A Relevant Post About…College Football

Before you question why there is a post on here about college football…hear me out.  My passion is community life and the ways in which urban planning, businesses and governments work together to support our desires and needs to  socialize, connect with each other, and lead fulsome lives.

Well, as a relative latecomer to the college football craze (I did not get the fever until after I had graduated from university) I think it is one of the great community boosters that we ought to pay attention to and probably learn from.

My introduction to college football happened in East Lansing, Michigan some ** years ago.  To me that town was “okay” but nothing compared to my home town (a major city). 

That said, the year I was there, the Michigan State Spartans won the Rose Bowl national championship and that little town of East Lansing (and Lansing) lit up like the fourth of July (literally – there were firecrackers in JANUARY).  That experience changed my perception of Lansing overnight.

My own university experience had been nothing like this – we had no where near that level of passion for any sports team.  For me it was quite a novel experience to have an entire city rally and get excitied behind a COLLEGE football team. 

What I took from the whoe event was how that team (and especially that championship win) brought everyone in the city together  -  the rich, the poor, blue collar to white collar.  When the team won and even when they lost, we experienced it together as a community.  Isn’t that the kind of feeling we want to generate in all of our “new urban” minded communities?

I ended up marrying an Ohio fellow who is a dyed in crimson and grey Ohio State Buckey fan…so I inevitably became a Buckeye fan (sorry Spartans!). 

Tomorrow the Buckeyes have an important game against Illinois.  I’m feeling the excitement and the stress.

So tell me, which college football team are you cheering for this weekend?