Home Team... I don't think so.

Having just returned from the National Championship game, where OU was the "home team", I am wondering why the Orange Bowl Committee would even begin to give OU that label.

Give me a break. By design Dolphin Stadium was laid to out to be "equal" no matter which teams made it to the national championship game. It just didn't work out that way. Each school gets 1/4 of the stadium which encompasses a corner and then reaches out in both directions to about the 25 yard line. The Orange Bowl committee sold the 50 yard line on both sides down to the 25 yard lines respectively to "sponsors" who amazingly all were wearing bright blue and obnoxious orange.

Of course OU's seats sold out before the tickets went on sale. They were all sold in a pre-game package to season ticket holders.
As I watched the game from the press box, which hangs over the Oklahoma endzone, I was impressed by Oklahoma's showing. Everyone got the memo... wear red. Unfortunately, the rest of the stadium got the "wear blue and obnoxious orange" memo.

This stadium amazed me for several reasons. I was there to watch OU and USC play back in 2005.. at the time I thought it was amazing. This trip totally trumped that experience. USC fans have class. Florida's 60,ooo fans were classless, drunk, crazy, gator-mouth slapping jackasses. No other way to put it. So far I'm not too impressed with the SEC.
Most of the fans were within some sort of driving distance - seeing it was being played in Florida (the REAL home team) - so they had all types of tailgating going on since the crack of dawn.
These people grilled, danced, drank, stripped - and not the good looking ones - drank some more, pee'd in the parking lot, slapped that annoying gator chomp thing with their hands, and drank some more. The poor OU fans that dared put up a tent and roll out their Cirlce K styrophome cooler they picked up on the way to the stadium didn't have a chance. The Florida faithful were everywhere. And obnoxious as ever.

So, back to the amazement.. these 60,000 Florida fans filled up that stadium and were so loud I honestly didn't know if OU could pull off a play. I'm sure if you had the chance to truly ask one of the players they would say the same thing. It almost took your breath away listening to these people chomp their stupid hands like gators and sing some really gay "ain't it great to be a gator" song. Now, I was sitting above the Sooner fans, so I can't honestly say how loud they were compared to the Florida fanatics but there is no way. Sooners were outnumbered 5 to 1 easily.

So I just ask this one question? What's the point of having a "home" team when clearly the system isn't set up for that? Just part of the game.. I know. Just another part of it that I don't think it too fair.