Five things I loved about this week

Wrapping up the week with five things I loved. You guys are going to love Mrs. Pistols’ Kansas preview tomorrow, it’s incredible. Check back in tomorrow morning.

1. Football in the Big 12 is so wonky. 5-3 for a quarter and a half in Waco? What is that? One thing I think we forget when it comes to talking college football (or hoops, for that matter) is the volatility of 20-year-olds trying to repeat a task and their ability to adjust when something goes wrong.

In the NFL, everything is so much tighter, more compact. You pretty much know what you’re getting. In college though, I have no clue what’s going to happen from week to week. That makes it fun, if not emotionally draining.

2. The start of basketball is upon us. I loved this tweet from Ken Pom this morning:

Unbeatens remaining: 351. Good luck everybody!

— Ken Pomeroy (@kenpomeroy) November 8, 2013

OSU isn’t going undefeated, in or out of conference, probably but the dawn of a new slate means we get to dream on what could be before remembering that Travis Ford may or may not have ever seen video of a halfcourt offense.

Seriously though, I’m stoked to be in GIA tonight.

3. I love talking about the old Big 8 and early Big 12 days like Carson and I did on the podcast (he referenced Eric Piatkowski and Cookie Belcher!) I’m not totally sure why but I think it’s cool that there’s a history there (do American Athletic Conference fans get to do this?)

I somehow ended up Googling and reading about Eric Piatkowski for an hour on Wednesday morning just because of a conversation Carson and I had. It was a cool reminder that what endures in sports are people, not entities.

4. I’ve been rolling on Twitter lately but I sometimes forget how much smaller it makes our worlds. My favorite football player as a three-year-old lighting up my favorite writer as a 17-year-old and I get to watch (and post about it)? Do we realize how bizarre that is?

5. Speaking of Twitter, I’m playing Southern Hills today because of a friendship formed on Twitter. That’s pretty cool. Back at it tomorrow.