Monday, September 04, 2006

There's one day a year that I'm a 'nole...

and it's today.

I can't begin to tell you how much I despise the University of Miami.

12 comments:

Alfredo said...

conductor,

I can not believe it your rooting for the Noles! C'mon take a step from the dark side of gator land and step into the light: Go Noles!!!!

Just messing with you mi hermano, should be a good game! Gators rocked in their game!

El Polaco said...

To Me, My second favorite team is the one Playing the University of SPOILED CHILDREN

Anonymous said...

Why despise UM? Unless UF is playing UM or you’re a Nole, you should root for Miami and not FSU. We live in this town and as a courtesy, we should all support our home teams.

Henry Louis Gomez said...

Well Anonymous, I have nothing against UM. It's their lousy. stinking, bragging, front running, phony fans (that have never set foot on the campus) that I can't stand.

Please don't tell me who "should" be rooting for. Miami is a private university and has nothing to do with Miami (it's actually in Coral Gables) except they pay their games in Miami.

I root for whoever the hell I want to root for.

Anonymous said...

It doesn’t matter if the campus is in Coral Gables or the City of Sweetwater. It’s all about name recognition. I’m not telling you whom you should root for, but merely suggesting how proud we should be of our community. A fan doesn’t necessarily need to attend, graduate or set foot on campus to be a UM fanatic. Noles and Gator fans are all alike-scared of UM embarrassing their football program.

Robert said...

As a Seminole who also supports University of Miami athletics because they represent my hometown (whether one likes it or not, they do)...I don't let some phony and stupid fans spoil my image of UM's teams. They actually have a good core of loyal fans, if not large in number. FSU and UF have plenty of support from North Floridians who can't even find Gainesville or Tallahassee on a map. They tend to be more loyal simply because up there all you have in those places is FSU/UF Football and recruiting season (basketball and baseball, as successful as they've been, still don't come close to football in this state). They also have massive amounts of alumni who stay in the state. And don't even get me started on the behavior displayed by SOME of the fans from said schools (I've attended enough UM/UF games to know, trust me).

I went to plenty of UM events as a kid, and I think supporting the city's hallmark university (whose athletic success is disproportionate to their size of enrollment) and showing your kids this support helps foster community spirit as well as helping to encourage pursuit of higher education...as hokey as all this sounds I've seen it happen.

You should obviously support your alma mater. But for a lot of us who grew up here and rooted for UM even when they went 5-6 every year, it's nice to see what they've been able to accomplish in several sports, even if we moved on to attend other schools.

Henry Louis Gomez said...

"...as a courtesy, we should all support our home teams."

Sounds like you (or another anonymous) was suggesting who I should root for.

Let's not get into a debate that you'll never win.

"Noles and Gator fans are all alike-scared of UM embarrassing their football program."

It's exactly that kind of bullshit that makes me hate UM. What year did you graduate from UM?

I don't think it's a coincidence that UM is having all this trouble once they joined a half-decent conference. Welcome to the world of big time college football where you don't get to make your schedule, it's made for you by the conference. Every team schedules patsies but Miami always scheduled 5 or 6 of those teams but now they can't. Thus they get beaten by Georgia Tech or North Carolina. Now you have to play real teams week in and week out.

I root for the local team, they are called the Miami Dolphins. College football is about your school. There's no such thing as "my second favorite team" when it comes to college.

Robert I respectfully have to disagree, UF and FSU of course have fans with no connection to the school but the VAST majority do. The situation is the exact reverse when it comes to Miami.

Anonymous said...

Conductor:

Who are you rooting for between UM and FIU? That’s right there’s no such thing as a second team. Right-so the Phillies weren’t a second team for you. Yeah, okay. BTW, I did not graduate from UM. In 1968, I came to the US from Cuba at age 1. Unfortunately, my parents continued to struggle to make ends meets and could not afford send me to UM. As it turns out, I grew up loving and watching UM football, but I attended FIU. I am very proud of my education at FIU, and unless UM is not playing FIU, I will obviously continue to root for the home team.

Robert said...

That's OK Henry, I had a feeling you wouldn't agree. ;)

You're right about the connection to the schools, but UM shouldn't be automatically punished simply because their local alumni base is pretty small. They are a rather small private school and as you know, there are more alumni in South Florida from either FSU/UF than UM. Heck, there are tons more alumni from FIU than from UM. That's the nature of the beast and the reason why there are a lot of front running fans. Like I said, I don't let the bad fans dictate who I should/shouldn't support.

