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I sat in my hotel room Saturday night with the remote control and stirred the alphabet soup of college football—ABC, CBS, ESPN. All had great games going, so I surfed the channels, hoping to catch the high points (or the replays of the high points) of the day's action.

While I watched the Bulldogs, Badgers, and Boilermakers roll to victory, something began to simmer in my mind. There were a lot of people at those games. Not only that, it took a lot more people to get ready for and to clean up after the 56 Division I-A games played on Saturday.

I know you chamber of commerce types are snickering at my naïveté, but to be honest, I've never considered the "numbers game" before.

If I had attended The University of Tennessee game as planned on Saturday, I would have shared the stadium with 102,037 of my closest friends. We would have consumed up to 150,000 soft drinks, 40,000 hot dogs, and 12,000 boxes of popcorn. We would have used more than 200,000 pounds of ice.

A total of 70 players can take the field for each team during a NCAA-sanctioned game. In addition to the head coach, each team brings along dozens of assistant coaches, trainers, and water carriers. Hundreds of media types show up too, and, of course, there are the stripes who referee the game.

Before each matchup, someone mows the grass and paints those pretty checkerboard squares in the end zones. Someone (or a team of someones) cleans the stadium. Someone else gathers the stats and prints the programs. Someone cooks the hot dogs.

After the game, someone clears away all the garbage left by the screaming fans. By Sunday afternoon, most stadiums around the country stand pristine again, ready for the next battle.

But here's the deal. Unless you're the goat or the hero—someone who makes a difference in the outcome of a game—no one ever thinks about you. Few people ever bother to thank all the people it takes to make a game day successful. So hats off to all the unsung heroes at stadiums across the land! To each and every one of you, we say thank you. There would be no college football without you.