Week 8 is when the real teams stand up to be counted as championship contenders. No, there’s no CFS championship, but you get the idea. Onto the games!
Game 1 – Emory & Henry vs. Ohio State
Emory and Henry College is a liberal arts school of about 1,200 located in the Appalachian Mountains of southwest Virginia. Emory is John Emory, a renowned church leader and a strong advocate of education. Henry is Patrick Henry, patriot of the American Revolution and the first governor of Virginia.Their teams are the Wasps. There are many stories regarding the origins of the name, but one story that stands out, and is completely made up by me, is that Patrick Henry, for all of his patriotic bravery and fearlessness, was known to be deathly afraid of wasps, so much so that he asked to be buried with his personal fly swatter, lest he need it in the afterlife.
Game 2 – Tarleton State vs. Miami (FL)
Tarleton State University is a public school of about 12,000 located in Stephenville, Texas. Their men’s and women’s teams are called the Texans and TexAnns, and why not. It’s Texas, y’all!
Tarleton State is quite an eclectic mix of diverse academic programs, school spirit traditions, and just personality in general. If I were to pick one point of interest, I would mention their excellence in mathematical data mining. Eureka!
Game 3 – IUP vs. Indiana (aka The War of the Indianas)
Indiana University of Pennsylvania is a public research university of about 13,000 located about an hour’s drive east of Pittsburgh. IUP has over 140 undergraduate degree programs, so if there’s a major you want that they don’t have, that means you’re weird.IUP has had two of its faculty awarded the Rome Prize, which recognizes artists that represent a high standard of excellence who are in the early or middle stages of their artistic development. Personally, I think awarding them the entire city of Rome is a bit grandiose. I kid. Well done, Indianans of Pennsylvania.
Game 4 – Princeton vs. Gallaudet
Located in Washington D.C., Gallaudet University is a federally chartered university for the deaf and hard of hearing. The school, originally chartered in 1864, was named after Thomas Gallaudet, the founder of the nation’s first school for deaf students.
It’s bilingual, with both American Sign Language and English used throughout the education and social life of the campus. Their teams are the Bison. Unfortunately, since bison can’t sign or speak English, if one is hard of hearing, it’s shit out of luck.
Let the games begin!
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