KempBolt 498 Posted September 11, 2014 As a native of San Diego, major college football has always been something of a strange world for me. I obviously love my Aztecs, but I've never had a real dog jn the fight when it comes to teams that have a true shot at a National Championship. Many San Diegans turn north to the Trojans, but all things L.A. are anathema to me. A couple years back I tried to hop on with Stanford. I likes their pro style and tough players. But getting on board with a team just as they're getting good feels wrong. As a long suffering follower of teams that have historically been losers, I am innately opposed to jumping on the bandwagon of a team on the rise. So basically, Cardinal fanhood didn't take. The other day my brother in law, a long time Miami Hurricanes fan, texted me a long rant about how terrible Al Golden and his staff are. He became a fan as a youngster during the heyday of 'Canes football. His only tie to the teamwas admiration from afar (Montana) of immmensely talented squads. Since those days, he's been consistently disappointed by mismanagement and hapless coaches. His rant sparked an idea in my mind: what if we both abandoned our favorite teams and found a new major college program to root for. He thought I was kidding at first, but I persisted. A plan quickly took shape. We would throw together every program that we had at least some affinity for, place the teams into a tournament style bracket, debate winners out of each matchup, advance said teams, and eventually land on a grand champion. The criteria for the participants were as follows: we had to agree on them mutually and they had to be from the ACC, SEC, P12, B10, or B12. Major considerations would be as follows: recruiting territory, long term prospects, they can't be great at the moment, coach, and mascot. So our list ended up being: -Oregon State -Washington -Cal -ASU -Arizona -Purdue -Michigan State -Georgia -Oklahoma State -TCU -KSU -Illinois -Iowa -Nebraska -Wisconsin -Utah -Colorado -Missouri I won't bore people with each matchup (as if you're not already bored... or still reading), but a few notes: my brother in law has an anti SEC bias so we only had two entries from that conference, and his time as a Canes fan made other ACC teams really distasteful. UGA and MSU were in at his request (weird that he wanted the Dogs, but that was the case) but they never stood a real chance-- they're too good right now and it would have been Stanford all over again. The four obvious favorites between the two of us were Washington, TCU, Oregon State, and Cal. Suffice it to say, the Huskies won out for a few reasons. They make sense regionally (we're in SW Montana), they have an exciting new coach, they recruit in a decent region, we both like P12 football, they aren't really great at the moment, they consistently put some nice players into the NFL, and my dad is actually an alumni (oddly, I had no idea until I was grown-- he literally never mentions it). So the University of Washington is my new CFB home. Hoping it sticks and I think it will. Go Huskies. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BJORN 679 Posted September 12, 2014 Can't go wrong with the Huskies. Oregon St. would've been cool as well, reunited with Mike Riley? lol I guess it doesn't come as much of a surprise that as a San Diego sports fan, I share and respect most of your views especially about LA and usually about bandwagoning. I'm a Maryland fan, seeing how I go to school here....but our football program is only decent. However, I'm also a huge LSU football fan for a similar reason as to why you liked Stanford; I just turned on the tv one day and Les Miles was calling the craziest plays in the book. Fakes, going for it on 4th and goal...instantly won me over as a fan and that's when I really got into college FB. Just as a side note, I was accepted to transfer to LSU from community college and was set to go there if I didn't get into UMD. Just curious but did you go to San Diego St? I've also been a fan of them, though mostly in basketball and of course the Brady Hoke season was awesome in football. And are you into college basketball? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
blotsfan 2,112 Posted September 12, 2014 Shoulda picked Mizzou. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OSUViking 505 Posted September 12, 2014 Jump on Minnesota's bandwagon. They're slowly building up, but they're about to be routed at TCU methinks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cherry 1,302 Posted September 12, 2014 Really couldn't have gone wrong with any of those teams, to be honest. Personally I would've gone with Washington or Iowa. Iowa is really starting to build up, but they are far from complete. Washington is much farther along, but have a tendency to drop easy games. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mathias 394 Posted September 12, 2014 Would've gone with Okie State because of Mike Gundy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
