Outside Looking In

I got a new phone a few months ago. One of the nice features is that I can get all sorts of information, including sports updates, on little widgets called "cards". Naturally, my first move was to plug in my favorite teams. When I started typing in South Florida, I was able to add USF basketball, but not football. If I recall, I may have been curious about it for a moment at the time, but something shiny happened and since no games were imminent at the time, I forgot about it. I was interacting with it again today, and was again a bit confused until it hit me: USF is no longer a major conference team.

I no longer have a major conference team.

This isn't entirely true, at least not yet. Even in the BCS' lame duck year, it remains the currency of major conference status, and the American Athletic Conference still has an automatic bid. Still, even as the Worldwide Leader has shifted its jargon to "Power Five" from "Big Six" or "BCS" conferences - despite being contractually obligated to the BCS which is, in turn, obligated to the American - Teddy Bridgewater and Louisville's proficiency allows them to speak of the Cardinals as the champion of a conference that shall not be named, an independent traveler with an inconvenient layover on its way to the ACC.

While it became evident in an unexpected way today, the mortality of my major conference rooting interest hasn't been lost on me. And while I'm a Bull (and Retriever, don't forget) for life and would be such if either dropped to Division III, I have thought about the fact that I don't have a rooting interest in the "major" conferences anymore. And while my fandom isn't for sale nor rent, I'm curious.

Let's get hypothetical: If I put this out there to you, the reader, who should be my major conference team?

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