One of the better things about college football? Early-season matchups like Oklahoma-Alabama, Oklahoma State-Nebraska, and, of course, Saturday?s tremendous Miami-Florida showdown. And what a game the latter was.

Miami?s Brock Berlin, who just happens to be a Florida transfer, only overcame a 23-point second half deficit in willing his team to a 38-33 victory. He only passed for 340 yards, and apparently, it?s been the only early-season performance worthy of bringing the big ?H? word to people?s lips. Sub-plots, offensive fireworks, comebacks, Heisman talk: no better television than a game like that.

I wouldn?t really know, though. Everything I?ve recounted is, of course, hearsay. Completely unsubstantiated. For all the state of Wisconsin knows, the Miami-Florida barnburner never occurred, might well have been completely imagined: no visual record of the contest ever existed inside the confines of our favorite hand-shaped state.

Thanks to the mindless, misguided devotion of an entire state to a certain green and gold-clad team, the best game of this — granted — young college football season went unaired, unwatched and, worst of all, unappreciated.

The colossal comeback completed by Larry Coker?s Miami squad: slashed from ABC?s Saturday night program lineup to accommodate — drum roll, please — ?Lambeau Field: Rebirth of a Legend.?

Puke.

Press release: ?It will be a phenomenal show that will feature live music, Packers legends past and present, special videos … highlights of Lambeau?s greatest moments and a tribute to the greatest fans in the world — Packers fans. When it?s all over, the evening will be remembered as one of the greatest moments in Packers history.?

Right. Not winning Super Bowls I, II, XXXI, and XXXII. Not Reggie White setting the career sack record. Not Brett Favre?s record three-straight MVP awards. Not Antonio Freeman?s 2000 Monday Night catch against the hated Vikes. A rededication. Of a structure. Comprised of wood, aluminum, grass, and, obviously, a few too many plastic bottles once filled with mind-numbing Miller products. Of course.

Actual sports subjugated by Packer pandering. Complete suppression of all things not green and gold. Complete totalitarianism. Unfortunately, it?s not a concept I?m unfamiliar with.

The Little League World Series, the centerpiece of my summer (or at least the last two weeks of it), couldn?t escape the Canes?-game fate. The United States LLWS final, a wholly American event, patriotism defined, a contest not to be missed by anyone who considers himself a Yank? (So maybe I have an odd obsession with the LLWS, but that?s not the point at all.) Cancelled. (It, too, was seen by the rest of the nation on ABC.)

12-year-old Florida phenom Michael Broad, he of the 78 MPH fastball: shelved, so a state?s appetite for Doug Pederson incompletions could be satiated in the form of a Pack preseason game.

So, do State of the Union-esque Nielsen ratings for a preseason game make Pack devotees the ?greatest fans in the world,? as the Lambeau brass implies? Just maybe. But what Packer fans must realize is that there actually is a world out there. A big one that?s pretty cool and diversified. Especially when it comes to sports programming choices.

Yeah, I like the idea that you could plant a three-ring circus in the middle of University Avenue on a Sunday afternoon in fall and not risk one clown?s oversized shoes being run over. I even admire the sweeping genetic changes that now allow Wisconsinites to be born with Brett Favre jerseys pre-printed on their skin.

But the madness must stop somewhere. These inspiring shows of devotion are nothing if not commendable, but a line must be drawn.

During actual Packer contests, anything goes. In fact, I?ll even champion the idea of forcibly beaming the Packer game into every TV set, radio, laptop and PDA in the state. This will thrill most Wisconsinites, as it should completely remedy the problem of those silly Wisconsin-born Bears fans around Kenosha, etc.

We can even let post-game coverage extend for the rest of the programming day.

Obviously, Packermania is a difficult disease to keep from spreading on Sundays, and it seems non-fatal so long as it infects only the programming of network channels. I know this is probably news to you Packer fans, but some little cable outlet called ESPN is nice enough to televise a whole other NFL game every Sunday night that, for whatever reason, doesn?t even involve a quarterback from Kiln, MS.

But that?s all you get each week. 24 hours. Sunday. The official day of un-rest in Wisconsin.

After that, how ?bout we open up our collective sporting mind and take in the superb games that teams of all kinds from all over the rest of the country take the time and effort to play in — the games the rest of this great nation doesn?t have to worry about missing.