College Football

The top 10 reasons to be excited about PSP's college football tour

Published May. 19, 2021 10:11 p.m. ET

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By Charlotte Wilder
FOX Sports Columnist

We’ve got some exciting news to share here in "The People’s Sports Podcast" land: We’re taking the show on the road for the 2021 college football season!

This news means that Mark Titus and I, cohosts of the podcast known for tangents about Nick Saban’s daughter’s wedding hashtag and inaccurate geography facts, will be making appearances at college football games across the country this fall. We’ll be recording live shows from college towns before big games, which means that The People will be able to attend and watch our ridiculousness play out in real time.

But don’t worry, you won’t have to sit there without a beverage because the good folks at Dos Equis are very generously sponsoring the whole endeavor. Their decision is both very kind and potentially very reckless (I’m kidding, marketing, don’t worry!), but most of all, it’s very fitting because everyone knows that Mark and I are the most interesting People in the world. 

We’re still finalizing the schedule, so I can’t tell you where we’ll be and when. For now, I can tell you that we CANNOT WAIT to see you all in the real world. It has been a miserable year of watching sports either strictly on television or not at all. The thought of actually going to games and hanging out with real, live sports fans — which we haven’t been able to do since 2019 — is beyond thrilling. 

It also got me thinking about all the little things I miss so much about college football. Given that every episode of our podcast ends with a list, I put together one about all the sneaky things for which I’m pining away.

Let me know what I missed by tweeting at me (@thewilderthings) and our podcast (@peoplessports), or send an email to thepeoplessportspodcast@gmail.com. You could end up in our mailbag episode next Tuesday if your submission is good enough. 

Here are my picks — not in order of importance but in order of when they occur on game day.

1. Choosing your outfit

This might sound silly, but bear with me. Everyone knows that if you wear the wrong outfit to a college football game, your team will lose. That’s right: The reason your team didn’t make the playoffs two years ago is because you didn’t wear that lucky sweater to the game after you reverse-psychology-ed yourself into thinking it wasn’t lucky after all. 

Well, now you know it is. Don’t screw it up this year. 

(Also, this is purely a "me" thing, but please indulge me. One of the reasons I’m so excited about this tour is that I’m going to buy a crewneck from every school we visit. It will probably take me at least 45 minutes to decide which one at the college bookstore, so if I’m late to any show, I just want everyone to know I had a really good excuse).  

2. The first sip at the tailgate

This one is obvious. That first sip of a really cold beer or seltzer or coffee when you’re excited to simply be alive on game day is *chef’s kiss*. 

A close second to the first sip is that feeling when you’ve been tailgating for so long that you’re low-key miserable by the time the game starts. You know that vibe? When you’re like, wow, I’ve been out here for eight hours already, and they want me to look alive for another THREE? 

I might be making it sound like a bad thing, but it’s actually a blessing because it sets you up for the greatest experience ever: the feeling of your second wind hitting the minute you enter the stadium. That rush of energy sweeps you, and you feel like you could run through a brick wall. 

Then the band comes out, and if you’re me, you pass out from happy overstimulation. 

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3. Finding out which songs the marching band will play

Speaking of the band, this is my absolute favorite college football experience. If I were ranking these by importance, this would be No. 1. 

A little background: Those of you who followed my journey to UVA basketball fandom know that I didn’t grow up rooting for a major college team (but shout-out and no disrespect to Colby College, aka The D3 Powerhouse of Central Maine). I was unfamiliar with the glory of a marching band on full display until I started working in sports, and it has been the most delightful discovery of my career. 

In fact, I’ve never been more enamored with sports in general than I was when watching the Ohio State band in person for the first time. Don’t tell Mark, lest this go to his Buckeye head, but the performance absolutely blew my mind — they’re not called The Best Damn Band In All The Land for nothing, you know? They earned that nickname. 

In the press box, they gave out a list of all the songs the band would play. But I’d argue that not being a capital J journalist and sitting in the stands like the rest of the peasants not only is a better life decision but also makes the halftime band performance more exciting. 

Simply put: There are few thrills in life as worth it as finding out, in real time, which songs the band will be covering.

4. Being clueless

This is Mark’s submission. He said he is most looking forward to "going to a stadium and not knowing any traditions and watching the entire stadium do something in unison while I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on?’"

As a perpetually clueless person, I second this. Never have I been more confused than when everyone in Gainesville, Florida, started singing Tom Petty, making big chomping motions with their hands, or doing this strange, call-and-response thing that I can’t even explain. 

Nothing humbles you more. 

5. That one play that everyone gets mad about

You know the play I’m talking about. It’s the one the refs obviously got wrong because they’re out to screw over your team and your team only.

6. Hearing Seven Nation Army over the speakers 

Never in a million years did I think I’d miss hearing the ubiquitous White Stripes song that I’ve heard 30,0000 times pour out over a stadium full of students at sports games. 

But I also didn’t think there’d be a global pandemic that lasted more than a year, so here we are.

7. Meeting random people

In 2019, I ended up at a hotel bar with a bunch of dentists from the Florida dental school class of 1979.

8. Watching live mascots pant

I just love when they put shots of, say, the Georgia bulldog up on the jumbotron. Everyone cheers and then watches the dog pant in its little house for a while. 

I realize that horses, bulls, tigers and whatever other live mascot PETA yells at your school for don’t really pant, but you know what I mean here. 

9. Other mascot stuff

For example, I once watched a mascot ride around the field on a four wheeler. 

Fine, it wasn’t college football. It was a Chiefs game. But I think about it at least once a week. 

10. Frat guys sitting through the fourth quarter of a blowout thinking there’s hope

I don’t think I have to add much here. 

Can’t wait to get out there and celebrate the return of packed stadiums (fingers crossed) with all of you this fall. Thanks to The People for listening — we couldn’t do this without you!

Charlotte Wilder is a general columnist and co-host of "The People's Sports Podcast" for FOX Sports. She's honored to represent the constantly neglected Boston area in sports media, loves talking to sports fans about their feelings and is happiest eating a hotdog in a ballpark or nachos in a stadium. Follow her on Twitter @TheWilderThings.

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