My First Apple Cup

The Apple Cup is the yearly brawl between the two major state universities in Washington - University of Washington and Washington State University. Amy and I went this past weekend with friends of ours... and no kids - woo hoo! We had a great time tailgating and I really enjoyed the game.

As usual, we managed to bring way too much food. I don't know what it is about tailgating but man we always end up with 10x the food we need. Absolutely crazy.

I happened to be feeling under the weather Saturday morning. Apparently after drinking four of Amy's secret concoctions of orange juice, apple juice, vodka, and triple sec, any cold you might be feeling is cured. Who knows, maybe it cures cancer too. All I know is I've felt much better since then.

Once again we met a lot of interesting people, including someone well connected in the Purdue Athletic Department (used to work there) who is going to get us tickets to the Purdue-UW Women's game coming up in a few weeks. Also met a couple who's had Seahawks season tickets since the team was founded. Very cool. Listened to their story of the Seahawks gaining -12 yards on offense over an entire game. Ouch.

Got to see a great game, ripe with an opening kickoff for a touchdown, about four lead changes see-sawing back and forth, and a last minute victory for the out-of-towners. I had a good time, and we had the best seats I've ever had for a college football game. I've already put a deposit down on the Notre Dame game next year. POTFI.

Funny. Before the game I was asking the UW alums their take on Willingham, and all to a tee said "give him another year." After the game, all to a tee said "fire his ass!" But, that's the level of expectations that these institutions have brought on themselves. They pay coaches $1M+ year at the low end. They continue to jack up ticket prices, seat licenses, and booster club minimum donation requirements that outpace inflation, they continue to reduce benefits for said club members, etc. So why wouldn't people have high expectations for the programs they support? The schools put themselves in that position. And what's scary is that they can't get out. It's a vicious spiral of increasing revenue to increase performance.

Amy and I somewhat joke about how much we enjoyed Purdue football during the Colletto years. Free parking close to the stadium, pick any seat you want, and you still got to see a good football game. Not many Ws, mind you, but competitive football (seems that the Colletto years were more competitive game by game than the last three Tiller years, but I digress).

By the way, I heard that it was the 100th game between UW and WSU, and that it was also the 100th anniversary. Maybe I'm picky and detail-oriented, but it can't be both. Hint: the first game is not the first anniversary, the second game is.