The mtn. notwithstanding, still plenty of TV options

We spend so much time around here complaining about the college football games we can't see on TV, we sometimes forget to be happy about all the college football games we can see.

• If you don't have cable or satellite TV, your choices are limited. But you can still see Nevada at Nebraska (1:30 p.m., ABC/Ch. 4); Georgia Tech at Notre Dame (1:30 p.m., NBC/Ch. 5); Tennessee at California (6 p.m., ABC/Ch. 4) — and you can't exactly sniff at the Huskers, the Irish and the Vols.

• If your cable/satellite package includes ESPN and ESPN2 (as virtually all of them do), you can see East Carolina at Virginia Tech (10 a.m., ESPN); UAB at Michigan State (10 a.m., ESPN2); a to-be-announced game at 10 a.m. on ESPN; Missouri at Illinois (1:30 p.m., ESPN2); Oklahoma State at Georgia (4:45 p.m., ESPN2); and Kansas State at Auburn (5:45 p.m., ESPN) — and there are some big names there, too.

• If your cable/satellite package includes Fox Sports Net (which most of them do), you can see Colorado State vs. Colorado (10 a.m., FSN); UCLA at Stanford (1:45 p.m., FSN); North Texas at SMU (5 p.m., FSN); and Idaho at USC (8:15 p.m., FSN).

• If your cable/satellite package includes Versus — and it's available in more than 70 million homes nationwide — you've not only got Arizona at BYU (3:30 p.m.) but you'll also see Virginia at Wyoming (noon).

• If you've got CSTV (a considerably more iffy proposition), you can watch Tennessee Tech at E. Illinois (9 a.m.); Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Mississippi Valley State (noon); Baylor at TCU (4 p.m.); and New Mexico at UTEP (8 p.m.).

• And if you've got, ahem, The mtn., you can not only watch South Carolina State at Air Force (noon) but you can watch tape of Thursday night's UNLV-at-Utah State game (6 p.m.).

And those aren't even all the channels carrying college football. There are others out there, ranging from ESPNU to Fox College Sports to the Big Ten Network.

If we were to travel back in a time machine two or three decades and tell college football fans they'd have a choice of a couple dozen games to watch on a fall afternoon, they wouldn't believe you. It really isn't that long ago that you might get a game or two on ABC.

Today, you might need extra batteries for your remote.