The end of the summer is a sad period for many people. The glorious weather is behind us, the days are getting shorter, and soon enough it will be time to start hanging Halloween decorations. For people who enjoy long sunny days, sitting in their gardens and watching the world go by, you can still do that, but you’ll need to wrap up warm and get a pair of night-vision goggles before too long.
For the majority of sports fans, they will be glad that the warm days are behind us, as autumn/fall means that most sports seasons are up and running again. And how they’ve started! Considering the 2020/21 campaigns in most sports/ competitions still were mainly played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the start of this new season saw fans finally being allowed back into stadiums, to cheer on their teams for the first time in almost 18 months. It was a sign of things going back to normal, and a huge sigh of relief for supporters (and of course the clubs, who were struggling financially with staging games to empty stadiums).
In soccer, the Champions League is well underway, and already we’ve seen some truly astounding results. 13-time winners Read Madrid were humbled 2-1 at home by FC Sheriff, a Moldovan side who were making their first appearance in the competition. Another Spanish giant, Barcelona, also suffered a shock defeat, as they lost 3-0 to the Portuguese side Benfica. Given they now sit bottom of the Champions League group, and haven’t been faring much better in La Liga, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see manager Ronald Koeman being sacked in the coming weeks, if not days.
In the world of American football, we are three games into the new NFL season, and again there have been some surprising stories that have shocked us all. The Kansas City Chiefs have been one of the top teams in recent seasons, winning the Super Bowl in 2020, and making it to the final in February this year. However, they are currently dead last of the AFC West, having lost twice in three games, to the Baltimore Ravens and the Los Angeles Chargers. Former MVP Patrick Mahomes and coach Andy Reid have their work cut out if they expect to turn their fortunes around and make it to the playoffs again this season.
A few teams have perfect 3-0 records, the Arizona Cardinals, the LA Rams, the Carolina Panthers, the Las Vegas Raiders and the Denver Broncos. All of these sides will be keen to keep this good form going, and fans will be keeping their fingers crossed to see them make it to the post-season games in November.
So there is a lot going on in the NFL, but what about in college football? The season is also well underway there, with a number of great games and intriguing results already occurring in the early part of the campaign. Sports betting fans have been having a field day searching their apps for the best college football picks, to see what odds they can find on their favourite teams and players. Let’s do a roundup of some of the top stories in the world of college football.
Clemson finding it tough going so far
The Clemson Tigers are one of the most well supported and most successful college football teams, with 26 conference titles and 8 division titles, the most recent coming in 2019. This season they have played four games so far, but have won just two of them. They opened the campaign with a loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. The Tigers never really got going and didn’t even manage a touchdown in their 10-3 defeat. While they then picked up consecutive victories against South Carolina State and Georgia Tech, their most recent fixture was a 27-21 loss to North Carolina State. Head coach Dabo Swinney has a lot of work to do to improve their fortunes.
Elsewhere in the ACC Atlantic Conference, Wake Forest has started the season very well, with four wins from four. Their next fixture sees them welcome the Louisville Cardinals to the Truist Field, where they will be hoping to maintain their perfect record.
West coast winners
On the other side of the country, the Oregon Ducks have begun their 2021 campaign in seriously impressive style. They have defeated Fresno State, Ohio State, the Stony Brook Seawolves and the Arizona Wildcats, to be sitting clear at the top of the PAC-12 North conference.
Arizona State has won all three of their home games but was soundly beaten by the BYU Cougars 27-17 when the two sides faced off on the 19th of September. Arizona is still at the top of the PAC-12 South and will be hoping to not suffer too many more defeats in the next few weeks and months.
