Let’s get right to the fracas, shall we.
Game 1 – Michigan vs. Lenoir-Rhyne
Lenoir-Rhyne University (pronounced Le-NOOR Rine) is a Lutheran liberal arts school of 2,500 located in Hickory, North Carolina. Do you remember the old adage – Lenoir-Rhyne wasn’t built in a day. Well, it’s true.
Lenoir-Rhyne originally began as a one room school founded by four Lutheran pastors in 1891. There were 12 students. Start a baseball team in 1903. Build a library in in 1942. Throw in a very large bear sculpture, and you have a thriving institution of higher learning.
Their teams are the Bears, good practicing Lutheran bears who believe God, not the Pope, will save them from their earthly bear sins.
Game 2 – Texas A&M-Commerce vs. Kansas State
Texas A&M University-Commerce is a public school of 12,000 students located in Commerce, Texas, and so, no, the school does not actually specialize in commerce, it just situated itself in Commerce.
Their student newspaper is The East Texan, which started reporting in 1915, three years after its neighbor New Mexico became a state in 1912. Stories covering the tense relationship between the two states ranged from the proposed Tex-New Mex Border Wall to the influx of unwanted New Mexitexans into east Texas.
All of their teams are the called the Lions, and last year the football Lions won the NCAA Division II championship. The pride of the pride!
Game 3 – Minnesota vs. Illinois College
Located in Jacksonville, Illinois is a private liberal arts school of about 1,000 students. It’s Illinois College of course! You may not have heard of it before, but it was in fact the first college in Illinois to grant a degree, so joke’s on you.
They save orchids. Need I go on?Their teams are the Blueboys and Lady Blues, named in reference to the blue uniforms worn by Union soldiers in the Civil War, a bloody war fought over control of our nation’s orchids.
Game 4 – Wesley vs. Vanderbilt
Wesley College is a private liberal arts school of 2,300 located in stately Dover, Delaware, a state which happens to be the first state to sign the Constitution, our nation’s most important document. But enough about the finest state in the Union.
Its most accomplished alum is Annie Jump Cannon, the greatest star classifier there ever was and will ever be. Seriously, she classified the spectra of over 350,000 stars. Did your head just explode?
Wesley athletes are Wolverines. I would never mess with a Wolverine, let alone one from the great state of Delaware, home of tax-free shopping.
Let the games begin!
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