The Wacky World of College Football Mascots

College football is the world’s greatest sport. Many of us believe it’s far superior to NFL games, even. But what’s up with the strange and wacky mascots they choose for their teams? This first occurred to me when I was thinking of the Wake Forest team. First of all, their team name is just bizarre: A school with a religious history that calls itself “Demon Deacons.” As in, our church deacons are Satanic. Pawns of the devil. And so their mascot is, of course, this man who I suppose is intended to be a demonic looking deacon. And he winds up just looking …..weird.

But Wake Forest is not the only football team with a bizarre mascot. For the most confusing mascot, we have to look at Sebastian the Ibis. This is the mascot for the Miami Hurricanes. An ibis, in case you’re wondering,, is a bird native to the marsh area of South Florida, so this seems okay for a beach town, right? Except that Ibis the mascot…..is a duck. And an ibis might be described in many ways, but it looks nothing like a duck. Yet here is Sebastian, complete with white feathers and a broad orange beak. He looks for all the world like an underfed Donald Duck. Why hasn’t UM’s biology department corrected this?

Another on our list of wacky football mascots is Otto the Orange. He makes our list for a couple of reasons. First, except for having a clown nose, Otto looks like that Kool-Aid man (You know, the one who busts through the wall and yells “Oh yeah!” The second reason for including Otto is….well, he’s an orange. We have a fruit for Syracuse’s football mascot. Why not just give them a daisy to represent the team? And besides, since Syracuse is in New York, and can get as much as 120 inches of snow a year, oranges don’t generally find this area a hospitable part of the country.

And then we have the college football mascots that are just plain creepy. For instance, we have TCU’s Super Frog and Fort Wayne’s Mad Ant. If the Mad Ant actually looked like an ant, that would be one thing. But he actually looks like Satan on steroids. And Super Frog is only marginally better, also looking quite demonic (what’s with demons in college sports, anyway?). Making this even worse is that he’s the mascot for a Christian school: Texas CHRISTIAN University.

But hey, it’s all part of the kookiness that makes college football so fun, right? Especially if you see the game in person. If you want to see your favorite team play, remember that Collegefootballtickets.com sells tickets to all of your favorite games.

Getting Your Wife or Girlfriend Interested in College Football

College football is for men to watch and enjoy, right? Not any more! Larger numbers of women today are attending college games and watching them on TV than ever before. But if your wife or girlfriend is not among them, here’s your guide for getting them interested.

First, it’s important that you try to generate interest in the college team that is closest to you. It’s much easier to do this, appealing to her sense of community spirit, than to try to get her excited about a team across the country that really has no meaning to her. In fact, this is true of anyone who otherwise has demonstrated no interest in college athletics. It’s easier to get interested when you’re rooting for the home team.

Second, involve her in the NFL draft. That’s right, the professional draft will help her develop an interest in college sports. Present this to her as a date, and have lunch or snacks available for her to eat and drinks with you. Then be ready to explain to her who each player is and which college he attended. The idea is to get her interested in the players as human beings and to help her see the college connection.

Third, stress to her the importance of having good food for a football games. If your significant other loves cooking and entertaining, she will start seeing that key college game as an important event that she enjoys. It’s even better if you help out with the kitchen chores, because then she begins to link college game day with special times spent with you, doing something together.

Fourth, as your girlfriend / wife if she’d be interested in taking a class about teaching football to women. A surprising number of communities offer a class like this. If yours is not one of them, offer to teach her the rules yourself.

We’ve saved one of the most important suggestions for last: Take your girlfriend or wife to a college game. This makes an actual date out of your love for the game, complete with food, drink, hugging, holding hands, and more. Even if she never learns to love a good tackle, she’ll love spending the time close to you.

To attend a game together, you’ll need tickets, of course. And remember that Collegefootballtickets.com has the larges selection of tickets available. Your seats are waiting.

The Best BCS Champion and Championship

It’s inevitable that at college bowl time, we would reminisce about past great games and great players. In that vein, let’s consider which championship game was the best show for BCS fans, and which championship team is arguably the greatest in the history of the BCS.

