That's right. It's almost here.
July first is a special kind of day. Not because it's Canadian Independence Day (congratulations you crazy Canucks), but because it marks the one month line before College football officially returns to our consciousness. Football. Glorious football is returning to us.
The second week of July is a little better than the first for the same reasons. Football is a little closer. All the preview magazines hit the stands (including one I contributed on for Mike over at BSD called We are Penn State which you should run out and buy right now), jerseys hit the stores, your buddies start calling to make football tailgating plans, and EA Sports NCAA Football hits store shelves.
I'm on record as calling EA Sports NCAA Football "Methadone for the College Football Addict." Good lord is it addicting... and entertaining. There's nothing like hanging 90 on your rival school with Akron. There's also nothing like getting your butt handed to you by the computer when you get a little cocky and set the game on it's highest level. No matter. I love it. And it gets me even more amped for the College Football season to begin.
So, when EA Sports asked to sponsor a week's worth of posts leading up to the release of NCAA Football 2011 next Tuesday, July 13th, I was more than a little excited. Naturally, I figured there would be a catch (there's always a catch, right?). But there really wasn't. EA Sports wasn't interested in telling me what to say, only in sponsoring a series of posts celebrating the diehard fans of the greatest sport in the world: college football.
If you're like me the annual release of NCAA Football is like Christmas in July. So I'm more than happy to celebrate next week's holy day with a week-long look at what it means to be a fan of the Michigan Wolverines. I'll be posting once a day between now and the release of the game next Tuesday, starting in a few minutes with the first of the series: How I Became A Michigan Fanatic. From there, the series will unfold as follows:
Tuesday: All-Time Favorite Michigan Team (Spoiler alert... it's not 1997)
Wednesday: Tailgating Traditions (Yeah, you know where this is going)
Thursday: All-Time Favorite Wolverines (You're gonna be surprised)
Friday: Most Memorable Moments
Monday: Expectations for the 2010 Season
Tuesday: Christmakwanzanukah in July
It's going to be a lot of fun going through this stuff. Frankly, I'm more excited to see how a lot of you became fans, who your favorite players are, and which Michigan teams left the biggest mark on you. And, of course, I want to get your tailgaiting stories in print so I can use them against you at a later date. My thanks to EA for their offer and to you guys for continuing to come back. That's what makes all this possible.
Go Blue!