College football will be ushered in this week and the anticipation for some will mirror the excitement that is always greeted by the pro teams.

Mark me, on the college side as far as playing, to booking, or just watching, along with scheduling, college always offers more in variety than the pros.

As no matter how much you slice it there is only so many possible matchups that you can have. The colleges, although there are basically so many teams, you have teams that only meet once every 10 years in the regular season. These types of games provide great intrigue and draw lots of attention and action for all of the books.

For instance, I believe that LSU and North Carolina have not met in the regular season since 1986 and the Pittsburgh and Utah game will have a huge bearing on where they will be slotted come January.

So, as far as mix and match, the colleges far outdistance the big boys.

Booking the early stuff is also a little trickier although the numbers that are posted early have been holding steadier as the years unwind.

Tony at the Nugget has probably seen far fewer games moving 7-10 points as he once did for a few reasons that we will save for another column.

The pros are what they are and, other than a Favre distraction, the openers have not moved more than a point since June.

The colleges take a little more time for various reasons. Swings from year to year can be much more exaggerated because of kids leaving and coaching changes and incoming freshman.

And everyone basically starts with last year’s power ratings and adjust from there.

Everybody then tweaks what he or she feels is relevant.

The numbers usually take 3 weeks of play before they settle in. I like to see early on with teams who played last year the closing number, the outcome and anything quirky in the game that might have affected the outcome.

Here are a couple and you draw your own conclusions as your opinion is worth the same as everyone else.

Missouri played Illinois on a neutral site and the Illini opened -3 and closed -6.

Young Gabbert and the Tigers mauled them 37-9. Both teams have about the same amount of starters back and they’re again on a neutral field, but now the Tigers are a 12 point favorite.

Now, could a team get 18 points better even with extenuating circumstances? See what I mean about coming out of the box with college numbers?

Notre Dame with all their high expectations with Charlie Weiss was a 6 point favorite on the road against Purdue last year. Now with bigger expectations with Brian Kelly, they come 11 points against Purdue.

This surely is not as big a move from the Mizzou game and the arrival of Kelly will definitely make you lay a more few points on the Irish, especially early on.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that there is more art than science, at least from my standpoint in September.

You will get a better grip, at least with a "number" on these four teams after they tangle this week.

So as I have always said, everyone to some degree is giving an "educated guess" early on and that is not always a bad thing.

So enjoy as soon as we start, because as exciting as college football is, January will be here in no time.

So I leave on a lighter note for lookalikes. Levi "Alaska" Johnston and "Pittsburgh" Mike Colbert.

Take care, Jimmy V.

Jimmy Vaccaro is the director of sports operations for Lucky’s sports books.