Okay, folks. Last year was such a whirlwind–year two of grad school, starting a literary magazine, teaching college freshmens for the first time–that this blog fell by the wayside. While I can’t say that there’ll be much if anything in the way of day-in, day-out content posted here, I will say that I missed being able to weigh in on things. Hopefully, most fridays you’ll see a post here, and maybe even some postgame thoughts.

There’s a lot of horseshit out there when it comes to sports journalism, and when you’re a fan of a team that has often been one college football’s have-nots, in comparison to, say, OU or Texas or the entire ESPN SEC-propaganda machine, it can be kind of frustrating to watch the media crown teams that haven’t even played the games prematurely godlike. It can be very easy, while watching College Gameday to want to shake your firsts and scream HERBSTREIT I HATE YOU YOU ARE AN IDIOT.

I need a safe place to do this. And here it is.

Everybody’s got their picks. Hopefully, over the course of the season, this is where I’ll post mine. It’s a guilty pleasure, and I like to see if I can out-pick David Ubben, who is, in my opinion, the best journalist covering Big 12 football.

That said, let’s move on to this week’s picks.

North Dakota State 31, Iowa State 34. NDSU knocked of K-State last year in their opener, and, even though they’re one of the best FCS teams in the country, I think ISU will be ready for them. Particularly interested to see if Iowa State’s offense improves dramatically under the tutelage of former KU head coach Mark Mangino. I bet it does, though it may not show much in the opener.

No. 2 Alabama 45, West Virginia 23. I bet this one’s interesting at half-time, but I just don’t see it. Holgerson’s seat might be in ashes by the end of this year, but a good showing here would help. Don’t think it’s gonna happen.

TCU 35, Samford 3. Will TCU actually bring an offense to the table in year three of Big 12 membership? Will Trevone Boykin lineup behind center or at wideout? Could this matchup get any less interesting?

No. 4 Oklahoma 59, Louisiana Tech 10. The Sooners have a history of coming out flat in their season openers, flirting with disaster against UTEP in 2012 and snaking past Utah State in 2010 by a mere touchdown, but this group of land thieves won’t have any problem this weekend. Though I’d certainly be delighted if they did.

Texas 31, North Texas 17. This one, however, has trap game written all over it, and may be a tad closer than Horns fans would like to believe possible.

No. 20 Kansas State 48, SF Austin 6. After last year’s disaster against NDSU, the Snydercats will be ready. Perennially underrated, Snyder’s Jake Waters might just lead this team to a second Big 12 crown in three years if folks aren’t careful.

No. 10 Baylor 63, SMU 31. I know that this is technically a rivalry game, but wake me when Baylor actually schedules an interesting non-conference matchup. Their piddly scheduling wreaks of a time not too long ago when expectations for the Waco Baptists were piddly as well.

No. 1 Florida State 38, Oklahoma State 28. If you’ve been listening to people who talk about football talk about this game, when they talk about it they make it sound like the game’s over already. It’s not.  And maybe there’s a bit too much in the way of optimism here, but did anyone think FSU would lose to NC State in 2012? A lot of things will have to go right for the Pokes to keep it this close, but strange things happen on football fields. That’s why we watch the games.