Sports Teams I Hate: Episode I: Syracuse Orangemen
After living in Central New York for about three and a half years, I've grown to hate the Syracuse Orangemen. I had never really liked them, but I had never had much of a problem with them until I came to Ithaca.
They're overrated in every aspect. They're a mediocre athletic college with a cadre of fanatics who think they're an elite program in all sports. People out here are fucking obsessed with them. When Charlie and I once went to Turning Stone, he was stunned at the amount of support they had out here. The Carmelo Anthony jerseys, the posters of the Carrier Dome at a Burger King in Westmoreland, the bumper stickers in Oneida, and the memorabilia sold as far away as Cooperstown.
I come from a sports market that is based on professional sports. The hierarchy in Greater Boston for sports teams goes somewhat like this:
1. Red Sox
2. Patriots
3. Celtics
4. Bruins
5. Boston College/New England Revolution
About the only college sport that a great deal of Boston sports fans really follow with local loyalty is hockey. In basketball and football, the two biggest college sports, many Boston fans find teams outside of New England to follow. Notre Dame is hugely popular. Even I did this when I became an Oklahoma Sooners fan back in high school.
When I came out to CNY, the devotion to a college sports team was an alien concept to me. I like Boston College, but they're hardly as dear and near to my heart as Cuse is to many people out here.
Even though I was unfamiliar with college sports as the #1 draw, it didn't shock me. I know how big college sports are in certain places. Usually, they're places that lack a pro sports team to follow. Alabama, Oklahoma, Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nebraska, Utah, Oregon etc. Places like Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Norman, Austin, South Bend, Columbus, Manhattan (Kansas), Oxford (Mississippi), and Tallahassee are understandably hot beds for their college teams. They lack nearby professional teams, but have college powerhouses in their backyard.
The problem is, Syracuse is far from a powerhouse. They've got a great basketball program that is on the top level in the country, but hardly an elite level historically. I'm sorry, but Duke, UNC, Kansas, UConn, and other schools are the best of the best, Syracuse is still a bit below that.
And let's talk football. I can understand Cuse fans placing their basketball team on a pedestal. But they do the same for their shitty football team.
Syracuse finished dead last in the Big East in 2006 with a 4-8 record. They were not bowl eligible. Do you know hard it is to NOT make a college football bowl? There are 119 D-IA schools, and 32 bowls. That's 64 teams going to bowl games, or 54% of Division I-A. The Big East alone is sending 5 of its 8 teams to bowl games.
Let's look at Syracuse's 4 wins this season. They beat Illinois, another dreadful football team, then beat Miami...of Ohio, then barely, and I mean barely, beat D-IAA Wyoming at home. They capped it off with a squeaker against UConn.
I was at the casino for the UConn game. People were actually celebrating Syracuse touchdowns as if the game weren't for 7th place in the Big East. Fucking pathetic.
In 2005, Syruacse was even worse. They were 1-10. That's right, they won a single game. That game was against the University of Buffalo, a team that struggles to crack the top 110 teams in D-IA.
In '04, Cuse was 6-6, allowing opponents to score 51 points on them twice. In '03, they missed the bowl season again with a 6-6 record. In '02, they were a hapless 4-8. In '01 they actually had a good season with a victory in the prestigious, historical, heroically battled Insight.com Bowl. In 2000 they missed the bowls again. In '99 they won the Music City Bowl after finishing the regular season at 6-5.
And it isn't just a recent trend in an otherwise glorious history for Cuse. Way back in the 60's and 50's, they were a very competitive team, even winning a national championship in 1959. However, since then and before then they've been strictly above average, occasionally going to a good or big bowl game and pretty much losing as often as winning.
You know what, I have no problem with fans supporting bad teams. I think that's great. But I do have a problem with fans of bad teams thinking their team is good. That pisses me off. Live in fucking reality, Central New York. Your sole major sports team is a fucking joke. But what's even funnier is your sad, blind devotion and adoration of a crap football team.
