The College Football Playoff Final Four is a few lineup—a quartet of applications with huge custom, large fan bases and no scarcity of conceitedness. They’re all lightning rods, with tens of millions of admirers and detractors.
So it’s time to determine: Are the Texas Longhorns, Notre Dame Combating Irish, Ohio State Buckeyes or Penn State Nittany Lions essentially the most likable remaining soccer program? And which is the least likable?
To reply these questions, I devised a extremely scientific, rigorously examined, 40-point Likability Index. Then I let the factors fall the place they could. The ultimate tally is on the backside. Two groups completed with optimistic numbers, two with adverse.
Be happy to disagree, however to not get outraged. It is a light-and-breezy survey, particularly designed to not be encumbered by a few of the darker chapters within the historical past of the applications. (“Enjoyable” and “Sandusky” don’t actually go collectively, so let’s not.)
On to the Index:
1. In case you have a reside animal mascot able to trampling folks, add 20 factors.
2. In case your mascot is a leprechaun, add 5 factors for cheekiness.
3. In case your mascot is an individual sporting nut headgear, add 2 factors for comedian eccentricity.
4. In case your mascot is an individual dressed as a generic feline predator, deduct 5 factors.
5. In case your fan allegiance is based partially by state boundaries drawn up someday within the 1700s or 1800s, deduct 5 factors.
6. In case your fan allegiance is based partially by household legacy of faith or nationwide origin, add 5 factors for holding it actual.
7. If your head coach has been accused of thin skin, questionable fashion taste or dyeing his beard, deduct 5 factors.
8. If essentially the most annoying factor your head coach has ever completed is shedding to a MAC group, add 5 factors.
9. In case your campus is in a distant location and also you obscenely jack up resort charges for dwelling video games, deduct 10 factors.
10. Should you ever employed City Meyer, deduct 5 factors.
11. In case you have a historical past of bullying your convention brethren and/or the league workplace to get what you need, deduct 10 factors.
12. In case you have no convention brethren because of huge clout, add 10 factors.
13. Should you’re pompous about having no convention brethren, deduct 5 factors.
14. In case you have a buddies with advantages association with a convention however not one of the soccer dedication, add 5 factors for Playa Standing.
15. Should you nonetheless play your property video games on God’s personal grass, add 10 factors.
16. Should you’ve sometimes junked up your iconic uniforms, deduct 10 factors.
17. Should you’ve turned your plain uniforms right into a bizarre worth assertion, deduct 5 factors.
18. In case your most well-known coach’s profession resulted in shame, deduct 10 factors.
19. In case your soccer program impressed a sappy film, add 10 factors:
20. In case your program has ever received one for the Gipper, add 10 factors.
21. In case your soccer program put 4 gamers on horseback for essentially the most well-known publicity stunt of all-time, add 10 factors.
22. In case your college’s publicity division as soon as modified the title of your star quarterback to rhyme with “Heisman,” and he nonetheless didn’t win, deduct 5 factors for wasted vitality.
23. In case your soccer program has a star hanger-on with a made-up administrative title who struts round for the sideline cameras, deduct 5 factors.
24. In case your soccer program counts LeBron James amongst its followers, add 10 factors.
25. In case your soccer program has Jesus on its aspect, and on the aspect of a constructing, add 15 factors.
26. In case your boutique TV community association aggravated the hell out of everybody, deduct 10 factors.
27. In case your most up-to-date nationwide championship predates the web, however you’ve nonetheless propped your self up as a nationwide contender ever since then, deduct 10 factors.
28. In case you have the perfect all-around athletic division within the nation, add 10 factors for total excellence.
29. In case you have the perfect wrestling or girls’s ice hockey program within the nation, add 5 factors for toughness.
30. In case you have the perfect fencing program within the nation, deduct 2 factors for pretentiousness.
31. In case your college triggered the latest spherical of main realignment, add 10 factors for clout.
32. In case your college triggered the latest spherical of main realignment, deduct 10 factors for ruination.
33. In case your soccer program has a Manning on the roster, add 10 factors.
34. In case your followers are offended by opponents mocking their hand sign, deduct 10 factors for lack of humorousness.
35. If Lennay Kekua ever dated one in all your star gamers, deduct 10 factors for gullibility.
36. In case your group ever engaged in a large brawl after shedding as a three-touchdown favourite, deduct 10 factors for misplaced aggression.
37. In case your college ever misplaced a nationwide championship in opposition to Alabama, deduct 5 factors for failing to cease the Crimson Tide takeover of the game.
38. In case your college ever beat Alabama on the best way to successful a nationwide championship, add 5 factors for making an attempt to cease the Crimson Tide takeover of the game.
39. In case your college ever misplaced to Alabama and nonetheless received a nationwide championship, add 5 factors for creativity.
40. In case your college has the closest proximity to good barbecue, add 5 factors.
