Ahh, college football...

I watched what may turn out to be the best college football game of the season Saturday night, on the first big day of the season - and it was a game that shouldn't have been on television.

Defending national champion LSU came oh so close to losing to Oregon State, who was a big underdog to the Tigers. And, that's the reason the game had no business being televised - and there was a time when it wouldn't have been and wouldn't have even been a candidate for television.

I love college football, not as much as some of my colleagues, but time was when a college football team appeared on television (and in a bowl game, for that matter), it was special. But, no more. Not since Georgia and a number of other teams, who formed the College Football Association, went to court several years ago over the lack of TV exposure under the NCAA rules then governing television rights to college football games.

The CFA won the suit and college football has not been the same since.

Before the suit, one game, maybe two at the most, and occasionally a third, a night came, was telecast each Saturday - and college football was only played on Saturday.

Now, because the CFA won the suit, we are inundated with college football games each week. Colleges play on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and even Mondays. And, I'm told that at one point last year there was at least one college game every night during one given week.

Last Thursday night, there were about 20 games, nationwide, many of them, granted, involving small college division teams - and most of them not on TV. When Saturday rolled around, though, they started on TV at noon EDT and didn't end until after midnight EDT - fourteen games in all, including that LSU-OSU match up.

I'm not for gonig back to one, maybe two, possibly three a week, all on Saturday, but do we really need 14 games in one day, plus a few games on other days? Although, I admit I watch every time I can when my favorite team is on - at whatever time and whatever day. But, if they weren't on TV, I woulnd't lose any sleep over it. I'd just listen to the game on radio as I used to (and, yes, for disclosure purposes, I do work for three radio stations, although that has nothing to do with this.)

Time was when Fridays and Sundays were left to the high schools and pros, respectively. Time was when beer advertising was prohibited on college football games carried on TV and radio. And, are you old enough to remember when, and this was even before TV became a dominant player, that ABC-TV decreed that its announcers while calling a game involving the SMU Mustangs would not refer to the SMU nickname because Ford had just come out with a model called, that's right, the Mustang - and Chevrolet was a major sponsor of college football on ABC?

What has happened to college football? My money is on TV and money.

As I said earlier, remember when going to a bowl game was a reward for an outstanding season and was limited to only the best teams in the country? You had the Rose, Orange, Sugar, Gator, and Cotton bowls. And, all were on New Year's Day. They didn't start playing in mid-December and end January 3 or 4. And, they were all over before midnight on the East Coast.

Then came the Liberty Bowl and,the now defunct Bluebonnet Bowl, and the floodgates were opened.

I'm not saying we need to return to the days when we only had five bowl games, but I do feel some of the luster has been taken off these post-season games because of the number of them, about 30 last year. And, please, no more teams with a losing record or even a .500 season in a bowl game. Let's require that a team be at least two games over .500 before they can go to a bowl game.

Now, excuse me while I go check to see if What's It To U. is on TV this weekend.

Hey! It's college football.

Gotta watch it, you know.

Ken Stanford is the longtime news director for WDUN NEWS TALK 550, AM 1240 SPORTS RADIO THE TICKET, and MAJIC 1029 and editor for AccessNorthGa.com.