It's not crazy, it's football!

College football fans are perhaps the most superstitious, zealous people you'll ever encounter.  Trust me.
You may have seen Green Bay Packer Cheeseheads and thought, "Whoa.  Those dudes are over the top!"  but they ain't nothin' compared to college football fans. 

College football can take the ordinarily level-headed, conservative, laid-back person and turn him into....well....a very strange person who only wears red and black socks, inside out, unwashed for six games, stepping only on every third tile of their kitchen during commercials.  This is because six games ago, his team won big and unexpectedly while this piece of wardrobe was on his body. 

College football fans can remember incredible details during a season. The brand of potato chips and how many were in their hand when their team lost (Not buying BBQ Lays for the rest of the season), the exact outfit, right down to underwear and nail polish (if it applies),  the mug they were drinking coffee from THAT morning, and the list goes on and on. 

Here's the funny thing:  when asked directly whether they think their little rituals actually affect the outcome of the game, they'll appropriately tell you, "Nah...that's crazy!  It's the coach/players/weather conditions/etc."  but in their hearts and heads, they KNOW that if they screw up the lucky sock and mug combo that day, that the team doesn't have a chance, no matter how well they play. 

I am one of those....logically, I know that a woman in Montana who wears all the "right" clothes and flies the lucky flag and uses the lucky mug will NOT cause the Red Raiders to win the game.  I said, logically.  However, I can't help doing all those things, just-in-case-I-have-super-powers-that-even-I-don't-know-about to help them win.  The handy thing is that I'm already considered crazy, so this is just overlooked in my house.  Crazy is as crazy does, you know...

It gets WAY worse, though, in some people.  Some fans actually schedule weddings and birth inductions around games, so they won't miss a thing!  Painting a room in lucky colors, mowing the college logo into their lawn, naming their dog "Gator"....all these things.  Don't take this as a prejudiced statement, it's just an observation, but I think college football fans are crazier in the south.  Of course, this may be due to the fact that anyone who paints their chest in school colors in Montana will freeze into a solid block of ice in September, much less November! 

Today, TTU is playing University of New Mexico, there.  And yes, we're wearing the red and black, observing all the lucky rites, wishing we didn't have to preg test at the EXACT time of the game.  (That's going to really throw the luck factor off.  If they win, will we have to preg test EVERY away game? Tricky.)

Guns up!