50 Ways to Get Through the College Football Offseason

The season is finally over and some fans around the nation are already bored to death. What can and should the nation be doing as we all await the start of the 2012 season?

Seven months is a long time without college football, but this isn't the first time we have had to dealt with such.

So, without further ado I give you all my top 50 ways to get through this offseason before the 2012 season gets underway at the end of August.

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Family

Hopefully you spent some time with your family during the college football season (At least everyday but Saturday's), but now is the time to really spend some time with the ones you love the most.

Food

Maybe it is just me, but eating the same food you would on gameday makes life in the offseason that much more enjoyable.

Plus, nobody says you still can't tailgate on Saturday's just because your team isn't playing. 

Movies

Nothing is more enjoyable outside of watching football than watching inspirational and classical sports movies. 

Now, I prefer to be watching sports 24/7/365 but everybody needs a moment away from live sports and has to sit back, relax and catch a memorable movie.

Replays, Tapes and DVR

If you aren't a fan of movies, you could always catch a replay of classic that were played on the field.

There have been some thrilling games with spectacular finishes that we could watch over and over, especially when it involves the teams that we have followed since birth.

Any Sports Channel Involving College Football

First off, sports is always evolving and is never ending. There is always a next season in college sports to look forward to because we never have to worry about a strike or anything like that.

Finding college football news talk even in the offseason has never been a challenge for myself because with all the channels that we have today, something is always on.

National Signing Day

National Signing Day is not a day everybody loves because some people are against watching high school kids rule the world (Feb. 8).

However, it has to get you excited when you are aware of your favorite program signing some of the best group of players in the country coming out of high school.

If your team is improving in the offseason then you should be enjoying it.

Plus, a full day in which the worldwide leader of sports concentrates solely on college football has to be appreciated as well.

Spring Ball

When spring practice starts up we know the start of the season is right around the corner (four months away) and it puts a smile on everybody's face.

Magazines in May

I don't know about you, but when magazines hit the newsstands in May, it brings back memories of Christmas morning. 

We have learned that the rankings from August are meaingless when the season is a month deep. Upsets will always occur, but just knowing that college football is back makes you jump for joy.

Talk Non Stop at B/R

Don't doubt for a second that Bleacher Report and yours truly will be taking anytime away from college football this offseason. This college football stuff is 24/7/365 and there is no time off in the most entertaining sport because life simply goes by too quick.

Time to Reflect, Be Thankful

We should be thankful every day of our lives, but the offseason allows some of us to take time to reflect on how fortunate we are. College football is just a game, but for many of us it is a way of life.

Time to Learn More

Whether it is catching up with coaches, players, media (lots of reading) or family members, or just the typical die-hard fan, we can always learn more about the game.

Time to Catch Up on Other Things

This is technically your time to perhaps do anything you would like to. If you can plan a weekend or weekday nights, anything is a possibility without having to do worry about catching a MAC game or an ACC, Big East, or Pac-12 Thursday in the middle of the week game.

Time to Start Planning for Road Trips

This doesn't necessarily mean you have to go to Disney or a nice bot cruise or what not, but you could do just that.

Also, one would like to think this is the time you can plan ahead for road trips for your favorite team next fall. 

Time to Start Planning on Who to Predict

Alright, you only have 300-plus days to predict which coach and team will be kissing that BCS National Championship crystal ball.

Time to Just Enjoy Life to Prove College Football Fans Are the Best

Without a shadow of a doubt, college football fans are the best. To prove your the best let us continue on our lives like we always have and before you know it the season opener will be here (in otherwords don't complain or get in trouble just because college football is on a temporarily leave of abscence).

Time to Collect Friendly Wagers

Most people collect those family or friendly wagers which pretty much is summed up by the video above. The things people will say, act or do thanks to the team they love can be hilarious.

Having my cousin name their dogs over several former players or coaches is funny, but even some families name their children after such names. There is nothing wrong with that because after all "It's Not Crazy, It's Sports."

Watch March Madness

Some of you may just watch and enjoy college football, but I prefer to watch anything at any time. The NCAA Tournament may be a crap shoot half the time, but at the same time it is extremely exciting to watch every year. 

In other words, the NCAA Tournament is almost as exciting as college football's regular season!

Follow College Sports

Fans don't have to watch college basketball before March, but games really start to heat up in February and the pageantry is great in basketball too.

