Another football post

I hope those Australians who aren't as interested in American football as I am don't mind the frequency of my football posts! I do enjoy watching the sport: it's a very tactical game, which appeals to me, and it goes for just the right length of time. Partly, this post is actually a buffer to avoid having two relatively heavy posts in a row: come back tomorrow for a discussion of the faith of various groups of Catholic students with whom I have associated.

On Saturday afternoon I watched MIT play Framingham State. The scale of the game was a huge contrast to games in Berkeley. Instead of 70 thousand spectators (that number will sound unbelievable to many Australians, but I have checked it and it is correct), there were perhaps 200. I'm not yet an expert, but I could tell how much lower the quality of play was. It reminded me of the transition from very young children's soccer, where people follow the ball, to older age groups where they play well in positions. That's not to say the players here weren't playing their positions, just that the insufficiency of the protection from the offensive line, for instance, meant the quarterbacks were constantly running to the side to buy themselves time to pass. MIT was trailing 3-7 when I left (I had a rehearsal for The Mikado), on their way to a 16-20 loss.

I was checking California's result (a win over Minnesota) online when I noticed that archrivals USC were trailing Washington. Washington lost all 12 of their games last year while USC won 12 out of 13, so I went and watched the last few minutes on TV. Washington were indeed able to pull off an unexpected victory.

I also watched some of New England's game against the New York Jets this afternoon. I've found I can't get excited about the Patriots as I can about the Golden Bears, so I think I'll keep Cal as my primary team (I know many friends will be pleased by this!). I'm not sure if I'll be able to watch their games (although if they keep playing well they should be on national TV some of the time), but I'll at least keep up to date with how they're faring.

And my rankings after week 3:

1) Miami (F)
2) Louisiana State
3) N Carolina
4) Alabama
5) Houston
6) Cincinnati
7) California
8) Boise
9) Iowa
10) S Mississippi
11) Wisconsin
12) Auburn
13) Michigan
14) Pennsylvania State
15) Georgia Tech
16) Missouri
17) Kentucky
18) Texas
19) Washington
20) Indiana
21) UCLA
22) Connecticut
23) Pittsburgh
24) Clemson
25) Florida