Marquee matchups dominate men's soccer

That chill in the morning air signals only one thing -- that's right sports fans, it's time for fall. Soon the leaves will start changing colors, wardrobes will get a little heavier and college sports football fans everywhere will rejoice when their favorite teams take the field against big-name opponents. \n Last weekend's college gridiron slate included such legendary battles as Miami vs.... McNeese State? Florida vs. that MAC Goliath... Ball State? And I'm sure I wasn't the only one upset when ESPN failed to pick up that epic Kansas State-Louisiana Tech match-up.\nFor those of you who enjoy a slight bit of competition, take a look at last week's opening weekend in college soccer. The adidas/Indiana Classic featured IU, UCLA and Portland, all of which were in the top-10 at the time. Believe it or not, this wasn't even the marquee tournament of the weekend. That took place in Storrs, Conn. where preseason No. 2 University of Connecticut was host to three top 25 foes ' Duke, Wake Forest and St. John's ' in its own four-team tourney.\nBelieve it or not, there are still some sports where programs want to face the best the sport has to offer to be tested so they can see where the program stands. They want to see how far they must progress. College soccer is one of the few havens left in collegiate sports, where fans of top-notch programs can see their teams face-off against worthy opponents.\nBefore you start complaining about the rigors and intricacies of college football scheduling, let me offer this: Unlike college soccer, college football teams are at the mercy of the almighty dollar. It's them darned "Benjamins" that drive the top programs to schedule teams willing to be slaughtered for hundreds of thousands of dollars (Ball State, Fresno State) so that they can have one more home game to rack in millions of dollars from tens of thousands of lunatic fans (Florida, Nebraska).\nUnfortunately, because of the bowl system for college football, teams across the country will schedule "patsies" to reach that magical 6-win mark, which seemingly guarantees a spot in one of the millions of bowl games at the season's end. And college football's elite programs are just as guilty as the middle-of-the-pack teams in manipulating their schedules. These "powerhouses" will set up games against three sacrificial lambs, resulting in a 3-0 start, jumpstarting their chances of landing a coveted BCS Bowl berth. They can get away with this, because they know the strength of their conference will boost their strength of schedule ratings ' so no harm, no foul and three easy wins.\nWhile the football Hoosiers have put together a respectable nonconference schedule to start off their 2000 campaign, the soccer team's schedule includes some of the biggest names in the sport. It's a demanding schedule fit for a defending national champion ' exactly what one should expect of a big-time program in any sport. Of their 18 regular season games, half of those will be against squads that were in the NCAA Tournament last fall. And, as opposed to our football team's tough schedule, requiring us to play five ranked teams in the Big Ten, the soccer Hoosiers went out of their way to play the best, with Penn State being the only top-notch opponent in their conference schedule.\nSo this weekend at Memorial Stadium, two of America's mediocre programs, and I say that with as much respect as possible, will kick off their football seasons. I do regret I'll miss it, as there are very few events on campus as exciting as watching our football Hoosiers battle on Saturdays during the fall. But I'll be watching that game from an unknown sports bar in College Park, Md., because at this point the draw of watching our soccer Hoosiers battle two more top-10 programs is quite a bit more alluring than getting a sunburn watching our football team play another decent foe. Although I do have to give the football higher-ups credit, for it's about time you went outside the MAC for a home opener! Hey, maybe in a few seasons we can be the team that plays Florida State or Miami to open the season... then again, maybe not.