Some think professional sports are more entertaining, exciting and overall better than collegiate sports, but that is hard to argue against such a thrilling college football regular season plus March isn't too shabby either.

Watch a Sport You Normally Wouldn't

I have nothing against any sport out there, but it is impossible to religiously follow every single one of them. So, during the college football so called "offseason", now is your chance to go out of your boundary to learn or appreciate a few other sports.

Get in Shape

If you want to enjoy life and stay healthy, you may want to get that cardio going (doesn't mean to run a marathon). Hopefully your health is something you value because without it, you likely would not have the wonderful opportunity to catch your beloved team on a fall Saturday.

Continue Listening to Radio, Watching TV, Reading Blogs

If you enjoyed talking to fans and writers during the regular season, you do not have to stop just because the season is technically over.

Keep up the pageantry and excitement filled comments whether it is on the message boards, radio stations or social media networks. Just to remember to have some fun and not go crazy until at least until August.

Watch the NFL

The NFL has a few more weeks left and you mine as well watch while you can.

Pigskin is pigskin in my opinion, even if college is better. The Super Bowl is as good of a one-day event as there is in sports and having those family/friendly parties helps make the college football offseason go by quick.

Watch the NBA

Maybe you dislike the NBA, but maybe you dont? 

The bottom line is it can be entertaining if you do not get offended by teams that refuse to run set offenses or fail to play fundamental defense.

That said, I am a fan because it is entertaining and the drama can get fairly high.

Watch the NHL by Going to a Game

The playoffs in the NHL is must-see TV in April and May, but even the regular season is worthy of watching sometime (coming from a non-diehard).

It is one thing to watch the NHL on your plasma, but actually going to the game is completely different. The excitement and action-packed puck handling and skating around the rink is surely alot more entertaining in person.

Complain About the BCS

They say complaining is not good for you, but seemingly everybody does when it comes to the system of college football. No system is perfect, but you could get all your soar complaints out of the way before the year kicks off I suppose.

Debate Your Butt Off……Coaches, Players, Programs

This is the time to really debate about what programs, coaches and players are currently the best in the game.

It is fun to argue or debate during the season, but it is more fun in my eyes to do it in the offseason since the facts are in front of you without anything changing. 

Watch or Get All the Sports Packages Like Myself

If you have every sports channel known to man, I congratulate you for being that much cooler. However, with so many channels like I discussed earlier, time goes by a lot quicker.

There hardly is ever a quiet sports day since there are always a few going on and if all else fails, I am sure a large market sports team, LeBron James and or Tim Tebow will be talked about at the very worst.

Backyard Football

Go outside and toss the pigskin around like the good ole days. It shouldn't matter who it is with whether it is your loved ones or just one of your old buddies that use to play catch with you a few decades ago.

Tailgate

Man, nothing is better than grilling some ribs, burgers or anything on the grill.

The smell of the grill is a part of college football and the fans enjoy it every weekend. College football is the best for many reasons in my opinion, but tailgating and enjoying great times with the ones around you is really special.

Buy Merchandise

If you are really bored or just excited for the season to start, now is your time to pick up anything the Holidays did not bring you.

Strangely enough the offseason also gives some fans time to get tattoos or other random things done to or involving them (piercings, animals named after players and teams).

Accomplish All That You Couldn’t During the Season

Your family can allow you to do extra house chores (honeydew list) or what not because perhaps you did not do such during the college football season.

Luckily, time is on your side with seven months to make up for anything that you may have failed to accomplish. Every college football offseason allows us more time to get back at accomplishing anything that we may have put off during the fall. 

Vacation

It doesn't matter where you go, but you could always take a spring or summer vacation to a lovely destination.

Whether it is a business or a family trip, the time will certainly pass by assuming you are enjoying your stay.

Go to the Movies

We could use Netflix, but going to the movies should not be frowned upon. Enjoying life to the fullest is a must and catching a funny or thrilling (among others) movie needs to be done at some point before September rolls along.

Say Prayers for Your Team

There is nothing wrong with saying a few extra prayers so your team stays healthy. It may be hindsight to say such a thing, but seasons are often won and lost with season-ending injuries. The hope is that your favorite team can stay healthy and be able to play all of their stars throughout the entire season.

Video Games

Playing videos games always helps you get by the offeseason and the age really shouldn't matter.

Younger family members always fall for the new technology and NCAA Football among the hundreds of other video games are not a bad option to spend parts of your college football offeseason days.

