Lucas Savela's Tied Tongue Tumbles On

A Statement: Spartans, Wolverines, and “Scholars,” Oh My!

I was wrong.

I’ll admit it. I was wrong.

Up until recently, I strongly believed that in order to be a fan of a college sports program, one has to attend or have attended school at the university of choice. Again, I was wrong.

Maybe it’s due to some maturing or taking sports less seriously (these two notions are probably related), but this thought process was too harsh. At the end of the day, college sports are just a series of games, literally. They hold no weight in any realm of the real, important world.

Sure, I still roll my eyes ever-so-slightly when a non MSU student uses “we” referring to the Spartans and I get a little bent out of shape when I see “It’s a great day to be a Michigan Wolverine” posted on Facebook from a student from Public-University-Other-Than-Michigan X, but I’m getting better. Eventually, things like this won’t bother me. Please have patience. I’m trying.

I have improved by trying to not flaunt my own fandom for the past year. Check my Facebook archives: I said nothing about my university’s football team (which experienced their best season not resulting in a national championship in school history) and only two statuses about my favorite basketball program ever. The first, at the beginning of the season, claimed they would win a national championship. The second status came as they were bounced from the tournament, mocking my erroneous prediction and showing how I still loved to watch my favorite team (even through a season considered to be a failure). I guess my goal for next year will to have no Internet display of affection at all for the Spartans, because my Sparty love may just not matter to anyone else.

So I am trying to ignore the imaginary ideologies that separate Spartan and Wolverine fans apart. Despite recent history, U of M has a better football program historically (granted, not as good as Wolverine fans believe, since most of their winning as the most-winning football program came before the invention of the forward pass, but a great program nonetheless). And despite the 2010-2011 season (and hell, maybe even the upcoming season), Michigan State has the better basketball program. There shouldn’t be a debate on those two points. We should all agree on that, just like we can agree that maize is the ugliest color in the spectrum. As allowed in the world of sports, I’ll give all Wolverine fans permission to gently tease me about being a Spartan as long as I’m allowed to return the favor (for an example, see the parenthetical rant earlier in this paragraph).

With all this said, there is one thing I will not stand for. I will not ignore it when someone implies that, as a Michigan State student, I am not good enough for the University of Michigan. I call “utter bull” on this point, and for good reasons (yes, plural).

Firstly, most of the people (in fact, all of them that I have encountered) that “look down” on people for being an MSU student have no official affiliation with U of M in the first place. I wish I was making up the fact that I have witnessed multiple instances where non U of M students were condemning State students for being second tier. That’s unfair, especially when the ones pointing the fingers are pointing from a) community college or b) mommy’s house (oof. That sounds judge-y. I’m not trying to judge. Sorry). To me, this is like some guy bragging about a stranger’s car. “I saw a guy driving a Porsche. It was awesome! It was way better than your clunker or my piece of crap, but more importantly, it was better than your clunker. Man, what a great Porsche.” Am I the only one that sees ridiculousness here?

Also, I strongly believe that I could have been accepted to Michigan. I’ll concede that I can’t say this with 100 percent certainty because I didn’t apply for the university. I will, however, just have my high school accomplishments speak for themselves and I assume I would have gotten in (like I did for all other schools I applied to). If I had a time machine, I would pay the application fee, apply to Michigan, receive the acceptance letter, and then burn it (that would have made a cool YouTube video). Sure I could be accused of saying “should’ve, would’ve, could’ve.” I would argue that “shouldn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t” is more applicable, as in “I shouldn’t have applied there because I had no interest,” “I wouldn’t have enjoyed my time there” and “I couldn’t care less if attending U of M would have made people appreciate me more.”

Finally, I am going into elementary education. As it turns out, Michigan State has the best teacher education program for elementary and secondary teachers. To reiterate, for my specific field of study, I am in the best program in the country. Michigan may be stronger in most all other fields, but not in the one that matters the most to me.

So now, you’re wrong.

Please admit it. You’re wrong.

It’s not that I am not good enough for the University of Michigan. As a proud Spartan and elementary teacher education student, the University of Michigan is not good enough for me.

1. markbottrell said: Shut up.
2. isworeidneverliveinwisconsin liked this
3. lusav posted this