Tim Rogers: Glad fall and football are here

Like many guys — and some women — I use the sports calendar to mark the changing of the seasons, not the old-fashioned convention of waiting until the 21st of September, December, March and June.

Spring, for example, starts the first week of April, which normally brings with it opening day in the Major Leagues and the championship game of the NCAA basketball tournament all on one glorious Monday.

Summer and winter don’t have such defined marking points, but fall does.

Fall started last Saturday when college football teams from Chestnut Hill to San Diego teed it up for the first time. Yeah, I know it was still hot, but the difference between 90 degrees watching football and 90 degrees not watching football is the exact difference between the dog days of late August and the early September hint that cooler days are right around the corner.

For all of you who wonder which team I might root for, I can assure you that I will show no bias toward any team in the SEC.

During my career, I have worked at papers that have covered Georgia, Auburn, Alabama and Kentucky and I have no greater love or hatred toward Kentucky blue than I do for Georgia red or Tennessee orange.

I attended the first Iron Bowl played in Auburn and came away with no greater passion for either War Eagle or Roll Tide.

My brother went to Florida for graduate school and for a time was a Gators fan, but I feel no reason to honor my brother’s allegiance to his alma mater. Besides, the T-shirts he sent me to try and bribe me to root for Spurrier have long since been worn out and deposited in the rag bag.

No, none of this moves me to cast my lot as a fan with one of these teams because, as some of you know, I am a proud graduate of The Pennsylvania State University and that means I root for the Nittany Lions. That would also explain why I have picked Penn State to win this weekend, even though they are traveling to Tuscaloosa to face Alabama.

Yes, you can mock the pick all you want, but I will pick Penn State every time it comes up on the schedule, even if they are hosting the Vikings.

And yes, I know that our coach is pushing 200 years old and that his first game was on the road against the Red Coats at Trenton, but I find a comforting familiarity in cheering for Penn State.

Perhaps it is because the only head coach the program has had in my 45 years here on Earth is Joe Paterno or maybe it is the fact that there are still no flashy logos on the front of the uniform and no names on the back of them.

That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been change at Penn State. Since I went to school there, we have joined the Big Ten (or whatever number it is now) and our rivals have changed from Pitt, West Virginia and Syracuse to Michigan, Ohio State and Iowa.

But when the team runs out on the field, it feels the same as when I went to school there 25 years ago.

I am not so naive to believe that Penn State runs a cleaner or more honorable program than other schools, but I do take pride in the fact that we still graduate more than 80 percent of our athletes (if the NCAA statistics are to be believed) and that when the sledding got rough for Paterno several years ago, the school allowed him to work it out instead of pitching him over the side at the first sign of real trouble.

In a world that preaches being constantly up to date and following the latest trend, I take pride in the fact that tradition and team are still valued in Happy Valley. I take a lot of satisfaction in knowing that when people learn that I am a Penn State graduate and Nittany Lion fan, more often than not they nod and say it’s a good school and that they like old Joe.

On Saturday, I will wear my Penn State jersey around Dalton with pride. There is no name on it, only the number “31.”

I will stand out like a sore thumb, but I have lived a long time in places where I am one of just a handful of Penn State graduates.

Man, I love the start of fall.

Now, can anyone tell me what channel the Big Ten network is on?

Editor’s note: I am still taking calls and e-mails from people who wish to be on our comics panel. Just drop me a note. To those of you who have sent me notes already, thank you. I will get back with everyone by the end of the week.

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