“This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”
Through this quotation, Douglas Adams—the British satirist—has unwittingly offered college football fans a simple slogan for their beloved behemoths: stick to Saturdays. Seriously, Thursday nights have become regular, gridiron guillotines for the would-be kings of college football. It seems like every week, with Saturday always just a couple of days away, we hear that familiar whoosh of the blade and there’s a new, freshly anointed helmet in the basket. This week it was the University of South Florida in its dramatic 26-21 loss to unranked Pittsburgh. USF, at the time, had risen to the #10 spot in the polls and appeared to be the Big East’s savior. Not anymore, chop! This is the second consecutive year that the Bulls have had their hopes (and heads?) slashed on a Thursday. In the tumultuous anarchy that was last year’s polls, USF had reached the #2 spot in the country before losing on a Thursday to an unranked Rutgers team 30-27. I’m not making this stuff up, I promise. In the five games that have featured ranked teams on a Thursday this year, the aforementioned schools are a combined 1-4. #24 South Carolina? Chop, courtesy of Vanderbilt. #21 West Virginia? Chop, courtesy of Colorado. #1 Southern Cal? Chop, courtesy of Oregon State. In fact, before Utah's win last night, one had to go all the way back to November 15 of 2007 to find a higher-ranked school that survived the dreaded Thursday night game (#7 WVU beating Louisville 38-31). In last year’s football season, a higher ranked team lost 6 times on Thursdays. In 2006, 7 were upset. What are we to make of this scary trend? Does the shorter week and, thus, less prep time really play that large of a part in these matches? Do the underdogs play their hearts out because many of them know this will be the only time they’ll be on ESPN? Or, in the spirit of October, is Thursday night just cursed? Whatever the case, this is a trend that has reached a point where it can no longer be ignored. Want a BCS sleeper? Look for a team that sticks to Saturdays.
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