Diving into College Football

Benton McDonald Posted On August 13, 2015

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There are 128 teams that populate the division one landscape of NCAA football. With 85 scholarship athletes on each roster, there are nearly 11,000 division one-college football players. Compared to the 1,664 players on NFL rosters, it’s easy to be intimidated about following the college game. Thankfully, through a plethora of resources and a commitment to watching football on Saturday (tough, right?) you can discover the great pageantry and excitement of college football that many of us have grown to love. In addition, you’ll be much more prepared for your upcoming rookie drafts as you get familiar with the prospects so much earlier.

The Tools

Preseason Magazines

In this day and age, a magazine is nearly as old as a Walkman. Most magazine companies are now getting a majority of their views and buys from online download and purchases. Fantasy football magazines are forced to push out online copies that have weekly updates due to the injury and depth chart carousel known as training camp. However, three college football magazines are still in print forms and are perhaps the best yearly sports magazine out there. Lindy’s Sports, Phil Steele and Athlon Sports all produce high quality, season preview magazines. Complete with team previews, depth chart predictions and an overall thoroughness, it is the best primer for every college football season. During the season (especially early), it can be a great guide for researching players while you watch and a go-to for any team questions you may have. Usually around $8 at your local convenience store, they are a must have purchase for any dedicated college football fan.

A Game-Watching Notebook

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This is something I plan on using in 2015 that I have never used before. The concept is simple – a tablet for quick notes while watching the multitude of games each Saturday. With that as the base, you can run with this as far and in whatever direction you please. I plan on taking this week-by-week, creating a page for each major game I plan to watch and filling it with notes, thoughts, observations and stats. The game-watching notebook will accomplish two major things as both a college football fan and a dynasty owner – it will force a close watching of the game, something I feel like I don’t do enough. We can all sit down in front of a TV and “watch,” but are we really watching? Having this notebook allows you to focus on select players who stick out along with overall notes (game flow, interesting notes, results) and make you a better fan. From a dynasty owner perspective, we can watch live game film every Saturday and create a dense view on the top prospects. When you tune into the TCU-Baylor showdown during week 13, don’t just watch the two high octane offenses duke it out. Watch Josh Doctson’s release off the line, Trevone Boykin’s skills on the run, KD Cannon’s explosiveness after the catch and newest Baylor quarterback Seth Russell’s skills running the offense. Months later at the height of draft season, these notes will allow you to see your unbiased views on the players as you watched their skills unfold live. The notebook will not only increase your knowledge of the college football game, it will act as a go-to for your rookie drafts and film study down the line.

Your Remote

treadwell Unlike the NFL, which broadcasts its games across five networks, college football has games all across television. The Texas Longhorns have their own TV channel, Notre Dame has every one of its games broadcast on NBC and ESPN uses all six of their channels for college football every Saturday. Add to those the Big Ten Network, PAC 12 network and the numerous Fox sports regional channels and there are a massive amount of college football games being broadcast every Saturday on TV. Your skills of navigating them and how you watch are pivotal for getting the most out of every Saturday. The first step would be to sit down and list every channel number for the games you plan to watch each Saturday with the game listed next to the channel – I have used this strategy the last few seasons and it has paid dividends. The game watching time you gain by cutting out the channel surfing is substantial and allows you to focus even more on the game. So how do you narrow down which games to watch each week? Start by printing out this week-by-week list of every game and its network courtesy of our friends at USA Today.

You can highlight the games that intrigue you and week-by-week create your list. I don’t recommend choosing every game before the season due to the constant up and down high variance world of college football competition. There will almost certainly be a handful of games that sound intriguing before the season and turn into a meaningless game between two unranked teams. Coming into each Saturday with your handpicked list of games to watch complete with channel numbers and game start times create a smarter college football fan with faster remote hands than a professional gamer.

Devy Rankings

The Dynasty Scouts team here at DLF has a dedicated team of rankers bringing you a set of rankings for each upcoming draft class as well as a set of composite rankings for the top college players. Using these rankings can help you set a guideline for which players and teams you want to watch each weekend. For example, I doubt most of you will want to watch Central Michigan this year, but thanks to the DLF site rankings, you see receiver Corey Davis is the fifth overall player and happens to be playing at Central Michigan. And now, thanks to your use of resources, you get to see a potential first round pick go against Oklahoma State on ESPN at seven o’clock eastern time during the first week of games. Looking at the rankings while watching College Gameday on Saturday mornings can give you exposure to some players you may not have had in mind for games that day. The ability to have players in mind as you go into the games gives you as a dynasty owner a step up on the competition. By keying into the select group of players who will be populating the first three rounds of rookie drafts for the next few years, you are able to study exactly what you need to be studying. I liken it to studying strictly the questions on a history test instead of studying the entire section in the book.

All in all, College Football is an incredible sport that ignites millions across the country each fall. Watching, tweeting and reading about it leads to an integration into the sport that is faster than it may sound. And the on field product we see year-to-year makes it all worth it. Taking advantage of the resources offered to you is key to becoming the best college football fan you can be. A smarter fan creates a smarter dynasty owner and that leads to championships, folks.

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