WHAT'S A FAN TO DO?

You may already know this about me, but I hate the Green Bay Packers. I know that hate is a strong word, but I don’t dislike the Packers, I hate them.

I hate their arrogant fans. I hate their ugly color scheme. I hate the Frozen Tundra and the Lambeau Leap and the Discount Double Check. Most of all, I hate the fact that you don’t hate them as much as I do.

My whole life it seems that everyone has been in love with the Packers, and not just because I come from a Wisconsin family full of Packer fans. The media drooled over Brett Favre and his gunslinger approach to the game for 15 years. It wasn’t until a text of a picture of his dong was leaked that anyone said anything bad about the guy. Now the same can be said of Aaron Rogers and company. Even fellow Bears fans will say good things about the Pack when asked. “You gotta admit, Lambeau Field is a cool place to play”. “It’s awesome how the fans own the team.” “No, I don’t think there’s a chance that Green Bay could break off of the state, float into Lake Michigan, and sink to the bottom.” For some reason, the Packers are everyone’s second favorite team, and that really ticks me off.

This whole thing has been a long-winded intro into the point of this blog. I am currently in a situation that no sports fan ever wants to be in. It is the worst conundrum possible. As a fan of the Chicago Bears, I need the Packers to win this weekend or my season is over. 

Even typing that sucks. 

I honestly have no idea what to think. You might not believe me, because 99.9% of Bears fans will tell you that of course they want the Packers to win. They are being rational. I’m being irrational, and I’m not going to apologize. I can’t want the Packers to win. It goes against everything I believe. I would have to rethink my entire life and base my belief system on a premise which I am not willing to accept: that the Packers winning could be a good thing.

Now I need to justify hoping for an outcome that negatively impacts my favorite team, and therefore my mood/attitude for the next month.

The Bears aren’t all that good this year anyway. It’s not like they are going to win the Super Bowl, so who cares if they don’t make the playoffs? In fact, not making the playoffs could spark some changes in the organization that would improve things in the future. It could light a fire under the players who are realizing that their window is closing, creating an off-season full of hard work and dedication and a team in 2013 that is ready to take the next step.

Ok, those reasons are admittedly weak. Of course I want the Bears to make the playoffs. We’ve seen it too many times: a team backs in before finding their stride and running through the competition on the way to hoisting the Lombardi (I hate that it’s named this) Trophy.

I’m so torn. Who do I cheer for? Can I put aside my hatred for an afternoon in the hopes of a better future? What if I cheer for the Packers and then the Bears lose? What if the Packers and Bears both win, but the Bears get stomped in the first round, or worse, lose in the playoffs to the Packers?

I’m going to go throw up.

What's Going on in Iowa City?

He only rushed for 122 yards last season.

He likely would have been 3^rd on the depth chart next season.

He didn’t fit with the offensive scheme of Kirk Ferentz and Greg Davis.

The “next man in” at running back has always thrived.

The preceding four sentences are being used when discussing Greg Garmon’s transfer from the University of Iowa. They are all true statements, but they don’t really matter in the scheme of things. If this was the first, second, third, etc time that this has happened, it wouldn’t be a big deal, just another college kid who decided he wanted to be somewhere else. It happens every day at every school in the country. The problem is that it happens every year (sometimes multiple times in a year) at Iowa.

I don’t believe in much outside of coincidence. I’m not religious, I’m not superstitious, and I don’t believe in curses. The running back situation at Iowa over the past decade has gone beyond coincidence and beyond curse. There is something else going on.

I don’t know what it is and I don’t know who’s to blame. I do know that I’ve had enough and I want some answers.

SAD BUT TRUE: BIG 10 EXPANSION IS A GOOD THING

It seems to be the overwhelming opinion that the recent addition of Maryland and Rutgers to the Big 10 Conference is a bad thing. People say that it’s only about the money, that it doesn’t make sense as far as competition or geography, and that it is the next step on the road taking college football further away from amateur athletics and closer to big business. I have no argument against any of these points. They are all valid and true. They also have nothing to do with this.

We need to dispel the myth that college football can ever go back to “the good old days”. We need to enter reality. Maybe college football was much better before coaches made millions of dollars per year and every big bowl game was played on New Years Day. Those days are gone, and longing for them will get us nowhere. The reality is that college football is no longer amateur athletics, it is a professional game. Billions of dollars are spent and earned each year within the game, it just so happens that none (or very little) of it goes to the players. It isn’t a minor league feeder system into the NFL, it is a separate league playing a different brand of football. Think of it like the CFL. When you begin to think of college football as a professional league, as a business, you are able to remove the nostalgia, and you can clearly see why the Big 10 made a shrewd move this week.

