Rating the College Football Blogs

I love me some blogs. Besides the Sports Central Message Boards and my own e-mail, my only daily must-visit sites are my favorite blogs.

And if I may say so, I'm a pretty tough blog customer. I've read hundreds and hundreds of blogs, but the ones that have made the cut for regular reading number around five or so. I demand it be well-written. I demand it be funny. Many blogs are well-written, but not well-written enough, and many are funny, but not funny enough.

I can forgive a small amount of poor writing and lack of humor if the blog is informative and dealing with very interesting subject matter, and few things are more interesting than college football to this writer. So lately I have been making the rounds of college football blogs. A few that I've read have stood out, which I've listed below.

Please note that I am pretty much only interested in general college football blogs, not team blogs. As deep as my passion for the game goes, I can only read so many treatises on the backup linebackers of Oregon State before my eyes start to glaze over.

Sunday Morning Quarterback

This is my favorite college football blog. The writer's style is often compared to Gregg Easterbrook, and I can see that for sure, but the average SMQ post seems to be lacking the smugness of an Easterbrook column — which means he's even better than Easterbrook, though surely not as well-compensated.

The reason SMQ is my favorite is because he seems to put the most effort into being a quality writer. Anyone can regurgitate stats and anyone can dash off an informal rant about how awful ESPN is, but the best writing takes a process more deliberate than that, and contains a passion not just for the subject matter, but for the act of writing itself.

Tim Cahill, the long-time Outside and Rolling Stone writer, and the author of a number of travel books, once said he is asked a lot how to get into the travel writing biz. His advice: it's about the writing, not about the travel. You have to have even more love for writing than you do for travel, or you are doomed to fail. SMQ's blog seems to be about the writing, so it's No. 1 on my list.

Every Day Should Be Saturday

It's tempting to disqualify EDSBS because its writers, who go by the names Orson Swindle and Stranko Montana, are unabashed Florida fans. Less than a quarter of their posts deal with Florida, though, so I'm letting it in.

EDSBS is the Carrot Top of college football blogs. It's manic, it's busy (more posts per day than the other blogs listed here except NCAA Fanhouse), it's zany, and there's no shortage of posts revolving around amusing pictures, anecdotes, and YouTube videos, and these are the blogosphere versions of props. The chief difference between EDSBS and Carrot top is EDSBS is funny. It also has the largest following of commenters of any general college football blog I am aware of.

The Wizard of Odds

The name implies a gambling blog, but it isn't. I consider it to be the Sporting News of the college football blogs: a tad drier than its competitors, but more informative. His regular features are outstanding: Reporters Notebooks, where he digs up info from local newspapers, and similarly harvested opinion pieces rounded up in a feature called Columnists Corner. You may think he shills too much for his sponsors, but if he's trying to make a buck doing what he loves, more power to him.

College Football Resource

Pretty average writing, but quite an incredible compendium to other links and blogs, which is organized in a ton of different ways, including by conference and then by team. Visiting his site is like visiting a store with a ton of great stuff.

Sports Illustrated's College Football Blog

I'm tempted not to count this one either, because it's maintained by the dreaded mainstream media, but I'm including it because it's a daily stop for me. Its primary blogger and college football writer, Stewart Mandel, is good: informal without being sloppy or gimmicky. Again, I know I'm supposed to hate the mainstream media, but Sports Illustrated as a whole (except for the vastly overrated Gary Smith) has always shown some alarming signs of competency, and Mandel is no exception.

NCAA Fanhouse

Unlike with Sports Illustrated, I am really, truly loathe to give AOL credit for anything, but what they've done here is a great idea. They've rounded up a gaggle of some of the best bloggers who maintain team-specific blogs, and invited them to post as they please to the AOL blog. It's the Huffington Post of college football, which means it's updated constantly, with a different writer each time. If nothing else, it's great filler for when none of the above blogs have been updated recently.

***

On to this week's picks. My selection on the left, home team in caps. 3-2 last column, 6-6 on the year.

MEMPHIS (+13.5) over Tennessee

Memphis is quite capable of playing over their heads against the Vols (anyone remember them knocking off one of Peyton Manning's UT squads?), and Tennessee has had trouble finishing after the big opening win against Cal.

OHIO (-5) over Bowling Green

Bowling Green got embarrassed 38-0 at home last week against Kent, starts a freshman quarterback, needed overtime to beat Buffalo, and Ohio slayed defending MAC champs Northern Illinois on the road. Why does Vegas think this game will be close?

Oregon (+1) over ARIZONA STATE

I'm sure Arizona State will be looking to bounce back after last week's debacle, and they probably will to a large extent, but I'm not sure they deserve to be favorites, even at home, against an Oregon team also looking to prove something after the Oklahoma controversy and another nice win against Fresno. I suspect Oregon is the second best team in the Pac-10, Arizona State, maybe fourth or fifth.

Washington (+3.5) over ARIZONA

Apparently, no one else got the memo. Washington is back. On the heels of big wins against Fresno State at home and UCLA on the road, they are red hot, well-coached (Tyrone Willingham's vindication) and while Arizona looked decent themselves last week against USC, I don't think they are as far along as Washington is. Even at home.

UCLA (-23.5) over Stanford

Just go against Stanford every game until further notice. They are the worst BCS team in the country. Yes, including Duke.