2.4.15
College Football Teams Fill an Important Role in Sports
1:19 PM
Coming from the state of Texas, I know a thing or two about football. Here, it is practically a religion, and when it comes to which teams to root for, we have many options. Of course, I am a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan and always have been, but there are also some serious Houston Texans fans.
Then we have a number of college football teams like Texas A&M, the University of Texas, TCU and Texas Tech University, which give most of us a lot to cheer about and have spawned some intense rivalries within the state.
There is also high school football, which is probably bigger in Texas than any other state in the country. I remember covering a second-round playoff game between Southlake Carroll and Euless Trinity High School that was played at Texas Stadium and drew more than 46,000 fans.
Life centers around high school football teams in many of the smaller towns in Texas, but one thing that I have noticed is that college football teams do the same thing in many states in the rest of the country where they do not have professional football teams.
Let's take, for instance, the state of Nebraska. If you look at a map of the United States, you would assume that people from Nebraska are Denver Broncos fans, because of the closeness in proximity of Nebraska and Colorado. Most people that I have talked to from the state of Nebraska, however, say the Nebraska Cornhuskers are their football team.
College football teams represent nearly every state in the union, and college football is a very popular sport to watch. I remember somebody talking about a trip that the University of Texas made up to Wyoming to play the University of Wyoming in a football game, saying that it was the biggest sporting event in the history of the state.
I also know a number of people that root for college football teams that really don't care about the pros. Some people feel that the college kids are playing for the love of the sport, rather than the big bucks they can make at the professional level.
Personally, I love professional football, but I have two college football teams that I pull for as well, in Texas A&M University and the University of Notre Dame. I watch both of these teams whenever I get the chance.
As a fan of the sport of football, I am very fortunate to live in a state with a great football tradition at every level of competition. While the Cowboys are certainly my team, I like to watch and keep up with the college football teams we have in the state as well. I also know that in some places, the college football team is the only team to support, and I think that is a good thing.