Cal relishes another shot at Tennessee in Week 1

Tennessee fully embarrassed Cal in Knoxville last season, winning 35-18. Icon SMI

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At the end of a 20-minute chat Wednesday, California quarterback Nate Longshore circled back to emphasize a point he'd made earlier. "I have nothing but respect for Appalachian State," he repeated. "Those guys have great players, and they're the champions of their division."

This had not prevented Longshore from tweaking Chad Henne over the summer. The Cal and Michigan quarterbacks worked together at the Elite 11 quarterback camp in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. When the subject of opening-day opponents arose, Henne informed Longshore that the Wolverines would face the Mountaineers of Appalachian State.

"Must be nice," rejoined Longshore. "Will you guys wear your game jerseys for that one?"

Longshore (who went out of his way to point out that ASU is coming off its second national title in the Division formerly known as I-AA) has some room to talk. On Saturday, the junior from Canyon Country, Calif., will lead the 12th-ranked Bears against No. 15 Tennessee -- the only matchup between ranked teams in Week 1.

I know that today's schedules were drawn up in the mists of time, in a previous millennium. But it sure seems as if we're kicking off the season with fewer and fewer meaningful games. For every Cal and Tennessee, there are 10 squads willing to cut a six-figure check to whatever cash-strapped program is willing to play pet-shop mouse to the home team's boa. Gazing upon college football's opening weekend, one sees a bakeoff, a cavalcade of confectionary with a theme song on loan from the neck-tied minstrel of the Snickers commercial.

You want "waterfalls of caramel?" Check out these massacres-in-the-making:

Top-ranked USC welcomes Idaho to the Coliseum. In his first game as a starter for defending national champion Florida, Tim Tebow's designated victim will be Western Kentucky. The Mountaineers of West Virginia will work out the kinks against Western Michigan. Louisville will clear its throat with Murray State, not to be confused, regardless of the final score, with Murray Slaughter, the chrome-domed news writer from the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Penn State welcomes Florida International.

Other teams opting for low-risk openers: Virginia Tech takes on East Carolina; Texas will pay Arkansas State a handsome sum to help the Longhorns feel better about themselves; Oklahoma got dibs on North Texas; Ohio State will welcome the Penguins of Youngstown State.

I recently finished writing my latest book, Saturday Rules, which is not a list of rules, but of reasons why the college game is so much more entertaining, passionate and urgent than the NFL. Two losses in college = no national title. Eight losses in NFL: Congrats! You're still in the playoff mix!

That high stakes sense that every game is a playoff is diluted by this trend toward "buy games" and opening-week gimmes. A lot of teams mentioned above get some slack: USC has opened with Virginia Tech, Auburn and Arkansas in recent seasons. The Longhorns' early-September clashes with Ohio State in '05 and '06 were highlights of those seasons. Michigan's early schedule is not exactly a cakewalk -- the Wolverines have Oregon and Notre Dame coming up. But there's no denying that there are a lot of duds over the next few days.

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