posted
I admit it, I'm a fairly serious fan. I don't know if you'd call me rabid, but we do subscribe to ESPN's Game Plan so that we can see the Big 12 games in what is otherwise a Big 10 market.
My #1 team is the OU
Sooners. I do have secondary loyalties to other teams, like UCLA, USC (except when they are playing UCLA), Purdue and Ohio State (when Purdue plays Ohio State I root for Purdue, but since I live with an Ohio State fan, I don't mind if they win)
So then I pretty much on a weekly basis root for the teams to win that will help my selected teams in the rankings on a prioritized basis. So this weekend I was rooting against USC and for Virginia Tech, because USC was higher in the polls than OU. And, even though Tech lost, they made USC look shaky enough that according to my favorite college football commentary site, http://www.collegefootballnews.com/2004/Rankings/CFN_Rankings.htm they now think Oklahoma is the better team.
Is anyone else on hatrack this crazed about college football?
posted
Looks like it's going to be a rebuilding year for my Hogs. Kinda hard to be excited about football when you're team is picked 4th in the SEC west...
And even harder when you've been living in California for 12 years and never get a chance to see them.
posted
I'm a die-hard UVa fan, and I think we're looking pretty good this season. Although I hate Va. Tech, I root for them whenever they play outside the ACC, so when we beat them we look that much better.
posted
Actually I'm so hard up for Big 12 fans up here I'd invite you over to watch the game! AJ (Steve did have to drag me out of Costco the other day to prevent me from heckling someone who was wearing a Nebraska shirt, while I was wearing my OU sweatshirt.)
Yes, I am a rabid college football fan. As far as UW football goes, I haven't missed a home game in 6 years, I've only missed four of the past ten bowl games, and I've watched every other game (some of them twice, thanks to the late-night repeats on PBS). I'll watch pretty much any game, but I'm most likely going to side against the higher-ranked team, especially if they're in the Big Ten. I won't cheer for Miami (FL), it takes a lot to get me to cheer for Notre Dame, and California schools? Go Bears, but that's about it.
I sneer at people wearing any sort of non-UW Big Ten apparel, even if I'm at Penn State for the weekend. I check commentaries sometimes twice a day. I dance with joy when I find people who can talk intelligently about football. And I worship drunk old men who sit in the upper deck and scream at the refs. As if they can hear you, bud. Yeah, a blind man could've seen that was holding, but please don't spill your drink on me again.
I think it comes from growing up in Green Bay - an overdeveloped sense of football in general.
So who else thinks the Big Ten trying out instant replay this season is... interesting?
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
Didn't another conference experiment with it last year, or was that the Big 10 too? There's no reason the major conferences shouldn't have it considering the amount of television coverage even the smaller teams get.
I like the current pro set up where instant replays are limited, but good for emergencies. That one call on Saturday that went against VaTech was pretty bad.
posted
I think the Big Ten had it for a couple games last year, or they were at least discussing it. In this year's format, only the booth refs will be allowed to call for replays - coaches have nothing to do with it, so it'll be much more limited than the pros.
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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I'm a rabid UM (Hurricanes) fan, but not as rabid for the sport as a whole as I am for other sports. I can get all the UM games, generally speaking, for free, so I would never subscribe to GamePlan. I used to be a season ticket holder, and I will live and die as they do (at least on Saturdays), but, for comparison, I do subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket and MLB All Access (which provides me with live high quality streaming video of baseball games through broadband, for much less than MLB Extra Innings!)
Again, for comparison, I will watch Yankees games, because they are my favorite team, and I will watch Marlins games, because they are a distant second, but I will also watch Red Sox games so that I can use my brujerÃa to help them lose, and those of any team currently ranked above the Marlins (currently the Braves, but I may have to give up and start concentrating on wild card soon. Paradoxically, I think they have a better chance of winning their division, though they are like 8 games out, than the wildcard, though they are only four or five out there.)
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Well, I flew from Texas to DC for the game on Saturday to cheer on my Hokies - does that qualify me for diehard status?.
I've been both looking forward to and dreading this season because of Tech's recent history and knowing that they're not as bad as most think. And I'm definitely looking for my Hokies to play spoiler this season for some ACC teams (such as the Cavaliers).
And I might just have to develop some loyalty to the Longhorns, since that's where I'm at for grad school... but the jury's still out on that. I'll know for sure after the first game whether I can root for them or not.
