Is it September Yet?

Well, actually, is it late August yet, because that's when the 2009 football season will officially kick off, with some great college and high school games.
Now that the 2008 season is done (does anyone really care about the Pro Bowl?), we can concentrate on 2009. Jerryland (the new Dallas Cowboy's Stadium) will open this summer, and already great games are on tap, including an ESPN Labor Day opener between the Oklahoma Sooners and Brigham Young Cougars (which, btw, should be a great game between two storied programs).

We wonder which high school will be the first to play in the new palace, and what the atmosphere will be like for those games.

I had a chance to visit with Scott Garner, who does play-by-play for Texas A&M Commerce, an NCAA Division II school about 60 miles northeast of Dallas. TAMUC played a game this past season at the Cotton Bowl (which seats nearly 90,000) against East Central Oklahoma in the first ever Harvey Martin Classic. The game drew 5,697 on a State Fair weekend, and Scott told me that it felt like no one was there. I'm wondering what it will be like when a Celina, or Gainesville will draw when they have a playoff game at the new Jerryland. And will the Battle of the Ax (or is it the Battle For the Axe?... I get them confused) between Lewisville and Flower Mound Marcus draw the crowd to make it look less expansive.

I think playing in the new stadium will be very cool for the many teams that get the opportunity, but Jerryland will make small crowds look exponentially smaller than the same crowd at Texas Stadium. I hope I'm wrong on this one.