22nd
College Football, Tribalism, Militarism and One of My Life’s Goals
It’s that time of the year again.
Bowl Season.
This year there are 34 games, many of them celebrating mediocrity. Some of them look to be exciting, but most them seem fairly predictable.
I got the Bowl Season started off Saturday with Kenley and Adam—ghetto grapes, BW3’s and a little bit of early smack talk.
I’ll go on the record and say how happy I am that Arizona beat BYU (but I haven’t gotten over them beating Nebraska in their last bowl game). And, I’ll go on the record and say that I’ve picked Georgia, USC, Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma to win their games.
What’s funny about the Bowl Season is how divisive college football can be—even for friends. Among college football, politics and religion, it’d be hard for me to say which topic has produced the most heated conversations I’ve been witness to. Funny.
It sort of exposes the sin of tribalism in us. And I’m guilty. I really don’t like Colorado, Tennessee or Georgia fans. There is a long list of coaches that I might not ever be able to respect because of sexist, racist and elitist things they’ve said, or been misquoted saying. And the conferences… that almost creates new nations within our country as far as I’m concerned. When the Big 10 is good I’m usually a hater. I can’t seem to take the Pac-10 very seriously—at least as a football conference. The SEC is fast, but as of late perhaps a bit over-rated. The MAC is basically the Ohio State’s J.V. league. The new ACC is at least interesting, but most good team’s practice squads would have their way with the best of the ACC. And the Big East… seriously???
Worst than tribalism, what I hate the most about college football is how the military takes advantage of the event by flexing their nuts. Stealth bomber fly-overs during the concluding line of the National Anthem, or paratroopers parachuting in to deliver the game ball just before kick-off, even the aggressive recruiting presence at major stadium entrances… it’s too much. It’s inappropriate.
But as divisive it can be and as easy as it is to tip tribalism in us all, I just love college football.
So a few years ago I set a goal: to see every Division 1-A team play live.
IF I ever achieve seeing all the teams play live, then of course I could elevate the challenge by aiming to see every D-1A stadium, or attend a conference championship game for each conference or even set out to attend each bowl game.
But there are a number of challenges to overcome to make this goal a possibility. First, I’m getting old—already 37. Second, college football teams only play 10-14 games a year, unlike most other sports that play much more frequently. Third, I live in Omaha and the closest teams to me are 1-4 hours a way.
Anyway, I’m off to a pretty good start. Have already seen 54 of the 120 teams play in 28 different stadiums:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arizona State
- Auburn
- Boston College
- California
- UCF
- Cincinnati
- Clemson
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Duke
- East Carolina
- Florida State
- Georgia
- Georgia Tech
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa State
- Kansas
- Kansas State
- Kentucky
- Louisville
- Maryland
- Memphis
- Miami
- Michicgan State
- Mississippi
- Mississippi State
- Missouri
- NC State
- Nebraska
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Ohio State
- Oregon
- Oregon State
- Pittsburg
- South Carolina
- Syracuse
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Texas A&M
- TCU
- Toledo
- UAB
- UCLA
- USC
- Vanderbilt
- Virginia
- Virginia Tech
- Wake Forest
- Washington
- West Virginia
