Surviving College Football's Offseason

If you are anything like me, you eat, sleep and live college football. I, for one, get a little depressed around this time of year; after the national championship game is played, new recruits have all signed their national letters of intent and there is no more college football until August 28th. I mean, I guess that I should probably do school work or something but that still doesn’t replace all of the extra time I have now that the college football season is over. So, this year I decided to do something about it and also to help those of you like me out there. Without further delay I now give to you (in no particular order) my ten things to do until next college football season.

• Pay attention to the Terrelle Pryor recruiting situation.
  

This is a hot topic in college football right now, and Kyle’s article did a good job at explaining the ins and outs about what is going on with the nation’s most sought after recruit. He should have an immediate impact on whatever team he goes to, but he only has until April 1st to decide. Pryor has narrowed his choices down to four schools: Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State. Scout.com has been doing a pretty good job covering his recruitment so check out their website for some more details.

• Watch the NHL.
  

How can you pass up a good fight? Hockey is one of the most exciting and physical sports outside of football in my opinion. New rules since the strike mean more scoring and make for a more exciting game, and with young stars such as Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin, the league is once again starting to thrive.

• There is always college basketball.
  

Another sport benefiting from new rules. The NBA and their commissioner David Stern made the decision two years ago that high school players would now have to be one year removed from their senior class in order to enter the NBA draft. Last year this gave us the likes of Greg Oden and Kevin Durant; this year Indiana’s Eric Gordon and Kansas State’s Michael Beasley are stealing the show, and staking their claim as two of the best college freshman ever to play the game.

• Watch the NBA.
  

The recent trades of big name players such as Shaq, Jason Kidd (tentatively), Mike Bibby, and Pau Gasol should make the second half of the season very interesting.

• Pay attention to the baseball scandals.
  

Could the government honestly find any other way to waste our money and time than with an childish argument about performance enhancing drugs, don’t they have other things to worry about? Now I will admit I to have caught myself being drug into it, but all I came away with was a ridiculous waste of time. Seeing two middle age men arguing like a bunch of elementary school kids. Give me a break and give up already nobody is going to win.Follow college football recruiting.

• Baseball season and spring training.
  

How can you pass up on America’s pastime? Who honestly doesn’t like baseball, spring training is just around the corner and before you know it, opening day will be here.

• Watch the NFL Draft.
  

It is fun to watch your favorite NFL teams get some of the best college players out there,  and who knows, you might even get to see a late round steal. You also get to see where some of your favorite college football players go and where they will be continuing their playing career.

• Watch March Madness.
  

One of the most exciting few weeks in all of sports. Always full of upsets and surprises and very addicting.

• Before you know it August will be here and that means NFL preseason games.
  

What better way to quench your thirst for football than with, well,  what else? Football.

• If all else fails, follow next year's college football recruiting.
  

This is also a fun hobby, watching your team address their needs. See what stars of tomorrow they are recruiting to replace graduating seniors and juniors leaving early for the NFL draft. Scout.com and Rivals.com are two of the biggest sites covering recruiting and are relatively cheap to subscribe to. Also, another up and coming website for Ohio recruits in particular is ScoutingOhio.com.

Well, there you have it. Hopefully this list will help you get through another long offseason. And through it all, just remember, we are only 191 days from kickoff!