The College Sports Conundrum

I live in a great place to be a fan. Boston is pretty much as good as it gets for sports, granted the teams aren't always the best (bruins and celtics) but it's generally always exciting and there is a ton of history. Heck even the uniforms are nice to look at if you ask UNI-Watch's Paul Lukas, he just named Boston the number one most livable uni city here.

If you ask most people in and around Boston they will tell you it's a professional town. Meaning that no one really cares about college sports in Boston, it's all about the pro teams. A statement I would generally agree with, however that doesn't mean people don't enjoy college sports. I personally love watching college hoops, college football and I love getting wrapped up in the College World Series (as evident by the video game story). But being from a professional town, or growing up in the vicinity of a professional town I should say, I find myself lacking a college team that I can latch on to and really root for. I was thinking about this while running and what I used to think was a bad thing is actually a great situation to be in.

Now sure there is Boston College but BC doesn't really count they have some top tier teams and some people do go wild for BC football but I hate BC. I grew up hating BC, there is one kid that makes up the student body at BC just one. In all seriousness 90% of the kids are the same and they are bags of douche and I will never root for BC because of this. My College Sports Conundrum was quelled for a while by video games. Thanks to NCAA Football on play station 2 and xbox I was able to take my D-III college and turn them into a Division 1-A power house but with the release of NCAA Football 2007 on XBOX 360 I ran into some problems, namely no create a team feature.

During the college football season my CSC was at a high all my buddies had either a team they grew up rooting for like Florida or a team with a stud player that they latched on to like Calvin Johnson and Georgia Tech. I had nothing and since I’m used to having a team to root for and follow with the Sox, Pats, Bruins and Celtics but college football I just watched with no real vested interest.

Watching the BCS Championship game (that I had originally thought OSU would run away with) I found myself rooting for Florida just because everyone was so sure OSU was going to win. That’s when I realized that it was fun and now with college hoops I’ve been following Texas because I really like Kevin Durant (I think I’m on the root against the Celtics so they can get Durant bus).

Mary Buckheit really opened my eyes to this the other day with here Out of Sight, Out of Mind story. Now I don’t ever see myself not following the Red Sox, Pats, Celtics or Bruins no matter where I happen to live, those are my teams and that’s not going to change. However with no college to root for I can shop around and find one I like for any number of reason. In high school I was a huge Oregon fan thanks to the Luke’s of Hazard so this basketball season I will be rooting for Texas because of Durant and Oregon once again because of Aaron Brooks. I don’t agree with sports bigamy but the college teams I root for could easily change from season to season.

Call it what you want to call it but I’ve found a solution to my College Sports Conundrum. I might be a “bandwagon” fan when it comes to college but I’m alright with it since sports is all about entertainment. Unless we are talking professional sports then it’s a whole different ball game, hey I live in a professional city remember.

a couple quick thoughts on the week that was... one - LT please stop your wamping, because in reality that's all it is straight wamping...how classless can it really be to imitate a celebration that is done by a guy who shaved lights out into his head...is this 1995? The Patriot players were right LT you are better than that but oh well apparently teams aren't allowed to celebrate winning a game that no one thinks they should have won or really have even competed in since the Chargers were just so super.

two - what is the over/under on Peyton Manning commercials during the AFC Championship game? 10? 15? Can we please see the “cut that meat” commercial, I mean if were going to see 45 of them anyway lets roll out the greatest hits of Peyton Manning ads.