Go Purple?

Go Wildcats! Really; I'm not kidding. I even meant to wear purple today (but forgot).

The Jayhawks don't play this week, so I was following the other team from Kansas on the radio in my office as the Wildcats beat #7 Texas 41-21. It's the first time ever that K-State beat a top-10 team on the road. Good for them!

Yet K-Staters often assume that a Lawrence-born Jayhawker like myself must hate the Wildcats. But why? I don't feel that the rivalry is that big a deal. K-State men's basketball has only beat the Jayhawks seven times since 1984 and only once in the last thirteen years. Even in football, KU is ahead 63-36-5 over the last hundred years. So I don't get too worked up over the Wildcats; in fact I root for them anytime they're not playing KU. We're all from Kansas right? My feelings for K-State are nothing like the full-fledged schadenfreude I have for the Missouri Tigers.

When I lived in Missouri for 6 years, no one seemed to notice or care that I rooted for K-State in the Fall, for KU in the Winter and Spring, and against Mizzou always. But I move back home and the partisan bickering is at a fever pitch. Nowadays I root for college teams following this order of preference:

1.) The Kansas Jayhawks whenever they play.
2.) Any team from Kansas against another state.
3.) The Big 12 North against the South*.
4.) The Big 12 over any other conference.*
5.) Teams on KU's schedule against teams KU won't play.*
6.) The Underdog.*

*Excluding Missouri, of course.

So congratulations, K-State, on your victory. And may you go down in flames next Saturday (when you play KU).