That one Green Day song you’ve heard about 1,000,000 times
recently has a more special meaning for sports fans.
You know that song.
“Wake me up when September ends.”
But for sports fans, the special meaning isn’t because
there’s anything wrong with the month of September.
It’s a good month actually. It’s just not
October.
In no other month do you get the baseball playoffs. In no other
month is college football so fun to watch. And October is a very
good month for the nation’s favorite league (the NFL) as
well.
Every October, college football is full of wonderful stories
with unexpected teams off to hot starts.
Obviously, this year is a bonus for UCLA fans. Our very own
Bruins are still undefeated, and if they can get by Cal this week,
watch out ““ the schedule would get very favorable for the
next month.
But many other teams are also off to great starts, giving hope
to their fans before November hits and the only contenders for the
national championship left are USC and the same couple of other
teams who are in the running every year.
Still, in college football, October is a month filled with
realistic hope and dreams for many teams.
Penn State, Alabama and Nebraska are still unbeaten.
It’s true.
And to be sure, if you’d like, you can check the date on
the top of this page ““ it’s 2005, not 1985 (19, 19,
1985 ““ Thanks for getting that stuck in my head, Bowling for
Soup).
Those are just some of the unbeaten teams that make you ask
yourself, “How in the world are they unbeaten?” along
with teams such as UCLA and Texas Tech, to name a couple.
The beauty of October is that these surprising underdog teams
start playing the big boys. Just look at what’s coming this
Saturday. UCLA gets Cal. Penn State gets Ohio State. Nebraska gets
Texas Tech.
And that group isn’t even including one of the best, most
hyped games every year ““ Texas-Oklahoma, also this
Saturday.
Then there’s the nation’s pastime.
The best-of-five division series system in baseball isn’t
the most fair format. The most dominant regular-season teams have
played three bad games against teams that weren’t great in
recent years and lost, with their World Series hopes ruined.
But the divisional series makes for some very exciting sports.
On top of every game becoming much more intense and meaningful,
there are a lot of them.
Just look at this week. Tuesday, you got to see a playoff
baseball game at 10 a.m. (which never happens in the middle of the
week for any other sport at any level). Wednesday, you had nine
straight hours of playoff baseball without interruption ““
followed by two more games both today and Friday and elimination
games on Saturday and Sunday.
The NFL is fun this time of year too. Teams few expected to be
good (Tampa Bay and Cincinnati) are playing well and October sets
up the playoff run of November and December.
I’m sure many of you reading this have thought of other
good months in sports.
Why not March? Sure, there’s March Madness. But what other
sport is even remotely watchable in March? The NBA’s regular
season is way too long, and even the most passionate baseball fans
have a hard time watching spring training.
April’s not a bad month ““ the opening of the NBA
playoffs and the MLB season. But the NBA playoffs are watered down
with too many teams and they take too long ““ over two months.
And after opening day, only the most devoted baseball fans pay
attention until the summer.
December? Sure, you’ve got the NFL playoffs.
But unless you enjoy the NBA’s never-ending regular
season, you’re stuck with no sports to watch from
Tuesday-Saturday other than the GMAC, Continental Tires and Gaylord
Hotels Music City bowl games.
So for compelling sports every day of the week, October is your
only choice. For the nation’s three favorite sports (pro
football, college football and baseball) all at the same time,
October’s your most logical choice to watch all three.
I’m glad I was woken up when September ended.
If you saw someone walking down Bruin Walk earlier this week
wearing headphones and looking goofy after a random fistpump and
jumping for joy, it really was Quiñonez listening to playoff
baseball. E-mail him at [email protected].