31 AUG 07: TOE MEETS LEATHER

Governor Bob Riley has declared today "College Colors Day" across Alabama. If you've already put on your work clothes, you have our permission to go to a search engine now-- to enter your colors, find a matching college and fit in.

Has your workplace been buzzing about the start of college football season? Mine has for a couple of weeks - and I think all the talk has been a key factor in breaking our run of 100-degree temperatures.

Columbus is a college football crossroads, with supporters of teams from both Georgia and Alabama. But as we've noted here before, Columbus has NO college team in town. It's so bad that Columbus State University hasn't even started a men's soccer team, to go with the women.

All the big colleges in the area are in action on this opening weekend. Our title today is a famous line from the late Georgia Tech sportscaster Al Ceraldo - and shame on any of you who thought it referred to dancers at The Platinum Club.

For the second year in a row, Georgia Tech opens the season against Notre Dame. The Yellowjacket coaches may be checking today to see which players are Catholic, and thus less likely to give 100-percent.

Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey told reporters this week he looks on Notre Dame Stadium as "just another football field." He leaves it to the athletic director to notice all the fans in the stands, spending lots of money on tickets.

(I think I can name one man who's unlikely to root for Chan Gailey this season - Senator Larry Craig of Idaho.)

Many people may have forgotten how Georgia Tech reached its conference championship game last December - the only team in the area to do that. We'll quickly see how many Columbus radio stations have forgotten, since they tend not to carry Tech games at all.

A new era begins in Alabama football this weekend, as Nick Saban coaches his first game. Some people consider Saban under a lot of pressure, but keep one thing in mind. Unlike last year with the Miami Dolphins, he doesn't have to yell as he throws a red flag to get the referee's attention.

Alabama will open at home against Western Carolina. Somehow, I have the feeling this is NOT a "home-and-home" series - especially since Bryant-Denny Stadium holds more than 20 times as many people as Western Carolina's home town.

Auburn and Georgia open their seasons at home against Big 12 Conference opponents. And based on what I read several months ago, both games were arranged by ESPN. If the athletic directors at these schools ran major league baseball teams, the Yankees and Red Sox would meet only one weekend a year in September.

Georgia welcomes Oklahoma State to Athens Saturday night - which means a home-state appearance by O.S.U. running back and Jordan High School graduate Dontrell Savage. So does Savage have the privilege to request free tickets for his friends? The current Jordan team might fill one row of bleachers.

That leaves the home opener for Auburn - and a game which I admit has me very conflicted. The Tigers host Kansas State. As a native of Kansas, part of me wants to root for the visiting Wildcats. But as a graduate of arch-rival Kansas, part of me also wants to see them squashed like purple grapes below a buffet table.

Auburn University security officers showed off their "jail cell" inside Jordan-Hare Stadium Thursday. People who are caught smuggling alcohol into the game will be put in a holding tank under the end zone stands - and who knows how many of those drinkers will try to argue holding is a ten-yard penalty.

(It's possible to actually watch the game inside the holding tank. But you have to stare through narrow slits between rows of bleachers - and you have to hope the fans in those bleachers practice yoga, and sit in the lotus position.)

So that's our college football preview for 2007, and it should be.... what? What are you asking?! What about MY alma mater, Kansas? I may have mentioned here before what the start of football season usually means at Kansas. It's only about three months until basketball season.

But seriously: an online alumni newsletter from Kansas this month noted the Jayhawk football team is striving for its "fourth bowl-eligible season in five years." Talk about a spin job - it didn't bother mentioning that in at least one of those eligible years, Kansas wasn't selected for a bowl at all.

We shouldn't overlook the start of the area high school football season. LaGrange handled Harris County 31-0 Thursday night, in a game delayed for two hours by lightning. Someone actually carried a small pocket "lightning detector" - which I suppose is less bulky than a golf umbrella.

BIG PREDICTION: We're inviting you to send us your "sure-thing, lock of the year" predictions on area college football games. We begin with the son of WRLD "Boomer 95.3" morning star Alan Dupriest. Matthew Dupriest assures me Kansas State will lose to Auburn, and NOT score more than ten points. So he's presuming K-State will K-Stink....

Now some quick kicks through Thursday news stories:

+ The Education Park Coalition announced it plans a weekend meeting, about whether to take the library land fight to the Georgia Supreme Court. Coalition leader Josh McKoon says the group's rejection by Judge Doug Pullen shows the need to get campaign promises put in writing -- such as written statements that candidates are not homosexual.

+ WRBL reported the Columbus Foundry plans large-scale layoffs. I didn't realize until Thursday that the foundry makes parts for General Motors cars. Perhaps this means too many Chevrolets are winning NASCAR races, and avoiding crashes.

+ Instant Message to WRBL's Creshon Saunders: Are you kidding me? If you win tonight's $325 million Mega Millions jackpot, you'll really spend most of the money to "pay off my student loan"?! How many Ivy League master's degrees do you have?

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