Game of the Weak

Mike Hlas is an award-winning columnist with the Cedar Rapids Gazette and force behind The Hlog. Each week he will break down the biggest mismatch in college football. Considering the increasing number of Bowl Championship Series teams scheduling games against cupcake opponents, Mike's task is more challenging than trying to organize a family picnic involving members of the Oregon and Boise State teams.

There's so much Weakness in the opening week of the 2009 college season that you'd think swine flu set in long ago, at least in the offices of athletic directors across the nation.

With almost everyone in I-A playing nonconference games in Week 1, rare is the region spared by a hideous mismatch. For instance:

Louisiana Monroe (which now apparently goes by the snappy handle of ULM) is at Texas.
North Dakota is at Texas Tech.
Towson visits Northwestern.
Jacksonville State is at Georgia Tech.
Northern Colorado meets Kansas.


(Continue to The Wiz of Odds)