Saturdays, Jon Marthaler tells us what to watch and what to read to get us all the way through until Monday. Other times, you can find him here.
Game of the Week: #5 Florida State at #3 Clemson, 7pm tonight, ABC
Gather 'round, children, and let me tell you about a time - really not so long ago - when there were college football games that mattered on a national scale that were not between two SEC teams.
That's right! They weren't even in the Pac-10, after everybody had gone to bed! They were played in the South, just like SEC games, between some of the most famous football schools in the country, with national title implications - and most of them involved Florida State.
For those of us who are reaching middle age, it's tough to understand that Florida State hasn't been exceptionally good in a very long time. From 1987 to 2000, FSU finished the season in the top 5 every single year. They started competing for the ACC football championship in 1992, and promptly won nine straight titles, along with national championships in 1993 and 1999.
It's not like the Seminoles have fallen off the map since - they've won the ACC four times, and ended the season in the top 25 almost every year - but this dip happened to coincide with the rise of SEC, a rise that's reached a point where college football now feels kind of like it has a major league and a bunch of minor leagues.
Tonight, though - undefeated FSU visits undefeated Clemson, in the stadium they call Death Valley. It's the biggest game in college football so far this year. And it's a reminder of a time that the SEC championship wasn't the de facto national championship game.
What else to watch this weekend
