New Frank the Tank Post on Conf. Realignment

[billybud]

Just regional differences...that's all.

Thirty years ago when the movie "Hoosiers" came out, I was surprised that Indiana small town culture and their basketball rivalries and interest mirrored the "Friday Night Lights" football experiences that I had witnessed in the small town south and that my wife grew up with in rural central Texas.

And some micro cultures are not known widely...ex. Many do not know of "the Muck Bowl"...but it is a storied and much followed rivalry in South Florida.

Two small high schools in rural Florida, Pahokee HS against Glades HS is considered one of the premier Florida rivalries.

About 50 players from these two teams have gone on to play in the NFL.

High school football’s greatest rivalry: Muck City

Just regional difference in sports and sports interest...

 

[billybud]

And your perspective changes as you age...the country changes.

When you are my age you are interested in history, maybe because you have witnessed a lot of it...

I am old enough to remember basketball that once looked some different from today... the Celtics when Bob Cousy wore the shorty shorts and ten white guys and Bill Russell, as the lone black, made up the champion team of 56-57.

And in the south, football changed....but after my high school years when we were still segregated. My HS team mates and I went to watch our black high school play...and I saw the future. Although we told each other it was "playground ball", we all knew that we had seen speed and plays that were very unlike our wing T formation and runs to the left and right.

 

[SubbaBub]

Tractor pulls aren't as popular in the Northeast either but there are enough college FB fans in CT to represent at a P5 level if we were in a P5 conference. Nearly half the teams in P5 have terrible attendance, what is their excuse?

 

[Guapo]

Tractor pulls aren't as popular in the Northeast either but there are enough college FB fans in CT to represent at a P5 level if we were in a P5 conference. Nearly half the teams in P5 have terrible attendance, what is their excuse?

Look, I don't know if you know this but NC State started off as an agricultural school.

You just wouldn't understand.

 

[billybud]

Tractor pulls aren't as popular in the Northeast either but there are enough college FB fans in CT to represent at a P5 level if we were in a P5 conference. Nearly half the teams in P5 have terrible attendance, what is their excuse?

Tractor pulls seem to have a following in the midwest....

The National Tractor Pull Association lists their July-August events in:

Ft. Recovery, Oh... Monroe, Michigan...Mt. Sterling, Illinois...Langford, NY...Waverly, Iowa..Salem, Ill...Sandusky, Ohio..Napoleon, Ohio, Bowling Green, Ohio, Greenville, Ohio, Hudsonville, Michigan...Wellington, Ohio...Canfield, Ohio...Sandwich, Ill...

Those Buckeyes love them some tractors.

Now...Monster Trucks...that's a whole horse of a different hue...you can watch 'em in Stafford Springs, Conn and you can watch 'em in LA...you can see 'em in Nova Scotia and cheer 'em in Green Bay.

 

[huskyrob1]

True...for many southerners, there is much less passion for basketball than football.

Tell that to Kentucky, Duke, and UNC basketball crazies. I'd even throw Louisville and Tennesee into that group.

 

[billybud]

Tell that to Kentucky, Duke, and UNC basketball crazies. I'd even throw Louisville into that group.

Not deep south, my friend...

Tobacco Road is basketball....SEC country is more about football...Kentucky is a border state..not really south.

Drop below North Carolina and it is football.

 

[huskyrob1]

Not deep south, my friend...

Tobacco Road is basketball....SEC country is more about football...Kentucky is a border state..not really south.

Drop below North Carolina and it is football.

Oh OK, so you mean't "deep Southerners". Well thanks for clarifying your original statement . (my friend)

 

[traitor71]

Just regional differences...that's all.

Thirty years ago when the movie "Hoosiers" came out, I was surprised that Indiana small town culture and their basketball rivalries and interest mirrored the "Friday Night Lights" football experiences that I had witnessed in the small town south and that my wife grew up with in rural central Texas.

And some micro cultures are not known widely...ex. Many do not know of "the Muck Bowl"...but it is a storied and much followed rivalry in South Florida.

Two small high schools in rural Florida, Pahokee HS against Glades HS is considered one of the premier Florida rivalries.

About 50 players from these two teams have gone on to play in the NFL.

High school football’s greatest rivalry: Muck City

Just regional difference in sports and sports interest...

That's as good as it gets right there when it comes to rivalries.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

That's as good as it gets right there when it comes to rivalries.

