Tradition (Split from Boyd)

[redbenn]

Do Clemson or Oregon have a NC?

clemson has a NC

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

Yep....I must have glossed over them when I was scanning the list. The point remains the same, though.

 

[osugrad21]

I suppose it is also quite relative; IMO tailgating is second to none in Clemson but its also the school I pull for . Of course if I was a buckeye I would be singing a different tune. Either way, I hope Boyd follows in Spiller's footsteps and chooses whatever school is best for him... Not his parents - whichever school that may be.

Oh the quality of the tailgating...volume, spirit, energy...definitely on par with Columbus. I've never had a bad time tailgating at Clemson. However, when you have people tailgating at all corners of the campus...behind the baseball field to the YMCA fields across the bridge to the crowds at Littlejohn and the Stadium lots. Its great...but so widespread. If you want to meet up with friends who are not parked in the same place, you better have 30-40 to walk and some good shoes...

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

Oh the quality of the tailgating...volume, spirit, energy...definitely on par with Columbus. I've never had a bad time tailgating at Clemson. However, when you have people tailgating at all corners of the campus...behind the baseball field to the YMCA fields across the bridge to the crowds at Littlejohn and the Stadium lots. Its great...but so widespread. If you want to meet up with friends who are not parked in the same place, you better have 30-40 to walk and some good shoes...

ugh. we met up with a friend for a tip off game a while ago.....he parked first so we had to meet him. he was in the farthest corner in the back of the baseball stadium parking. if you look at a parking map, it is literally the farthest you can get from the horseshoe and still be in the official parking lots.

 

[maysm412]

ugh. we met up with a friend for a tip off game a while ago.....he parked first so we had to meet him. he was in the farthest corner in the back of the baseball stadium parking. if you look at a parking map, it is literally the farthest you can get from the horseshoe and still be in the official parking lots.

Haha, yeah that is pretty bogus. Most everyone I tailgate with is around the Little John Colosseum and intramural area which makes it fairly easy to commute to each tailgate. However, I can see where those who haven't had their spot very long (Or just a cheaper location) got the short end of the stick by far. I'm very interested to experience an OSU tailgate now. I've also always heard great things about Penn State's tailgating.

Eventually I will make it to one at each school... I hope :).

 

[RugbyBuck]

This may've been mentioned earlier; apologies, if so. Not strictly tradition, but definitely a by-product is that you can watch tOSU just about every weekend in Atlanta, of all places, and I assume that means most other places outside of the midwest, as well. I can see more tOSU games here than Clemson games without having to go to a special bar, alumni club, etc. and Clemson is an hour and a half away, at most. My understanding is that tv time means a lot to kids. That's got to be factored into any school to school evaluation.

 

[buckeyesin07]

I absolutely agree. I meant to mention that I was not implying that Clemson/Ohio State were the same or even try and compare Clemson to Ohio State. Apples and Oranges imo.

I think what was meant by the original post in terms of "tradition" was historical winning percentage, number of national titles, number of BCS appearances, number of Heisman Trophy winners, national exposure, number of players drafted in the NFL, etc. By those metrics, Clemson isn't even in the same zip code as OSU. Not to say that Clemson doesn't have certain other advantages over OSU. However, in terms of tradition as I think it was meant to be defined in the original post, this isn't an "apples and oranges"-type situation.

 

[Gatorubet]

now that this was split, I'm going to have to call you out.

Do Clemson or Oregon have a NC? Do they have a Heisman winner? Do they have arguably the best RB in the history of football?
Does Syracuse not have some serious historical talent in the NFL?

You could have picked a better school to make your point. Syracuse has some legit history.

History? Well, Italy was a superpower that won the BCS for several hundred years, beating the Buffalo Bill Carthaginians in several Punic Bowls. And tradition is wonderful, part of what makes college football such a great sport. But I'd rather have success the last twenty years of my program that for the first fifty of the last seventy years. Yes, Army was a power. No, a kid today does not go to Brown, or Army, or two time MNC Minnesota because of the history. The great thing about sports is that it is not static.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

History? Well, Italy was a superpower that won the BCS for several hundred years, beating the Buffalo Bill Carthaginians in several Punic Bowls. And tradition is wonderful, part of what makes college football such a great sport. But I'd rather have success the last twenty years of my program that for the first fifty of the last seventy years. Yes, Army was a power. No, a kid today does not go to Brown, or Army, or two time MNC Minnesota because of the history. The great thing about sports is that it is not static.

