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I’m calling it Conference Superiority Complex, CSC for simplicity of typing. We’ve all been affected by it, and at some point, infected with it...

College Football: Getting Back to the Basics of Hating

by Ryan Stubbs (Scribe)

46

1,262 reads

Opinion

July 21, 2008


I’m calling it Conference Superiority Complex, CSC for simplicity of typing. 

We’ve all been affected by it, and at some point, infected with it. Over the past few years of college football, we’ve translated what could have been arguments about some of the best seasons in college football’s history into glorified conference beauty pageants.

 

Fans engulf message boards, blogs, radio call-in shows, TV, and any other sports medium arguing the merits of their conference as the newest and most obnoxious way to support their team.

 

This most recent slant on chest-pounding braggadocio began after the Auburn snub of ’04. It was amplified by the Big Ten’s embarrassing debacle in the ’06 BCS game.

 

It cemented in every home after last season’s coin flip selection of LSU as Ohio State’s BCS opponent that left teams in every BCS conference debating the merits of their top contender.

 

Before we knew it, you, a die-hard Longhorns fan, woke up in the bed of an Oklahoma Sooner with a Missouri T-shirt on and Jayhawks face tattoos. All in the name of advocating your conference to the BCS selection committees. 

It’s sickening what CSC has made us do, but we have all been there over the past 48 months.

 

How on earth did we go from a college football landscape that emphasized and survived on things like The Third Week in October, The Game, The Red River Shootout, The Border War, The Backyard Brawl, etc., to one that still emphasizes these games—but only if they don’t hurt their conference's chances of winning a championship?

 

It's all about perspectives. We fans need to get our perspectives back; that’s what I’m here to help.

 

We’ll start with you, Mr. Husky.  Lost out there in the Pacific Northwest, many of you and your Pac-10 brethren have decided the only way to get noticed was to band together and fight those east of the Rockies together. 

 

Huskies, Cougars, and Ducks joined side-by-side in an attempt to gain legitimacy. Only their reasoning came out sounding something like, "USC has the most top-five finishes of any team over the past six seasons."

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46 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment

  1. Kyle Meadows 11 months ago

    love it

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  2. Edmon 11 months ago

    The same medium that let you distribute this article is the same reason rivals will back each other. The internet is a gift and a curse. While I only root for the Gators, I will pull for whatever teams that will help said Gators look better. That's college football now. If possible, I'd love for every team that Florida was playing to on lose that one game.

    If I didn't say so already, great article.

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  3. BabyTate 11 months ago

    Good article.

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  4. Justin Goar 11 months ago

    man, i already used my POTD vote. this is one of the best "conference" articles we've had so far.

    i'm am in an extreme minority among LSU fans that don't cheer for other SEC schools.

    my friends are like, "don't you want the conference to look good?"

    i say "this isn't the wac (sorry wac fans i needed an example), people with half a brain know the SEC is where its at."

    why would i cheer for a team that we compete with on every level? why would i want florida or UGA to win a NC if they're going after the same recruits my school is?

    with that said, i still boast of my conferences accomplishments and like to think that my team looks good b/c of the conference they're in. but it's never a bad day when the crimson tide, gators, or rebels (etc) lose.

    if that makes me a bad SEC fan, so be it.

    i'm an LSU fan and although i respect all the teams in my conference for doing battle with us on a regular basis, their happiness does not equal my happiness.

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    • Ryan Stubbs 11 months ago

      Hey, give me a POTD vote tomorrow for it and we'll call it even.

      Respect and hatred are two different things. I respect Michigan, to the point that I got chills when OSU had a moment of silence before the '06 game when Bo died and no one said a word. But I still freakin' hate 'em.

      And yes, I am coming from a fan base that has been annoyingly obnoxious over the past 2 years trying to defend how we got our asses kicked. Hey, we lost, get over it and let's beat SC this year.

      Thanks for the comment man.