Daydreaming

Thought I do not recommend daydreaming during work, it is not a bad idea when your at home relaxing around the house.

Also, daydreaming could be perceived as reminiscing or remembering what we have witnessed in previous college football seasons. All of those great memories that will never leave you, yes, that is what I am talking about (Way too many for me).

Don’t Change Your Saturday Regiment

Don't change a thing for your Saturday regiment because more than likely you enjoyed it. Now, maybe you have no choice but to change it up a bit, but you may be better off doing the same things to make yourself happy.

Stay Thirsty

No pun intended, but do not lose your love for the game just because it is the offseason. Continue prepping for the 2012 season if your a diehard ike myself because times will only get better in the near future as the countdown begins.

Study

It may sound funny, but study up on your own team or others around your conference and or country. It will help you for next season be more aware of which players should and should not be making an impact, plus it will help you around the in water cooler.

Bucket List

There are so many great stadiums that should be on your so called "bucket list", but there are so many stadiums and other traditions in college football that are so worthy.

Save Your Money

If you are not going to be a boatload of merchandise excluding your obvious necessities, you could save up for the 2012 college football season.

Whether you spend that money on every home game for your team or perhaps a postseason bowl trip, either decision would be great. 

Pretend You’re the Commish

The offseason will allow you to dream big, so why not dream about becoming the first ever commissioner of college football.

One would get to make the choices on what happens to the postseason, plus-one or playoff thoughts and much more. 

Pretend Your Bill Hancock

Maybe you have nothing against Mr. Hancock or college football not having a commish. Instead, your choice is to trade places with Bill because during the offseason, we like to think about all the what if's.

Write Your Own Playoff Bracket, Everybody Else Does It

This has nothing about becoming college football's commissioner or the executive director of the BCS, but everybody and their mother's seemingly write out a eight-team or so playoff bracket.

Some may just use the BCS Standings and go from there, but you could base it off of conference winners and expand it to more teams if you want.

Go ahead, make the playoff bracket and pick your winners because it never gets boring to do such.

Salivate over the Dream Matchups Next Season

This is the time to look ahead by already breaking down the handful amount of matchups that you cannot wait for.

USC-Oregon, Alabama-Michigan, LSU-Alabama and many more matchups should be thrilling once they are played.

Until then, we can talk about every single matchup before we really even know which players may or may not be playing in it.

Draw out the Conference Expansion

Everybody loves talking about it since it will have a huge impact on the sport, but where is West Virginia going? 

Maybe it is annoying because we don't even know if West Virginia is going to play Florida State on the road next season because they could stay in the Big East or perhaps their move to the Big 12 will be official like some experts say.

Debate Whether or Not Players Should Be Allowed More Benefits

Some fans are addicted to talking about it due to all the suspensions in collegiate sports, so take your own stance.

Write about it or talk about it around the water cooler to your friends on what exactly should be done.

Should all players get a little something extra or are collegiate athletes being awarded enough by earning a free education and college experience?

Project Your Heisman…Now

And your winner for the 2012 Heisman Trophy is who?

I have stated Denard Robinson a few weeks ago, but I may change my pick a few times before the summer begins (Maybe pick somebody more obvious), which is when we really get closer to the season opener.

The end of August (31st) is technically the season opener which is also when all bold predictions are officially closed. 

Project Your BCS National Championship….Now

Who is going to play in the BCS National Championship on Monday January 7, 2013?

Will there be two more SEC teams playing for it, or perhaps will there be zero SEC squads in it?

I like an SEC team getting there, though I am still on the fence exactly on which one (Is LSU a lock, maybe Georgia?).

Plus, a team like USC is looking pretty darn good after Darron Thomas declared for the NFL Draft along with a Trojan schedule that is really soft.

So, who do you have playing for it all next season?

Get a Calendar out and Start the Countdown

We are just 33 weeks away from the 2012 college football season kicking off and it is time to start some sort of a countdown. Get all of those clocks or calendars out because we know they are always on when rivalry streaks are on the line.

Before Michigan knocked off Ohio State this past season, it had been 7 years or approximately 84 months (4,335 or so days) since they last knocked off the Buckeyes.

These two teams are not the only important teams or rivalries as the Iron Bowl has really taken center stage the past few seasons, but Oregon and USC look like they are developing something as well.

The rivalries, traditions, players, fanbases, coaches, letter of intents, it really all does matter because college football is filled with as much pageantry as any sport out there in America.

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