Here at liveforthepage.com I pride myself on all content being honest to the best of the ability of those contributing. Partially as a way of counter-balancing the political onslaught of the next three months, and partially because I am playing way too much EA Sports College Football 25 I will be starting a new weekly post to talk about something related to college football this year. It’s natty championship or bust for our Ohio State Buckeyes this year, and I plan on busting open a few natty lights as well along the way.

I used to watch a ton of college football growing up, but my interest waned after high school, on and off getting into Buckeye runs when I moved to Columbus, and watching the playoff. First, because I want this to be something a person outside of Columbus would read, I am going to try my best to avoid being too much of a homer. Full disclosure: I graduated from the University of Toledo, and I work on Ohio State’s campus currently, I’m diving back into college football as an experience and I love the Buckeyes.

The scarlet and grey do not kickoff until next week, however I want to give a quick preview for week one matchup of Akron at home: it will be boring as hell. This has been one of my gripes with college football and why my attention to it faded, there are so many boring, meaningless, uncompetitive games. In terms of funding, size, athletic ability and coaching these two teams are barely playing the same sport. Buck nuts in the 614 and beyond will enjoy seeing the second and third string recruits early in the second half.

I stressed objectivity earlier, so allow me to say something nice about Michigan football, as it may be the last time all season. They have an ‘end of the third quarter’ pump up song similar to Wisconsin’s, “Jump Around.” Michigan plays, “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers, huge pop hit of my generation, and hearing 100,000 people sing it together is just one of those traditions that makes me smile. Piling on the objectivity front, I root for Michigan when they play Notre Dame.

I hope this will be a fun topic to come back to and that it will sufficiently dilute the political posts that are bound to come this election season. Our resident expert on all things Buckeyes and college football Zach will join me at some point for expert analysis, he is currently coaching all three of his kids in soccer and wasn’t available to breathe, let alone comment. Thanks for reading, and I hope this will be a classic college football season to watch with the new playoff format.

Since Manchester City are in Columbus this weekend for a preseason exhibition match against Chelsea, I thought I could extrapolate on a far better squad to come from the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. On this occasion I am not here to profess my Manchester United fandom, but my love for the best damn nineties band in the land: Oasis.

I want to go into the hypothetical here, because while they broke through in the United States with two big hit singles, ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Champagne Supernova’ they did not enjoy the same Oasis mania as they did in the United Kingdom. Their first two albums remain mainstays on best of the decade lists, but it was the cocaine fueled lunacy of the third album and band turmoil in general that kept them from the same success here.

Don’t get me wrong, ‘Be Here Now’ has some massive songs on it. However when you consider that just a year later in 1998 they released a collection of 14 b-sides from the era, I can’t help but wonder what might have been with a more coherent track list for the third album. This is nothing people haven’t discussed before about the band during that period, but here is why they would have owned America with a third salvo of Noel Gallagher gems.

I have never played, ‘Talk Tonight’ to someone who didn’t like it upon the first listen, and I have annoyed a lot of people in my time with Oasis propaganda. The guitar is in the same vein as, ‘Wonderwall’ and the lyrics are arguably more passionate which is like following a Super Bowl ring with another Super Bowl ring. The prolific nature of great songwriting during this time from Noel really shines on this one, and I’m only going to mention one other so you can enjoy the rest for yourself in your own way.

They recorded part of Be Here Now at Abbey Road Studios, before they got kicked out. Production value and string sections abound, and are beautiful and ascendant. For arrangements though, you haven’t heard a Noel Gallagher signature composition until you hear, ‘The Masterplan.’ ‘Take the time to make some sense of what you want to say, and cast your words away upon the waves.’ It goes on and on, getting bigger and bigger, and in a way it never ends for me.

Below is the album that could have been the third leg in the triumvirate, people would know Noel Gallagher in America like they know Simon Cowell. Any way that you slice it, that is so much more fucking palatable. Here is my pipe dream third album, it will make your day much more enchanting:

1. D’yer Know What I Mean

2. Acquiesce

3. Talk Tonight

4. Don’t Go Away

5. Stay Young

6. All Around the World

7. Rocking Chair

8. Half the World Away

9. Going Nowhere

10. Stand By Me

11. Fade Away

12. Magic Pie

13. (It’s Good) To Be Free

14. The Masterplan