To decide on the best team, we need to consider which teams have won championships and how many they have to their credit. The SEC has had five championships since 1998. These are the trophies that went to Tennessee in 1998,, to LSU in 2003, to Florida in 2006, to LSU in 2007 and to Florida again in 2008.

The Big 12 has had two championship teams: Oklahoma in 2000 and Texas in 2005. The Beg East has had just one team: Miami in 2001, with one championship also going to the Big Ten in 2002 (to Ohio State) and one going to the Pac-10 in 2004 (to USC).

The greatest championship of all time has to be the 2001 Miami Hurricanes. Yes, it’s true the team only ranked number 5, but this was an injustice. Consider the fact that the 2001 produced an unbelievable 38 NFL draft picks. Seventeen of these were grabbed up in the first round. During the 2001 season, the Hurricanes pounded other teams by an average of nearly 33 points per game.

The team’s running backs also show what a stellar team the Hurricanes were in ‘01. They had Clinton Portis, Najeh Davenport, Willis McGahee, and Frank Gore, all with impressive professional careers since then.

As for the best BCS Championship Game, this goes to the Texas – USC game that ended in favor of Texas 41 to 38. USC was the team favored to win that match up thanks to a lineup that included Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and LenDale White. However, Vince Young and his fellow Longhorns put on an incredible performance, with Young going 30 of 40 with 267 yard through air, and adding 200 more yards on the ground…including three ground-based scores.

But what really sealed this game for Texas and secured the game’s spot in the history books was the 8-yard touchdown with just 10 seconds left on the clock, a touchdown that proved to be the winning points for the Longhorns.

Fortunately for the fans, great games continue to be played each season. You can see them in person if you have tickets. Remember that Collegefootballtickets.com has the largest selection of tickets available of any online site.

Tears of Defeat for Tim Tebow

The “chomping” gator gestures of Alabama’s football players and the tears streaming down Tim Tebow’s face were the spectrum of victory and defeat. Predictions of Florida winning the SEC Championship were never in doubt with Tim Tebow leading the team.

I rushed home from a Christmas party anticipating an edge of my seat, camera zooming after the players as they gained yardage game. Unfortunately, I got to the point where I had to switch stations and come back five minutes later with hopes of a miracle for Florida. I was greeted with speculation of a possible comeback. But the Gators were so far behind, this was pointless hope that could not be realized.

I became complacent with the Gators season. If I missed a game, I never missed seeking out the score. Never surprised that they won BIG, with highlights of the team mowing down their opponents. I was sure that the SEC Championship would feature undefeated Alabama stepping into the ring to challenge the almighty Gators, only to be humbled by Tebow and company. The high expectations of a blow-out, though, in favor of the Gators, never materialized. The larger than life Tebow with his trademark smudges linking him to a higher being, instead knelt down on one knee in silent prayer, backed up by record performances and a fan base waiting to witness uncharted territory ….and yet he was defeated.

No doubt Tim Tebow is the Gators’ biggest draw. The first college sophomore to win the coveted Heisman Trophy. The team leader that sets an untarnished standard both on the field and off. It was no big deal if his performance was not up to par just this once, right? Except this was the one time that mattered most.

As this defeat rocks the college football world I saw a bigger message. As the tears left Tim Tebow’s eyes, headed for the ground, they streamed over the smudges of “eye black” paint under his eyes. The trademark Bible references written in black and white, John 16:33, which ends ….”I have overcome the world”. Yet this powerful man was humanized by his tears of defeat. And to me this defeat called to mind that most great powers are eventually humbled. This is true of great empires–and great teams. Either way, the chapter always closes with tears. And yet we remember the greatness of the Roman Empire; its tragic fall only punctuates how great it was. And the same is true of Tim Ebow and this years’ Gators. Their defeat is heartwrenching only because we know they were so great.

Tickets to future Gators’ games can be purchased online. Collegefootballtickets.com has the largest selection available, so visit today.

