The Odyssey Known as College Football

To say that college football season is underway would be inaccurate.  As of this writing, we are already into the seventh full week of college football.  Why is this important?  To ask that question would be blasphemy in my home state of Alabama where football is almost a religion.  Without any cities big enough to support major professional teams, Alabama residents have turned to college football.

            College football was born in the Northeast.  Ivy League schools were playing the game long before large Southern universities fielded teams.  But college football was raised in the South, and it has definitely grown.

            For those who don’t follow sports even remotely, The Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers are the two biggest college football teams in the state by far.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the voting laws in my state were changed so that when you register to vote, you have to declare a preference, not Republican or Democrat but Alabama or Auburn.  The insanity is all around me.  I can almost hear people cussing at their TV’s and throwing them out the window when Alabama fumbles. We have also learned not to be disappointed when we schedule a wedding during football season and many guests do not show up.

            When I was growing up, who did my family and I cheer for?  Alabama or Auburn?  The answer is neither.  We were Ole Miss fans.  My parents grew up in Mississippi and went to the University of Mississippi affectionately known as Ole Miss.  We went to Ole Miss games some of which were on campus in Oxford, Mississippi.  My grandmother had a cigarette smoke filled apartment there and my mother’s aunt had a house where she lived with a neurotic Schnauzer dog.  I didn’t dare step on any of that dog’s squeaky toys. 

Unfortunately the Ole Miss Rebels lagged behind the other major football programs in the South.  Living in Crimson Tide/Tigers country, I was persecuted for this at school.  When Ole Miss had negative yardage against Auburn, one of my classmates was more than happy to point this out.  Another one of my classmates signed my high school yearbook by writing the 40-0 score in the latest Alabama-Ole Miss game.  But guess what, he remains one of my best friends to this day.

How do we begin to explain college football mania?  Others have offered crazy answers like the game’s similarity to the Civil War, genetics, and even a virus.  As far as I’m concerned, any of these could be true.  But consider this.  Alabama is a historically poor state.  People here desperately need something to cheer about.

Right now college football is going through a period of major change.  It is having to decide in what ways it wants to emulate professional football and how it wants to remain unique.  It is having to figure out how to stay profitable while putting the needs of the student/athlete first and providing opportunities for those who play sports that do not turn a profit.  These questions are being examined by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and even by Congress.

My wife and I have the same football philosophy.  We cheer for our teams, but we do not eat, sleep, and breathe football.  If our team loses, we still expect the sun to come up the next day.