Sniff...sniff

Smell that? Smells like college football to me.

Now, don't get me wrong. Summer vacation is great. (...When you have one.) There's nothing like that sense of anticipation that slowly builds over those long, hot summer months, but the best part is that first game's kickoff. From then on, you can be sure the season will be a complete shitshow. (Thanks, BCS!) At this point, we're just two months away from the season's start. Already all the usual pundits are starting to make their predictions. I guess it's not really that hard--all you really have to do is look at the teams' records from last season, compare their new recruits, and you've got maybe a 50% chance of not being horribly wrong. I don't really plan on doing that, though, because I'm usually horribly wrong, probably because I don't do college football analysis for a living.

However, I did get it right in 2006. About a quarter through the season, as Florida began its inevitable rise to the top of the Top 25, I started to tease Steve, Mr. Buckeye himself.

"You just watch," I said. "The championship game is going to be Ohio State and Florida, and Florida is going to stomp your ass."

(It sounds like I hate Ohio State. I don't. I only root against them when they're playing Florida or Northwestern--otherwise, I think they have a great team that makes for some amazing games. I do hate their fans, though. Thugs and assholes, all of them.)

After a few weeks of eye-rolling and "Whatever, what do you know about football"-s, my prediction began coming true. Of course, there was a bump or two along the way (Fuck you, Auburn, and way to fuck up that game, punter Eric Wilbur, with whom I attended high school). My Gators came to the championship game with two losses. Steve laughed, confident that the undefeated Buckeyes would slaughter Leak and Tebow. I don't know why he thought that, exactly, but whatever. We won, I won, and I still get to hold that over all those annoying-ass Buckeye fans. Then they lost against LSU this year, and I laughed some more.

God, I can't wait for September.