A few collegiate thoughts

 I knew the first full weekend of college football had commenced because the air coming in the windows last night was September-cool, and on my TV screen something that looked vaguely like a Big Ten game was happening.

It was Nebraska vs. Minnesota wallowing around up there in Minneapolis, and, man, it was as beige you can get. I think Minnesota won, 13-10. Everyone who watched it lost, because, as is usually the case on Labor Day weekend, the football was ... well, not what it will be come October.

But, hey: College football is college football. And now that it's back in full, here are a few Blobby thoughts to get the holiday weekend started:

* My Ball State Cardinals open at Kentucky of the SEC, part one of the administration's plot to kill the football team in the womb. That's because next week the Cardinals travel to Athens, Ga., to play the top-ranked and back-to-back national champion Georgia Bulldogs.

And here we thought live sacrifices went out with the Aztecs.

Of course, there's always the chance this is the Blob's natural pessimism talking, and the Cardinals put a brave fight tomorrow and next Saturday. And maybe half the team does not wind up on the disabled list with old rival Indiana State coming to Muncie in week three.

In any event. that guarantee-game money should fatten the athletic budget in fine style. Tennis and field hockey and the rest of the "non-revenue" sports thank you for your service, gentlemen.

* Speaking of live sacrifices, Indiana opens the season in Bloomington tomorrow against an Ohio State team that's apparently as Ohio State-y as ever. 

There's been the usual quantity of happy talk out of Bloomington this offseason about how nasty and get-after-it the Indiana defense will be and how the transfer portal -- which brought quarterback Tayven Jackson and nine defensive linemen to town, among others -- has been extremely generous. I guess we'll see.

The Blob's pessimism suspects what we'll see is something like Ohio State 35, Indiana 10. But, you know, that's just me.

*  In West Lafayette, Purdue unveils the Ryan Walters Era in Ross-Ade against Fresno State, and we'll see if the happy talk coming out of Boilerville this offseason is justified, too. Walters has installed the defensive system that gave opponents fits at Illinois last year, and Quarterback U. has Texas transfer Hudson Card all ready to plug into Aidan O'Connell's old spot, and running back Devin Mockobee is ready for more after a breakout redshirt freshman year. 

(For what it's worth, I like Purdue's prospects better than Indiana's at this point. But, again, that's just me.)

And last but not least ...

* Up in Ann Arbor, meanwhile, Michigan takes on East Carolina in the Big House, the first of three games head coach Jim Harbaugh has to sit out thanks to a self-imposed university suspension. It's the cringe-mode strategy schools always employ when the NCAA's about to drop the hammer on a misbehaving coach and they're trying to soften the blow.

Of course, it's no kind of penalty at all. The three games Harbaugh will have to sit out are lunch items: East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green. Fielding Yost could hang up Ws in those three games, and he's been dead for 77 years.

Some punishment phase, UM.