I don’t know about a lack of football rivalry in the North
They apparently forgot about the Lower Naugatuck area.
I was at my Nephew’s Pop Warner game years ago ,when he was playing for Ansonia against a Shelton. The game was being played in a driving rainstorm and heavy wind .
At the half the referee from Naugatuck was talking to a guy near me .
He said when he got up early that morning to get dressed for the game his wife told him he was wasting his time ,no one was crazy enough to play football in such awful weather.
Then he he told her it was Ansonia vs Shelton, she replied “what time will you be home for lunch.”

 

[billybud]

Oh OK, so you mean't "deep Southerners". Well thanks for clarifying your original statement . (my friend)

Well...there is the "south"...and of course Kentucky (a non confederate state bordering Ohio and Illinois) is not considered south by most born and bred southerners. It is a rim state...

See....Culture of the Southern United States - Wikipedia

As I said, Tobacco Road IS BASKETBALL...but minus Carolina, the south is football first.

and..sorry if you took umbrage from my use of "my friend"....just a sort of reference and homage to an fellow alumnus even older than I and his use of "not so fast, my friend".

 

[Irishfan]

Tell that to Kentucky, Duke, and UNC basketball crazies. I'd even throw Louisville and Tennesee into that group.

No way that the state of Tennessee has as much passion for basketball as they do for football. Certainly not UT, or Vanderbilt. Even in Memphis most are big UT fans or Ole Miss fans, but definitely football fans.

 

[billybud]

Not even in all North Carolina....I am typing this from my place in western North Carolina...they don't care about UNC...folks around here are from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee.

In the west of North Carolina you find SEC fans primarily with FSU, Clemson, and a few others.

On the streets you see Vol, Gator, Dawg, Seminole gear...but no Carolina blue.

 

[Guapo]

Not even in all North Carolina....I am typing this from my place in western North Carolina...they don't care about UNC...folks around here are from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee.

In the west of North Carolina you find SEC fans primarily with FSU, Clemson, and a few others.

On the streets you see Vol, Gator, Dawg, Seminole gear...but no Carolina blue.

I spend a lot of time in and around Murphy, NC and can confirm it's all Vols fans.

You do, however, suddenly see a bunch of Carolina blue in March.

But yeah, Western Carolina is much more culturally connected to East Tennessee than the rest of the state of NC.

 

[billybud]

Asheville is a short drive from Knoxville..a short drive from Clemson...and about three hours from Athens, Ga...

Raleigh, at 4 hours is farther away.

Murphy is 20 miles from the Tennessee line, 10 miles from the Georgia line, and two hours from Clemson...

Guapo...maybe I'll see you some Thursday evening at the Daily Grind and Wine in Murphy where my pals jam beginning about 6 (of course I will only know that a stranger has walked in)...I live in the middle of a triangle with Murphy, Hayesville, and Andrews as the corners, when I am not in Florida.

 

[Drew]

Not even in all North Carolina....I am typing this from my place in western North Carolina...they don't care about UNC...folks around here are from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee.

In the west of North Carolina you find SEC fans primarily with FSU, Clemson, and a few others.

On the streets you see Vol, Gator, Dawg, Seminole gear...but no Carolina blue.

yup. And this might be shocking for people on here to believe but east of Raleigh is all ECU fans. New Bern/Morehead City/et al are all about ECU.

 

[Guapo]

Asheville is a short drive from Knoxville..a short drive from Clemson...and about three hours from Athens, Ga...

Raleigh, at 4 hours is farther away.

Murphy is 20 miles from the Tennessee line, 10 miles from the Georgia line, and two hours from Clemson...

Guapo...maybe I'll see you some Thursday evening at the Daily Grind and Wine in Murphy where my pals jam beginning about 6 (of course I will only know that a stranger has walked in)...I live in the middle of a triangle with Murphy, Hayesville, and Andrews as the corners, when I am not in Florida.

When I'm up there, I'm coming from Blairsville

 

[billybud]

Right...we are in Blairsville several times a week...eat at Cook's, Hole in the Wall, Nani's....we zoom down through Young Harris.

 

[Guapo]

Right...we are in Blairsville several times a week...eat at Cook's, Hole in the Wall, Nani's....we zoom down through Young Harris.

If you see anyone walking around Murphy or Blairsville in a UConn shirt, it's almost definitely me

 

[The Funster]

PBR was more popular than BC hoops.