Spoken like the fan of a program that won its first conference title in 1991....

 

[Gatorubet]

Spoken like the fan of a program that won its first conference title in 1991....

Absolutely true LJB. Which is why I am offering that perspective. But we are also a program that is an up and coming program. The fact that Florida did not have a large population for the first 50 years of our program is not a fault I can lay on anyone, but certainly not our players and coaches.

My point is simple. It is better to be good now than to suck now and be good back then. And what makes up a good program is not something that is capable of strict statistics, as statistics can be used in many ways. For example, how about saying who has won the most AP titles the last 50 years? Well, then, Florida must be better than tOSU. Make it conference titles and we are not even in the hunt.

Here is an interesting stat sheet:

Winning percentage the last 50 years.

TEAM WIN % Wins Losses Ties
1. Neb. 0.775 462 132 6
2. OSU 0.758 426 132 11
3. PSU 0.743 434 149 3
4.Texas 0.740 429 148 8
5. 'Bama 0.732 433 155 9
6. Okla. 0.730 423 153 10
7. Mich. 0.727 414 152 10
8. USC 0.722 416 155 16
9. Tenn. 0.693 399 172 17
10. UGA 0.690 395 173 15
11. UF 0.687 397 177 12
12. FSU 0.686 394 176 15

Jeff, it is very impressive that tOSU is at 2. It is not chopped liver that UF is at 11. Hell, with a bad year at Athens because Stafford and Moreno left, and with UT's troubles we might get to 9 in a year or two.

So you can say "You are only #11", and it would be true. But we have the last two out of three BCSNC, so it feels better to have that than some wins in the 1960s.

We have the second longest bowl appearance streak in the nation, although the NCAA may vacate the Noles 2007 bowl. I don't know how or what effect that will have.

My point is that I would rather be Florida than Brown, despite their tradition and conference championships. I am alive now, and I care about the success of my team now. So do recruits.

tOSU is fortunate to have both past and current success. I very much appreciate it and respect it. But I respect the wins now more than I respect the wins thirty years ago. And like I said, the list of who is on top of the college football world is changing and not static.

And, to be honest, if somebody was to say that we have no history and are not an elite program, I would just smile and keep on walking.

 

[BB73]

History? Well, Italy was a superpower that won the BCS for several hundred years, beating the Buffalo Bill Carthaginians in several Punic Bowls. And tradition is wonderful, part of what makes college football such a great sport. But I'd rather have success the last twenty years of my program that for the first fifty of the last seventy years. Yes, Army was a power. No, a kid today does not go to Brown, or Army, or two time MNC Minnesota because of the history. The great thing about sports is that it is not static.

You're selling Minny's older history well short. They won the AP in '36, '40, '41, and '60, and also have recognized titles for '34 and '35.

Big Ten!
Big Ten!
Big Ten!

 

[MaliBuckeye]

Missing something?

I can't believe we're debating Ohio State and Clemson traditions without remembering what Woody thought about the Tigers:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEVJyf0ft3I"]YouTube - Woody Hayes[/ame]
​

Have to say I agree with him.

 

[Gatorubet]

You're selling Minny's older history well short. They won the AP in '36, '40, '41, and '60, and also have recognized titles for '34 and '35.

Big Ten!
Big Ten!
Big Ten!

Absolutely right Bill. I had the figure "2" in my head because I recently looked up the record for consecutive conference championships, and Minny had two in a row. My bad Goofers, you had four AP titles.

But that is in fact a good example. I'd rather have three titles since 1996 than four since 1936 and the last one in 1960...

It's hard to elbow your way into the tradition room with you guys all standing shoulder to shoulder in the doorway. But we're working on it

 

[Gatorubet]

I can't believe we're debating Ohio State and Clemson traditions without remembering what Woody thought about the Tigers:

YouTube - Woody Hayes​

Have to say I agree with him.

I was watching TV that day with my dad. He just looked at the screen, looked at me, looked at the screen again, said "damn!" ....and slowly picked up his beer again shaking his head.

I was laughing my butt off. Get 'em Woody

 

[muffler dragon]

I've also always heard great things about Penn State's tailgating.

Make sure you wear protective gear when they're sore losers after the game.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDiRPUiQZHc]YouTube - Penn State fans abuse tOSU fans[/ame]

Douches galore at State Penn.