It feels like so many aspects of college football have been changing lately. It's been over a year since I finished my big journey, and in that time, we've become acquainted with so many new names, teams, and rules. A few weeks ago, the folks from Stone Station made their annual trek to Salem, VA for the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. In 2007, even though my itinerary was complete, I decided to brave the winter weather and make an extra road trip to Virginia at their invitation. Obviously, that would have been darn near impossible from Buenos Aires this season. I chose to only be there in spirit.
At Auburn, the richest boosters finally got rid of Tommy Tuberville, and not because he nearly trampled me at the Iron Bowl. Apparently, Tommy never licked the right boots in Auburn, but as the trees at Toomer's Corner were loaded with toilet paper, no one in attentance could have imagined that he'd be gone a year later.
Meanwhile, across the nation, everyone from Barack Obama to the lowliest intern at ESPN has been weighing in on whether we need a playoff. Blah blah blah. So maybe things haven't changed so much. Actually, my opinion has been altered a bit since I wrote about the topic last time, partly due to my interview with Lloyd Carr. His main point - right now, we're deciding a champion, but not letting it be decided by what happens on the field. And that's pretty right, especially to fans who today happen to be in Austin and South Central.
Still, I can't help but be filled with uneasy trepidation about the topic. When at Wisconsin, I interviewed a man named Ken Simmons who'd played for the Badgers as a walk-on. He'd been a part of the team during their only winning season between 1963 and 1981 when they managed a 7-4 record in 1974. Decades later, he was able to see his son walk on and a daughter play for the softball team. He continues to work with the athletic department. Like many veterans of the game, he held a long perspective on things. The last thing he said to me in our interview was "Look at why there is the passion there is for college football. You don’t want to change that a whole lot. I think that’s why they’re moving as slowly as they are."
Over at SI.com, Stewart Mandel recently recounted the story of his first trip to the Rose Bowl. It was a visceral reminder of mine two years later. That's a tale I've planned to tell in this space for a while now. I hope to share it soon. Needless to say, it was one of the highlights of my life. The point is, so many of the people who offer their expert opinion on bowls, playoffs, and championships don't really know anything about college football. It's not the NFL. And in fact, that's a big part of why we like it.
Clearly the BCS isn't working. We were told it would provide a definitive answer on the National Championship. Like many newfangled doo-dads, it failed to deliver on its promises, but we all should have known they were too good to be true. Now fans are left with unattainable expectations. One day, the NCAA will institute a playoff. It is inevitable in the long run. But since they have totally botched the BCS since its inception, do we have any faith in the idea that they won't completely botch a playoff, too? The BCS is terrible, but it's still better than a wrong playoff would be. 16 teams? Welcome to the NFL minor league. As Ken said, if they're not careful, they could ruin the game completely. With ESPN and Fox having as much control as they do, it's more fragile than you think. Besides, if the NCAA isn't going to address the issue of cupcake non-conference scheduling, then I don't trust them to tackle this with the good of the game in mind either.
When you see the games live and in person, you catch a lot more than you can over TV. That's just the way it is. It's how I was able to identify Ohio State's weaknesses on defense just days before Illinois exploited them last year. But when you can't see the games at all, it's like you're watching everything underwater, depending on blogs and youtubes and choppy Slingbox connections to capture the moments for you. You're that much farther removed. That's how this season has been for me. Honestly, I miss Saturday. And whatever changes occurred were far away. With Michigan this year, maybe it was for the best. But it's still my favorite sport, the game I can't get enough of. It's been hard not to be close to it after my year "on the ground." But with a National Championship(ish?) game to be played tonight, let's just pause a second to remember how special it is. No amount of controversy, even it comes via executive signing statement from the White House, can trample that.
Hmmmm. These teams look familiar.
At Auburn, the richest boosters finally got rid of Tommy Tuberville, and not because he nearly trampled me at the Iron Bowl. Apparently, Tommy never licked the right boots in Auburn, but as the trees at Toomer's Corner were loaded with toilet paper, no one in attentance could have imagined that he'd be gone a year later.
