Please help. I’m losing my grip on being a huge college football fan.

That can be entertaining too. So, it is what it is. I was a sportswriter for 15 years in a past life. You learn to open your mind and appreciate things for what they are instead of pitting them against each other.

 

There's a lot, but it's clear cut and not a bunch of shady crap. If you want the player, pay for him. If you can come to contract terms with him, he's yours. If you can't, tough shit for both of us (provided I wanted to sell). Honestly, it comes down the fans for me. They just care more, like we used to. And the complete absence of commercials. That's the best thing ever.

 

THIS^

Only difference is I don't blame UF. They still care about the U part of UF and don't want to go full Alabama/Georgia goober.

 

Per your desire to look into ND line judge controversy :

https://youtube.com/shorts/jarTdJcZaS8?si=SfUpchBF88_7WIQM

 

I’m just mostly interested in sports that I actually play or played. I never played soccer and the only time I will am willing to watch it is when it’s the World Cup and our women are men are playing.

 

To each his own. I get it. If I had no foundation of knowledge about the sport, I'd probably find it boring too (and like all sports, it can be boring depending on the game, competition, etc.) But, you can say the same thing about any sport. I never thought I'd like wrestling, but after covering it for over a decade I came to really appreciate the sport and the sacrifices those guys make. . . all with very little reward (scholarships) in the end. I covered a 4-time state champion here in FL who's only offers were from DIII schools. He also had Bright Futures, so he just ended his career and went to UF instead.

 

I don't know how long ago that was, but take comfort that FL wrestling has been making significant strides nationally and four time state champs are definitely getting major scholarship offers these days. We had two four timers graduate this past year and both are in D1 programs--West Point and Iowa State.

 

Late 90s and that's good to hear. This guy defended the same weight class for all 4 years. Those last two he basically lived on Pedialyte. Also worked the drive-thru at McDonalds. My buddy did a great feature story on him.

 

It's exceptionally difficult to win four straight titles anymore, and those who do are dominant wrestlers with national ranks and are placing or winning national/international tournaments. So all of those guys are on the radar for D1 schollys. And that's not including Lake Highland Prep, who stopped participating in the state series years ago and only does national tournaments. They're usually ranked in the top 5 programs nationally and just about every one of the senior starters will go D1.

 

Wow. It's definitely come a long way since then. Not surprising (Title IX) that a lot of the action takes place on the club level. It was like that in soccer for years. The scouts were at the club tournaments much more than the HS events.

 

We still don't have the depth or youth wrestling infrastructure of the traditional powerhouse states like Pennsylvania or New Jersey, but top Florida kids are just top kids, period. And tons of FL kids are on D2, JUCO, and NAIA scholarships all over the country. My sons were recent 2x state placers and both could have wrestled D1, but both chose to concentrate on academics rather than try to split time between what they wanted to do vocationally (medicine and engineering) and the requirements of D1 athletics.

 

I do that, too during the playoffs (which is the only time I even pay attention to anything NFL).

We have a relative who won our annual family NCAA Bowl Picks contest. She has season ticketholders, former College All-Americans, and State Champion High School head coaches in the family. But, she won the bowl contest by picking... teams wearing her favorite colors. She was seven.

 

Hahaha. Awesome.

 

We had midget tossing in the 1980's

 

Years ago a Gator fan messaged that he was sick of the way the Gators were playing and the cost of tickets. Therefore, he was going to use the money he would have spent on tickets to buy a bass boat. Some responded, “You’re not a true Gator fan!”