Do any of you guys have friends that have favorite teams from other cities and its like North Carolina Basketball or the LA Dodgers? I'm not naming names (Jay Ettinger), but these guys always have an answer for every sporting situation. Go Yankees! What? Yeah, my Mom's from New York. Or go USC! What? Yeah, my cousin went there. But my all-time favorite are the Duke basketball and Notre Dame football guys...they're the worst. Next time you run into one ask them how their other team's are doing like say Lacrosse or Football at Duke...and when they back peddle (oh, I just like their such and such team), that's when you got 'em. A real sports fan should choose his teams with a little more salt.
Below is my list of teams no one cheers for (literally).
Criteria: Must have very little following, must perform better than perceived.
1. Florida Marlins. Have you ever seen more than 10,000 fans at one of their home games? Have you ever not seen them compete? Have you ever seen Dontrell Willis (a pitcher) leg out a triple? This is the Red Headed Step Child marries the Little Engine That Could of all sports teams. There are plenty of Red Headed Step Children teams (see Devil Rays, Arizona Cardinals) and plenty of Little Engines (see Packers, Twins, or Edmonton Oilers). But no team combines them both as well as the Marlins.
2. Golden Gopher Football. With Glen Mason at the helm, he gave everyone in the state the green light to hate them and more or less root against them. The stadium should be cause for removal from the Big 10. They are a very close second. Despite having terrible recruiting and no fan support the Gophs always found a way to compete. New coach, new stadium will probably eliminate the fan support part of the equation. Based on the criteria, they probably will slip down this chart, since its my alma mater, I'm okay with that.
3. Wake Forest Anything. Fan following outside of its 300 alums (and a few nappie headed groupies) is brutal...so they have that part down. The outperforming is unbelievable. In hoops they are like the 6th choice for recruits behind UNC, Duke, NCST, UNC Charlotte and Elon but they still find their way into the tournament almost every year. But more amazing has to be football. Last year they won the ACC...yes the ACC, the future football super power (see future blogs on the ACC) that has Miami, Florida State, Clemson, BC, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech (all perennial T25s) in its conference plus Virginia, NCST, and Maryland (no cup of Tea). Go Deacs.
4. NY Jets. Decent following by NFL standards but by all means the second team in NYC. This team gets no respect...ever. They consistently outperform better teams no matter the coach, QB, lack of skill positions. Plus J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets has gotta be one of the best chants in pro sports.
5. San Antonio Spurs. Okay they have a huge fan following in San Antonio (bad choice). But nationwide no one cares if they win...period. This team is a Tony Parker/Eva Longoria breakup away from moving up a notch. They're boring, they win NBA titles, and they don't get in trouble. Maybe the other teams should consider their formula. That is if winning mattered at all in this league (sorry Mune for the bad NBA karma).
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7 comments:
ACC? Future super power of college football? What are you, a poor blind student from Bologna?????
The ACC is home to the seven most hideously mediocre programs in the nation. Between BC, Clemson, GT, Maryland, NC, NC St and Virginia, can anyone tell where one program ends and the other begins? Would anyone invest a minute of their Saturday afternoon watching a game between any of these teams?
You want superpower, I give you the SEC. The middle seven of that conference consists of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Tennessee. Match that up with the middle of the ACC pack above, and tell me which conference is the only superpower of the past, present and future.
By the way, the ACC is also the worst BCS conference at the top and bottom of the conference.
Top three programs:
ACC - Miami, FSU, VT
BE - Louisville, WVU, Rutgers
B12 - Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska
B10 - OSU, Michigan, Wisconsin
P10 - USC, Oregon, Cal
SEC - Florida, Auburn, LSU
All of these teams are either solid or on the rise, except for the three ACC teams...all of which are on a steep decline. If any of them have fallen out of the top 3, which of the mediocre seven would replace them with?
The ACC also has the worst bottom, with Duke as the worst program in college football.
The irony of the ACC raid of the Big East is that the Big East is actually better than the ACC. Don't believe me? check out the final AP rankings last year (BE had 3 teams in Top 12, highest ACC was #18), the preseason rankings for 2008 (SI has four BE teams ranked, and 1 ACC), or the head-to-head records from last year (7-3 BE, including Orange and Gator victories).
Pitt didn't make my list because they are more Red Headed than Little Engine. Pitt sits in the heart of the recruiting cabbage patch and has a losing record to South Florida and UConn.
When do Marquette and DePaul suit up? I heard Seton Hall (THE HALL) has a great progrum. Face it, the Big East is a basketball conference and a passing thought to the best football players in the country.
Admit it, Pitt is...not it... in football. Pitt has a better national reputation in hoops than football. A hard pill for you to swallow. You might want to wash that down with a little Iron City.
Good Lord, this blather is coming from a blue seat (aka a Gopher football fan)?
Here's a relevent topic for you..when listing the members of each major conference, who is the final team that you always forget? Go ahead, do it right now and tell me your results.
Here are mine:
ACC - Maryland
BE - Cincinnati
B12 - Baylor
B10 - MINNESOTA
SEC - Vanderbilt
P10 - Stanford
Get yourself a program, then come talk to me.
Let me see if I have this right. You graduated from Minnesota (not just once) and you can't remember they are in the Big Ten.
In fact, I believe one of the three reasons you chose MINNESOTA (yeah Gophers), was because it was in the Big Ten. Busted.
So please put Northwestern back in its place of obscurity, they were beginning to feel awkward as a remembered team in the conference!
I see this has turned into a Pitt v. Minn argument. This may be the only time in history that such an argument exists in print. Are you both serious? At least it's fun to talk about how bad some other teams are: Cubs, Clippers, Northwestern, etc. These teams don't even warrant discussion. They're forgotten programs (even with Pitt bball success). Nobody cares.
Z -
Thanks for the nod to Wake. I agree the ACC is overrated in football, but it's fun to watch the Deacs' 2-star recruits overlooked by everybody but Vanderbilt and Duke hang tough in almost every game they play. Rarely do they win or lose by more than a touchdown. Most of the credit goes to Coach Grobe and his staff. Let the USCs, Notre Dames, North and South Carolinas and Pitts chase the next washout NFL coach. I'll take Grobe any day.
As for hoops, Wake has surpisingly become the school of choice for most of the top in-state players. Duke and Carolina see themselves as national programs and rarely spend much time recruiting in state. NC State can't get past its giant chip on the shoulder as to how it got lapped over the past two decades by those programs down the road. Wake offers the academics, facilities, respectable NBA pipeline (Duncan, Paul, Joosh Howard), and (past 2 seasons aside where there was no contigency plan for Paul's early departure) a pretty consistent upper echelon ACC program. Now if we can just play some defense.
BTW, I like the U's new coaching hires. Tubby is a very impressive grab. Brewster will do just fine if he recruits half as well and game coaches twice as well as his old mentor Mack Brown.
BTW, i have an interesting and emotionally charged topic for your blog. While i am deeply sympathetic to all the shooting victims, their families and the entire VT community, does anyone else fear a season-long PR/recriting blitz for their johnny-come-lately football and basketball programs? Enough with the maroon and orange and the obligatory VT lapel pins at the NFL draft.
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