Dispassionate: Not taking sides in the Civil War

Come Saturday, I’m easily the most relaxed male football fan in Bend because I could care less who wins the Civil War. You see, I have no association, save for friends who attended them, with either of the two schools.

However, I rooted for the Beavers on their way to two consecutive NCAA baseball titles. And I admit I always root for the Ducks track and field and cross country running teams.

I’m not a big fan of the Ducks’ yellow and green colors and think the Beavers’ orange and black is always a bad combination outside of Halloween. There are exceptions to that color scheme, like the Oklahoma State Cowboys jerseys that feature a whole lot of orange and not much black.

Uniforms aside, I do like the Beavers’ “Quizz” Rogers who is what we used to fondly call a “scatback”. In Rogers’ case, a scatback with power.

And I do like the Ducks sans Jeremiah Masoli and the way the team, via coach Chip Kelly, are changing the game of college football.

I like the Beavers for the fact that they have 31 in-state players on the team, eight who start and eleven who are make significant contributions. Oregon has only 22 in-state players and one of them starts. Time to make one of those “University of Southern California at Eugene” jabs?

I’m of a mind that the NCAA should have an annual award for the University football program that has the most in-state players on its roster. This year it would go the University of Wisconsin as 85 percent of their players come from within cheesehead land.

Speaking of cheese, I’m looking forward to some tasty cheese, great dips, canapés and brews at the two Civil War parties I’ll attend. At both parties, I’ll be thoroughly focused on the food and drink and not on so much on the game.

As a dispassionate observer, I predict a 42-14 Ducks win.

This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2010.