A Real Underdog to Root For

If you’re looking for a true underdog team in college football to root for, and support through some rough times, can I suggest my wife’s alma mater, East Tennessee State?

The football program was shut down in 2003, and now, some 12 years and much fundraising later, it is back. The school is a member of the Southern Conference, but not yet in football. So we have a brand new team, playing at the FCS level without a conference, and fielding talent that is nowhere near as deep and experienced as any other team they play.

Football returned to ETSU last week, a 40 point loss to Kennesaw State. Yesterday, that was followed up by a 28-21 loss to a Division III school.

As I told my wife after the Kennesaw State game, it’s not going to be pretty for a few years. You had to expect that, but the important thing is that they are playing again, and providing an opportunity to those kids to go to ETSU, get an education, and play ball. That’s a good thing.