College football’s popularity continues to grow despite conference realignments and NIL deals altering the landscape of the sport.
Iowa State’s win over Kansas State in Dublin highlights the dedication of fans and the unique atmosphere of college football.
There was a moment last weekend during Farmageddon, when a bitter Big 12 rivalry was bogged down for three quarters in a quagmire of weather and poor execution.
And then it happened.
Entertainment arrived in the form of a wild fourth quarter, and the unique and unrivaled product shined through to underscore an undeniable reality.
This thing is bulletproof.
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No matter what egghead university presidents and chancellors, or ego-fueled conference commissioners, or sleazy NIL middlemen do to drastically change the face of college football, no matter how their money-driven decisions temporarily push us away, the guts and glory of the game pull us back in.
Not long after Iowa State players ran to a corner of the stadium in Dublin, Ireland to celebrate with most of their 11,000 fans who bought tickets and made the nine-hour flight to the game, Cyclones coach Matt Campbell sat a press conference and tried to make sense of it all.
Campbell is a ball coach. Whistle around the neck, same worn, beaten cap on his head from last season.
Why? Because it fits and he likes it, that’s why.
He’s not throwing million-dollar NIL deals at players in the transfer portal, not begging four- and five-star high school recruits to embrace the Ames experience. He wants those who dare to be different, and then work like hell to get there.
“I think that’s why it’s really special to play football here right now at Iowa State, because it’s all about us,” Campbell said. “The only way we have a chance to even win here is it’s going to take everybody. The fan base, the players, the coaches, all pulling the same direction at the same time.”
Which, when you really think about it, is the exact recipe for college football continuing to grow stronger every single season — despite those running the show doing their best too muck it up. The NFL is the most popular live television sport in America, but college football has moved to No. 2.
Bigger than any other professional sport, bigger than anything anyone could have imagined before the financial boom of the Bowl Championship Series and College Football Playoff eras of the last quarter century. This thing is so big and so sustainable, these dummies running the show are doing it while knowingly leaving media rights billions on the table.
So while Iowa State was finishing off Kansas State, two more unthinkable moments were playing out in Week 0.
Hawaii kicker Kansei Matsuzawa, who was born and raised in Japan, hit three field goals in a 23-20 win over Stanford. At the post-game press conference, Matsuzawa said he was more nervous talking to the media than kicking the game-winner.
English isn’t his native language, and – wait until you hear this – he learned to kick by watching YouTube videos.
Meanwhile, there’s Stanford defensive end Clay Patterson, who tried to pull off some viral TikTok dance after a sack near the end of the first half. It didn’t work, and Patterson was hit with a 15-yard penalty for, I assume, unsportsmanlike conduct.
They could’ve thrown back-to-back 15-yarders on that dance, to be honest. The penalty set up Hawaii to score with less than a minute to play in the second quarter, and you guessed it, those were game-deciding points.
Because a seventh-year graduate student (I’m not making that up) decided to go viral.
This, everyone, is the beauty of a perfectly imperfect sport. The visceral and emotional attachment to team and school is unmatched by any other sport. It’s irrational and fanatical, and everyone involved deals with it.
Because when the season begins this week, the rebirth arrives. No matter what happened in the offseason, no matter how green and greed are overtaking the sport, campuses all over the nation will come alive.
We just can’t get enough of it. From The Shoe to Renegade riding Osceola, from Jump Around to The Freshman Line, from Country Roads to The Aggie War Hymn and Victor’s Valiant. It’s all there this week.
And, of course, there’s Ralphie. My god, where else can you watch a 1,200-pound female buffalo rumble onto and off the field – in a matter of 20 seconds – before a game?
Not a bad time, young lady, for what amounts to a 225-yard dash. Let’s see Noah Lyles hit that number.
College football is the only place where you can see octogenarian billionaire booster Larry Ellison and his 30-something wife – his sixth – throw millions at a high school quarterback (Michigan’s Bryce Underwood) because the 30-something is, after all, a Michigan grad.
Or a 20-something “muse” (Jordon Hudson) control a 70-something legendary coach (Bill Belichick).
It’s the only place where a basketball school stumbled on the right coach – former Division III legend Lance Leipold – who turned around a moribund program, and convinced near octogenarian billionaire booster David Booth to shell out $300 million for a palace of a football stadium.
Forget about Big Ten and SEC officials playing my dictator is bigger than yours all offseason. The joy is back.
Iowa State and Kansas State put on a show in front of a packed house in Dublin. The Aviva stadium record crowd for non-American football is 36,000 for Ireland’s women’s national soccer team.
Iowa State and Kansas State packed 47,221 fans into their own personal flyover heaven on the island in the North Atlantic Sea. Then opened up a can of indestructible college football in the fourth quarter — with two talented quarterbacks who could’ve left this offseason for greener digs in the Big Ten and SEC, but chose to stay.
The game, in case anyone cares, outdrew the Big Ten’s 2022 game between Nebraska and Northwestern (42,699). There’s zero chance an SEC school will sell a home game to the good people of Dublin, and frankly, I’m not sure the European mind could handle it, anyway.
“Being around our program through the really tough days and to have these great moments, and be able to give our fans these opportunities to celebrate,” Campbell said, “It means a lot to all of us.”
It means more to the indestructible health of the game.
The joy is back, everyone. Embrace it and enjoy it.
Before the death of fun from the Big Ten and SEC doing something else to try and ruin it.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.