Tommy's second-to-last Iron Bowl
Meanwhile, across the nation, everyone from Barack Obama to the lowliest intern at ESPN has been weighing in on whether we need a playoff. Blah blah blah. So maybe things haven't changed so much. Actually, my opinion has been altered a bit since I wrote about the topic last time, partly due to my interview with Lloyd Carr. His main point - right now, we're deciding a champion, but not letting it be decided by what happens on the field. And that's pretty right, especially to fans who today happen to be in Austin and South Central.
Still, I can't help but be filled with uneasy trepidation about the topic. When at Wisconsin, I interviewed a man named Ken Simmons who'd played for the Badgers as a walk-on. He'd been a part of the team during their only winning season between 1963 and 1981 when they managed a 7-4 record in 1974. Decades later, he was able to see his son walk on and a daughter play for the softball team. He continues to work with the athletic department. Like many veterans of the game, he held a long perspective on things. The last thing he said to me in our interview was "Look at why there is the passion there is for college football. You don’t want to change that a whole lot. I think that’s why they’re moving as slowly as they are."
Not Ken Simmons
Over at SI.com, Stewart Mandel recently recounted the story of his first trip to the Rose Bowl. It was a visceral reminder of mine two years later. That's a tale I've planned to tell in this space for a while now. I hope to share it soon. Needless to say, it was one of the highlights of my life. The point is, so many of the people who offer their expert opinion on bowls, playoffs, and championships don't really know anything about college football. It's not the NFL. And in fact, that's a big part of why we like it.
Clearly the BCS isn't working. We were told it would provide a definitive answer on the National Championship. Like many newfangled doo-dads, it failed to deliver on its promises, but we all should have known they were too good to be true. Now fans are left with unattainable expectations. One day, the NCAA will institute a playoff. It is inevitable in the long run. But since they have totally botched the BCS since its inception, do we have any faith in the idea that they won't completely botch a playoff, too? The BCS is terrible, but it's still better than a wrong playoff would be. 16 teams? Welcome to the NFL minor league. As Ken said, if they're not careful, they could ruin the game completely. With ESPN and Fox having as much control as they do, it's more fragile than you think. Besides, if the NCAA isn't going to address the issue of cupcake non-conference scheduling, then I don't trust them to tackle this with the good of the game in mind either.
When you see the games live and in person, you catch a lot more than you can over TV. That's just the way it is. It's how I was able to identify Ohio State's weaknesses on defense just days before Illinois exploited them last year. But when you can't see the games at all, it's like you're watching everything underwater, depending on blogs and youtubes and choppy Slingbox connections to capture the moments for you. You're that much farther removed. That's how this season has been for me. Honestly, I miss Saturday. And whatever changes occurred were far away. With Michigan this year, maybe it was for the best. But it's still my favorite sport, the game I can't get enough of. It's been hard not to be close to it after my year "on the ground." But with a National Championship(ish?) game to be played tonight, let's just pause a second to remember how special it is. No amount of controversy, even it comes via executive signing statement from the White House, can trample that.
He and his wife not only had me stay with them, but showed me some of Madison’s finest haunts. Friday began at The Avenue for a Door County style fish boil. The appetizer was of course fried cheese curds, and dinner was excellent. From there, we hit Essen Haus, a German restaurant featuring gigantic beersteins, a Polka band, and drunken revelers. The band closed with an Polka version of “On Wisconsin” which got everyone riled up – including the Iowa fans in attendance who started a “Let’s Go Hawkeyes!” chant. Not ready to pack it in, we hit one last place – a small, classy bar with drinks named after famous people. I had a Benny Goodman. I can’t remember exactly what all was in it, though I’m pretty sure bourbon was a main ingredient. Not fifteen minutes after we arrived, a wild brawl broke out between a dozen women. It was complete chaos. There was no way to determine who was fighting whom or why. After standing there gawking for a minute, beer bottles started flying and we realized that it was time to go into duck-and-cover mode. Within minutes, everyone involved in the melee scrambled out of the bar, presumably to go their separate ways or continue the altercation on the street. We lingered and chuckled about the situation a bit, more in disbelief than anything else. 
