ACC, watching NC State on the road, yet again. I bet they want me to stop doing that. The home team this week was Florida State, the Seminoles, in Tallahassee. When I was a teenager, Florida State was THE team to beat. And the town I spent part of middle- and all of high school in is exactly 100 miles away from the campus. In fact, the CBS affiliate for our town has been based in Tallahassee for as long as I can remember. So FSU was pumped into our ... read more

Marshall has a storied football program, and even if you don’t know anything about them, you’ve probably heard of the film We Are Marshall. It starred Matthew McConaughey and is about 13 years old. It was pretty popular, had lots of famous people in it. The gist is that the university recovered from a terrible plane crash and went on to represent the spirit of college football. After visiting the university for a football game, I kind of wonder whether they should’ve just let the program fold. A football game at Marshall University has all the feel of a high school game. Take that for what you will. The people in the stands are primarily from the town of Huntington, where Marshall University is located. People can leave the game and come back in, ... read more

My third game of this season wasn't much of a trip. Even though there wasn’t much travelling in a vehicle, however, there was plenty of walking. Full disclosure: I’ve been to probably 100 games involving this team, and basically every home game (except maybe 5) since 2008. It is my 22nd consecutive game in Sanford Stadium, and that streak will end next week because I’ll be in West Virginia. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This week was the one I had circled on my calendar for the shortest “trip” in the football season, and after last weekend’s whirlwind trip through Michigan and the Big 10, I was glad to have a week with no major movements. For the past few years, since 2012 I suppose, I’ve had my buddy ... read more

I'm back! This year, I’m doing something different for college football season. Those who have read my facebook posts for the past couple of months, you will already know this. But for my faithful blog readers, you may not know. Since I didn’t get to do any big trips this summer, which I usually enjoy, my 2019 “big trip” will be an intermittent, extended sojourn through the world of college football. Another impetus for this decision is my dissatisfaction with the prices of tickets for my beloved alma mater, the Georgia Bulldogs. They are AVERAGING over $100 per ticket, which is certainly not helped by a $500 price tag for that Notre Dame game. So, each weekend, I’ll be at a different school; sometimes, it’ll even be TWO schools per weekend. This first weekend of college ... read more