PETE: I'm back & excited for a new chapter

I’m back.

After four or so months of doing almost nothing, I’ll be writing occasional columns again – probably two or three times a week -- for the Iowa Everywhere web site. Emphasis will be on college sports, probably heavier on Iowa State and Iowa, but you never know. I’ve been given the freedom to hit any topic, although you can rest assured the only politics on which I’ll opine are political decisions that affect college sports.

National sports-related topics? Absolutely. Does Colorado have a B-level entertainer, or a Grade-A coach?

Too soon to tell after just one season, but maybe.

I’m all for college athletes being paid – but the contract they sign should include playing full regular and postseason schedules (unless the medical staff says otherwise), progress toward graduation, and a graduated financial scale based on seasons played at the school that’s paying them.

Will that happen? Deion Sanders’ team might play in a bowl game before that type of contract becomes part of the Wild, Wild, West of paying players.

If the time comes when schools directly pay them, will athletes then pay for their own scholarship? As school employees, will they be at least partially responsible for their insurance? What about IPERS? Will the public pension fund for Iowa’s state and local government employees affect them?

I wonder . . . .

What about additional conference expansion explosion, and at what point will our influential television networks officially run college football?

Unofficially, they’ve controlled the process for years. Or so it seems.

Further conference expansion?

Let’s hope not.

Doing away with football walk-on programs?

Sounds like another example of colleges losing their way.

Let’s have fun, too. How about a weekly pick-em column, where some regular Iowa Everywhere talent provides me their picks? No point spreads. No over-unders. Just a score and the winner for Big 12 and Big Ten games that I choose.

Is Hassel really as big as Hawk as he seems? How Cloney is Williams? I’ll seek input from them and others, put their responses to words, and then you can chortle or praise them for incorrect or accurate picks. And, of course, this will be for entertainment purposes only, as they say.

My plan is to write an every Monday column about weekend college football games we watched either in person or on TV. Over-reaction Monday. Weekend rewind. Buy or sell. Weekend highs/lows. I’ll figure something catchy out. The predictions column will be later in the week.

After 52 wonderful years of writing under strict deadlines at The Des Moines Register, you don’t just close your laptop for good. I’ll go to games (a few, maybe), but that’s not a must. Now with the luxury of watching as much live college football as I can stand, the idea is to soak in as much as I possible, then put to words my thoughts.

I might even help out with some podcasts you find on throughout the Iowa Everywhere website.

Mostly, though, the plan is to watch, reflect and then write whatever I feel like writing.

**

One more word: It’s Week Zero, the highlight being Saturday’s 11 a.m. (ESPN) Florida State-Georgia Tech game in Dublin, Ireland. The Cyclones and Kansas State play in this game next season – on Aug. 23.

A story in the Tallahassee Democrat pointed out the obvious: This ain’t a normal road trip: Equipment trucks were transported by cargo plane. The players’ chartered plane was to depart on Wednesday.

** ESPN’s College GameDay will broadcast from Dame Street in Dublin City Center. It’ll be the first time the pregame show will be broadcast from outside the U.S.

** According to a Sports Business Journal report last month, a 48,000-fan sellout is anticipated, of which 25,000 are expected to be Americans.

** An Iowa State official told me Tuesday that Cyclones fans purchased 1,000 travel packages in the first month that packages were available. Game tickets only go on sale in February.