Five Perfect Teams, One Imperfect System

After fourteen weeks of everything from edge-of-your-seat nail biters, to displays of dominance, five teams stand tall with good arguments for who among them is the best. Five perfect teams, but only two of them matter.
Such is life with the BCS.
Three perfect teams will play in bowls more interested in their traveling fan base than in their on-field credentials. When the bowl season finally concludes, there is every possibility that more than one of those teams will remain undefeated.
Texas and Alabama— will vie for the BCS championship, and in the absence of utter certainty, however, fans alike will be left with questions. And where there are questions, there should be matchups.
Barring a bowl matchup that pits any two of them against one another, Boise State, TCU, and Cincinnati will have a chance to end the season with still-perfect records. With the potential for four perfect teams, the chatter about the failings of computer-generated championship games will last well into spring practice. And to speak only of the perfect teams is to ignore the one- and two-loss squads with good arguments for their own shots at the big prize. If this college football season has shown us anything, it is just how much parity there is among the conferences. Parity should beget the drama of something better than the BCS spate of games.
Texas needed heroics two weeks in a row, against supposedly much lesser teams, to be where they are now. Alabama looked mediocre much of the season, and is widely viewed as beatable on any given Saturday, despite their dismantling of an excellent Florida Gator squad in the SEC Championship game. From Florida to Oregon to Ohio State, and from Iowa to Penn State to Georgia Tech, programs will get hefty paydays for their participation in other BCS bowl games. Fans will get an excuse to extend their holiday seasons a few extra days with trips to the sun-drenched stadiums hosting the non-championship games.
What neither fans nor programs will get, however, is any certainty as to just how high their team could have climbed. And until the current BCS system is changed to some better way of determining a national champion, that is unlikely to change.
What won’t change, though is fans’ passion about their college teams. If you’re one such fan and would like to see your favorite team in person, you’ll need tickets. Remember that Collegefootballtickets.com sells tickets to all of your favorite teams’ games.

BCS Bowls

With the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) continuing its controversial reign over the college football parade, the cry for a playoff seems to be ever increasing. Five teams claimed the right to play for the championship, but only two received that nod this fall season.

Oregon and Ohio State are unable to claim an unblemished record. These teams meet in the Rose Bowl on January 1st. With Ohio States 5th ranked rushing defense and Oregon’s 6th ranked rushing offense, this is sure to be one of the more entertaining games on tap. Oregon players will try to prove themselves against an OSU squad that’s trying to show they still belong in the elite status. Oregon: 37 OSU: 24

What could end up being the lame duck of the BCS games, the FedEx Orange Bowl (January 5th), puts Iowa against Georgia Tech and the spread option offense. It seems the one thing Georgia Tech hasn’t seen this year is a team that can defend the spread option. Unfortunately for Georgia Tech, they are going against one of the best defenses in the Big Ten. I would look for Iowa’s interior defensive line to again stand strong and shut down Josh Nesbitt and the rest of the Yellow Jackets en route to a victory. Iowa: 27 GT: 17

The Fiesta Bowl is receiving a lot of criticism for its matchup. Boise State returns to the site where they upset Oklahoma with the statue of liberty play. BSU will take on the undefeated TCU Horn Frogs; despite fans everywhere hoping to avoid having two non-BCS conference schools play against each other. This game hosts the dominant TCU defense against the nation’s #1 offense.

The Sugar Bowl has two teams that were hoping to vie for the National Championship. Hopefully Florida won’t play like they did against Alabama, because Cincinnati has proven they can score in bunches. The Big East winners will have to take on what is viewed as a tough Florida defense.

The Championship game could be a good one. If we couldn’t get Florida against Texas, this is the second best thing. Alabama throttled Florida this past weekend, making sure the country knew they were the best team going into the bowls. Alabama is the more complete team and will take home the National Championship in what proves to be an easy win. Crimson Tide: 34 Longhorns: 13.

