This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

Thanks for playing along this week.  Below is a message from our sponsor.

When you go to a particular school or grow up around college football, you are more than just a fan. It’s who you are. We thought we could leverage this pride in your roots and show that "where you come from" is more than just a statement about geography. By positioning NCAA Football 11 as a game that understands this pride and is authentic to these traditions, the takeaway should be that anything that is in college football is in NCAA Football 11.

And this doesn’t just include game play (though that’s a huge part of it). It’s rivals and mascots; it’s legends and stories. It’s those things that are at the very fabric of the game itself. Of course the game is great this year as well. With authentic entrances, mascots and specific offenses for each team, the term "where I come from" takes on a much larger meaning. While playing NCAA Football 11 is ultimately a great sports sim, it should also give you a sense of the pride and emotion one has for being a fan of a team they will never not be a part of.

In a typical IU football season, the optimism of July gives way to the reality of October and November.  Still, writing from the happy perspective of day, what do I expect?

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

As I mentioned, my time as an IU fan has been a less than stellar era for the program, even compared to most of their history.  Rather than focus on a single moment, I'll provide a rundown of my favorite moment of each of the past 18 seasons:

1992: The 1992 Hoosiers finished 5-6 for IU's second losing season in a 7-year span.  Barry Alvarez's Wisconsin Badgers were still a year away from emerging as a conference power, but IU needed a great goal line stand to hold them off on Homecoming.

1993: The 1993 Hoosiers were IU's last truly above average team, but unfortunately, I remember the what-ifs better than the positive accomplishments.  I can still see Thomas Lewis behind the Ohio State defense and Chris Dittoe's pass drifting just beyond his fingertips.  Had they connected, IU would have taken a late lead in a game they lost by 6.  Still, nothing quite matches waking up on October 30, 1993 and seeing an unforecast snow storm that had dumped 6 inches on Bloomington. The Hoosiers shut out the #20 Spartans 10-0.

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For me, this topic provides no challenge.  Unfortunately, many of IU's most prominent players have toiled in relative obscurity for teams that didn't win much.  Thanks to the advent of ESPN, former Hoosier Antwaan Randle El received plenty of publicity, but unfortunately and because of some horrendous defenses, he never played on a winning team.  Still, Randle El was as dominant an offensive player as I have ever seen, and is my favorite Hoosier.

Randle El came to IU as a dual sport athlete, expected to contribute in both football and basketball.  His basketball career was fairly limited.  He played in 11 games in 1998-99, the first year he was eligible (Randle El was a partial academic qualifier and sat out his first year on campus, 1997-98, but eventually earned a fourth year of eligibility by graduating after four years on campus).  The next season, Randle El, understandably, decided to focus on football. 

Randle El was an amazing quarterback.  Certainly, the numbers he generated in his four years at IU were incredible.  I'll let an IU press release tell the story:

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

Unfortunately, the most prominent tailgating tradition at IU is tailgating in lieu of game attendance.  I made clear my thoughts on that "tradition" a few years ago.  Still, tailgating is an integral part of the college football scene at IU and many other schools.  I don't have season tickets, so I can't claim to have any sacred rituals in tailgating.  Still, I have a few thoughts about it in general:

1.  The spot.  At IU, the prime spot for tailgating for students is south of Memorial Stadium, in the park-like wooded fields just beyond 17th Street.  I've been to a number of college football venues, and while IU's in-stadium atmosphere leaves much to be desired, I really think that the atmosphere in that part of the campus measures up well.  On the other hand, it can be muddy, and for those who are a bit further removed from college and who are attending the game with young kids and senior citizens, it can be a bit wild.  A fine alternative is the lot north of Assembly Hall, between Assembly Hall, Mellencamp Pavilion, and the Tennis Center.  It's lively enough there, but it's a bit more family oriented.  It's more common to see a father and son tossing around a football than to see a sorority girl tossing her cookies.  Also, there is easy access to restroom facilities.  I haven't spent much time in the lot south of Assembly Hall, the fields north of the stadium where the RVs park, or the VIP lot west of the stadium.

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

This is the second in a series of posts about being an IU fan.  Be sure to check out yesterday's post and contribute there as well.

During my time as an IU fan, the Hoosiers have had only three winning seasons, so the picking are sadly slim for this category.  The 1993, 1994, and 2007 teams are the only winning teams.  The 2001 team finished 5-6, but played very well at points.  That's about it.  My vote is for the 2007 team.  The 7-5 Hoosiers were mediocre, but the team endured the death of coach Terry Hoeppner and gave IU its only bowl berth of the last 16 seasons. 

We all know the backstory.  Shortly after the end of the the 2005 season, Hoeppner's first at IU, he was diagnosed with brain cancer and underwent surgery.  Hoeppner didn't miss a beat until early in the 2006 season, when he missed two games because of another surgery.  In 2007, Hoeppner missed spring practice, and in June 2007, IU announced that Bill Lynch would be the head coach for 2007.  A few days later Hoeppner died, and the uncertainty that had surrounded the program for the previous season continued.  The Hoosiers had shown some promise in 2006.  IU finished 5-7, but 3-5 in the Big Ten, sadly IU's best conference record since 2001.  The 2006 season included an upset of a highly-ranked Iowa team and a 46-21 beatdown of Michigan State.  Unfortunately, while under the leadership of interim coach Bill Lynch, when Hoeppner missed those two games, IU dropped nonconference games to Southern Illinois and Connecticut., which made the difference between 5-7 and 7-5.  The preseason prognosticators, understandably skeptical about Lynch (based on his 2006 interim performance and his mediocre record at Ball State) and the ability of the team to weather the loss of Hoeppner, placed IU in the cellar. Still,  with the potent combination of quarterback Kellen Lewis and receiver James Hardy, IU fans were somewhat optimistic about the season.

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

The Fourth of July is behind us, and with that, the ramp-up to college football season begins.  This week, this site and most other SB Nation collegiate sites will be posting a series of articles about college football fandom. The various posts, under the theme of "where I come from," will be a fun opportunity to discuss what it is to be an IU fan and a college football fan. As you have read above, these are sponsored posts, but they will provide a great opportunity for community participation here, and also will provide some interesting reading at other SB Nation college sites.  I highly encourage you to participate in the comments.  For those of you who are reading but haven't signed up for an ID, note that you can comment immediately, and the ID you use here will work at all SB Nation sites.

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