COLLEGE FOOTBALL: The best of everything

Like Nature's rebirth each spring, we will be eased into our delirium today, this most glorious of all days.

The beginning of college football season.

A few sprouts here. A bloom or two there.

Friday will continue the gradual increase in activity.

Saturday, our sensory perception will be overwhelmed with an avalanche of color, fragrance, and pageantry we have not seen in almost 9 months.

The cathedrals.

The warriors.

The pre-battle feasts.

The prognosticators and pontificators.

The adoring populace.

The explosion of victory and defeat will send us into a "walking" coma that will take at least a couple of days to work itself out, to return us to some sense of normalcy.

And, as with all first steps, it will settle us into the weekly saga that will be the next 5 months.

Hope for a championship, or maybe just a win...hell, maybe just a first down.

The agony of the unexpected loss. The ecstasy of the surprise upset.

The humiliation of the hated rival. In no other sport do a team's fans more ardently define an entire season with one victory over the same opponent, every year.

The collective frenzy is contagious and consumes even the most realistic of supporters, encouraging us with increasing urgency to drink the koolaid, to celebrate the greatness, even before the season starts.

Our teams are never as undefeatable as they are the day before the first game.

Today, Oklahoma State will win the last BCS National Championship. How poetic would that actually be?

Today, even Kansas has hope.

My brother often reminds me that, when shared, grief is diminished and joy is multiplied. Nowhere is that more evident than the college football landscape.

This weekend, for me, will be particularly odd. The excitement of the first game will be tempered by the need to comfort family in a time of reflection. The competing emotions will need to navigated carefully.

But I don't believe I have ever been so thankful that it is here.

The greatest of all seasons.

My religion, my passion, and my family.

College Football.

Let the games begin.

GO POKES!!!