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    • Justin Goar 11 months ago

      deal.

      btw, i'll be cheering for the bucks against the trojans, trust me.

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  5. Timothy Croley 11 months ago

    some of the best logic heard on br in some time! great read!

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  6. James Harvey 11 months ago

    Fantastic! Being a life long WVU fan, I have despised OSU (I currently live in Cincy). But after reading this well put article and the obvious disconnection with Michigan, I have seen passion in a Buckeye fan. Know I and so many of the mountaineer nation will always pull for OSU against the northern fraudriguez tribe. That being said, great article and I hope your bucks lose ever other game.

    You've inspired me to unleash the inner hate for Pitt, USF, VT, L-Ville, UM!

    Thanks for showing us the path of the righteous.

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    • Ryan Stubbs 11 months ago

      I'll tell you one thing, for the past 2 seasons I didn't want to face WVU. Of course, OSU didn't fare much better against the teams we played, but I have a feeling with the way your team was set up, it would've been a loss to them as well.

      Thanks for the comment.

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  7. Ryan Staab 11 months ago

    Amen Ryan, I don't understand inter-conference boosterism for the life of me. I can respect fans of other teams, but that doesn't mean I can't hate their teams for simply being what they are...

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  8. P A 11 months ago

    I'd like to think Penn State largely maintains a healthy hatred for M*ch*g*n. After we blew out Florida International, our fans stayed around to watch the end of the Appalachian State game on the TVs in the concourse of Beaver Stadium - you can look up a video on youtube of a packed hallway of Penn State fans going nuts over it as it happened.

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    • Dan Boss 11 months ago

      I can say the same for OSU. I was there when thousands of fans stayed in the concourse of Ohio Stadium to watch Michigan fall to Appalachian State and everyone went absolutely crazy. I loved it! I didn't care that the Big 10 looked bad that day for losing to a I-AA school, I cared that the team I hated got upset.

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  9. Ian Peterson 11 months ago

    I love this article. I'm a diehard huskies fan but my girlfriend goes to Florida and all I ever hear about is how good Florida is and how shit UW and the rest of the Pac-10 are. I have no problem saying that the most talented conference is the SEC, i'll concede that to her, but come on, the Pac-10 isnt that bad. The Pac-10 and the SEC hardly ever play each other, and that goes for all of college football, the conferences don't play each other during the season, so comparing them over who is better is pointless. The only way for us to honestly say that one is better than the other is on the field, the rest of it is just a bunch of b.s. as far as im concerned. Its pointless

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    • Ryan Stubbs 11 months ago

      UW could've surprised some people this season, except they got dealt one of the toughest schedules in college football.

      Thanks for the comment

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  10. Dan Boss 11 months ago

    Great article Ryan, my pick of the day!

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    • Ryan Stubbs 11 months ago

      Thanks Dan, love the profile picture too by the way. Is that from Jim Davidson's gallery?

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    • Dan Boss 11 months ago

      I don't know I just uploaded it from a google search because I was too lazy to upload the one I took myself. Maybe I'll take a new one when I'm down there in a couple weeks. Your pic is awesome! Never thought you could spell O-H-I-O with only 3 people haha.

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  11. Tony Bishop 11 months ago

    It's easy for me to say this as a Notre Dame fan, but this is the best article I've read all week.

    I love all the SEC fans who happen to be Tennessee fans. The Big Ten fans who happen to never miss a Minnesota game. It makes me giggle when these CSC inflicted fans band together to rag on other conferences.

    If your conferences were so amazing, why doesn't Notre Dame join one?

    Great article. The only Pick of the Day I've ever given.

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    • Ryan Stubbs 11 months ago

      I'm honored to be your POTD first. And Notre Dame joining a conference would be the dumbest economic move in college sports history.

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  12. Ian Peterson 11 months ago

    yeah ryan, you are right, UW just got reamed on the schedule. And of course thats just increasing the speculation on Ty's job, and as a consequence we have 0 recruits so far....super....