In the current landscape of college football, if you’re not growing, you’re dying. Most would agree that this is true for leagues like the Big East and the ACC, but it is equally true for the Big 10 and the SEC. Don’t believe me? Go back 5 years and try and convince someone that the Big 12 would lose 4 teams in 2 years. The Big 12 has since stabilized, but for how long? What happens when the SEC decides it needs Texas and makes them an offer they can’t refuse? No league is stable, not when thinking long term.

What the Big 10 did by adding two more teams is take another step toward long-term viability, and it really doesn’t matter which two teams it added. Conferences are headed to 16 teams, at minimum, and the first ones to reach the number will be the ones who have the best chance of survival. The fact that Rutgers helps open up the New York market to the Big 10 Network, much like Maryland and DC, is important, and that is why they were the two chosen. It brings in tens of millions of dollars to the conference. That’s the bottom line. It doesn’t matter if they lack tradition, they can’t sell out their home games, or they wear god-awful uniforms. They bring money into the league, and they bring the league closer to the goal of 16 members.

If reading the previous four paragraphs didn’t make you depressed, there’s something wrong with you. It depressed me to write it. It absolutely sucks that this is where we have taken the game, but this is where we are and there’s no going back. No one is going to decide that they are fine with making less money off the sport. No one is going to decide that the spirit or tradition of the game is the most important thing. And no one is going to suddenly decide that gigantic humans slamming into one another causing serious, but usually not immediate, health issues or death is too barbaric to sit around each week and watch with our families. Things are moving forward, not backward. There will be more money involved, the stakes will only get higher, and it is survival of the fittest. The Big 10 became more fit this week.

Reality is a scary thing to face, and this reality is no different. My heart and history tell me that this move was not a good one. My head couldn’t disagree more. All of me is a fan of a Big 10 team, and this week my league took a step in the direction of long term stability. I may not be excited to watch Iowa and Maryland play a football game in a town 900 miles East of Iowa City called College Park, but at least I know it will happen. In this landscape, what more could you ask for?

Iowa Basketball: The Turning Point

This season of Iowa basketball has been the most interesting one in years. In the beginning, there was the loss to Campbell. In the end, there was the sweep of Wisconsin. In between, a lot of ups and downs. But this season correlates nicely with the 2001 Iowa football season. A season that, by the numbers, was average, but which marked a change in the program that would ultimately lead to greatness.  A turning point. Now, I don’t mean greatness as in a national championship caliber team (although there have been one or two football teams on that level), I mean program relevance, a perennial conference contender, and a team you don’t want to see in the NCAA Tournament. Most Iowa fans would agree, that is the goal right now. And we are on our way.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think the 2012-13 basketball team will perform like the 2002 football team. That would be asking far too much. But I do think that 10 years from now, we will be able to look back and see clearly that this season is where it all changed. Where the program began is resurrection.

In 2001, I was a freshman at the University of Iowa. I distinctly remember being in the stands during the 32-26 loss to 8^th ranked Michigan. The reason it stands out in my mind is that I was absolutely pissed when the game was over. It was one we should have had. The Wolverines were who we thought they were, and we let them off the hook. Going into the game, there was no reason to think that Iowa would have a chance. But a 10-7 halftime lead (Michigan scored on a blocked punt), and a 20-7 lead in the 3^rd had made it clear that the game was ours to lose. Which we promptly did. The point is, there were many games during this basketball season that felt this way. Games that we’ve lost, and have expected to lose, for years now; but this year it felt different. We could beat these teams. Not every night, and not all of them, but we could play with almost anyone and it felt like we could win almost any game. This is the feeling of a team on the brink of breaking through.

Another correlation is the young talent. This is less obvious in football, where freshman and sophomores often don’t see much playing time. But flashes of brilliance from the likes of Brad Banks and Dallas Clark hinted at a level of talent that shone through in the ‘02 season.  Looking at the roster of the 2001 football team, you see names like Banks, Clark, Russell, Gallery, Roth, Hodge, Greenway, Sanders, and Keading. Names that would help build the program that we see now. The young players on Iowa’s basketball team will be remembered in much the same way. Players that will have to step up to fill in the void left by seniors like Matt Gatens, the way the football players filled the void left by guys like Ladell Betts, Kahlil Hill, and Aaron Kampman.

2001 was Kirk Ferentz’ 2^nd season at Iowa. 2011-12 is Fran McCafferey’s 2^nd season at Iowa. Just saying.

I don’t think Iowa will finish in the top 10 next year, the way the ’02 football team did. I don’t think we’ll necessarily see a handful of guys off the team make a huge impact at the next level, the way those football players did. But I do think that in 2021, when some are calling for Fran’s head because he can’t get past the Sweet 16, we will be able to look back on this season and say that it was the turning point. It was when we realized we had the coach we needed, had a system that would work in this league, and could finally get our hopes up after far too many meaningless seasons. It might not be obvious today, but make no mistake, Iowa basketball is back.