Remember that your source for tickets to bowl games this and future seasons is Collegefootballtickets.com, where we have the largest selection of seats available.

Boise State Everyone Loves an Underdog

Whether you love or hate the BCS it is hard to ignore the presence that is Boise State. There is something about a little dog that will stand in your face and bark; you’re never quite sure whether to run or stand your ground. What exactly are they capable of and do you have a reason to be afraid? No one is ever really sure when it comes to those little dogs.
Boise State has found themselves in a difficult position for the last several years; undefeated seasons with a schedule that lacked the depth necessary to qualify for a competitive position in the BCS and leading to an anti-climactic ending to their season in 2008-2009 and a public challenge in 2009-2010 as they sought additional mid-season matches that would challenge their team. Their team, come to find out, would bring home a total of seven Western Athletic Conference honors including Coach of the Year (Chris Peterson) and Offensive Player of the Year (Kellen Moore.) It seems to be a nod from the WAC that Boise State had a year of fortune beyond casual luck. Maybe this little dog that everyone was quick to avoid was avoided because his bark was truly as big as his bite?
This year they finally got the nod to play in the Fiesta Bowl against equally undefeated TCU, who is not a BCS team, in a nod that may or may not lead them closer to their ultimate goal of playing against teams of equal playing power. The bowl selections place other undefeated teams in bowl games including Texas Christian and Cincinnati in games that do not really matter with no opportunity to go any further in their season play.
No matter who your home team cheer follows it is hard to ignore the absence of balance in the BCS. Boise State has made a concerted effort to challenge their team in order to expand their program and challenge their team but schools outside of their conference won’t step up to play them outside of scheduled play in fear of losing. Maybe at some point Boise State will adjust to being used as a door mat on the football field, because perhaps all they are looking for is the opportunity to lose in a teeth grinding, hair pulling, pinch-your-brother’s-arm kind of ending. Now that would be a football game!
If you want to see Boise State’s brand of football in person, you’ll need tickets. Remember that http://collegefootballtickets.com sells tickets to nearly every college game. Contact us about availability.

Balanced O and Dominate D Lead Hawks into New Season

The oranges may just come up smelling like roses for next year’s Iowa Hawkeye Football team. Improvement will be needed but more importantly momentum and consistency must be apparent. The nucleus of last year’s team must also stay intact if the hawks expect another great year.

The 2009 Iowa Hawkeye team has gone an impressive 10-2 in the regular season and look to cap it off with a victory in the FED EX Orange Bowl. Next season, Head Coach Kirk Ferentz and his hawkeyes will look for an even more impressive showing and a possible BCS National Championship.

The defense that anchored the team all of last season swinging momentum in each pivotal moment should be refreshed and ready to attack. Nine of the eleven starters will be back for at least one more season inside Kinnick Stadium, including 2009 All Big Ten First Team selections Tyler Sash, Adrian Clayborn, and Amari Spievey.

Clayborn and his three amigos along the defensive line will look to reek havoc on quarterbacks and let what maybe the Big Ten’s best defensive backfield pick off arid throws left and right. Not yielding a one hundred yard rusher all of next season should be an extremely realistic goal for this defense.

Run first and pass second will once again look to lead the hawk’s offense down the field and keep opposing defenses on their heels.

On paper the offense is stacked with returning quarterback Ricky Stanzi at the helm. Also his favorite receiver Derrel Johnson-Koulianous will look to shine in his senior season. Throughout Koulianous’s career, he has been the “big play guy” and next season the big play could become the common play. Averaging 41 catches per season, Koulianous will look to lead the hawks in catches for the fourth straight year. Getting the ball in his hands will be a must if the offense expects touchdowns not field goals.

Improvement must be along the offensive line if the ground game looks once again be a Big Ten wrecking ball. The zone blocking scheme that has suited Ferentz so well over the years must produce tank size holes. The return of sophomore running back Jewel Hampton should be a pleasant surprise for the offensive line looking to produce yet another 1,000 yard rusher.

