Why College Football's Week 0 Is A Huge Let Down
Week 0 of the college football season should feel like a celebratory return. So why does it always feel like a major letdown?
Video Transcript
The good news, college football is back.
The bad news, not really.
It's time for week zero, and that means embarking on what is one of the more depressing days on the sporting calendar every single year.
College football fans have to wait eight and a half long months for real games.
The national title ends, and then it's on to spring games, recruiting, all the off-field drama.
It's a date that's circled on the calendar for a long time.
You can feel the anticipation coming, and then when it does, it tends to land with a giant, soundless, barely perceptible thud.
The reason?
The slate stinks.
Always has, always will, barring something changing significantly.
This year, fans will be treated to UNC and TCU playing in Ireland.
Now, let's be honest.
This one's actually really intriguing.
Bill Belichick's first year at Chapel Hill was an abject disaster, and there was a ton of off-the-field stuff that turned it into a gigantic circus.
Getting off to a bad start in year number two will only make the conversation around him louder and more negative, as a lot of people are looking to see him fail and revel in that moment.
Getting off to a hot start, though, as a standalone game in a window when people have never been hungrier for college football, that will go a long way.
Then after that, good luck finding anything that's going to keep your attention.
About a dozen games across the country featuring zero instances of quality teams facing off against each other makes for a sleepy Saturday after months and months of also sleepy Saturdays.
So why are we doing this?
Why do we do week zero?
Is it like a, something to whet the appetite, a little dopamine hit?
Is it because we don't wanna inundate fans and cause them to watch too much football?
They might sprain something if they don't stretch.
It confounds me, to be perfectly honest, and I know that the con- competition committee has put forth a proposal that, starting in 2027, all teams must play their 12 games in a 14-week stretch, which will go a long way.
So maybe this is the last time week zero is in our lives.
But I just have never understood the appeal.
You get really amped for something.
You watch the pregame shows.
You spend more time watching the pregame shows than you really do the actual football because oftentimes that marquee game is out of reach early in the third quarter, and these pregame shows are going to three hours, in length across all platforms.
It is just so empty and hollow to me and I refuse to get excited until the first real week of college football.
It'll be worth the wait, 'cause this weekend probably won't be.
