By Chris Marler
It’s only October 2, and we already have a ton of storylines that are helping shape the 2024 college football season. As fans it’s sometimes hard to look outside of our own bubbles. We’re hyper focused on our alma maters and favortie teams. We’re consumed with our own conferences. It’s especially difficult to find fun and wholesome storylines that unite fans in an era when NIL, transfer portal and greed are running the sport.
But, there are a few.
MILITARY SCHOOLS
Listen, we may be on the brink of World War III which sounds awful. But if you’re looking for a good omen on that look no further than the football squads at our two biggest military institutions–Army and Navy. Both the Midshipmen and Cadets are 4-0 for the first time since 1945. That’s right, these two programs are undefeated at 4-0 at the same time for the first time since World War II ended.
🇺🇸 🏈🫡 #ArmyNavy pic.twitter.com/F7cYxILxua
— Army-Navy Game (@ArmyNavyGame) September 28, 2024
Can you imagine gathering around a television in the second week of December to watch an 11-0 Army and an 11-0 Navy play for a chance at a spot in the college football playoff? How cool would that be?
Also, I’ll just say it, that happening in an election year would be a tremendous event that would unify people from all sides. I love it.
UNLV
Raise your hand if you’re an old millennial like me and the only thing you know about UNLV is about the Runnin’ Rebs basketball teams from the early 90s? Well, they’re currently one of the best feel good stories in college football. Led by former Missouri head coach and Arkansas defensive coordinator Barry Odom, UNLV is currently 4-0 and a front runner to potentially earn the Group of 5 automatic qualifying bid for the College Football Playoff.
The reason why they’re a feel-good story? Last week their quarterback Matthew Sluka announced he was sitting out the rest of the season and using his redshirt because of an issue that occurred with his NIL agreement. Now, I’m not here to weigh in on…well literally anything, because at 38 with my metabolism, scales terrify me. But, I am definitely not going to weigh in on what happened behind the scenes on an NIL agreement from a Mountain West team.
“If you make a dumb mistake in life, if I do, (UNLV QB) Matthew Sluka does, or whoever, sometimes you have to wear that… And going in there and expecting something without writing and then they don’t give it to you, you can’t just bail on the team.” – Rece Davis 🏈📺🎙️ pic.twitter.com/3dbAiNhQ0h
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 28, 2024
What I will say is that the optics are bad from every side. Living in a world where a starting quarterback leaves his team after a 3-0 start because of money absolutely sucks.
Insert backup QB Hajj-Malik Williams who was thrust into the starting position after the Sluka debacle. All he did was lead UNLV to a 59-14 win over Fresno State where he had over 300 yards of total offense and four touchdowns.
UNLV IS 4-0 FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE MOVING TO DIVISION I IN 1978‼️
UNLV’s former QB1 Matt Sluka left the team earlier this week. pic.twitter.com/pPkZTI5L53
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 28, 2024
I don’t care what your opinion is on NIL or the transfer portal. In a day and age where our favorite sport is being run by people who only care about money and the fans are almost always last in consideration for what changes are being made, this is a great story for us to rally around.
