Equal time? Sure why not. Last week's Obama speech was historic, tonight's McCain speech should be much less historic, and less dramatic than what Americans witnessed last night with Sarah Palin. Regardless, we're not here to talk politics, but college football.

We're back again, as will be the case all year, for Thursday night college football lives blogs. Of some frustration, turnover-mad South Carolina is back to play upset-minded Vanderbilt. Last week saw us comparing Gamecock quarterback Tommy Beecher to Michael Henig. Out went the quick hook earlier this week and longtime disappointment Chris Smelley gets the start. Vanderbilt's attempting to build on its smashing of Miami of Ohio.

Join us at 8:30, chat software after the jump.

The College Football FanHouse goes interactive in 2008. We hope you enjoyed our chat for the early games, and we're now transitioning to a big afternoon slate of games and a new chat. We'll get things going at 3 p.m. Eastern.

The chat application is after the jump, be sure to join us as we keep tabs on all that is college football's opening Saturday.

While enduring the Big Ten Network's "Friday Night Tailgate" tonight, something interesting presented itself. They showed a clip of Joe Paterno at his finest, hosting Penn State's Friday night pep rally. He wasted little time in picking at an old scab. After singling out members of his '68 and '69 teams in attendance, the massive chip on his shoulder made itself known. After telling the crowd that the players were "screwed" out of a championship, he had this to say:

"We had kicked the devil out of a couple people in bowl games, and the President of the United States at that time went down into Texas with a Southern Strategy and announced that Texas was the national championship (boos).

I'm sitting in my house, the phone rings, it's the White House.

The President would like you come down and we're going to give you a trophy for the longest winning streak in the country. Oooohhhh nooo. Oooohhh nooo. I told them to shove it! And that's true!"

Keep in mind that particular President last held office in 1974 and has been dead more than a decade is dead and buried, and has been that way since 1973. It's now 2008 and Paterno's still miffed and ready to collar the guy.

I imagine the tenacity to hold that kind of grudge for that long and make it so fresh in the telling before thousands of people is part of what keeps Joe Paterno doing the near-impossible job of running a major college football program in his advanced age. He's irritating on his good days and much worse on others, but it's impossible not to respect the tenacity and occasionally get a good laugh at some of the history he's been a part of.

Bizarre story this morning out of Tempe. It appears the program's practice field bubble/dome was destroyed during a flash storm yesterday. From the Arizona Republic:

Russell Schilt, a 22-year-old ASU student, said he walked about the school's practice facility to see the bubble roof in shreds from the storm. Schilt said he was surprised at the damage the new building took.

"The bubble dome had complete deflated," he said.

The DevilsDigest message board is discussing the improbable damage.

Fox 10 just had a camera guy out there and said police told him that there are "pieces" of the dome all over the place. It looks like The Devil Dome......is no more, thanks to a VERY wicked storm/storms that are blowing through tonight.

And

It definitely happened. Just texted my sister in the band, everyone from the football team to the band are freaking out right now.

Crazy. ASU famously hosted LSU almost immediately following Hurricane Katrina, but as another SEC team heads to town in a few weeks it will be Arizona State of all places picking up the pieces of a destructive natural phenomena.

Update: Aftermath photos from Pitchfork Post (thanks Brian)

(Via: WildWest)

He can't click his ruby red slippers together three times and wish himself back at LSU. However, after a trio of disciplinary incidents, he finds himself wearing a ruby red Jacksonville State uniform. Just our luck, his Gamecocks were on Thursday night's undercard against Georgia Tech.

Perilloux started but didn't achieve much against Tech, tossing two interceptions as his team was routed 41-14. For the night he did throw a pair of garbage time touchdowns, but averaged a mere 3.7 yards/attempt in going 22/37 for 136 yards. He also led the Gamecocks in rushing, reaching 67 yards on 18 carries (3.7 average). Ho hum.

On the opposite side of the field, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson late of Navy made his debut, taking his crazy run attack with him to Atlanta. The Yellowjackets were impressive against the lower division defense in totaling 349 rush yards and 7.6 yards/attempt. Not bad, now let's see you try that against a D-I defense fellas.

South Carolina quarterback Tommy Beecher has won the first inaugural Michael Henig Awful Quarterback Award, given to the D-I quarterback with the most embarrassing performance on college football's opening night. Recall that Mississippi State's Henig tossed six interceptions last year against LSU. Beecher cut that by two that but looked equally pathetic in surrendering four passes to North Carolina State defenders.