 

[JeepCSC]

yup. And this might be shocking for people on here to believe but east of Raleigh is all ECU fans. New Bern/Morehead City/et al are all about ECU.

ECU is a strange bird. But honestly, it’s base is the 45-minute or so radius around Greenville. There it probably supplants UNC, for those that can drive there. It’s pull in the rest of the East, from Ocean Isle to Corolla is much less. Might be on par with State.

The mountains are their own thing though. UNC stuff is there, but it’s just another thing along with Tennessee, West Virginia, Appalachian, and Georgia probably rounding out the top 5. The tourist season does bring all-comers though.

 

[uconnfan68]

Here it is: Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Where Big Ten Graduates Live and Conference Realignment


Contains this little blurb about UConn:
"UConn is a more of an institutional fit as a flagship school, has strong connections to both New York and Boston and a top level basketball program historically. However, its largest roadblock can’t really be fixed by anything other than the passage of time: the Big Ten simply isn’t adding a school that has only been playing FBS football since 2002. In fact, that’s an underrated factor in why UConn isn’t in any Power Five conference today. All of the years that UConn played Division I-AA football might not as well exist. In the minds of the powers that be, UConn is more of newbie than a school like UCF (upgraded in 1996), and that’s a black mark in a universe where being able to say that a school has been playing at the highest level of football since the 1800s actually matters. It might sound arbitrary and unfair, but old school pedigree is simply an absolute requirement when getting to the Power Five level and dealing with very literally the snobbiest group of people on Earth AKA university presidents. Even a bad football history can be overcome if it’s at least a long football history (e.g. Rutgers).

Syracuse actually sends a similar percentage of its grads to the Boston market as UConn despite a farther distance from Upstate New York along having the largest percentage of grads of of any FBS school living in the New York City market with the exception of Rutgers. While Syracuse is a private school, it’s a very large one where it almost serves the role of a flagship-type institution for New Yorkers. As a result, it has Big Ten-like attributes in a region where Ivy League and other elite private universities have historically kept public universities in a subservient position."

If I remember correctly, there was no divisions until the past 30-40 years, and UConn played well before then. So just a BS reason.

 

[huskyrob1]

If I remember correctly, there was no divisions until the past 30-40 years, and UConn played well before then. So just a BS reason.

The usual gang of trash haulers that patrol the CR board will find fault with your post somewhere.

" But, but, but"

"You missed the whole point"

"UConn is doomed"

 

[Adios]

We've been playing at the FBS level since 2000, as well. Started in 1896. We'd fit in fine in the Big Ten.

 

[Mokum]

If I remember correctly, there was no divisions until the past 30-40 years, and UConn played well before then. So just a BS reason.

When I was a kid, 50’s and ‘60’s, there were two de facto divisions, major and small. We were considered small time. Besides the yankee conference schools with whom we did ok, we played Yale every year and lost. Boston U, lose. Holy Cross, lose. Delaware, lose. Northeastern, usually win. Rutgers occasionally, lose. The likes of Springfield, AIC, St Lawrence. I remember a game when Springfield kicked the crap out of us. The schedule got a little better by the ‘70’s, and a bit more diverse, but we didn’t do all that well.

 

[Adios]

When I was a kid, 50’s and ‘60’s, there were two de facto divisions, major and small. We were considered small time. Besides the yankee conference schools with whom we did ok, we played Yale every year and lost. Boston U, lose. Holy Cross, lose. Delaware, lose. Northeastern, usually win. Rutgers occasionally, lose. The likes of Springfield, AIC, St Lawrence. I remember a game when Springfield kicked the crap out of us. The schedule got a little better by the ‘70’s, and a bit more diverse, but we didn’t do all that well.

Boston U and Holy Cross had better stadiums. What did you expect?

 

[huskyrob1]

When I was a kid, 50’s and ‘60’s, there were two de facto divisions, major and small. We were considered small time. Besides the yankee conference schools with whom we did ok, we played Yale every year and lost. Boston U, lose. Holy Cross, lose. Delaware, lose. Northeastern, usually win. Rutgers occasionally, lose. The likes of Springfield, AIC, St Lawrence. I remember a game when Springfield kicked the crap out of us. The schedule got a little better by the ‘70’s, and a bit more diverse, but we didn’t do all that well.

Flipper starred on that team. His hatred of UConn has deep roots.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

PBR was more popular than BC hoops.

bcu: not exactly setting a bar too high