Life was Simpler in Different Conferences

When Chris and I first met and married life was simple...

The Bulldogs were in the SEC (of course at that time we didn't give a rat's ass fell in love with them together 2 years later), the Cards were in the Big East, and UVA was ACC....

So I married my wonderful awesome incredible husband who didn't care too terribly much about college football (the only thing my daddy had against him) into a family who lived and breathed college basketball something I didn't understand except for the ACC tournament and only because that meant I got to see my cousins and spar with our dear friends the Millens--UNC fans--We were fine--seriously...we began to rear our children understanding our positions.  But here are a few things that happened along the way...

• Christopher Robert Doyle Jr. is born July 1997 the same year Boss Bailey is the number #1 recruit, hence he will be forever known as Boss Doyle
• I gave birth to William on Dec. 28, 1998--my daddy and husband went to the Peach Bowl (UVA/UGA)--I was in the hospital cared for and totally understood why they would go (I might have secretly wished they had broken me out to go too)
• We move to Pittsburgh--Chris misses a Halloween trick or treat--SK overhears someone say, "How could he miss Halloween for a football game?" to which she replies, "It's not just a football game, it's Georgia/ Florida"
• We meet the Woodyards (UT folks) and the boys ask, "are we allowed to be friends with them?" We acquiesced which led to our best friends the Ramsays in Louisville...it was a long descent
• Boss applied to UK--I could barely stand it but began to think about how I could.  I will support my children in anything they do even if I have to yell, "Go Cats"--please don't make that happen..." (It's not--huge sigh of relief)

We became a sports obsessed family--but it was very organized until....

The conferences started reorganizing--so now UVA remains in the ACC but is joined by U of L. (And may I just for the record mention that in our family the only people who actually have degrees from any school are me (UVA), my daddy and sister (UVA), my mother in law (U of L) and our daughter who currently attends and we pay the tuition for UVA.) Nonetheless despite there are very few with diplomas on their wall from either school, this has caused great family strain...

Bottom line--now UVA plays U of L on a regular basis.  During football season we refer to it as the Divorce Bowl--the beauty of and possibly God given response is they typically split the games. One year us, one year them... It's good fun even if cold for a few moments..  But the stakes have gone up...

I received a text from my brilliant overachieving daughter telling me how stressed she was I misunderstood...SK told me how stressed she was which I believed had to do with school. My beautiful ballerina, over achieving academic daughter...but instead it was about whether she should cheer for the school community she joined versus the basketball family she joined...

So yesterday...she wanted to be here with me--so not really with me as I'd like to believe,  but with her Godparents as they laid to rest her Godfather's father (who she honest to God could have been spit out of his theology), but instead she is in a sports bar totally stressed out (thank you Cammy Leech that she even cares about this) about who to cheer for.  She struggled with being reared a Cards fan and being a UVA student.  I told her if was a good position to be in--no matter who won, you won. She didn't buy it. In fact her response was, "I'm watching it in public so I have to keep it together."  That out of state tuition just paid for itself--we have a "can't keep it together because of sports" daughter--who cares what else she learns?

This is where I love and know that all these years ago we chose the right Godparents--Carter loves the Cards with every fiber of his body (he also may have a graduate degree from UVA as well as a wife with a degree from there, so the two of us--his wife and I find the fact that he always chooses the Cards rather insulting). As we watched the game he said, "Of course she should cheer for the Hoos--she's a student there."  This on top of his comments on the day of burying his dad, "We need to leave the reception. I think dad would want us to watch the U of L game." Yep we chose right...

But this is the whole problem--when we married U of L didn't play UVA in basketball or anything else for that matter, I didn't even really understand college basketball; I didn't think about playing this team.  Our teams overlapped but rarely...but yesterday overlapped and I won...and I will celebrate that until March 5 when we will play again--this time at JPJ in C'ville.  I have no idea if we will win again (Please please please let that happen), but if we split it will help (please please please don't help...).

I believe on Saturday the Yum Center became our house!

Why do we have to share a conference--perhaps it's so we can share what we have in common despite our differences.  Football season and the Dawgs!!! So yesterday ended--and may I just say my Hoos rocked the house!!  I will continue to celebrate that my team reigns supreme for however long that reign may be...