The Saints should pull a UCF and just claim the NFC title

The Saints were always one of our most CFB-adjacent fanbases, a prominent Southern team with a petty-ass rivalry, a legitimately loud home stadium, and an Ole Miss quarterback as talisman.

But now they’ve taken it a step further. With these billboards, the Saints have firmly crossed the divide into college-esque footballdom.

Saints fans are filing suit to replay the end of the game, which is extremely college football fan behavior.

And when it comes to applying Paintbrush to game film and dealing with information about game officials (you can find people alleging the official who missed the call is from about five different towns in California and has any number of ties to the Rams), they’re basically Michigan fans now.

Though to be fair, the Rams are going along with that one.

This is all very good, but what else could the Saints do to level up into true college-style fandom?

It was rightfully yours, and it was merely stolen?

Hang the banner like 2017 UCF did, one of many college football teams to claim a national title just because they wanted to. Put on a second line parade.

Find the advanced metric that calls you the best team like UCF did. Here, I’ll help you. You can use SRS:

And you can claim the fact that my colleague Bill Connelly’s S&P+ rankings had you No. 1 in the NFL through 12 weeks, the length of a CFB regular season.

Whenever a bad call happens in any sport ever, you must mention the 2019 NFC title game. If you’re 4-12, complain about the 2019 NFC title game. If you’re 16-0 and in a subsequent Super Bowl, complain about the 2019 NFC title game.

Always tweet a GIF or work up some YouTube videos where you Zapruder the fuck out of it.

In the future 30 for 30 about Drew Brees’ life, make sure this call has its own scene about the legacy-altering stakes and slow mo the thing from multiple angles, going into and out of commercial.

Just like Miami Hurricanes fans, ignore the fact that your team then had an overtime period and couldn’t get it done. At every juncture, also ignore the ill-advised pass plays late in the game called by Sean Payton, and never bring up that your best receiver became a non-factor in the biggest game of the year.

Certain fans of a certain rival can show you how to do so.

Seahawks fans, you can also be classified as college-like. You even have the same name as Texas A&M’s fanbase.

Well, the NFC West isn’t getting any easier. The Rams look like they’re built for success with Sean McVay. The Cardinals and 49ers also have highly touted play callers in charge.

Like any good college team, Seattle should head to greener pastures. The Broncos aren’t good, Philip Rivers can’t stay forever, and the Raiders are the Raiders. Throw it on back to the AFC West days.

(For the Seahawks to truly become Texas A&M, we also need a decade of the Seahawks and 49ers publicly flirting about maybe playing each other again some day.)

We’ve proposed some different NFL rivalry trophies. But how can we make sure they happen every year? It’s simple: just get lawmakers to barrel their way into sports. That’s what happened in the Iron Bowl.

Another myth has persisted that the state legislature mandated resumption of the series, but a resolution approved by the legislature on August 15, 1947, merely officially requested that the schools resume the annual contest. In 1948, Auburn president Ralph Draughon and Alabama president John Galalee simply agreed that the schools should play, and the rivalry was renewed in the modern era.

NFL fans don’t have to file a FOIA because teams have to formally request interviews with a coach’s parent club, and that news usually leaks. But get those NFL owner plane tag numbers and get to tracking, so you can meet a potential coach at the airport and boo his ass off.

Your college friends certainly know how this one feels.