10 New Year's Resolutions for Every College Football Fan

Remember all those New Year's resolutions you made earlier this week? Of course you don't, because that was your fourth(?) glass of champagne. 

Luckily, we here at Bleacher Report are willing to help you make more obtainable resolutions for 2015 and shed the more unnecessary ones—and keep them off. Instead of focusing on exercise or being an overall better citizen of society, let's redirect that energy to being a better college football fan. 

Here are 10 things every college football fan—including yours truly—has to work on in 2015. Can we do it? Of course, it's January, and our ambitions haven't been shattered yet. 

10. Attend More Football Games

Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

College football attendance has been defined lately, fairly or not, by empty stadium shots before or during the games. In 2013, B/R's own Adam Kramer looked into why home attendance, even at big-time programs, appeared to be shrinking. 

There are several reasons, some valid, for not going to games. Alumni bases are spread out, and television/social media has totally altered the home viewing experience. Sometimes, empty stadiums are a statement by fans upset with the current state of the program. 

But let's take it upon ourselves, if possible, to go to at least one more football game a year. In fact, consider going to another venue altogether, even if your favorite team isn't playing. 

There's a lot that you miss by watching a game at home: the tailgating, the pageantry, the atmosphere—it's all part of what makes each stadium experience unique. 

No one here is asking for an increase in season tickets, but there's a whole big college football world out there. Carve out a little extra time and explore it. 

9. Worry Less About Preseason Polls

Mike McCarn/Associated Press

Here's the dirty little secret on preseason polls: Publications, from the Associated Press all the way down to the little guys, do them because you, the reader, click on them and argue about them. 

Saying preseason polls are worthless is true for the most part, but yelling about it doesn't make them go away. If there was no interest in preseason polls from the masses, they would have been eliminated by and large a long time ago. 

So let's admit two things: 1) Preseason polls engage us in a time when we are starving for conversation starters, and 2) they're nothing more than that.

Granted, this year's playoff field largely resembled the preseason Top Four. However, for every year like this, there's another year—take 2012, for example—when a team like Notre Dame comes out of nowhere to make a championship game run. 

So go ahead, click on preseason polls and argue about biases and overrated teams. Then immediately let it go once the season starts. 

8. Don't Tweet at Recruits

This is a yearly plea, it seems. 

Twitter is a great tool to connect with all of those passionate about college football. It is not a recruiting tool for fans. 

Let's make 2015 the year when we stop tweeting at recruits begging them to come to our favorite school. It's an empty resolution, but one worth mentioning again and again. It's an NCAA violation anyway, not that it's all that enforceable. 

Recruiting is a great process for prospects. They get to take visits, see what's out there and weigh their options. Only a select few will get to exercise those types of options again in, say, eight years with a second NFL contract; many will never make it that far. That recruiting time period is a big deal. 

Leave the recruiting up to the coaches and let high school prospects everywhere enjoy the process without pressure or harassment. Kids choose schools based on a number of factors. For some, it's a connection with a coach. For others, a school feels like home. 

Yes, recruits will change their minds. Afford them that liberty without berating them. We were all 17 and 18 years old once, and we probably didn't know what we wanted then, either. 

7. Pay Close Attention to the Big Ten East Division

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College football just got more compelling, with Jim Harbaugh coming back to college to coach Michigan. One of the sport's premier programs, at least traditionally, has been paired up with one of the best, and most polarizing, coaches at any level of football. 

This has the same type of feeling as Nick Saban to Alabama and Urban Meyer to Ohio State. As Dan Wolken of USA Today opined, Harbaugh and Michigan seem too big to fail:

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No, Harbaugh hasn't won any games or recruits. He hasn't even had a press conference yet — his hire, though not official, is expected to be so by Tuesday — or awkwardly sung Hail to the Victors. But we know what's coming. We know because the history of college football tells us that the marriage of Jim Harbaugh and Michigan is too big to fail, just like it was obvious that Nick Saban would win championships at Alabama and Urban Meyer would have Ohio State humming in no time.

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That doesn't mean the Wolverines will be good right away. This program has been average at best for the better part of 10 years. There are issues at quarterback and along the offensive line. Despite Harbaugh's acumen, this may not be a quick fix. 

But Harbaugh will fix it. That much seems certain. At the very least, Harbaugh brings more star power to the college game. Once a punch line, the Big Ten now has a division—the East—with Harbaugh, Meyer and Mark Dantonio. 

That's as top-heavy of a division or conference as you're going to find anywhere in major college football. That should lead to some fascinating games down the road. 

6. Watch More 'Group of 5' Games

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A good college football fan is a knowledgeable one, and that includes knowing a thing or two about teams outside the five power conferences. 

A "Group of Five" football team might not make the playoff anytime soon. It might not garner the most attention on television. That said, take some time to focus more on the little guys in 2015. They often produce some of the more exciting football you'll watch all season. 

Given how coverage of college football has expanded, you can almost always find a mid-major game on television during the week. Those types of games usually feature one or more of the following: an up-and-coming coach/coordinator, a potential high draft pick and/or a player who is the best kept secret in the game (see: Boise State running back Jay Ajayi). 

The gap between programs in power conferences and upper-tier programs in mid-major conferences has shrunk in terms of the product on the field. There's a lot of good football being played at places like Marshall, East Carolina and Boise State. 

Get to know those programs and their players/coaches a little better. Expand your palate. You'll be all the wiser for it. 

