my dad my football

     I'm pretty sure I am the only girl I know that marks ESPN NCAA FB as their homepage. For as long as I can remember my dad was getting me up for 12 Saturday's out of the year at 7 am (oh the joys of being on the west coast) to watch ESPN College Gameday with Fowler, Herbstriet and of course Coach Corso. To this day I still get up in the morning and get a phone call from my dad who now lives a state away:
 "are you watchin!?" "yes dad i'm watching" "You sure? where are they?" "Ohio State dad" "ok just checking... hey! do you see the Cougar flag?!!" "yes dad they're their every week" "I know cool huh?!"

Me and Dad. Go Cougs!

     What can I say, I was brought up right! Love the Cougs with all your heart, stand by the Beavs and Hook'em Horns! (That's for you Uncle Keith!)
Now that I am older and actually understand what is going on in the game and have the ability to remember players football, although started as bonding experience with my dad, is a lot more fun to watch and not gonna lie, I feel pretty BA when I can surprise the guys in being able to keep up in a conversation about last weekends games ;) Cheering in high school helped too. Although the rules and regulations are different in the NCAA, as they are in the NFL, we were forced to watch the game and actually know what was going on on the field. My love is with College though. There is something about a night game, under the lights with a stadium packed full of fans all in the same two colors (as long as their not gurple and pold) cheering and uniting under the same team. The fireworks from the first touchdown to the celebration afterwards. Even the loyalty behind a loosing game lets you know that no matter what, we are one town, one team and we got your back. Believe me, growing up as a hardcore Washington State University fan, you know loyal. From Jason Guesser to Jeff Tuel, it's probably the most loyal fan base in the country. Tell me another school where every single fan knows every word to the fight song. And even when we were the laughing stock of not only the Pac-10 but most of the country, what flag do you continue to see behind Desmonds head every fall saturday? Ol'Crimson, that's who! And we got a young team, it's coming back and we are ready to "fight fight fight for washington state!"

Me and Ol' Crimson
at GameDay

     Oh the Pac-10. Now considering the circumstances to come I must take some time to address this. Come July 1st it will be official and the Pacific 10 Conference will become the Pac-12. With the addition of Utah and Colorado from the Mountain West and Big 12 Conferences things get a little bigger and a whole lot different. Say goodbye to round robin style schedules and hello to conference championships and a North and South divison. The North will consist of  WSU, UW, OSU, UO, Cal & Stanford while the South will get ASU, UA, USC, UCLA, Utah & CO. With 12 teams in the conference it means not everyone can play everyone else. This will effect traditions and rivalries but also lead to a conference champion with a ticket to the Rose Bowl even with a 8-5 season, as the Pac-12 will still have a seed in (assuming that team is't in running for a national title). This did however create a domino effect among college football in general as now Boise State enters the MWC (it's about time they got out of the WAC) and Colorado wasn't the only one to leave the Big-12, Nebraska said hello to the BigTen and for the first time in 83 years isn't in sharing a conference with teams like Missouri and Kstate. For a little while there were possibilities of a "Pac-16!" How crazy would that have been? The Beavs playing against the Longhorns?! Texas, TT, OkState and OU were thinking of leaving which would pretty much crumble the Big12 but they decided to stay and I for one am happy about that. The SEC was looking at them too and there was rumor or Arkansas leaving the SEC for the Big12 after they were down to 10 but they showed no interest in coming back to some of their old rivalries from their Southwest days.

The cast of ESPN College GameDay
 in Corvallis OR!

  
      It's funny if you think about it, we [Pac10] switched places with the Big12. With only 10 members they are forced to go to what the west coast has done since the addition of the Arizona schools in the late 70's. Schools like Missouri will now have to play Texas and Oklahoma every year rather than once or never. This could however make it easier on the Big12 to get into a national title game as these names are no strangers to the BCS road. I don't think this is the end of story for this whole realignment of the NCAA. Teams and commissioners are getting restless and it's gonna be an interesting road come August.

Me and Shannon at GameDay
I have now been to 3! 

So now the Pacific has 12...
The Broncos will play the Horned Frogs every year...
The BigTen is really 12 as the Big12 is really 10...
There's no escaping K State from Bob Stoops....
The SEC is still a power house of the south....
and the Longhorns now have their own network...
So I guess, anything can happen.

  


     Until fall comes around once more and I am in the midst of a southern tailgate and forced to attend every Beaver game from my living room, I'll be here, reading about recruits and wishing I could wake up to Corso putting another mascot on his head.


Til the next new day ♥ ,