Blue 42. Blue 42. Hut. Hut!

You’ve had all summer to practice grilling. You might have bought a bigger TV since last season. You prepared your couch with ample Olympics watching. It’s time. You’re ready. The college football season starts this week, and it starts with a bang. Alabama v. Clemson, Illinois v. Missouri, Florida v. Miami, Arkansas v. Texas, and Ohio State v. USC are all within the first three weeks of the season. For the unlucky, national title aspirations could be crushed by mid-September. The rest will continue battling until the field is whittled to a national champion, crowned January 8, 2009.

Even if football leaves you with little weekend time for reading, try one of these recent college football books during the week. Clay Travis’ Dixieland Delight depicts a hilarious season-long voyage to see a home game at every Southeastern Conference stadium. For any football historians out there, Football Rankings offers historical rankings beginning in 1936. If you’d like to know what university was ranked fourth in 1952, Football Rankings is your source.


Dixieland Delight: A Football Season On the Road in the Southeastern Conference

Fifty Years of College Football: A Modern History of America's Most Colorful Sport

Every Week a Season : A Journey Inside Big-Time College Football

Texas Longhorns Football History A to Z

Runnin' with the Big Dogs: The True, Unvarnished Story of the Texas-Oklahoma Football Wars

Football Rankings: College Teams in the Associated Press Poll, 1936-1984