5. Eliminate Sweeping Conference Narratives

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

The SEC is the best conference in college football by far. The Big Ten is behind the times. The ACC is weak. The Pac-12 is a finesse league. 

Let's all do a better job this year of realizing that sweeping conference assumptions can be dangerously false. Ohio State showed it's not a slow Big Ten team by beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Oregon proved it's not soft in a rout of Florida State in the Rose Bowl. 

Those are individual teams with their own identities. They're not a carbon copy of what every other team in their respective conference is supposedly doing. 

And if this bowl season has taught us anything, it's that the SEC—especially SEC West—isn't automatically better and that the Big Ten isn't high school football.  

"The SEC has had a terrific run," Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany told Nicole Auerbach of USA Today. "Narratives are based on facts. But sometimes narratives overcome the facts. ... Winning games on big stages, it certainly reset that. Until you actually win the game, you can't expect anybody to change the momentum of the narrative."

In the end, bowl season is just like the regular season in that it's dictated largely by how teams match up against one another. Put Ohio State on a fast track against anyone and the Buckeyes have the capability to score. Indeed, they put up 42 points on the Tide. 

TCU wouldn't automatically get crushed in the SEC just because it plays a spread offense in the Big 12. Rather, it did the crushing in the Peach Bowl vs. Ole Miss. 

Each season and each school should be viewed through its own lens. There were no truly great teams in college football in 2014, and so far, bowl season is reflecting as much.

4. Spend Less Time 'Following the Ball'

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

One of the easiest traps to fall into when watching a game is following the football. It's almost an unconscious habit, like watching the ball go back and forth in a tennis match. 

Along the way, though, you miss a lot of other important parts of the game—not to mention some of the best matchups happen away from the snap. 

Say a quarterback throws an interception. Was it a bad throw, or was it great defense? Maybe it was neither; perhaps a wide receiver failed to run the right route or was held on a no-call penalty. If all you watch is the quarterback, you're missing a majority of the play as it develops. 

It's not an easy habit to get into, and trying to watch from an all-22 viewpoint can be overwhelming, so take a few drives and watch one part of the field. Pay attention to the offensive line versus the defensive line. Check out the wide receivers against the defensive backs. You'll develop a new appreciation for less popular positions. 

3. Witness More Fat Guy Touchdowns

This is the equivalent of making a New Year's resolution to eat more junk food. It is far and away the easiest resolution to make and keep. The problem, however, is it's not in your control. 

Still, there's nothing we'd love more in 2015 than an exponential increase in fat guy touchdowns. They're a rarity and usually happen by accident, which makes them all the more amazing. It's like seeing an endangered species in the wild. 

Then there are the even rarer intentional fat guy touchdowns, which are the college football equivalent of hitting the lotto.

In Thursday's Cotton Bowl against Michigan State, Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty hit backup lineman LaQuan McGowan, he of 390 pounds, for an 18-yard touchdown. The video of the magic moment—even Baylor's linemen move at ludicrous speeds—can be viewed in the video above. 

Whether it's a receiving touchdown or passing touchdown, all fat guy scores are cherished. 

2. Don't Write off Entire Conferences from Playoff Contention

Bill Haber/Associated Press

The college football regular season might go by in a flash compared to others, but it's still a long season. Thus, counting just about any team or conference out of the playoff race before the first half of the season ends is most unwise.

Yet that's exactly what happened in Week 2, when the Big Ten had arguably the single-worst Saturday of any conference in major college football. Highlighting that lowly week was Ohio State's home loss to Virginia Tech, a defeat that would hang on to the Buckeyes all season. 

Then, when Oregon lost to Arizona in early October, it was the Pac-12 that was in danger of losing its playoff spot. 

Yet here we are after two College Football Playoff semifinals, and which two teams are playing for the national championship? Ohio State and Oregon. Even before that, all five of the major conferences were in the playoff picture on Selection Sunday.

Granted, you can take exception with how the four teams were selected. To pronounce certain teams or conferences dead after a few weeks into the season, though? Just let things shake out. Clay Travis of Fox Sports found that out the hard way. 

We as fans and media tend to be creatures of the moment. The thing that just happened is always the best or worst thing possible. Let's work on that for 2015.  

1. Don't Take the Sport so Seriously

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

When you get down to it, college football is merely entertainment. Granted, it's entertainment in the form of a multibillion-dollar business, but ultimately, it's nothing more than a pastime. Let's make a resolution to treat it as such and not as a series of life-or-death moments through which we live vicariously. 

Laugh more. Social media has changed the way we look at games and its players—and for the better. Take the fumble by Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston in Thursday's Rose Bowl. Without Vine, we never would have witnessed the greatest mashup possible: Winston falling over because a giant Lance Stephenson blew him over. 

Let's put it this way: If Baylor's kicker, shortly after being obliterated on a blocked field goal, can laugh it off, there's no excuse for the rest of us.

Don't harass players or coaches on Twitter. You don't know more than them, and you're sure as hell not better than them. They are not responsible for you being careless enough to put your own—and hopefully hard-earned—money on a game. Understand that for every kicker who misses a field goal, or for every costly fumble, there's a player who feels far worse about it than you could imagine.  

College football is great if for no other reason than it's not pro football. In other words, it doesn't have the parity or the high level of play that the NFL does. That makes college football compelling in its own way. It's more mistake-prone, more unpredictable, more fun.

So have fun with it. Give opposing fans a break, don't boo at the stadium and don't live your life through the game. The players and coaches aren't trying to impress you anyway. 

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football.