As far as UM and scheduling is concerned, they were in a bad conference for a long time, but got the hell out when they saw the opportunity. Even then, they scheduled at least a couple of good non-conference opponents, including FSU. Their recent 9-3 seasons has more due with lack of top talent than anything else. Last night's game was a classic example (FSU is in the same boat as UM).

UM and FSU have never shyed away from scheduling good opponents, it's usually been the opposite. Also, be careful when talking about scheduling cupcakes. Everybody schedules them these days. Do I have to remind you of what happened in the late 80s after UM consistently tapdanced all over UF? Playing the likes of Montana State as a replacement for UM on the schedule? ;)

Also, and to make sure we keep this "on-topic", although UF had some of the first Cuban-American players, UM has had more Cuban-American players overall (unfortunately, FSU is dead last in that category).

Henry Louis Gomez said...

First of all my statement about second favorite teams was clearly disclaimed as referring only to college athletics. That's part of the problem is that UM fans cheer for them as if it were a pro franchise. Their allegience is only because of geography not because they are actual alums or faculty or have a connection. Hey you like UM, that's fine. Nobody is telling you who to like. You are telling me who to like. And I say that's hogwash.

To answer your question I will always root against Miami unless they are playing a team that would somehow help the Gators if they won.

Right now the Marlins and the Phillies are in a Wild Card chase and I'm rooting for the Marlins (even though I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Phils). I became a full fledged Marlin fan about 5 years ago, it took a while to for the old tradition to die in my heart. But if the Marlins were in last place and the Phils had a chance to go to the playoffs I'd root for the Phils against the Marlins. Again these are pro team. I like the Eagles, Dolphins (in that order) in Pro football.

As far as FIU goes I'll be rooting for FIU. For one thing I attended a couple of classes there and I taught a class there, so I have a small connection with the place. I don't live or die with them like I do with the Gators but it would be FANTASTIC for them to upset the Canes. If you are rooting for FIU against Miami, then you probably already know this but you are in the minority. Most FIU grads would rather see their Alma Mater lose to the Canes.

BTW, my sister went to FSU so I also always want them to beat Miami because of her. But that's only a small part. The biggest reason is how assholish (is that a word?) most people become when they start talking about "their" Canes. Even my best friends are not excluded from this group, so don't take it personally.

Anonymous said...

Conductor:

I don’t take it personally. I have a good sense of humor.

By the way, here’s the by-line in the papers after FSU’s victory over UF.

Incognito!
Conductor once again is a Nole (twice in a single year) to avoid being Gator bait.

Native verses Predator. Top of the food chain…another day of easy hunting. After celebrating a victorious win against UF, the Seminoles will use Gator meat as Gator bait to fish out all the excess Gators in West Kendall, that is, as a Thanksgiving gesture to all the pilgrims in Miami who jump on the bandwagon to root for their home team. Tooshay!

Gotta go or I’ll miss my flight.

Henry Louis Gomez said...

Robert, your statement is living proof that if you tell a lie enough times people will begin to believe it.

The Gators have been in the SEC (which experts agree has been one of the toughest conferences, if not the toughest, in Football) for many many years.

The Hurricanes were dropped from from the UF schedule for purely financial reasons. Before 1986 SEC teams had to play 6 conference games. As you know conference games always require "return" games, meaning that you can't play Auburn at home every year, you have to alternate home and away.

When the SEC voted to add a conference game to the schedule (something the Gators voted against) you have a new home and away series which means you lose a home game every other year. All of the major college football programs try to schedule at least 6 home games out of their 11 game schedule.

And at a place like UF where we sell-out even for a cupcake (that doesn't require a return game) losing a home game (and the revenue that it generates) every other year is a BIG DEAL. Particularly when your Football team is supporting all the other athletic programs.

Miami was independent at the time. So they could play 3 or 4 hard games a year round out their schedule with 6 or 7 cupcakes.

If UF was so "afraid of losing" why didn't we drop out of the SEC and stop having to play Auburn and Tennessee and Alabama and Georgia? Why did we continue to play Florida State? No, that's just more typical Miami fan BS.

The fact is that we've played Miami in 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004. We have a games scheduled against Miami in 2008. If we are "ducking" Miami we aren't doing a good job of it lately.

BTW if you think that during the Spurrier years when UM was struggling that we wouldn't have kicked UM's ass, you are deluding yourself.

While UM was playing in the Big LEAST, the SEC added an 8TH conference game.

This year we have to play Tenn, Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Georgia, and South Carolina. The only pushovers we are playing in our conference is Kentucky and Vandy (Bowl team last year). Then we have FSU at the end of the year. Our "patsy" games are against Southern Miss (Bowl Team last year), UCF (Bowl Team Last year) and Western Carolina.