While Saturday is the last one that college football will have to itself this year, it won’t go down easily. Football is what drives the train in college athletics and is the primary reason for conference realignment. It’s the driver of television deals. And it’s one reason why continuing to start the college basketball season earlier is a questionable move for the sport.
Saturday is normally a very busy day for college basketball and for understandable reasons. It’s easier for the road team to not have to worry about missing class time, most notably, and easier for fans to get to games since most don’t have to work. Games are played all day, from 11 a.m. in some places all the way past midnight Eastern time.
But for the first couple of weeks, Saturdays will be light days. Next Saturday, November 9, there will only be two games airing on either of the ESPN family of networks or Fox Sports, with both coming on FS1. There are many games on ESPN3 and ESPN+. The following two Saturdays are a similar story. An earlier start means more weekends – and even Thursday nights – fighting with college football. Guess who wins out.
It’s not college basketball.
The bevvy of early season tournaments help the sport, but even they don’t get the attention they deserve, at least not until Thanksgiving week. When the 2-in-4 rule was thrown out, it opened the door for more of these events, which we should all be thankful for. They give us the potential for some big early season matchups, although they don’t get a big billing all the time because they often occur in championship games and thus are not known ahead of time. That leaves no time for a buildup to the game like there is to Saturday’s LSU-Alabama matchup on the gridiron, which will have two weeks thanks in part to both teams being idle this week.
Interestingly, most of these three-day tournaments take a day off after the second day, which is often Saturday. That accommodates football, of course, but because of game times, this is usually necessary anyway.
There are plenty of reasons why starting the season earlier and earlier all the time brings problems for college basketball. One day of the week that illuminates a challenge is Saturday, when football still takes precedence in the early going, before it becomes the biggest day of the week for basketball.
Side Dishes
After Wofford had ruled the Southern Conference for a few years, albeit with plenty of competition, the Terriers look primed to take a step back between player departures and a coaching change. East Tennessee State, UNCG and Furman look like the teams to beat there, with UNCG not missing the NCAA Tournament by much last year.
The Southland Conference should be a great race with five teams that appear capable of contending. New Orleans and Sam Houston State, who battled in a great semifinal game in the conference tournament, are two of them, while defending champion Abilene Christianm Stephen F. Austin and Central Arkansas all look to have the potential to win.
After Mike Daum & Co. led the way in the Summit League for a few years, the league looks wide open this year. North Dakota State and South Dakota topped the preseason poll, but Oral Roberts and Omaha each bring back a couple of stars and should contend as well.
In the SWAC, Prairie View A&M brings back a strong Player of the Year candidate in Devonte Patterson to lead their attempt to repeat as regular season champions and break through for the tournament. They should get a good push from Texas Southern, Grambling State and Alabama State, while Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Alcorn State might be the dark horses with two All-SWAC caliber players each.
Tonight’s Menu
The NFL grabs top billing in the sports world today, with two days to go. Tomorrow, we’ll look at the last of the conferences alphabetically and get ready for the games to start for real on Tuesday.
