We got about half way though our picks last week when out trip to Madison got in the way from finishing up our picks. So we did make picks, we just didn’t post them. But you don’t care about that do you?
But we’re back this week, we’ll make our picks, but going back to that trip to Madison, it did give us the unique opportunity of seeing a NFL and NCAA Div-I football game within the same week. And let me tell you right now… the Wisconsin Badger game was 100 times more fun than the Bears game.
Both games were blowouts, the Bears and Badgers blew out the Seahawks and Northwestern respectively. And with VFLOAB being fans of both winning teams, the quality and out come of the game is moot. So why was the college game so much better than the NFL game? BULLET POINTS!!!!
- The Wisconsin game has an actual band that plays actual songs during the game. The Bears game had like five guys playing drums at random points then bad top-40 music… just brutal. I’m not a big fan of the band playing at half time, but the fact that the band will go to random places throughout the stadium and play the fight song is just fantastic. Hearing four trumpet players blast out “On Wisconsin” ten sections over is great.
- The fans at the Wisconsin game were more diverse in terms of age (and probably social class too). The student second at any college game is pretty much guaranteed to blow any group of ‘fans’ at a NFL game out of the water. They bring more energy, excitement, passion, and insanity than any collective group of NFL fans in one section. Plus students bring various random cheers, jeers, and traditions that pretty much rock the socks off of any NFL tradition. For instance, at a Bears game about the only two traditions/quirky things that happen during a game are the signing of “Bear Down, Chicago Bears” after ever Bears score and when the PA announcer announces (I’m pretty sure that’s redundant in three ways, but whatever) “There’s a time out…” Crowd: “Where?” Pause… PA: “On the field.” Crowd: “Oh!...” Meanwhile in Madison, “Jump Around” is cooler than everything the Bears do combined and them some.
- Timeouts/breaks… my Lord, I was expecting it to be worse, but there is a lot of time to shoot the shit at an NFL game. How this is enjoyable in December or January is beyond me. Seriously, most of the time you’re watching the big screen checking out whatever they’re showing up there during the 23 time out of the quarter. I know the NFL is a tough, physical game but that’s only in terms of the beating those guys take, but seriously, do NFL players even break a sweat in a game? They stand around for three hours, run back and forth from the sideline to the huddle for five minutes, and play for like 10 minutes. (I should note, the college game isn’t that much better, but it’s better).
- Have I mentioned how much better the fans are? I’m not a fan of the wave, in fact, I hate the wave, but I LOVE the wave at a Badger game. It’s got to be seen to be believed… it’s a normal wave that eventually goes around the stadium, then when it gets back to the beginning they start a slow-motion wave (probably the coolest thing I’ve seen a group of people do in my life). After the near painfully slow, but awesome looking, wave circles the stadium, it’s time to speed it up, and that’s when they pull out the super fast wave, which circles the stadium in about 20 seconds, gets to the beginning only to be reversed… this takes coordination and actual critical thinking skills to pull of a wave as complicated as this, yet 70,000 fans can do it with ease. Meanwhile our government… oh fuck it, you know where I’m going with that.
- Back to the fans, college fans are just better fans, more enjoyable, more fun, more interesting, more entertaining, and louder.
- Also the college game doesn’t appear to be a complete and utter joke. When the Bears came out of the tunnel on Sunday night, about twenty or so players ran full speed 100 yards, got to the corner of the end zone, and then started jumping around and waving their arms to the crowd. It wasn’t weird it was flat out bizarre. It was as if the players were just as what we should think of them… entertainers. They were no different than say those hosts on a kids TV show who come out of the green room jumping around and going crazy for all the little kids who cheer like their pants are on fire. I don’t know, it just sort of ruined it all for me, it was as if the players transcended being actual people and athletes and became… entertainers. They’re out there only to put on a show. And I hate it when sport shows it’s true colors of being pure entertainment. It loses it’s bizarre cultural and social meaning as a uniting force between people of various backgrounds coming together as a single identity in the name of the city they live.
Okay, let me just move and go to the picks…
WISCONSIN (-8.5) over Minnesota – Wisconsin’s the better team and at home. And it’s homecoming in Madison.
Iowa (-20) over INDIANA – Why ask why, try Bud Dry.
TEXAS A&M (+2) over Missouri – I’m taking the Aggies at home if for no other reason that Missouri is probably reading their clippings. Never a good thing when you go on the road to a tough environment.
Ohio State (-14) over MICHIGAN STATE – Ohio State is focused and really good.
AUBURN (+2) over Florida – There’s no way that Florida goes though this brutal stretch unbeaten. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say Tebow blows the game.
PENN STATE (+5) over Michigan – Michigan is going to win, but Penn State is going to be ready to play some football today.
Okay that’s it, peace.
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