Roses smell great but the taste of a national championship would be even sweeter but next year should see far better consistent play and wider gaps in scoring margin.

If you want to see Iowa’s football squad in person, you’ll need tickets….and remember that the largest selection of seats and tickets can be found at www.collegefootballtickets.com.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame is one of the strongest football teams of any Catholic school. With their major rivalry with fellow Catholic school Boston College. The Fighting Irish is a great football team and continues to be year in and year out. They have a great program headed by some of the best coaching staff in the college game. With a powerful defense and an intimidating offense there is no wonder why they have such as strong fan base nationwide. Any place that you visit you can find apparel with that little mean look of their leprechaun mascot.

The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame’s fan base is so strong that they continually sell out there stadium week in and week out. Well for some as the Fighting Irish do this regularly other teams don’t and that sets them apart. With each sellout crowd they bring in more money and increase the team and schools income. This allows the team to essentially draft there top high school ball players. Why they can do this is because the more tickets they sell the more scholarships they can give. That in turns gives them the chances to recruit top players and coaching staff.

Well their sell-out stretch is not the longest one it is still impressive. Their streak has lasted since Thanksgiving in 1973 versus a game against the Air Force academy. That’s a total of two hundred and eight games and the numbers keep rising every week well the longest streak is over three hundred and it will take many more years for the Fighting Irish to get to those kind of numbers. They could and possibly will continue this streak for many a year to come.

Their streak continues as Washington come to South Bend and try and match forces on the field. It will be an exciting game with many fans and Washington is going to have to try and keep focused because the fans in South Bend are a rowdy bunch and dedicated to their team. As long as the Fighting Irish take the field in Indiana they will have fans from everywhere and of course the ever present students that get excited at every play and cheer there team on no matter what the weather may turn out to be.

If you can’t catch this game there are limited tickets to the November 21 game that is almost already sold out and continue to be so. And of course, there are many other chances to catch The Fighting Irish. Remember that the best tickets at the best prices are always available here: http://collegefootballtickets.com

Beavers Can’t Hang With Arizona

Did you see the big game?

Early in the season, the the Beavers and Wildcats met up and it was a game that was decided by just a few points. Arizonas quarterback was outstanding with no interception. While Foles and his team had no forced turnovers during the game. Unlike Oregon where there quarterback Canfield had two interceptions. These led to two scoring drives or precious time wasted that the Beavers could have used for the mighty Wildcats. But clock superiority usually defines the outcome of a game.

The Wildcats quarterback Foles was a dominating player with three touchdowns. He completed twenty five of thirty four attempts and led his cats to a close thirty seven thirty two win over the Oregon State Beavers. Well Canfield had a good completion percentage he had three picks.

The Beavers defense forced the Wildcats into the air and that was a fatal mistake. Foles spread out the receptions between ten players and worked the field as the Beavers keep the pressure going. Hoping to force mistakes that never came.

On the other hand the Wildcats defense tried similar tactics. The results were complete opposite from the Beavers and they got three interceptions. The two teams went back and forth with scoring drives for most the game. For Arizona who took an early lead in the first quarter couldn’t contain the Beavers offense. They responded and went for two unanswered touchdowns and ended the first half up three points. Arizona though had an answer and came out swinging in the second half.

Coming into the third quarter Arizona was fired up and intercepted the Beavers and marched the ball down the field for a touchdown. Not long after that they got the ball and had another scoring drive ending the third quarter up eleven points over the Beavers. They headed into the fourth quarter.

They Beavers looked promising but couldn’t hang they rallied late and put up some points but couldn’t stop the Wildcats offense from scoring. The game was full of ups and downs on both sides and they fought till the very end. They Beavers couldn’t capitalize on a few drives in the last minutes of the game and couldn’t get the lead back which they held briefly in the begging of the game. So the Beavers head into week six with two let downs and their heads low while Arizona got the win they were looking for.

Even if you missed this amazing game, there are still more to come. And if you’d like to be there in person, remember that the best tickets at the best prices are available here: http://collegefootballtickets.com

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