Homer says, “D’oh!”

College Football, Football

Posted by Obiora, March 1, 2008 - 10:48 am

As my fellow homer SK explained so eloquently, the one thing a true fan can’t stand is the bandwagon-jumper. Lord knows that large numbers of sports jag-offs (that’s a real word here in Western PA) will never jump on my alma mater’s bandwagon and I wouldn’t have it any other way. In the spirit of copycatting, I thought to write up a list of bandwagon jumpers in the college football game.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (1899-Present) - The self-proclaimed University of College Football in America. No conference affiliation. A separate deal with the BCS bowls. A separate TV contract. During the good times, Notre Dame attracts thousands upon thousands of fans, most of whom are as obnoxious as it gets and swear they were with the team through the lean times. The Fighting Irish are the Dallas Cowboys or NY Yankees of college football.

Southern Cal Trojans (2000-Present) - When Pete Carroll restored the Trojans’ program, a new generation of college football fans was treated to paeans about the Song Girls and that ridiculous trojan warrior on a horse. Woe to those of us who don’t line up to worship Southern Cal lest they be accused of East Coast bias. The media love Southern Cal as the Men of Troy are the sexy pick every year with some golden haired quarterback or the next Gale Sayers at running back or some hotshot wide receiver.

Ohio State Buckeyes (2002-Present) - THE Ohio State University? This is A university which every year loses thousands of students after football season because they only enrolled to get season tickets. Here we are, forced to watch this pathetic excuse for an institution of higher learning headed by Jim Tressel and his ridiculous sweater vest. What’s worse is that many co-eds at other universities now refer to their schools with a “The” in front of it. During Jim Tressel’s run as head coach, the Buckeyes have remained a force in the Big Ten and those ridiculous Scarlet & Grey “O” hats have become de rigeur in many parts of the midwest where people have no spine.

Miami Hurricanes (1983-2005) - There’s a certain myth to the Hurricanes that belies their national prestige. UM is not a huge, public school with a 100,000+ seat stadium. It’s a small, private school with higher non-sports admissions standards than most of the big-time football playing schools in the south. It’s not the #1 game in the city of Miami, which is very much a pro-football town. The Hurricanes struggle to sell-out most of their games unless the opponent is FSU or Florida. Witness the last game in Orange Bowl history - a 48-0 pasting by UVA, which wasn’t sold out. I can still remember how trendy Miami Starter jackets were in the early 1990’s. This is one of those programs whose popularity is greater outside its hometown than within it.

Southeastern Conference (2000-Present) - An entire conference? Although admittedly the best football conference in the country, SEC fans are notoriously fickle bandwagon jumpers, who care not for the integrity of the game as long as their team is winning. Nowhere in the nation do teams have more unstable fanbases than in SEC country. I doubt that Tiger Stadium was such an intimidating place to play before Nick Saban went down to the Bayou. Tommy Tuberville nearly got run out of Auburn the year before winnning a national title. Missipppi fired Dave Cutcliffe after a 10-3 season. Alabama barely escaped the death penalty after the Albert Means escapade because, say it with me folks, they’re Alabama. I bet SMU fans wish they could’ve gotten off so easily.

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