On my way towards the stadium Saturday morning, some students were playing cornhole in front of their house. An SUV driven by an older gentleman and flying Hawkeye flags cruised by and they gave it the finger. Welcome to Madison! I got out to Camp Randall way too early. Very few people were set up for tailgating or at the bars by the time the early games kicked off. Perhaps LSU threw off my perspective on this stuff, but I figured that because most Wisconsin games begin at 11:00 people would be set up by then. So I hit the relatively vacant campus, climbing to the top of Bascom Hill. Again, the view over Lake Mendota is sweet. They also have an outdoor deck at the Memorial Union where you can grab a beer or just hang out. I can imagine going to school here would mean spending many hours on this deck before winter really hits.
There’s a certain theme of vulgarity that is embraced in Madison on gameday. Beyond the bird flipping I witnessed to start the day, fans in yellow t-shirts were frequently called out by everyone nearby with an “Assssshole…” chant. A car drove through town with “Fuck Iowa” painted on its windows. I’m not one of these “think of the children” kind of people, but I am one of these “do something creative” kind of people. In the stadium, the student section throws around some profane cheers which are extremely well organized and certainly fun. But all this cursing-for-the-sake-of-cursing stuff just made the fans look boorish. You’re better than that, Bucky. The Iowa fans I spoke to did say that they were being treated well, for the most part, so this loutish behavior is really just surface level. I’m not trying to say that Wisconsin fans are jerks – far from it. Everyone was very generous with food and drink throughout the day. But they could step up the razzing and make it something more unique or worthwhile.
On the west side of Camp Randall, there is a neighborhood comprised mostly of students. Everyone wears red shirts, often emblazoned with further profanity. And everyone drinks. A lot. Walking past these homes, you would see flip-cup followed by two story beer bongs followed by beer pong. Everyone is throwing back the suds. With an evening start to the game, by the time kickoff rolled around, the inhabitants of this neighborhood ranged from tipsy to trashed. It was like a convention of college drinkers with each address representing a booth featuring the wonders of hops and barley. All the fun appeared to be extremely harmless, save the guy who tried to pitch a beer bottle from distance only to have it rim out and smash in the street where people were walking. He ran back into the house rather than clean up his mess.
My ticket was in the upper deck at the south end. I longed to be in the jammed student section, though the people around me were very nice and into the game. The students are a large, energetic bunch who are there to have fun. Throughout the day, people mentioned the long stretch of dark years for Wisconsin football. From the mid 60s until Alvarez took over in 1990, there was very little to cheer about in Camp Randall stadium. Because of that, people looked to have fun in other ways. Hence the profanity-laced battles between sections. The Jump Around between the third and fourth quarters is a thing of beauty. I had a great vantage point to appreciate it. Fans throughout the stadium sing the fight song and the alma mater – better than I’ve seen at other schools so far. After the game, the marching band and cheerleaders take the field for the fifth quarter. It’s a bit “band campy”, but a ton of fun. Near the end, the students demanded Swing Town, a song the administration reportedly is against being played in the stadium because of the cursing involved from the students. When the band adhered to their request, the elation could be felt across the venue. 
The game itself was one that I’m sure a lot of people would complain about. But I like a stout defensive struggle, and that’s exactly what this was. Iowa’s defense impressed, but Wisconsin managed to wear them down just enough by the end of the game to get the scores they needed. After playing mistake-free football for the entire game (no turnovers, no penalties), Iowa committed three penalties on the key Wisconsin scoring drive, and that’s why they lost the game. I wasn’t overly impressed with Wisconsin. They’re a good team, but they’re going to have to step things up a bit if they want to win the Big Ten. Cutting down on turnovers and penalties is going to be crucial for them. After three blowouts and one hanging-on game, I was glad to finally get a seesaw battle that came down to the wire.
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