As you can tell I’m amping up for the football season. (Which is not to say I’m not keeping a close eye on my division-leading Detroit Tigers, a precarious 1 1/2 out front of Rick Bozich’s beloved Pale Hose in the AL Central.)

But the Film Babe has been warned. When September hits, I’m going deep BarcaLounger.

Anyhow, as the season draws nigh, here are a quintet of queries football is facing (And aren’t the alliterative juices commencing to flow!)

1 – Which coach is sitting on a hotter seat: Steve Kragthorpe or Nick Saban? Scoff if you must, but football is religion in Alabama. Saban has resurrected the Crimson Tide, buuuuuuut . . . they finished last season 0-2 after reaching the top of the polls and beating the Bayou Bengals in Baton Rouge. Losing to the Gators in the SEC title game wasn’t all that bad. But, oh my, what happened against, ahem, Utah? I’ll remind you, ‘Bama was throttled in the Sugar Bowl by the underdog, unheralded Utes, 17-31. It wasn’t that close.

Here in town, if U of L has another bad to mediocre season, Cardinal fans will simply cancel season ticket orders and head to Freedom Hall for tip off. If Alabama ends this season as it did last, even a win over Auburn won’t help. Diehards will be jumping off skyscrapers in B-ham, and there will be riots on Bear Bryant Boulevard. Saban will be turning to Blackwater for protection.

2 – Now that Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford are best buds, whatever will the good ol’ boys from Tejas and Oooooooooooooklahoma have to fight about on the state fair midway in Big D during Red River Rivalry weekend? Oh, given the brewski quotient, I trust they’ll find something other than who won the biggest panda for his prom queen at the ring toss.

3 – Will 28 camera locations be enough to capture all the glamor and excitement of Southern Cal’s visit to the horseshoe on the Olentangy against the Buckeyes? Normally ABC uses about a dozen or so cameras in a given stadium on football Saturday. For this Rose Bowl-quality clash, I’m told the network is more than doubling the number. Brat & Brew Cam, here we come.

4 – How will the nation’s rabbis contend with the clash of Football Saturday and Rosh Hashona, the beginning of the sacred High Holidays, on September 19? Shortened sermons. HD screens in the synagogue? An early aliyah for Cards and Cats fans, so they can skip out before the Yisgadal for noon kickoff?

5 – Will Louisville break its bowl-less streak at two seasons and make it to the St. Petersburg Bowl against Central Florida? Phil Steele, the pontiff of pigskin prognosticators, says they will. Brace yourselves, Kragthorpe Haters, what Steele says usually goes.

Check your chinstraps, fans, we’re only a month from kickoff.

– Seedy K