We do extend our sympathies to him after he was knocked out of the game with some kind of head injury that'll feel that much worse tomorrow morning. North Carolina State quarterback Russell Wilson was also KO'd after taking consecutive shots to the head.

Beecher's now in an intense battle for his job after backup Chris Smelley completed his first five passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns as part of a late offensive barrage that helped South Carolina turn an ugly shutout into something more respectable.

Final scoreboard reads South Carolina 34, North Carolina State 0. Also: SEC 1, ACC 0. It's starting already, as South Carolina fans added several "SEC" chants as the first shots in the never-ending conference wars in college football.

Score that two former USC players running smack ahead of the Ohio State game. Everyone's favorite not-so-slightly doughy back made sure to let everyone know what he thinks of Ohio State before ESPN cameras. There's some context of course, as it was a friendly -- if random -- comment as the Jim Rome show followed Titans lineman Kevin Mawae for a feature.

Audio

Sayeth Rome: "White's comment was a complete non sequitur"

The segment will broadcast Friday on "Rome Is Burning" (4:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN), the game will be played Sept. 13th in Los Angeles. The Trojans would probably be heavy favorites with White, but the continued noise coming from former USC players can only have the effect of working against USC in Las Vegas.

(Via: Sports by Brooks)

History is being made tonight, in many ways. Us college football fans are sometimes accused of wearing blinders and tonight is no different. It's opening night for college football 2008 and a certain Senator from Illinois is formally set to accept his party's nomination for President on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" address.

We can't compete.

However, we've got a job to do and its a job we love on a very big night for us as well. Barack Obama's getting the TIVO treatment in my house as we at FanHouse discuss tonight's two headline games: North Carolina State @ South Carolina (8 p.m. Eastern) and Oregon State @ Stanford (9 p.m. Eastern). There's also a smattering of other teams we'll be keeping an eye on -- Miami, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Connecticut, Iowa State, Wake Forest and Baylor among them.

Be sure to join us in the chat, starting at 7:45 p.m. Eastern (after the jump)

Well, at least, those are somebody's words, and he's in the picture doing that Urban Meyer pointy thing. At right is what appeared in yesterday's Los Angeles Times. Notice the big, bold, capital OVER. Now technically this isn't so much a shot across the bow as a call to an end to USC's hegemonic grip on football success in Los Angeles. But we all know the other message implied here: I'm coming for you, USC. Cue the High Noon audio.

Bold. And idiotic. Pete Carroll being Pete Carroll, he'll laugh this off in public and promptly save it for bulletin board material at suitable leisure. It's not that the ad is wrong in anyway, as the mandate for any football coach at UCLA is to achieve parity with and if possible exceed USC. But one can't laugh at how ridiculous it sounds given the position USC is in, having gone places UCLA simply can only imagine in its football history.

As a USC alum it is assumed I should be typing the obligatory IT.IS.ON. But that's not how we roll, UCLA's the irritating kid brother when it comes to football. This is quiet reflection and amusement time. Then its off to the memory hole to be recalled sometime around early December before the ritual stomping. At least, we hope.

(Orange County Register via WildWest)

Myles Brand is the President of the NCAA. He makes nearly a million dollars a year as the steward of college athletics. He's adamant about those athletes not getting paid. And now he's been published in the Huffington Post (guess we know where his politics lean).

Neither higher education, of which college sports is only a small part, nor intercollegiate athletics is truly capitalistic. They do not generate revenue to make a profit; they generate revenue to fulfill a purpose, to meet the mission of higher education. If they were models of capitalism, many academic programs and nearly all sports other than football and men's basketball would be dropped because they are too costly and do not generate enough revenue to pay their own way.

Read the whole thing. I'm not necessarily in favor of institutions paying the athletes, but the argument itself isn't the most convincing.

Brand is right that most collegiate sports don't make money just as many college departments don't make money. They're still part of a broader, profit-driven institution however. Just as the janitorial crew that cleans up a pro sports stadium contributes to the product but doesn't add to the bottom line, some college sports are around and contribute something without profiting. However, the janitorial crew gets compensated because they are an essential part of the machine. So are the athletes, but without cash reimbursement.