The Debate

The age old question of whether to support conference teams?

Long ago I had a discussion/argument with a fellow PSU fan about whether or not to root for other conference teams during out of conference play/bowl season. Now to set up the scene, you have me who has lived most of my adult life with PSU being a member of the big ten (I’m 27), and you have my buddy who is 40, that remembers the days when PSU played Pitt and Alabama on a regular schedule and was independent. It was a few years ago during the Florida vs. Michigan bowl game, we got into a discussion about the game and who we thought would win. I remember saying “I think Florida will win but I’ll be rooting for Michigan”. My buddy looked at me in disbelief. He said “How in the he#$ are you rooting for those Michigan scum.” My buddy was a diehard PSU fan and could not stomach rooting for any other big ten team. Now I agree it pains me to see Ohio State and Michigan win big games but I’m here to persuade fans that rooting for them (out of conference) has to be done. Here are some reasons why…

1. We live in a college football world with no playoff, which means that rankings and champions are still somewhat based on opinion. If you disagree, ask Boise State how important perception is to your chance at playing for a national title. The BCS era has created an environment in which the perception of the strength of your conference affects you chances of climbing in the polls or possibly playing for it all. If you read the college football message boards you will be hard pressed to find threads where actual football talk is occurring. Threads are filled with pointless banter about which conference is better or why the SEC is or is not the best conference. Use the big east this year as an example and ask yourself if an undefeated big east team deserves to be in the national championship. If you’re a Pitt fan you can’t be happy that WVU almost lost to Marshal or that UCONN got dominated by a Michigan team that was supposed to be rebuilding.
Ohio State did its job in beating Miami which now will lend instant creditability to any big ten team that beats Ohio State.

2. Bowl Record = public onion
A good bowl record from your conference will lead to instant creditability to every team in that conference the following year.
In conclusion, I know it’s tough to root on some of our hated rivals but you have to look at the bigger picture. Even if Penn State went 12-0 in 2005 it would have not made the national championship over Texas and USC based on the perceived weakness of the Big Ten. So this weekend cheer on the following big 10 teams in their import OCC games. Three Big Ten-Pac-10 games are on the slate, as No. 18 USC visits Minnesota (ESPN, 3:30 p.m. ET), Arizona State visits Wisconsin (ABC, 3:30 p.m. ET) and No. 9 Iowa visits No. 24 Arizona (ESPN, 10:30 p.m. ET). As well as the Michigan State vs. Notre Dame game. I would love thoughts on the comment section about this.

WE ARE……………….