It's game day!

Hopefully by now you have your favorite beverage already in hand and are amped up for the first full day of college football. While you’re enjoying that beverage, here are a few thoughts to ponder while you’re also hopefully downing a healthy breakfast to provide that solid base you’ll need to carry you through the day. You know Oklahoma and UTEP won’t be finished until the early hours of Sunday morning so prepare early and stay hydrated.

**There will always be a part of me that misses Mizzou and Texas A&M in the conference (and Nebraska and Colorado for that matter). Say what you will about those guys, but it still doesn’t seem right they aren’t in the league. That, however, doesn’t mean it’s great to have West Virginia and TCU in the league.

**West Virginia is the first Big 12 team to kickoff and if there is ever a football team that’s taylor-made for the Big 12, it’s the Mountaineers. Apparently Marshall thinks they have West Virginia’s hand signals figured out. Dana Holgorsen sounds worried. One hand signal we’ll see plenty of Saturday is the ref’s hands in the air when West Virginia scores another touchdown.

**It might only be the first game of year and there’s plenty of football yet to be played, but Iowa State’s game against Tulsa is huge for the Cyclones bowl chances. ISU figures to be a team fighting for six wins and if they lose today, and again next week at Iowa, that means the Cyclones would need to go 5-4 in the Big 12 to reach six wins. That is a tall order considering how tough the league is top to bottom this year.

**Between 6 and 7 o’clock, four Big 12 games kick off although depending on your location, it may be tough to see any of them, especially if you’re outside the Big 12 footprint (this new TV contract is really something!) Kansas State is on K-STateHD.TV and available only with a subscription. Kansas is on the Jayhawk Network primarily in the state of Kansas. Oklahoma State is on Fox College Sports which is more widely available, and Texas is on the Longhorn Network and well, we all know about that.

**R.J. Bell dropped this on the twitter world Friday night.

Oklahoma St -67.5 ov Savannah St. is biggest spread in recorded history, beating Hawaii -60 ov Northern Colorado (9/1/07)

— RJ Bell (@RJinVegas) August 31, 2012

Seriously, why are these games even played? Savannah State is 4-28 against FCS competition over the past three seasons so I guess it makes sense.

**It’ll be interesting to see how Bill Snyder uses Collin Klein on Saturday. Given how important he is to their team, it wouldn’t be shocking to see his rushing attempts limited to just a handful. There’s no reason to put him in harm’s way if it’s not entirely necessary against Missouri State. I have a feeling you’ll see him throwing more than normal (from the pocket) and will see a heavy dose of John Hubert and Angelo Pease in the running game.

**Charlie Weis makes his much anticipated debut for the Kansas which actually makes South Dakota State vs. Kansas something worth talking about. Remember Turner Gill’s debut? North Dakota State 6 Kansas 3. I have a feeling Kansas will have more than three points after their first possession on Saturday. For as bad as they were last year, there’s decent talent there on offense.

**Texas opens on Saturday against a decent Wyoming team. I’d expect David Ash to play well and again the following two weeks against New Mexico and Ole Miss. Do the same (and the Texas offense as a whole) against Oklahoma State, West Virginia, and Oklahoma the following three weeks and we can start believing Texas has something to work with.

**Man, I love late games. Oklahoma and UTEP kick off at 9:30 which will be right at the tail end of Michigan and Alabama game and provide the perfect nightcap on the day (that is if you’re still upright after 10 straight hours of indulging yourself).

*No NFL on Sunday means college football on Sunday! Baylor and SMU kickoff at 5:30 and we can all see what the Bears look like minus their Heisman trophy winner. What we’re going to see is Nick Florence is solid, Baylor’s wide receivers are really good, and so are their backs. What we don’t know is if Baylor’s defense can hold a team under 40 points.

Enjoy the day.  We will see you back here for Closing Time which should be up sometime in the early hours of Sunday morning.  At least that's the plan as it stands now (which does get derailed every so often from enjoying the day a little too much if you know what I'm saying).