30 programs with delusions of grandeur. We are #7 if you dont want to read.

[Savannahbayvol]

MSN

 

[Flogballs]

Don’t want to read, but that is a great topic to use as off-season clickbait. Will rustle some jimmies

 

[LouderVol]

granted I don't deal with Oklahoma State very much but them being #6 makes zero sense to me. Baylor at 10 is also probably too high. purdue being on that list shows how bad it is.

Idk, list overall seems pretty weak. Kinda looks like they took just any ole school, didn't do any real dive on them, and randomly assigned numbers.

not saying I disagree with the inclusion of most of the schools, I just finding the rankings to be arbitrary AF, with little to no real justification give.

 

[stolitonic]

Honestly, I can't really disagree with much of that.

Considering who is in front of us, it would be hard for me to make much of a compelling argument to be quite honest. Penn St and USC are always held places as extremely delusional. A&M is such a sad joke Blowing through truckloads of money trying to pretend to be Texas. The Longhorns in turn have their own issues.

Wish we could do away with the 2012 expansion on entirety honesty. Missouri is just a joke that nobody wants to hear. A&M is just annoying

 

[LouderVol]

Honestly, I can't really disagree with much of that.

Considering who is in front of us, it would be hard for me to make much of a compelling argument to be quite honest. Penn St and USC are always held places as extremely delusional. A&M is such a sad joke Blowing through truckloads of money trying to pretend to be Texas. The Longhorns in turn have their own issues.

Wish we could do away with the 2012 expansion on entirety honesty. Missouri is just a joke that nobody wants to hear. A&M is just annoying

USCw doesn't give a crap about football by and large. yeah maybe there are few die hards, but its not a passionate fan base year in year out. they are the wine and cheese crowd, or Lakers/Dodgers fan who realize there is college football when they are having a good year who dust off their #5 reggie bush jersey once a decade.

UCLA is the same, but probably even worse/more detached. Kinda like Auburn to Alabama, they really only care about beating USCw. otherwise they legit don't care.

I was out in LA last year right before the season starts. I hit up a couple of the recommended college sports bars out there. apparently all it takes out there to claim you are a certain college sports bar is just to have a flag and maybe one other piece of memorabilia. My fiance commented that I have more UT stuff than this "USC" sports bar had Trojan stuff. they were more excited about talking about Michigan and Ohio State than they were the Trojans. I get it was a down year, but I can't imagine sitting down at sports bar in Knoxville talking with some locals and they only wanted to talk about Texas and Oklahoma. even in the Dooley/Pruitt era they would complain about the team long before they brought up new conference members.

idk, maybe I am biased, but I wouldn't put either of them in the delusional category.

 

[stolitonic]

USCw doesn't give a crap about football by and large. yeah maybe there are few die hards, but its not a passionate fan base year in year out. they are the wine and cheese crowd, or Lakers/Dodgers fan who realize there is college football when they are having a good year who dust off their #5 reggie bush jersey once a decade.

UCLA is the same, but probably even worse/more detached. Kinda like Auburn to Alabama, they really only care about beating USCw. otherwise they legit don't care.

I was out in LA last year right before the season starts. I hit up a couple of the recommended college sports bars out there. apparently all it takes out there to claim you are a certain college sports bar is just to have a flag and maybe one other piece of memorabilia. My fiance commented that I have more UT stuff than this "USC" sports bar had Trojan stuff. they were more excited about talking about Michigan and Ohio State than they were the Trojans. I get it was a down year, but I can't imagine sitting down at sports bar in Knoxville talking with some locals and they only wanted to talk about Texas and Oklahoma. even in the Dooley/Pruitt era they would complain about the team long before they brought up new conference members.

idk, maybe I am biased, but I wouldn't put either of them in the delusional category.

Honestly man I always kind of put USC into that category with Miami


Most of their "fans" have a absolutely no attachment to the school. The external fanbases of both are just residual from the time when they ruled the world and human nature to follow the big winner.


So I guess I can agree with your thoughts about the students, alumni etc-they are indeed a wine and cheese crowd.

 

[Savannahbayvol]

Thought it was interesting so went ahead and posted. Undisputable that UTA and A&M considering their resources are most underachieving in College Athletics.

 

[VOLdo Raine]

They could literally put any major team on this list that hasn’t won a Natty in the last 20 years and claim it’s good. If not for the last two years, it would only be bammar, clempson, and jawja.

 

[VolBallGuy]

“Delusions of Grandeur” : The Musings of a Second Rate Hack
…coming soon to a clickbait death scroll near you.

 

[Volgraduate1992]

MSN

At least there are some really big name schools ahead of us - TxA&M, Tx, ND, PSU and USCw.