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I never developed any loyalty to the Clemson Tigers. In fact, it didn't even occur to me to mention them in my previous post.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Zgator, it is pretty hard. Once my two favorite teams were UM and Ohio State. Then Ohio State beat Miami, now I hate them.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Why? I don't hate the Marlins just because they beat the Yankees. I wish they hadn't, but that's just life. *shrug* Do you hate Penn State, Tennessee, and UCLA as well?
(Besides, Ohio State didn't really beat the Canes!)
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And I'm definitely looking for my Hokies to play spoiler this season for some ACC teams (such as the Cavaliers). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's good to have unattainable dreams - it helps you learn to handle disappointment.
Yeah, you're probably right. UVA won't have much of a season to spoil anyway.
Posts: 959 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Well, Ohio St. was a distant second, I cheered for them more when I didn't have the Canes. Games I watch and care about tend to leave a lasting impression on me. For example I only started liking the Detroit Lions when I decided to cheer for them against the Bears on Thanksgiving. They lost and I'm not sure why I cared but since them they've been second only to the Dolphins.
Penn St. and Tennessee I don't care about but I hate UCLA and Notre Dame.
And yes that was an awful call.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
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I am without a doubt, Sooner born and Sooner bred, and when I die , I'll be Sooner dead. All other teams can go suck an egg. Especially Texas. And Oklahoma State. And Miami. And Nebraska (although there's an unspoken respect between the two big reds) And Notre Dame. And did I say Texas?
Posts: 288 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Admit it, it was an awful call, the game should have been over. What's worse id that ref had been in trouble from his conference for bad calls earlier in the season. Wow, I can't believe I'm arguing about this two years after the fact.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
actually I think this is a relevant argument, expsecially after the olympic gymnastics fiasco. Officiating is part of the game. All officiating, the good and the bad. That is the way things go. The call was questionable but it was made and upheld. So the argument has to stop there. The good guys won and all the whinny Miami fans complained and overlooked the fact that every team benefits from calls like that one from time to time. This just happened to be the biggest stage in college football so it got more press. The bucks won, and that still rocks.
Posts: 1294 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I want to be a BYU Cougar fan, but it's hard after last year's horrible season. Getting shutout 3-0 by the U of U was just too much.
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Officiating shouldn't be part of the game though. That's the goal of any ref. That's also why we need instant replay for every sport for every level. Go TV!!!
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If instant replay were at every level, what would people moan about at bars later at night? Where would the fun be in screaming at the refs? When would we chant "The ref beats his wife!"?
I'm not a huge fan of instant replay. Perhaps the ultra-modified, only-divine-intervention-will-save-the-call version that the Big Ten will use will open me up to it a bit.
Players mess up, refs mess up, everyone messes up. It happens. And it makes life exciting. I'd rather argue over a play that wasn't replayed and overturned and analysed to death in five minutes than let it go because the "right" call was made. Sign me up for drunken arguments!
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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That's the same argument that is used to justify the Bowl system, and it seems silly to me there. Why have a playoff and a real national championship, people say, when having a muddled postseason gives rise to all these fun arguments about who is better? I just don't get this line of thinking. By this logic, why not stop keeping score, and decide subjectively who won the game at the end? Maybe we'll use olympic judges to give teams scores: "They made three touchdowns, but the had an interception and a fumble--that's bad. Their cheerleaders were also not well choreographed, and they missed a field goal. Their touchdown celebrations did not have a great deal of originality. They also lost points on level of difficulty, because they hardly ever faced third down. I give them an 8.6."
That's silly. We play the games because we want the competition. We want someone to win and someone to lose. We don't do it primarily for water-cooler fodder later on. We do it for bragging rights. Get the call right, and give the right team the title.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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hmmm... it's my opinion that the right team got the title that night. And guess what, I'm right because I can drive down to OSU campus and visit the National Title Trophy. Can't do that in Miami, now can you? Posts: 1294 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I can visit 5. You should have seen the McDonald's commercial they had down here with Larry Coker for promotional Cane championship glasses.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
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LSU played a better team but got to play at home and OU clearly wasn't the same team after losing to KSU. Since I don't think any top 5 team should ever lose at home and USC got to play a weak Michigan and neither team was undefeated I don't think either team deserved to be called National Champion.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
The fault with your logic is that if the superdome is a home venue for LSU, wouldn't the rose bowl be the same for USC? (Horrid sentence structure I know, but my education goes right out the window when I start talking college football.)
Posts: 288 | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
Rose Bowl is different partly because its the Rose Bowl which means a Big Ten team always play in it (except when Miami beat Nebraska ).
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