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    • Ryan Stubbs 11 months ago

      Yeah, I went out to the UW-OSU game last season and was thoroughly impressed, it was my first time to Seattle. I thought you're team would have a pretty good chance this season with Locker in year 2 but with that schedule, you'll be lucky to have the same record as last season and could easily be much improved.

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  13. Mark 11 months ago

    I agree with the premise of the article. Although, I do believe that cheering for one's conference makes sense. It gives a losing or winning team validation for a loss or victory. For example, Florida destroyed OSU, but Florida lost to Auburn that year and South Carolina was a blocked field goal away from beating them as well. It gave Auburn fans validation that they beat one of the best teams in the country that year. When LSU won last year, it gave Arkansas and Kentucky fans validation that they are good enough not only to compete with a national championship, but they had the ability to beat them. Although Tennessee lost to LSU, a national championship gave Vol fans validation that they could hang with the best team in the country.

    Also, if it wasn't for the perceived SEC superiority, Florida or LSU probably wouldn't have gone to play and win a national championship. I believe people cheer for their conferences because they hope that they, too, will receive the benefit of doubt if their team every reaches that level. If Mississippi State or any SEC team not ranked in the top 25 when the season starts or when the coaches poll is released, goes through the SEC undefeated, I believe that they would argue that our conference is tough and that they deserve to play for the National Championship. see Auburn 2004. If it comes down to 3-4 teams, all with a legitimate argument to play in the NC, conference superiority does play a role on who gets to play for it all.

    Fortunately or unfortunately, all the polls are beauty contests; no one really knows who is the better team is and perception plays a large part on rankings. Rankings play the biggest part on who plays for the national championship. I believe poll voters look at a teams body of work and decide where to place a team. If that team plays in a tough conference, perhaps voters will give them the benefit of doubt and rank them above a team in a weaker conference. They are only 3 or 4 non-conference games per team so the majority of a team's wins or losses come within their conference.

    Although the writer thinks that people shouldn't cheer for their conference, and I understand that argument, I think it is perfectly acceptable. But how would you feel if Hawaii got to play in the national title game last year? Or Utah in 2004? They both have arguments that they should have gotten a chance to play in the big game; however, they played in perceived weaker conferences shutting them out of the big game.

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    • David Hedlind 11 months ago

      So since it validates the other teams should they get hats and shirts that say things like
      "We didn't win the championship but a team we play in our conference did"

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    • Ryan Stubbs 11 months ago

      David, I'm not even going to try to respond now, as you have answered this better than I could ever have.

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    • Ryan Stubbs 11 months ago

      This was one of the harder points to sell on this, because at some point it is good for your conference to do well and the SEC is proving that. But unfortunately it's gotten to an extreme where that's all people want to talk about and it's become very dull.

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    • Luke K 11 months ago

      Mark, I see your point, but I think it's not so much that a team belongs to a weaker conference as it is that their opponents are weaker teams. If Hawaii had beat USC, Texas, Wisconsin, and Georgia last year, I think they deserve a spot in the National Championship no matter what conference they play in.

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  14. Alan Bass 11 months ago

    great article, ryan

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  15. David Wunderlich 11 months ago

    I have always rooted for SEC teams to win in the non-conference, and my father has done the same before me. The rationale? So the Gators look better when they beat them. It's all selfish, and all done because of the fact that opinion polls rule the sport.

    Take away the opinion polls and put in a playoff, and there never is a circumstance where Tennessee beating UCLA is a good thing for Florida. In the current system though, it is to Florida's advantage every time for the Vols to win in LA.

    Yes, some people have taken the conference wars too far. Some have used them for a proxy for the preexisting east coast/west coast or north/south regional rivalries that exist outside of sports. Those people are tiresome in the worst way.