 

[Volgraduate1992]

MSN

At least there are some really big name schools ahead of us - TxA&M, Tx, ND, PSU and USCw.

 

[BowlBrother85]

Honestly, I can't really disagree with much of that.

Considering who is in front of us, it would be hard for me to make much of a compelling argument to be quite honest. Penn St and USC are always held places as extremely delusional. A&M is such a sad joke Blowing through truckloads of money trying to pretend to be Texas. The Longhorns in turn have their own issues.

Wish we could do away with the 2012 expansion on entirety honesty. Missouri is just a joke that nobody wants to hear. A&M is just annoying

Much of what? It didn't say anything.

Are championship aspirations "delusional" for a program that was ranked #1 the week of the Georgia game in 2022?

Are championship aspirations "delusional" for a program that made the College Football Playoff last season?

That list is a superficial compilation. It doesn't bother to explain it's conclusions at all. It's very shallow. Click bait at it's worst. They spent very little time in putting a list together which they know will get a rise out of fans. I think that has to be part of the reason Tennessee is on the list. Sports columnists are well-aware that Tennessee fans are a rabid base and takes offense to such things. That is what they are going for - angry replies which stir up discussion and draw attention to their site.

 

[stolitonic]

Much of what? It didn't say anything.

Are championship aspirations "delusional" for a program that was ranked #1 the week of the Georgia game in 2022?

Are championship aspirations "delusional" for a program that made the College Football Playoff last season?

That list is a superficial compilation. It doesn't bother to explain it's conclusions at all. It's very shallow. Click bait at it's worst. They spent very little time in putting a list together which they know will get a rise out of fans. I think that has to be part of the reason Tennessee is on the list. Sports columnists are well-aware that Tennessee fans are a rabid base and takes offense to such things. That is what they are going for - angry replies which stir up discussion and draw attention to their site.

Like it or not-in the eyes of most of the CFB watching public, we still have a ways to go to be seen as a premier team.

Heupel has done an amazing job with what he had to start with. Nobody can make an intelligent argument to the contrary.

Now that we have made the playoffs-we need to advance. Then so on and so forth until we win the stinking thing. We are going to take a little step back this season most likely and that's perfectly OK. Perhaps my delusions are more believable these days.

Can I honestly say that I was not delusional during that period of 2009-2020? Nope. I was nuttier than a squirrel turd. Every year, hope sprung eternal but by October those childish hopes had been destroyed every year. Basically exactly what the article says lol.

 

[BowlBrother85]

Like it or not-in the eyes of most of the CFB watching public, we still have a ways to go to be seen as a premier team.

Heupel has done an amazing job with what he had to start with. Nobody can make an intelligent argument to the contrary.

Now that we have made the playoffs-we need to advance. Then so on and so forth until we win the stinking thing. We are going to take a little step back this season most likely and that's perfectly OK. Perhaps my delusions are more believable these days.

Can I honestly say that I was not delusional during that period of 2009-2020? Nope. I was nuttier than a squirrel turd. Every year, hope sprung eternal but by October those childish hopes had been destroyed every year. Basically exactly what the article says lol.

My beef was really just with the way that list is written. It doesn't explain their rationale.

It's classic offseason clickbait :

1) In the form of a list.
2) Obviously, didn't take much time to write.
3) Offers highly debatable opinions, with little support.

 

[stolitonic]

My beef was really just with the way that list is written. It doesn't explain their rationale.

It's classic offseason clickbait :

1) In the form of a list.
2) Obviously, didn't take much time to write.
3) Offers highly debatable opinions, with little support.

I cannot disagree with that-as you said though, it is the off-season

If the 90-120 seconds I spent flipping through that and reading the comments is my biggest waste of time today then this should be one for the ages lol.

 

[GoDucks349]

USCw doesn't give a crap about football by and large. yeah maybe there are few die hards, but its not a passionate fan base year in year out. they are the wine and cheese crowd, or Lakers/Dodgers fan who realize there is college football when they are having a good year who dust off their #5 reggie bush jersey once a decade.

UCLA is the same, but probably even worse/more detached. Kinda like Auburn to Alabama, they really only care about beating USCw. otherwise they legit don't care.

I was out in LA last year right before the season starts. I hit up a couple of the recommended college sports bars out there. apparently all it takes out there to claim you are a certain college sports bar is just to have a flag and maybe one other piece of memorabilia. My fiance commented that I have more UT stuff than this "USC" sports bar had Trojan stuff. they were more excited about talking about Michigan and Ohio State than they were the Trojans. I get it was a down year, but I can't imagine sitting down at sports bar in Knoxville talking with some locals and they only wanted to talk about Texas and Oklahoma. even in the Dooley/Pruitt era they would complain about the team long before they brought up new conference members.

idk, maybe I am biased, but I wouldn't put either of them in the delusional category.

