My "Other" Teams

Everyone has them, no one really likes to talk about it. It goes against the rules. In College athletics, you pick a team (or "have" a team, some people don't actually get to pick) Thats your team for life. No switching or trading. Thats who you root for, and you only get One. Thats the rules, and if you break them, you are a sports bigamist or polygamist. And you will be treated as the outsider you are, much like actual polygamist.
But we all do it. Theres that team from across the country you check the bottomline for. That school you secretly pull for in every game but one. Some say its OK. That there are situations where its allowed. Clay Travis has written extensively on the subject and the rules that apply(he's a proponent of sports bigamy, just within his rules). Recently Page 2 on ESPN.com tried to make a list of rules for fans. These attempts to define the "rules" are really just masked attempts at letting the bigamist feel better. The basic principle is you can't root for a rival school, ever. And in college football every school is a potential rival. Until this past year, I had no problem with Ohio State. They were boring and crappy, but I was a well-wisher in that I wished no specific harm on them. But that changed as soon as we played them 3 times in two sports for two titles in the span of 3 months. Now I, of course, hate OSU and their lame ass fans.
So in theory, you should have just one team, and in all other games you should root for whatever is in the best interest of your one team. However, this isn't always much fun. You'd spend 95% of your time rooting for teams to lose, and that seems pretty negative, and also, most of the teams you'd root against would probably be above .500 teams, so you'd be disappointed more often than not. In light of these facts, I give you the list of teams I root for when the Gators aren't playing. I'm not proud of it. I goes against all I stand for, but its a reality of the sport. And I'm pretty sure I'm not alone, although thats really no excuse. And don't think I won't still mock you for your divided interest, I would expect the same treatment for myself. You'll also notice that none of my "other" teams are rivals (I'm using this term loosely, as already having been defined above) of my School, with the notable exception of one (I hate myself so much for it too).

South Florida -
My ties to USF begin geographically. Its by far the closest D-1 school to home. Second, my mother is a USF grad. And Third, a close friend is a diehard USF fan whose uncle happens to coache the team. While none of these mean anything- I'm still a polygamist, there's no excuse - I at least have some ties to the school. The Bulls have never played UF in any sport in my collective memory, therefor we're still not rivals... yet.

Penn State -
The reasoning behind my fondness for PSU is obviously their coach. I have never heard a bad word about him and he's also the only shot we have of not letting Booby Bowden keep the all-time win record. His latest antics, of making the team clean the stadium after home games, and revealing he just discovered the TV show MASH, are priceless anecdotes that add to his crazy old man persona. I'm truly jealous of PSU fans for being able to root for a coach for 40 some odd years and have absolutely no qualms about his actions or policies. JoePa is an icon and should go down as one of the greatest coaches ever, much greater than that louse at FSU. and He's 80 years old for cryin out loud, thats amazing.

Virginia Tech -
This one seems obvious this year as the whole nation hopes for good things for the victims of that tragedy. But my allegiance was before this year and for other reasons. I like the name hokies, I like the fans I've met, I like the home crowd, and I like that they play Miami every year. Also they play a fun type a football, with great special teams and a penchant for turnovers. In 2000, I never wanted a team, not named the Gators to win more than the Hokies vs. FSU in the title game.

Oklahoma -
The recurring theme is gonna be coaching. There are a lot of coaches I root for regardless of what school they coach, and a lot I root against. This is one such case. Bob Stoops was the DC at UF in the magical year of 1996. It was his first year as DC and many credit his handling of the D as the factor that put us over the top. These are people you just don't forget: Stoops, Grant, Jones, Shyatt, Strong, Mattison, Mullen. The assistants that helped win it all. I have no ties to OU at all, if Stoops left, I'd quit supporting em in a heartbeat.

Oregon - I know this looks trendy, and really I have no excuse. I started rooting for em circa 1998 and It was a trendy, popular thing to do. However, I have looked for reasons to stop and have come up with none (except those two douche bags who painted themselves green and came to every gameday show @ UF for a while) The Gators have never played them, their Unis are crazy, their home crowd is great... I don't know... Go Ducks -

Georgia Tech -
This one probably looks funny to any old-school SEC fan (of which there are zero that read this, old school SEC fans don't know how to work computers, much less the interweb) GaTech used to be in the SEC until 1963, and many SEC fans still don't like them for leaving. I have no memory of this and they play UGA and FSU on a regular basis so they're OK in my book. Also the rambling wreck is just cool.

Texas Tech -
I, just like women, dig the longball.... ummm what? Texas Tech has made a name these past few year doing nothing but throwing the ball all over the field. Their coach is an innovator and a nutcase. Mike Leach is also one of my heroes. Here's a man who played a single year of high school football in which he didn't play a down. Then in his mid-twenties decided, "I'm not gonna be a lawyer, I'm gonna coach football." And he's done it like no one else on earth. If you're bored check this out, its a long article about the anomaly that is Mike Leach

South Carolina -
Oh Lord forgive me. Yes I root for the Gamecocks... I leave ample time for you to boo and hiss...

Ok, we all know the Cocks are coached by my childhood hero Steve Spurrier. and we all know he left my Gators for the NFL and then returned to college football at a school not only in the Gator's conference but even their division. This means we'll have to play him every year. Just a despicable act on his part... Just despicable. He clearly doesn't live by the rules of fandom, but we should have known that. He doen't live by anyones rules. He's Steve Spurrier and he does as he pleases. When he announced his new job I was outraged, and vowed to root against him for the first time in my life. But that lasted all of like one half of one game. I can't help rooting for Spurrier. He's everything right about college football, and to root agianst him is like rooting against the sport. Unfortunatly there is one game a year when my one allegiance deeper rooted than him takes over. This is by far the worst day of the year for me, I can't stand it, it makes me sick. Like watching a divorced couple I'm friends with fight to the death. It sucks... Cocks..... Dang it






So Who do you root for? I promise I won't make fun of you for it... at least not for very long...