    However, don't think for a second I'll root for something to happen that would negatively affect my team's chances at a national title. It has been great as a Gator to watch FSU's decline, and in my heart I hope they lose every game. However, it takes something out of beating them at the end of the season, and rivalries are more fun when both teams are good anyway.

    Like it or not, the SEC's posturing has won the poll game* and as a direct beneficiary in 2006, I can't complain too much.

    *http://bleacherreport.com/articles/36378-secs-quest-for-a-football-playoff-is-quite-the-irony

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    • Ryan Stubbs 11 months ago

      That's the problem to me though David, some people haven't taken this too far, everyone has. Look under the comment tabs of any article on Bleacher Report and at some point it's turned into a whose conference has done what debate. It's been beaten into the ground.

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  1. john brewer 11 months ago

    you are going soft and missing half the fun. fun mainly because of the bscs.

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  2. Jeremy Turner 11 months ago

    I must say Ryan that I gave this article my "POTD". After reading it, I couldn't help but smile as I was feeling the exact same way about the whole concept of "cheering for your conference". As you said in the article, we don't have any "SEC Widcats or SEC Tigers"...it is all individual teams. I am an Alabama fan, and have dealt with the way the program has slowly been declining. I have dealt with Auburn fans throwing in the "6-in-a-row" chant in my face.

    But I would never, ever in a million years root for Auburn. I am glad that I got this mentality from my dad. I was once listening to an Auburn basketball game on the radio, and I forgot who they were playing, but when Auburn was winning, I turned it off. We are losing the pride of hating rival schools because we want people to feel better about their conference. I know people say that Florida or LSU winning the National Title makes the SEC look good, but to me, I hated it because it wasn't Alabama.

    We try to justify our team losing in a conference as long as some other team in that conference wins. My uncle once told me that I should pull for Auburn because they are an SEC team...but I won't. The ONLY time I ever pull for any other SEC team that beat Alabama is when they are beating Auburn or playing a team I despise more.

    And I don't agree with the whole "pulling for another team so it makes your team look better"...if you beat a team that is playing in a better bowl than you...I'd want that team to lose.

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    • Ryan Stubbs 11 months ago

      Appreciate the feedback, you and I see eye to eye on this point. I can't hate a team for 4 consectutive months and then say "alright, Wisconsin, go out there and kill Texas A&M who I have no feelings for whatsoever."

      Thanks for the POTD tag too!

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  3. click here to save on gas 11 months ago

    College Football Athletic Departments worried about high gasoline cost.

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  4. 12 11 months ago

    My POTD hands down. Great article with insight that makes perfect sense to me. I'm a huge Alabama fan, and a huge SEC fan as well and I am proud of my team and my conference, but it's time to give this "we're better than everyone else" attitude a rest, no matter what team or conference you pull for. Bottom line, we all love college football, and I can't wait for kickoff!

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  5. Chris Copeland 11 months ago

    As a Sparty alum, I can tell you that yes, CSC has taken over at times... but never for those cross-town douches... When UM lost to App St- It was like Christmas in August :)

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  6. Michael S 11 months ago

    I can say with all honesty, I think this does apply in most cases, but there is one exception. People who root for Big East teams. The conference was once left for dead. Every time another BE team wins an OOC game, especially a bowl game, it's just one big F-U to everyone who thought and especially those who wrote the conference was dead.

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  7. Michael S 11 months ago

    I can say with all honesty, I think this does apply in most cases, but there is one exception. People who root for Big East teams. The conference was once left for dead. Every time another BE team wins an OOC game, especially a bowl game, it's just one big F-U to everyone who thought and especially those who wrote the conference was dead.

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    • James Harvey 11 months ago

      Agreed Michael!

      CSC has more influence with the so-called power house conferences. The Big East needed wins to stay alive in the BCS. However, as a long time WVU fan there is no freakn way I would cheer for Syracuse, or Pitt in any game.

      Now times are changing. I have seen some respect around the country. A few more years and WVU national title, will finally release us from our "Big Least" label.

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