Looking forward to Labor Day football

Memorial Day is a great holiday. Sort of kicks off the summer. And Memorial Day has great meaning, too. I’ve been to two cemeteries so far and will hit two more on Sunday before spending the afternoon with family I don’t often get to see.

As holidays go, Memorial Day has it all over Labor Day. The weather is better in late May. The meaning is far better. The calendar spot is better; the first of three summer holidays instead of the last of three.

But Labor Day beats Memorial Day in one huge element. Football. Labor Day has football.

I took a peek at the Labor Day schedule this year; we’ve got two college football games. Navy-Maryland at 3 p.m. on ESPN and Boise State-Virginia Tech from the Redskins’ FedEx Field in suburban D.C. at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

Not bad. That will make for a fun Labor Day evening, capping off the first weekend of college football.

Labor Day Sunday has two games relevant to Oklahomans. Tulsa plays at East Carolina at 1 p.m. on ESPN2. SMU plays at Texas Tech, Tommy Tuberville’s debut, at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN.

The weekend kicks off Thursday, and among the televised games are Southern Miss (Larry Fedora) at South Carolina at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN, followed by Southern Cal at Hawaii in Lane Kiffin’s debut at 10 p.m. on ESPN.  And Pittsburgh plays at Utah (7:30 p.m., Versus).

On Friday, Arizona (Mike Stoops) plays at Toledo at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

Saturday’s television schedule isn’t finalized but among the games set are UCLA at Kansas State (2:30 p.m., ABC), Texas at Rice (2:30 p.m., ESPN), Oregon State-TCU from Arlington (6:45 p.m., ESPN), LSU-North Carolina from Atlanta (7 p.m., ABC), Cincinnati at Fresno State (9 p.m., ESPN2) and Wisconsin at Nevada-Las Vegas (10 p.m., Versus).