Remembering The Kickoff Classic and Your Week 0 Previews

The history of college football’s Week 0 fascinates me. I grew up watching the sport in the latter-half of the Kickoff Classic’s existence, and it was a great concept that I suspect died as a direct result of the Bowl Championship Series.

For the uninitiated, or those needing their memory jogged, the Kickoff Classic pit two prominent and usually Top 25-ranked teams head-to-head in a showcase to usher in the season.

A few moments I recall from watching it as a kid include Eddie George beginning his remarkable run to the Heisman in 1995, punishing the Boston College defense with a variety of runs and catches out of the backfield in an Ohio State romp.

Played at Giants Stadium, the Kickoff Classic had an air of prestige to it that felt like a fitting way to begin the season. For me, it was the gridiron’s version of the old preseason NIT marking the start to the college basketball season.

The preseason NIT still exists, but is a shadow of what it once represented. The Kickoff Classic ended in 2002 — I had Mandela Effect’d myself into believing it extended into the mid-2000s, but that’s not correct (and more on that in a moment). The New York Times coverage of Eddie George’s spectacular performance in an Ohio State blowout to open the 1995 campaign foreshadows perhaps why the Classic disappeared:

There is a chance you take when the Kickoff Classic calls, with money and exposure and the opportunity to become the only game of the day. You can become Ohio State, confidently looking toward the future after a surprisingly easy 38-6 victory today over Boston College at Giants Stadium.

Or you may have to confront your shortcomings as the Eagles did, when an impressive start was lost in a numbing series of errors that added up to a potential crisis. Before Labor Day and before the start of classes, the Eagles must now work to pick up the pieces.

As for the aforementioned Mandela Effect, it wasn’t until I began writing this newsletter entry that I discovered USC’s win over Virginia Tech to open the 2004 season wasn’t part of the Kickoff Classic. Rather, the Trojans’ 24-13 win — with included a pair of Matt Leinart touchdown connections with Reggie Bush — marked the final edition of the Black Coaches Association Classic.

Poor form from your author, honestly, particularly given my youthful affinity for Sonny Lubick’s late ‘90s Colorado State teams. The ‘98 Rams — a team I loved to use on NCAA Football ‘99 for the original Playstation — opened the campaign with a 23-16 defeat of No. 23-ranked Michigan State in that year’s BCA Classic.

What’s more, I discovered that the 2000 edition of the BCA Classic was originally slated to be Michael Vick’s first game after having come about as close as an individual player ever has to willing his team to a national championship eight months prior.

However, a thunderstorm forced the cancellation of Virginia Tech’s scheduled matchup with Georgia Tech. Lest anyone chalk the cancellation up to being overly cautious, consider Lee Corso’s car was hit by lightning outside of Lane Stadium.

The BCA Classic lasted two seasons more than the Kickoff Classic, but in both instances I blame the BCS at least in part for their extinction.

In the first installment of my series reimagining the BCS years with a Plus-One national championship format, I noted that teams scheduled aggressively in 1998. Popular belief ahead of the inception of the Bowl Championship Series was that strength-of-schedule would play a key role in determining invitations.

Instead, it became apparent rather quickly that a tidy record carried more weight more than quality of schedule. And while teams continued to schedule marquee non-conference dates, and still do today in the College Football Playoff era, doing so in Week 0 may have simply been too risky a proposition.

The New York Times dispatch from 1995 unintentionally hinted at it: A high-profile, opening-week game can expose weaknesses in a team. In a Week 0 game with an exclusive spotlight, that exposure comes before the entire nation and establishes a narrative that can become difficulty to shake.

Perpetual Wrong Take Machine Clay Travis attempted to engineer such a narrative when Ohio State lost to Virginia Tech in Week 2 of the 2014 season, the first year of the Playoff.

Of course, this was proven hilariously wrong and that’s why it’s memorable. But what if Ohio State’s offense struggled to muster 21 points and lost by two touchdowns against this same Virginia Tech team when it was the only game anyone could watch? Would the Buckeyes have been labeled for that game exclusively the rest of the season, thus preventing them from leap-frogging Baylor and TCU in the final rankings to reach the semifinals?

No one can say for sure, but I’m also confident no program is interested in testing the theory. Thus, Week 0 as a Made-For-TV clash of FBS heavyweights died and has never returned.

The Week 0 concept returned in 2014, a decade after the final BCA Classic, and with a new spin that excited me personally: a spotlight on powerhouse Football Championship Subdivision programs.

It’s an idea I love, and the remnants of this initial plan are still evident this season with Jackson State and South Carolina State meeting in a rematch of the 2021 Celebration Bowl — a game in which Deion Sanders is 0-2 lifetime; UAlbany hosting Fordham; and Mercer taking on North Alabama.

However, the canary in the coal mine with regard to the overall tone of the Playoff era revealed itself early; much earlier than the BCS contributing to the death of the Kickoff Classic and BCA Classic.

It took less than a half of the first Week 0 of the new era.

Eastern Washington’s season-opener with Sam Houston State featured Vernon Adams at quarterback for EWU, a young Dan Lanning in his first game assistant at Sam Houston, and two programs that were routinely in the mix for the FCS title at that time.

And the commentary focused almost exclusively on “Who’s In” the new Playoff. It took Colin Cowherd of all people, an EWU alum, to steer the broadcast on course to actual mention the two great games playing.

In retrospect, it was a foreboding indicator of the general tone around college football, as dictated by ESPN’s coverage, for the ensuing decade.

Making the Playoff is all that matters we’re told repeatedly. Hell, winning the Playoff is all that matters, but that begins with Who’s In?

The unfortunate irony is the precedent established under the BCS and continued through the inaugural decade is that a more attractive win-loss record is more conducive to being In than playing a challenging schedule. So, if you are curious why the Week 0 slate appears as it does, there you go.

Onto the Week 0 guide. But first, a PSA: For the handful of Press Break readers who followed my long-defunct blog, you may recall I previewed six games a week with the title “Saturday Six-Pack.” The differentiator I added to separate my previews and picks from the myriad others in the ether was an introductory passage recommending a craft beer that fit the theme of the weekend’s games.

Well, a couple things happened: 1. CBS Sports now has a weekly preview section called the Saturday Six-Pack and 2. I gave up alcohol during the pandemic. This summer marked three years since I last drank beer.

Given my disdain for sports media’s current inundation of personalities dispensing gambling “advice” despite having no insight nor expertise in that arena, I would be a tremendous hypocrite to continue recommending beers when no longer drinking them.

Now, if anyone reading this represents a beer distributor and wants to advertise on The Press Break, I have no qualms about that and can be reached at pressbreaknewsletter@gmail.com.

*clears throat*

Anyway, with the angle that made The Saturday Six-Pack unique no longer available, I have no cutesy name nor any gimmick. The number of games I preview and predict each week will vary on my interest level and insights.

Before diving into this week’s allow me to refer you to my complete preview of Fordham at UAlbany via FloFootball. This should be an outstanding game between two teams I believe have the chops to make this year’s FCS Playoffs.

Last season’s matchup was a 48-45 thriller, and UAlbany quarterback Reese Poffenbarger has one of the more interesting stories in college football.

I have also opted out of previewing USC-San Jose State, which as a matchup with a 30-point spread isn’t particularly exciting for such purposes. I do ask you read my feature from last month’s Arizona Daily Star on SJSU coach Brent Brennan, however, who has done an outstanding job with that program and carries on the legacy of the late Dick Tomey.

Plugs now out of the way, here are the picks: