Maybe because it’s late August, and my brain – never overly large – has shriveled to the size of a prune due to the dastardly drought and oppressive heat, I keep having this recurring college football dream.
Actually, it’s sort of two dreams, both involving teams that call the state of Tennessee home. But it always ends exceedingly well for both fan bases, since I keep seeing both our town’s University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs and their big brothers to the northeast – the Tennessee Volunteers – winning national championships this season.
Yes, I am somewhat out on a very lonely limb with this prediction. And for what it’s worth, only once since 1978 – when the former designations I-A and I-AA began, since replaced by FCS (UTC’s level) and FBS (UT) – have two teams from the same state been able to claim Division I football national championships in the same season.
That was 1990, when Georgia Southern won the third of its six I-AA titles at the same time Georgia Tech earned the United Press International national championship, which was voted on by the coaches. Colorado won that year’s Associated Press poll.
But lest you worry that this year’s pollsters may know more than me, which would be an understandable conclusion, I feel the need to trot out a quote from Gene Wilder’s character Jim the Waco Kid in the cult classic “Blazing Saddles,” given the sad news of the comic genius Wilder’s passing on Monday.