Bandwagon

Sunday night...UConn coming to town. Not that we are supposed to be mentioned in the same sentence as such a team, but did you notice USC yesterday? That is my point to anyone who has already penciled in 8-0. Football is cruel, and one play can change it all. I believe Rutgers will win this game behind Rice again, and perhaps Teel will mix in a bit more against a weaker tem, but I take nothing for granted. This is not a rivalry, but I guess people have nothing to write about UConn, so geography is pulled out a back pocket. This is just the next game, and on national TV, and the story is that Rutgers is favored by 17 or so points. I still feel like I am dreaming about that line a bit. I haven't seen lines like that since Temple came to Piscataway. (More on those dogs, er, Owls, later...)
People get all bent out of shape about bandwagons. It is like fan's become the border patrol, and if you haven't been a fan for a minimum of 10 years and have been present/worn a hat when the team in question stunk, you don't have the fan right to root for a newly emerging team. Please. That is ridiculous. Root for whoever you want. Now, I do find it weird that someone can just buy a fresh hat each year, and start rooting for whoever is in the lead (I don't see all the 49er hats I used to see when Montana and Young were raising Lombardi's Silver in the air), but it doesn't really bother me if people want to be posers and don't have the fortitude to watch missed extra points and fumbles and interceptions that snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. But I say, c'mon, there is always room on the bandwagon .
And also of note, Temple won. I am shocked as you are. Rutgers last rival has been pitiful of late, not that I don't take joy in watching the Cherry and White suffer, but twenty losses in a row, sheesh, Bowling Green should be making plans to drop to Div II after that loss. The Owls are primed for hoops in the post-Chaney era. How do you get kicked out of a conference? Stinking beyond repair. As bad as Rutgers was, they didn't get kicked out of the Big East, a conference that was losing teams, and seemed on the verge of collapse, still decided to jetison one of their own. Seriously, Temple, give it up, drop to Div. 1A and suffer a mediocre fate in the Atlantic 10.