College football fans are rabid. Fanatics seem like they will defend their team’s ability to the death. NCAA Football is alert to this die-hard nature. They also know the best way to appeal to the diverse groups of fans is on the Internet.

NCAA Football recently put this insight into action by blasting off into a layer of the World Wide Web known as the blogosphere.

NCAA Football, the collective voice created to promote college football, teamed up in August with Sports Media Challenge (SMC), a media and communication training company for sports figures, to produce the sport’s official Web log.

Every Game Counts, hosted by BlogSpot, is designed to be the ultimate blog for college football fans across the country to share their passion for the game, said Katherine Hessert, SMC president. She said the Internet is a fertile ground for perpetuating the game of college football and a blog became the ideal way to reach these fans.

‘(NCAA Football) has a particular focus on young people and so what we suggested to them is if they want to touch more fans then they need to go on the Internet,’ said Hessert. ‘If you really want to embrace and engage the fans over the Internet then let us start a blog with you.’

Hessert said SMC, whose clients include Peyton Manning and Shaquille O’Neal, first used its cutting-edge Buzz Manager technology to monitor college football chatter on the Internet in order to research fans. She said the Buzz Manager ‘literally tracks everything on the Internet about a sports brand’-in this case, NCAA football. The Buzz Manager helped SMC better grasp which topics in the world of college football interested fans the most.

After analyzing the Buzz Manager’s results, SMC put together a blog that they hoped would engage all college football fans.

The features on the Every Game Counts blog include posts by alumni and former players, entries by guest coaches and tailgating experts and interactive polls.

Another weekly segment on the site is dueling bloggers. For this piece, a game of the week is selected. Then, two fan blogs for the respective teams involved in the game tell why their team will be victorious. For this past week’s games, bloggers from the ‘Corn Nation’ and ‘USC Trojan Football’ blogs debated the high-profile matchup between Nebraska and Southern California.

The guest coaches feature is another exclusive item on the blog. Over the first three weeks of the college season, coaches like Mack Brown and Tommy Bowden have posted their perspectives on an upcoming crucial game.

Executive Director of NCAA Football David Bertram said he’s happy with how the venture is going. NCAA Football is a not-for-profit organization and therefore has a relatively low budget. Bertram said the business wanted another cost-efficient way to promote their sport. A blog became the logical conclusion.

David Walker was tagged as the site’s master blogger. He is the gatekeeper of information on the site and blogs his own entries each week. It’s an opportunity Walker is grateful for simply because he is a huge college football fan.

‘I just type (issues) out and post it up there. It’s not like work for me, per se, because it’s something I might be doing anyways,’ said Walker.

Walker and Hessert said they are working on plans for more features for Every Game Counts, including podcasts, a sports blog index that ranks top blogs and a contest challenging fans to create a commercial demonstrating why they’re the most passionate supporters of their school.

NCAA Football has now taken one giant leap into the busy world of blogging, but Walker believes that just by putting an NCAA Football-sponsored blog on the Net will be enough to garner interest from hungry football followers looking for any information they can find.

‘The goal is to get people out there and to get feedback out there,’ said Walker. ‘The Internet is huge. There’s so many different sites you can go and get what you need and with college football the more viewpoints the better.’

Levin’s Locks:

Wisconsin (+14.5) at No. 6 Michigan

Saturday, noon, ESPN

Michigan is unbeaten and coming off a blowout of the former second-best team in the country. Wisconsin is unbeaten after struggling to a win over San Diego State. Plus, the Badgers have a tendency to choke in big games.

Michigan 35, Wisconsin 13

No. 12 Notre Dame (-3.5) at Michigan State

Saturday, 8 p.m., ABC

Thanks to their demanding schedule, if Notre Dame wins out, they should be the nation’s top one-loss team and have a legit shot at the national title. The hardened Irish will take out their anger over last week’s debacle by overpowering Michigan’s cross-state rival.

Notre Dame 35, Michigan St. 27

No. 8 Louisville (-14) at Kansas State

Saturday, noon, FSN

The Wildcats can prove they’re not the worst 3-0 team in college football by handing Louisville its first loss. KSU opened the season with a one-point victory over Div. I-AA Illinois St. and took their other two wins from Florida Atlantic and Marshall. No Brohm. No Bush. No problem. Louisville’s offense embarrasses another opponent

Louisville 45, Kansas St. 10

No. 20 Arizona State (+7.5) at No. 22 California

Saturday, 3:30 p.m., FSN

These Pac-10 rivals haven’t met since 2004, but expect some high-scoring fun. Each team scored over 40 points five times last year and so far this year they’ve combined three times to top the 40-point mark. However, in the end the Golden Bears outlast the Sun Devils.

California 42, Arizona St. 37

Miami (Ohio) University (+6.5) at Syracuse

Saturday, 7 p.m., ESPNU

It was a good sign when Syracuse ended its 11-game losing streak Saturday. It was an even better omen when Miami ended another team’s 11-game losing streak last week. The Orange start a winning streak this weekend.

Syracuse 27, Miami Univ. 10

Published on September 17, 2006 at 12:00 pm