Living In (SEC) Country

[wypoke]

I have lived half my life in Wyoming and I am a WYO alum. My wife also attended WYO.
We now live in an active retirement community in Georgia. The 10 houses on my street contain 4 Georgia alums, 2 Bama alums, 1 Auburn alum, plus 2 Florida State alums and 1 Georgia Tech alum.

This is a football crazy community. We generally have neighborhood cooks outs on Sundays.
Normally greetings at the cook outs are...How 'Bout Them Dawgs, Roll Tide, or War Eagle!
Currently the greeting has changed to...Who Beat Wyoming This Weekend? It is all good natured fun and our neighbors are great folks.

Our kids graduated from Bama and Georgia. Have 4 grand kids attending Georgia and one at Texas A&M...all SEC schools.

Such is life in SEC country.

[McPeachy]

Tough crowd those neighbors are!

I lived "down south" for a few years, and if board members here think fanbases are rabid and brutal at WYO...they should live there for a few minutes. Some of those "fans" can be absolutely ruthless. I thought the people there for the most part were great, and very accommodating / personable. Yet, they made it very clear I was a Yankee, and would never be a "member" of their club - no matter how much time we spent together.

[DamThatRiver22]

I lived "down south" for a few years, and if board members here think fanbases are rabid and brutal at WYO...they should live there for a few minutes. Some of those "fans" can be absolutely ruthless.

I don't know that I've seen any Wyoming fan claim that we're anywhere near what CFB fans in the south/southeast are like.

They're a whole different breed for sure, lol.

Kinda like how seriously Texas takes high school football. It's on another level.

[LanderPoke]

Shoulda sent your kids/grandkids to Wyoming

[ZapPoke]

I lived "down south" for a few years, and if board members here think fanbases are rabid and brutal at WYO...they should live there for a few minutes. Some of those "fans" can be absolutely ruthless.

I don't know that I've seen any Wyoming fan claim that we're anywhere near what CFB fans in the south/southeast are like.

They're a whole different breed for sure, lol.

Kinda like how seriously Texas takes high school football. It's on another level.

I spent ten years in Houston before retiring and coming home to Casper. Houston is both very Texan and yet a melting pot of people from all over the US and the world. You’re right about high school football. They have stadiums that rival many university stadiums!

I had many friends who went to Texas or A&M and they never made me feel “less than “ because I was from Wyoming. On casual Friday I would wear my Brown and Gold and complete strangers would come up to me and say “I bet you’re a Bills fan too” to which I would say well they got a damn good quarterback!

[wypoke]

Shoulda sent your kids/grandkids to Wyoming

We did make the offer to our children and grand kids to attend WYO all expenses paid...no takers.

Our son had a partial athletic scholarship offer at WYO, however, he thought Bama's engineering program was what he wanted. He is now president of a large heavy civil (highways, bridges, airports, dams, etc.) construction company. He received a great education at Bama.
His daughter (our grand daughter) is attending Texas A&M because of their premed program.



Our daughter decided on attending Georgia as it was in state, close to home, and had major of study she wanted. She also met her future husband there. They both graduated and have done well in their careers. Their children (our grand children) grew up in a Georgia house and the 4 of them are now part of a legacy family at Georgia.

There is nothing wrong with attending WYO. Our children and grand children simply chose a different path for themselves.

[DamThatRiver22]

Yea, as much as I bleed Brown and Gold and so much of my family and friends are alumni, it's not always the best choice overall for everyone and that's entirely okay.

I didn't attend UW because I had a very specialized interest that there are small liberal arts/trade schools for, who focus on that career path exclusively and have better dedicated programs for it than UW does.

My daughter, however, has a standing offer to attend UW for free when she reaches that point (she's in HS now). I've chosen to permanently settle in Laramie (and am a Wyoming native), so I can give her room/board/transportion/etc....as well as take care of her in case of any emergency...on top of paying for some of the lowest tuitions in the country. Plus UW has very good programs in her current areas of interest (Ag, Biology, veterinary medicine, etc.) as well as sports she is interested in (namely Volleyball).

However, she is under no obligation to take me up on that offer, and if her interests and desires change, I will fully support her in that and work with her to figure out the best path for her....whether that means sending her to South Dakota State, or figuring out how the hell to pay for Vanderbilt...doesn't matter. Loyalty to a school isn't absolute.

[McPeachy]

Yea, as much as I bleed Brown and Gold and so much of my family and friends are alumni, it's not always the best choice overall for everyone and that's entirely okay.

I didn't attend UW because I had a very specialized interest that there are small liberal arts/trade schools for, who focus on that career path exclusively and have better dedicated programs for it than UW does.

My daughter, however, has a standing offer to attend UW for free when she reaches that point (she's in HS now). I've chosen to permanently settle in Laramie (and am a Wyoming native), so I can give her room/board/transportion/etc....as well as take care of her in case of any emergency...on top of paying for some of the lowest tuitions in the country. Plus UW has very good programs in her current areas of interest (Ag, Biology, veterinary medicine, etc.) as well as sports she is interested in (namely Volleyball).

However, she is under no obligation to take me up on that offer, and if her interests and desires change, I will fully support her in that and work with her to figure out the best path for her....whether that means sending her to South Dakota State, or figuring out how the hell to pay for Vanderbilt...doesn't matter. Loyalty to a school isn't absolute.

