An ACC Guy in Big Ten Land, and How to Avoid Conflicts of Interest in College Athletics

This past weekend I got the chance to take a little trip up to State College, PA, for my first ever Big Ten football experience - the highly-anticipated Penn State/Ohio State matchup - and it didn't disappoint. I've been to countless college football games in my life between my years at UNC and Miami, but nothing there really compares to what I saw from the Penn State faithful on Saturday. There was the ridiculous amount of media coverage, the pregame tailgating with cars, RVs, and everything in between as far as the eye could see, the hordes of rabid fans, a gorgeous stadium - it was plenty to get someone like me with no ties to either team completely into the whole experience. Nothing against my two alma maters, but these folks treat their football with a type of reverence that is usually reserved only for basketball down in here in ACC country.

Pre-game tailgating extravaganza in State College

The thing with my beloved Tar Heels is that, well, no one ever really expects us to be that good at football. Of course there were the Gator Bowl season of '97, the '01 victory over FSU, the '04 win against the 'Canes, and Julius Peppers' entire career as highlights, but in Chapel Hill football will almost always take a back seat to basketball (and also, one could certainly argue, Women's Soccer). One rare exception to that rule actually came my senior year, when the football team went on to win the Peach Bowl, and the basketball team finished 8-20 and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since dinosaurs ruled the earth. And while the basketball team was able to rebound from that wretched season and win a national title 3 short years later, during that same period the football version of the Heels seemed to fade back into mediocrity. Sure the occassional moments of brilliance are fun, but it's just hard to really maintain a high level of excitement when the best you can usually hope for 6-5, and basketball season is always right around the corner.

Pigs fly and Hell freezes over in 2001 - 2002, as UNC football thumps Auburn for a Peach Bowl win and the Basketball team goes 8 - 20.


Now Miami, on the other hand, is definitely a football school. Year after year the 'Canes are one of the top teams in the nation, and they produce NFL-quality players at an incredible rate. The problem here, though, is that Miami fans are a fickle bunch. As long as the team is undefeated and contending for a title, there will be 70,000+ at the Orange Bowl, complete with a rowdy tailgate outside and some of the most intense fans you'll ever see. The FSU games in '02 and '04, as well as the UF game in '03, come immediately to mind, as I was present for each of these matchups. However, once that first loss comes and UM is out of the title hunt, it's a different story altogether - all of a sudden South Beach becomes much more interesting than football, and there are embarrassingly-large sections of seats left vacant in the Orange Bowl on game day. In their defense, though, I'll have to say South Beach is a lot of fun and the Orange Bowl is a decrepit ruin of a stadium, but I digress.

Field-rushing excitement to open the season......
....sand, sun, and margaritas after finishing a "disappointing" 8-3.

So back to Saturday. There I am in Happy Valley, soaking up the atmosphere, the wonderful central-PA hospitality, and an equal or greater amount of Yuengling, when it hits me - given my NC/FL background, can I actually cheer for either Penn State or Ohio State with a clear conscience? Sure, I'll enjoy the game regardless - even if I had stayed home for the weekend, I would've watched this one with great interest on TV - but can I really get behind one of these teams without it being a slap in the face of my Tar Heel (and to a lesser extent, Hurricane) heritage? After all, as the song goes, "I'm a Tar Heel born, I'm a Tar Heel bred, and when I die, I'm a Tar Heel dead." Well, in short, the answer the is yes - I ended up cheering my ass off for the Nittany Lions - and not just for the sake of being part of an awesome post-game celebration full of drunken slutty co-eds. Here's how I arrived at my decision.

First it's important to understand my ACC loyalties, regardless of the particular sport (trust me, this becomes important later....well, actually, no it doesn't, but whatever; I'm trying to make it look like I put a lot of thought into this).
1) UNC - always #1....always.
2) Miami - I went there.....but it was for grad school
3) NC State - a lot of my friends went there and I always had fun hanging out in Raleigh
4) Wake Forest - I respect the program
5) Va Tech - a Vick at QB is always fun to watch
6) Ga Tech - uh, I actually don't have anything to say here
7) Maryland - try to claim they're Duke's biggest basketball rival - that's just a dirty lie
8) Boston College - I never really got over Doug Flutie's shenanigans
9) Virginia - UVa folks always seem to have this attitude that I really don't like
10) Clemson - they have a Bowden for a coach....'nuff said
11) Duke - they do always bring out the best in the Heels, so that's worth something
12) Florida State - coached by King of the Bowdens; don't bring out the best in anything

Now let's turn our attention to the two teams actually on the field on that blustery autumn day - the Nittany Lions and the Buckeyes. Since I've had such little direct contact with these schools, I feel like I should warn you that my evaluations may get a little bizarre. But let's face it, this entire post has been on the express train to Bizzarro World for a while now.

Ohio State:
Positives - the fans actually aren't such a bad bunch of people. That's about it.
Negatives - hmmm....where to start? "Beating" UM in the '03 Fiesta Bowl (nice call, ref), the whole Maurice Clarett ordeal, Jim Tressel acting like he was oblivious to the whole Maurice Clarett ordeal....OK, so I was never going to pull for these guys anyway

Penn State:
Positives - great folks all around; a program deep in tradition, and to my knowledge, totally scandal-free; Joe Paterno is the anti-Bowden
Negatives - March 18, 2001, a Tar Heel team that had been ranked #1 in the nation earlier in the season fails to reach the Sweet 16 after falling to the Nittany Lions; the whole "nittany" part seems a little excessive to me

The Results:
OK so we have one school recently knocking my ACC #1 out of title contention in one sport, and the other knocking my ACC #2 out of title contention even more recently in another. That doesn't fair well for either school (interesting side note, though: the '01 tourney loss was one of the major steps in the unraveling of the Matt Doherty regime at UNC, which eventually lead to the hiring of Roy Williams, which in turn lead to last year's national title.....so in a way, it was actually a good thing). And while nothing here can redeem OSU, there are more than enough reasons to get behind Penn St. I think Paterno has always been the picture of class, and I have nothing but respect for the man and the way he runs the program. Also, everyone I met in State College went out of their way to make this ACC guy feel right at home.

A full house ready to rock at Beaver Stadium

So what do we learn from all of this analysis? I think one main point becomes overwhelmingly clear: I am absolutely out of my mind. But in closing, I'd just like to say thank you to everyone there for making that such a great weekend, and ya'll better beat the crap out of Michigan on Saturday. I'll be pulling for you.