For the next 18 Saturdays, I’ll turn on the TV and grind college football. I’ll be watching my favorite team, my least favorite team and all teams in between. There is no doubt that I’ll find some game to watch at any given time once 11 a.m. comes along on a Saturday.

Last Saturday, I did nothing. The TV stayed off. In fact, it might have been the longest period on a Saturday that the television hasn’t been on.

And surprisingly, the silence didn’t drive me crazy. I managed to polish off the current Sports Illustrated and the previous edition as well. I listened to music. I cleaned. I washed. I dried. (I didn’t iron … let’s don’t get crazy.)

But it was the silence that seemed to mimic the calm before the storm. Think about what’s about to happen … and how much will have transpired 18 weeks from now. The weather will take a dramatic turn. Teams will rise and then fall. Coaches will find themselves on the hot seat because of a bad September. The Heisman race will change every week.

College football has its warts, no doubt about it. But there’s nothing like it from week to week. Fans are nuts, coaches are completely paranoid and the media can’t get enough of it. Another Saturday comes along and then the whole process starts all over again.

That’s why my TV was more than happy that I gave it one last rest. Although I might have needed it more than my TV did.

It’s Jamboree Week in high school football and you know what’s coming next, so go ahead and sing along with me: It’s not like it used to be.

Because it’s not.

Jamborees are supposed to be more like an actual game than a scrimmage, although eventually nobody knows or cares who won the jamboree.

But it’s the lights and the whistles and the scoreboard and the cheerleaders and all the that goes with a real high school football game. That’s what a jamboree is supposed to be.

Here’s something else it’s supposed to be (or should be): A chance to watch a bunch of teams in one place at one time.

And by “a bunch,” I mean more than two. Because that’s what it’s become. The pendulum has swung back and jamborees are now more like a scrimmage than more like a game.

In Bossier Parish, they still do it semi-right (if you don’t mind staying until midnight). Six teams, three games and let’s strap it on.

In Caddo Parish, it once was a situation when six teams would play on Thursday and six more would play on Friday, but get this — you would rotate opponents. Team 1 would play Team 2, then Team 2 would play Team 3, then 3 vs. 4, etc. Poor Team 1 would have to sit around and wait to play Team 6, but that only happened to one team every sixth year in the rotation.

A high school football fan could show up and see six teams play all the same night and relative rapid-fire succession. I remember playing Northwood one quarter and Green Oaks the next. Stayed around and watched another quarter and then got back on the bus. Another year, we had that dreaded “first and last” rotation, but it gave us the chance to see who else might be good.

Not any more.

For a variety of reasons — not all of which have to do with football — this method of jamborees ceased about 20 years ago. Now it’s two teams and often it’s freshmen vs. freshmen, JV vs. JV and (eventually) varsity vs. varsity.

I am fully aware that there’s no going back. But eventually when I get named King of the World, this will be on my list of changes.