So fuck the Syracuse Orangemen, and their fucking foolish fans. You can't spell suck without SU.
They're overrated in every aspect. They're a mediocre athletic college with a cadre of fanatics who think they're an elite program in all sports. People out here are fucking obsessed with them. When Charlie and I once went to Turning Stone, he was stunned at the amount of support they had out here. The Carmelo Anthony jerseys, the posters of the Carrier Dome at a Burger King in Westmoreland, the bumper stickers in Oneida, and the memorabilia sold as far away as Cooperstown.
I come from a sports market that is based on professional sports. The hierarchy in Greater Boston for sports teams goes somewhat like this:
1. Red Sox
2. Patriots
3. Celtics
4. Bruins
5. Boston College/New England Revolution
About the only college sport that a great deal of Boston sports fans really follow with local loyalty is hockey. In basketball and football, the two biggest college sports, many Boston fans find teams outside of New England to follow. Notre Dame is hugely popular. Even I did this when I became an Oklahoma Sooners fan back in high school.
When I came out to CNY, the devotion to a college sports team was an alien concept to me. I like Boston College, but they're hardly as dear and near to my heart as Cuse is to many people out here.
Even though I was unfamiliar with college sports as the #1 draw, it didn't shock me. I know how big college sports are in certain places. Usually, they're places that lack a pro sports team to follow. Alabama, Oklahoma, Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nebraska, Utah, Oregon etc. Places like Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Norman, Austin, South Bend, Columbus, Manhattan (Kansas), Oxford (Mississippi), and Tallahassee are understandably hot beds for their college teams. They lack nearby professional teams, but have college powerhouses in their backyard.
The problem is, Syracuse is far from a powerhouse. They've got a great basketball program that is on the top level in the country, but hardly an elite level historically. I'm sorry, but Duke, UNC, Kansas, UConn, and other schools are the best of the best, Syracuse is still a bit below that.
And let's talk football. I can understand Cuse fans placing their basketball team on a pedestal. But they do the same for their shitty football team.
Syracuse finished dead last in the Big East in 2006 with a 4-8 record. They were not bowl eligible. Do you know hard it is to NOT make a college football bowl? There are 119 D-IA schools, and 32 bowls. That's 64 teams going to bowl games, or 54% of Division I-A. The Big East alone is sending 5 of its 8 teams to bowl games.
Let's look at Syracuse's 4 wins this season. They beat Illinois, another dreadful football team, then beat Miami...of Ohio, then barely, and I mean barely, beat D-IAA Wyoming at home. They capped it off with a squeaker against UConn.
I was at the casino for the UConn game. People were actually celebrating Syracuse touchdowns as if the game weren't for 7th place in the Big East. Fucking pathetic.
In 2005, Syruacse was even worse. They were 1-10. That's right, they won a single game. That game was against the University of Buffalo, a team that struggles to crack the top 110 teams in D-IA.
In '04, Cuse was 6-6, allowing opponents to score 51 points on them twice. In '03, they missed the bowl season again with a 6-6 record. In '02, they were a hapless 4-8. In '01 they actually had a good season with a victory in the prestigious, historical, heroically battled Insight.com Bowl. In 2000 they missed the bowls again. In '99 they won the Music City Bowl after finishing the regular season at 6-5.
And it isn't just a recent trend in an otherwise glorious history for Cuse. Way back in the 60's and 50's, they were a very competitive team, even winning a national championship in 1959. However, since then and before then they've been strictly above average, occasionally going to a good or big bowl game and pretty much losing as often as winning.
You know what, I have no problem with fans supporting bad teams. I think that's great. But I do have a problem with fans of bad teams thinking their team is good. That pisses me off. Live in fucking reality, Central New York. Your sole major sports team is a fucking joke. But what's even funnier is your sad, blind devotion and adoration of a crap football team.
So fuck the Syracuse Orangemen, and their fucking foolish fans. You can't spell suck without SU.
posted by rob | 1:25 AM
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