College Fan Face-Off, Week 1: 'This is a Bulldog home, don't forget it'

It's here, that time of year when the clock simply crawls in a cruel, mocking fashion. OK, while that may be pushing it a bit, it certainly seems that way for many sports fans during the summer doldrums, especially college sports fans.

With no sports to occupy the minds of most college fans -- unless you're one of the lucky few whose favorite team made it to the College World Series in Omaha -- the summer months can sometimes feel unbearable.

College football is so tantalizingly close -- less than 85 days remain before kickoff -- that many of us can taste the first tailgate. And yet we must sit and wait through two months with little to sate our appetite, save the odd Braves game. And by the look of the Braves, it's not near enough to satisfy.

To try and remedy this, I, Morgan Lee, am forming a sort-of college sports support system for the hot, dry summer months. Call it a 12-step program for Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference junkies -- though this 12-step program doesn't propose to wean fans off college sports -- just the opposite. I propose we help each other through June, July and part of August by talking about our favorite teams, schools and players.

Therefore I present to you, the College Fan Face-Off.

The Face-Off will run every Friday this summer and include discussions and debates from fans from throughout north Georgia about their favorite SEC and ACC teams. Hopefully it will help fill in the gaps until the real thing gets here in August.

And while the fan correspondents I've gathered will conduct most of the debates, I want the rest of you college sports junkies to get involved.

That's why, after I post the latest Face-Off debate each week, I'd like your feedback on what the fans of your favorite school -- or most hated rival -- have to say.

All you have to do is fire off a quick note, comment or rant to: [email protected] and it will go straight to the fan correspondents themselves -- please be sure to include your name, age and city of residence. And the best comments will find their way into next week's Face-Off publication. By the way, I promise that the Face-Off discussions will be lively, even heated at times, but they will never stray into ugliness -- please keep all comments clean.

(By the way, if you see we're not covering your favorite team and would like in on the debate, please send me an email volunteering your services, and I'll make you one of the fan correspondents.)

So, here it is, the first installment of the College Fan Face-Off

http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/6/210772