So I'm relatively new to watching the NFL, I'm now comfortable with that and was hoping to expand my football universe to include NCAA. I was just tooling around online and was looking up standings and whatnot and, to sum it up, I'm completely lost. There are so many divisions, so many conferences, so many bowls and so many teams. It's pretty confusing. Can someone break it down for me. How does it work? What are the differences? I also would need a team to cheer for to really care about it. As a Jets fan I'm obviously not a bandwagon jumper so I don't really need to pick a team that is always #1. As someone who lives in southern Ontario I am closer to teams like Michigan, MSU, Notre Dame, etc. So that could factor into my decision on who to support. Any help, thoughts, tips, etc. would be welcome.
Suggestions then? I'll pick anyone, don't really have any allegiances. My only concern if I pick a team like Alabama or LSU that I won't get the games up here and that there would be little to no opportunity for me to ever see them live. But I'm open to suggestions. Does it matter which conference or division they are from? I assume they all play inter-conference games. How many games are there in a season? How does the bowl system work? Or if there is a website that explains it better can someone let me know? I read up on wikipedia but that didn't really help a whole lot. I might just start watching it and figuring it out myself, that's what I did for the NFL.
Here is how I would approach it, You have really only 5 conference and Notre Dame who can win a national title Those conferences are the ACC, Pac 12, Big 12, Big 10, SEC and really only 2 or 3 teams in the ACC because an undefeated Virginia or Wake Forest is not playing for a title. It's really a stupid system but based on your location I would pick a Big 10 team only because you are in the North. Now right off the bat I would eliminate Michigan, Ohio State and Nebraska because you would be rooting for the elite teams in the Big 10 and would essentially be a bandwagon jumper. You can't root for Penn State well... you just can't. I would eliminate Indiana, Minnesota and Purdue because they suck. That leaves, Northwestern... smart kids, cool colors and play in Chicago. They're usually not awful but won't be winning any national titles. Iowa...boring team. No real stars ever and have been very good the last few years but also very average. Shonne Greene went to Iowa. They have a good coach but they just can't get the talent to consistently compete with the big boys. Illinois.. average at best. They've had a Rose Bowl recently and location wise should be able to bring in good talent. They can't ever seem to put it all together Michigan State... almost same colors as the Jets, not far from you and have a good set of coaches in place. They should be able to compete for a Big 10 title this year but offensively they seem challenged. Wisconsin...look like they are in a down year but usually very good. They always have NFL lineman and good running backs. They play good defense and Madison is an awesome college town.
Hmmm....MSU sounds interesting. It's less than a five hour drive from where I live too. Thanks for the help.
As a Wake Forest fan, it's sad when I say that lumping us with UVA is probably a good thing. 10 years ago that wouldn't have happened. Moving on up in the world!
All the Southern teams without a pro team are good (boosters spend their money on nonsense instead of real city stuff) and the kids are recruited from the south where 12 months a year they practice and football is king. All the local/yocals with nowhere to go and nothing to do are excited and do BS like poisoning trees and apparently that means something. The NFL and NBA both allowed a move to Tennessee - and attendance and that program went straight down hill pretty much ever since.. I'd probably say just avoid NCAA/FBS minor league football because the NCAA doesn't even actually award a winner to division 1-A /FBS football. That is 'voted on' like some academy awards bullshit.