LA has so many "other" teams to root for that they just follow the winner. Two NFL teams, two NBA teams, etc. I think they have around a dozen pro teams across various sports. Plus, who's going to go to football games when the "Surf is Up". Before I retired I actually had a meeting delayed in Santa Monica once because the "Surf was Up".

 

[sami]

Honestly, I can't really disagree with much of that.

Considering who is in front of us, it would be hard for me to make much of a compelling argument to be quite honest. Penn St and USC are always held places as extremely delusional. A&M is such a sad joke Blowing through truckloads of money trying to pretend to be Texas. The Longhorns in turn have their own issues.

Wish we could do away with the 2012 expansion on entirety honesty. Missouri is just a joke that nobody wants to hear. A&M is just annoying

I wish we could do away with the 2024 expansion as well.

I clearly understand where college sports is heading, but the SEC was such a perfect 12-team league. I loved the pre-'90's 10-team SEC, but USCe and Arky were at least logical additions.

 

[05_never_again]

Our spot in that list is pretty hard to argue against. You could argue that Nebraska, Miami, and maybe Auburn should be above us but that's it.

 

[SpookyAction]

Worth the slideshow just to see how good those OG uniforms looked.

 

[volbound1700]

I wish we could do away with the 2024 expansion as well.

I clearly understand where college sports is heading, but the SEC was such a perfect 12-team league. I loved the pre-'90's 10-team SEC, but USCe and Arky were at least logical additions.

I do think OU, Texas, and Aggie are geographical and culture fits but the league is too crowded and those 3 plus Missouri would still fit best in the old school Big12.

Missouri fits better in B1G culturally IMO.

 

[TrojanorVol]

USCw doesn't give a crap about football by and large. yeah maybe there are few die hards, but its not a passionate fan base year in year out. they are the wine and cheese crowd, or Lakers/Dodgers fan who realize there is college football when they are having a good year who dust off their #5 reggie bush jersey once a decade.

UCLA is the same, but probably even worse/more detached. Kinda like Auburn to Alabama, they really only care about beating USCw. otherwise they legit don't care.

I was out in LA last year right before the season starts. I hit up a couple of the recommended college sports bars out there. apparently all it takes out there to claim you are a certain college sports bar is just to have a flag and maybe one other piece of memorabilia. My fiance commented that I have more UT stuff than this "USC" sports bar had Trojan stuff. they were more excited about talking about Michigan and Ohio State than they were the Trojans. I get it was a down year, but I can't imagine sitting down at sports bar in Knoxville talking with some locals and they only wanted to talk about Texas and Oklahoma. even in the Dooley/Pruitt era they would complain about the team long before they brought up new conference members.

idk, maybe I am biased, but I wouldn't put either of them in the delusional category.

Born and raised around Los Angeles. My favorite thing in the world as a child and young adult was going to USC Trojan home, away or bowl games. When USC and the pac 12 let the ncaa hammer them and then we have lazy hires like Helton and then Sarkisian who I think can only recruit well. There was a long period of time that I felt like SC could care less about "fight on" and yes nobody gives a crap about college football in LA especially most bruin alumns and fans. Mom's in SoCal are liberal or soft and want soccer players. Those LA big 10 schools are filled with foreigners and there just temporarily. There is just problems with Southern CA/CA in general. I live in Knoxville now and all Vol. I just became a bigger fan by the years since seeing Peyton Manning when I was 13 against ucla in Pasadena going to a game as a fan of college football. I learned that day the Vols have the best fan base in sports. Go Vols! USC is just my 2nd favorite school now these days.

 

[05_never_again]

I do think OU, Texas, and Aggie are geographical and culture fits but the league is too crowded and those 3 plus Missouri would still fit best in the old school Big12.

Missouri fits better in B1G culturally IMO.

OU and A&M are cultural fits. Texas has a wine and cheese fanbase that is more akin to USC and (to a lesser degree) Michigan.

 

[volbound1700]

OU and A&M are cultural fits. Texas has a wine and cheese fanbase that is more akin to USC and (to a lesser degree) Michigan.

Not quite from my experience. There alumni and the local fans seem to be that way but a lot of the state is bandwagon Texas fans that are a lot more like Aggie fans than your description. They are kind of like Alabama (or most schools) in that they do have a large fanbase that are nothing like the school or went there.

 

[05_never_again]

Not quite from my experience. There alumni and the local fans seem to be that way but a lot of the state is bandwagon Texas fans that are a lot more like Aggie fans than your description. They are kind of like Alabama (or most schools) in that they do have a large fanbase that are nothing like the school or went there.

That's probably fair. Alabama fans who live in and around Birmingham are much different than the ones who live outside of that area.