I heard / read a rumor that Brandon is paying back all student loans...so just have her borrow up to her neck, and she will get bailed out.

[wypoke]

Yea, as much as I bleed Brown and Gold and so much of my family and friends are alumni, it's not always the best choice overall for everyone and that's entirely okay.

I didn't attend UW because I had a very specialized interest that there are small liberal arts/trade schools for, who focus on that career path exclusively and have better dedicated programs for it than UW does.

My daughter, however, has a standing offer to attend UW for free when she reaches that point (she's in HS now). I've chosen to permanently settle in Laramie (and am a Wyoming native), so I can give her room/board/transportion/etc....as well as take care of her in case of any emergency...on top of paying for some of the lowest tuitions in the country. Plus UW has very good programs in her current areas of interest (Ag, Biology, veterinary medicine, etc.) as well as sports she is interested in (namely Volleyball).

However, she is under no obligation to take me up on that offer, and if her interests and desires change, I will fully support her in that and work with her to figure out the best path for her....whether that means sending her to South Dakota State, or figuring out how the hell to pay for Vanderbilt...doesn't matter. Loyalty to a school isn't absolute.

You are absolutely correct in your response. From your previous posts I believe you and I think along the same line in most things...my wife would say that is scary...ha,ha.

It would appear that our children, yours and mine, have their own hopes and ambitions. We should support them and not expect cookie cutter versions of ourselves. At some point, we as parents, see our influence change from parenthood to more of a counselor.

I wish your daughter the best of everything in her future endeavors. She will do well.

I also wish you well in Laramie. I still miss Laramie even though my wife and I lived poorer than church mice while married students attending WYO. Those days were still some of the happiest
days in our 56 year marriage,

[Cornpoke]

I grew up in SEC territory as a Vanderbilt fan. Tough life, but it prepared me well for becoming a Wyo fan.

[BeachPoke]

WYPOKE,
I understand everything you said, I was born and raised in Casper back in the 60’s. Left in 1982 & I now live in South Carolina, the up state area. Still wear my brown and gold every week, my office has Poke stuff all over it. Funny I see pokes fans around here all the time, either wearing the great B&G apparel or steam boat stickers.

SEC & ACC fans are funny to watch. Sad thing is the lower half of each of those conferences are not much better year end and year out than the MW. Most fans are pretty cool, a lot of banter during the season, the big thing is most of them love our uni’s. I don’t get home much all the family have passed or left but still have some cousins still in Cheyenne so get to keep in touch…

[wypoke]

WYPOKE,
I understand everything you said, I was born and raised in Casper back in the 60’s. Left in 1982 & I now live in South Carolina, the up state area. Still wear my brown and gold every week, my office has Poke stuff all over it. Funny I see pokes fans around here all the time, either wearing the great B&G apparel or steam boat stickers.

SEC & ACC fans are funny to watch. Sad thing is the lower half of each of those conferences are not much better year end and year out than the MW. Most fans are pretty cool, a lot of banter during the season, the big thing is most of them love our uni’s. I don’t get home much all the family have passed or left but still have some cousins still in Cheyenne so get to keep in touch…

Way to go BeachPoke. I also wear WYO gear everyday. On occasion people stop and talk to me about the state of Wyoming and the Pokes. I have even put a large WYOMING decal on the the front of my golf cart. I have received many complements on the Pokes uniforms also.

Folks here are really into the SEC and college football. We have never been harassed for wearing our WYO gear. Everyone seems to respect one's loyalty to their school. We really miss Wyoming, but are comfortable here in Georgia. We get home (Wyoming) every few years, but our relatives have passed on and most of our friends have either passed on or moved away.

[DamThatRiver22]

WYPOKE,
Sad thing is the lower half of each of those conferences are not much better year end and year out than the MW.

While that's an argument that can certainly be made for the ACC....not so much for the SEC. If you do some digging into the actual numbers, statistically the bottom half of the SEC is still miles ahead of even midpack MWC teams. Sure, the top of the MWC in a strong year is stronger than the bottom couple of teams in the SEC, but that's an awfully slanted way of looking at it and doesn't really help your case.

The SEC is 25-11 head to head against the Mountain West (with an average score of 36-21), with a pretty decent sample size spanning both conferences up and down in strength. And that includes when BYU and Utah were in the MWC. The SEC was 16-5 against the MWC in the 2010s alone. And that's not even going into into SoS or actual statistical performances.

Careful with the homer Kool-aid.

[BeachPoke]

I would venture to say that the bottom half as I stated are equal to the MW. When you have Vanderbilt, Kentucky Ms State & Miss . near the top of the standings that tells you something. That group will normally be at the bottom, same can be said for Duke, NC & GT. Those teams are closer to the MW. Take the top of the SEC out of those numbers and it will much closer. ACC is a Clemson only conference, no one will give them much of a threat anytime soon. You are going to see SJSU be a player in the MWC going forward, if UNLV can build on this year they will be in it as well. Those 2 teams will not be guaranteed loss on the schedule anymore.. Just my opinion.

[DamThatRiver22]

I, too, like to ignore actual statistics in favor of my feelings and opinions on occasion. Lol.

Seems to be a recurring theme on this board....