OT: Who is your #2 college football team and why?

Don't really have one. Maybe CMU? I tend to root for Northwestern when they aren't playing Michigan. I'll be rooting for Oregon this weekend because I'll be at Autzen to watch them play Nebraska.

Virginia Tech because I was one guilt trip from my dad away from going there for undergrad and Navy ROTC. Ahh what might have been.

Nooooo-BODY  (except Michigan)

Since my wife graduated from K-State and she is a big fan. Though the BWW bowl was a big embarrassment for me when KSU blew us out, glad those years are long gone!

I've always like Georgia Tech

Delaware, because winged helmets obviously.

Some people bandwagon onto good teams and look stupid when their team sucks. When my team sucks... who cares? That was part of the deal to begin with.

Navy

Don't really have a strong #2 (I had to think about it in order to come up with one), but I guess it would be Stanford. Academic and athletic excellence, like Michigan but on steroids (the good, non-illegal kind, if there are any). Kinda like Wisconsin for personal reasons (Dad's U), old school football approach and generally nice Midwestern folks.

On the other hand, my list of football schools I really dislike is pretty long, and easy to come up with:

• OSU
• MSU
• ND
• PSU
• the whole damn SEC sans Vandy
• just about everyone from Texas
• Rutgers
• USC
• FSU (stupid annoying chant, in my head it goes [F-U Seminoles, Seminoles, F-U])
• many more...

Illinois - Got my MS from there. Dee Brown, Deron Williams, and Luther Head were amazing to watch live and the football team went from one win to the Rose Bowl while I was there.

 

UVA - I did an REU research program there one summer during undergrad. Had a great time and the ladies were both intelligent and beautiful.

Hillsdale College Chargers.

But I hope the alma mater goes down in flame 9/16!

Capitol Univ (Columbus, OH; Div 3) because my nephew is on the team. Before that, Penn State because my sister and many of my high school classmates (Altoona Area HS, duh) are graduates. And Navy, because I'm a retired Navy Officer (beat Army!) BTW, me and my Nittany Lion sister have emphatically expressed to her son that he may be going to college in Columbus, but NOT at Ohio State!

Minnesota. I like P. J. Fleck.

Whoever Mike Leach is coaching

UConn because I live in CT and had one kid there and one in UM (I'm Blue). The home and home was a lot of fun.

always liked Oklahoma State for no real reason

Toledo, went there.

I just got my masters degree from The University of Oklahoma, where I also was a graduate assistant in their athletic department. In addition to that, they are playing Ohio State this weekend, so BOOMER MOTHERFUCKING SOONER BABY!!!

Although I graduated from Ohio U, I'd have to say my hometown Bowling Green Falcons. I went to a ton of games growing up and yeah, always pull for them in MACtion.

Boring reasons.

Northwestern because that's where I went to law school and Mizzou because that's where I live and grew up.  I am still disappointed that B1G didn't take Mizzou.  That's where Mizzou belongs, and it would have been fun.  

But Michigan is way ahead of both of them.  I live and die with Michigan.  I'll watch NW and Mizzou if there's nothing better on, but that's it. 

Now get this.  I have two daughters, both of whom broke my heart when they decided to attend small liberal arts colleges instead of Mich.  If they'd attended schools with big time football programs, I'd probably have become a fan (as my father is with Mich).  But Michigan was the only school with big-time football that they applied to, so of course I'd have been a fan.  

Here are the schools,undergrad and grad, that my daughers attended:  Vassar, Carleton, NYU, DePaul, McGill.  Neither daughter ever went to a single football game of any of those schools (the ones that have football) and I don't really blame them.  (Whoops, my wife just reminded me that our daughter at Carleton had to go to a football game for a Sociology class.  When I was in college I went to football games to cover them for the Daily.  My daughter went to study ... what, I'm not sure.)  

Now my older daughter is starting a post-doc at Amherst.  Go, Mammoths!

My Alma mater kept it within 4 with 4 minutes to go at USC. A ground pounding performance. Had a great run in a 13-1 season. Loved the experience vs Toledo, at MACC Ford Field vs Ohio and at Jerry World vs Wisconsin. Now Sparty is talking much Sh!t on their board about how they will crush Western following an impressive victory against Bowling Green. They talk down like they are Harvard grads. What a bunch of tools. Can't wait to beat them in their crib. They think we had to open up our playbook at USC when we never got past plan A because SC couldn't stop our running game. Gonna take much pleasure in relegating them to 3rd best in MI. Go Broncos! beat Sharty!

Not since 1993, though, so I don't feel quite as dirty as I probably should feel.

Now it's Wisconsin. I lived in the Madison area for nearly twenty years, and I still have a lot of friends there.

I never had any mixed loyalties when either team played Michigan, though. 

Western Michigan, especially this weekend!! I see alot of people saying who ever plays Ohio State, and I understand that. But a part of me wants to see them win every game until they play us, and we spoil their whole year. But at the end of the day, I enjoy a Ohio State loss just as much as anyone else

in almost any game. Unless it's ND, MSU, or OSU.

Florida State University. Great fans, great tradition, different offense and defense from Michigan in the past, plus I think it's a fun football to watch. Plus their Twitter following is absolutely crazy.

I like seeing nerds do well in athletics. One of my all time favorite moves was when the entire Stanford offensive line shifted in a big circle, arriving back in the same place they started. It was under Harbaugh, of course, and it was when they were first and goal on the USC 2 yard line in a Stanford blowout. Just an ultimate troll job by Harbaugh.

Plus, several family members are Stanford alums. That said, I know more about how they're doing than my own damn alum relatives. No wonder Jim bolted.

My parents built their retirement home about 2 miles from Death Valley, Clemson's just a nice small college town, friendly people, and the Upstate is beautiful, And don't forget the Wednesday and Sunday Jockey Lot's in Pickens and Anderson.

Syracuse because of proximity, friends, former students there, etc.

Wisconsin. Went to undergrad there. Beautiful campus, great college town. Badgers might seem similar...but they are just not Wolverines.  Maize and Blue are my true colors.

Vanderbilt because I go to law school here now. Also pull for SMU because that's where my wife went to undergrad. 

Wisconsin.  I have an unparalleled emotional attachment and engagement with Michigan athletics, but I identify with UW first as an institution, and with that comes their athletics in a clear second place.  In my time in Madison, I earned a PhD, did 3 years of postdoc, met my wife, and had our first baby girl.  UW gave me everything I have in my personal and professional life, and I love it deeply.  But UW athletics is like a party - it's fun, but it's kind of secondary to the university as I know it.  Michigan, for me, is football.  It's how I grew up, cheering for the good guys in maize and blue.  It's really an apples and oranges type of situation, because Michigan is my sports love and Madison is my life.  I confuse my coworkers by wearing lots of apparel from both schools.