My Two Cents

College Football Experts

Sorry C-BCAC Smack blog followers, I've been in some mandatory training this week and it's taken me away from my posting here. This won't be long as I've got plenty to do today before kickoff in T – 7 hours and counting but I've been chewing on this for several days and I just have to spit it out now.

As you all know, I bleed blue with most diehard of Cougar fans and I loathe almost all that is Red. I just can't get behind a team like the one on the hill. But my comments here aren't an attempt to show how awesome BYU is or how much the Utes suck. I wanted to talk about the perception many Cougar fans have that they know EVERYTHING about college football. I think some of the things that really get on Ute fans' nerves about Cougar fans are:

• The world revolves around BYU
  
• Every Cougar fan "knows" that every call that goes against the Cougars was a bad call and they could call the game better
  
• For all their expression of college football knowledge, many don't know a thing about it if it isn't BYU
  

Let me illustrate. Recently, while emailing a good friend of mine, he made the comment that his in-laws won't let him watch football when he is around. While lamenting his dilemma, he said, "Unless BYU is playing, then they are college football experts." I think this is true of so many Cougar fans. I don't think the sun rises and sets with BYU football, but many do. While attending the games this season I saw the shift in enthusiasm for the team after TCU exposed the Cougars. The UCLA game was so energized. The electricity was almost tangible. Fierce chants of "B-Y-U" rang through the stadium every time we handled the Bruins. But since the TCU loss, the fans were more lethargic, less willing to stand up on big plays. It was as if the Frogs not only beat the Cougars, but they also separated many fans from their enthusiasm, simply because BYU was no longer on the magical BCS rollercoaster. With BYU fans, I don't think there is much room to even allow the possibility of cheering for another school exists. I'm not suggesting that we cheer for Utah EVER, but I enjoy watching other teams such as Oklahoma, Florida, and USC. I can tell you who is sitting where in the polls and whether I feel they belong where they are ranked. But I fear too many BYU fans only believe that Provo is the center of the universe.

That being said, I'm cheering on the blue and white today in Rice-Eccles. And though I may have just ranted about BYU fans, I don't exclude the narrow-mindedness of so many Ute fans, many of whom I can safely refer to as BYU haters. While listening to the radio, and reading through posts on various websites, all you hear is "After Utah wins, we're having a BYU sucks party." Well if all you are doing is having a "BYU sucks" party does it matter who wins? You can have one of those anyway. I truly feel that some Ute fans only cheer for the red for lack of another school nearby to root for. I have a suggestion; there is purple 45 minutes to the north or another blue team 90 minutes away. I don't think that true fan hood should revolve around cheering for one team, simply because you hate another. Get a team and get behind them. I hate the Utes because I am a BYU fan and not a BYU fan because I hate the Utes. I know plenty of Utah fans that simply hate BYU because they love their Utes, but I don't know one Cougar fan that loves BYU only because they hate the University of Utah.