Oregon State.....Them's the Ducks, right?

Another story from the trip to Wisconsin I forgot to mention:

I happened to be wearing an OSU polo on Sunday while traveling home from the Midwest.  At the Madison Airport I was stopped while going through security by a TSA employee.

"OS...what school is that?  Oklahoma State?"

I said "no, Oregon State....same colors, so I'll give you partial credit."

"Oh, why'd I think you all wore green?"

"That's University of Oregon,"  I said without even a hint of a smile on my face.  I think he got the point that he'd just offended me, because he just handed me back my ID and didn't say another word. 

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While waiting at the gate in Minneapolis for our flight to Portland, a guy gets up from his seat a few rows over and walks right up to me. 

"You on your way home from the game?"
I have no clue what the hell he's talking about.  At first I think he's talking to my wife, who is sporting her Wisconsin gear, but that makes no sense either as the Badgers played at home. 

"Ummm.....what?"  I said, mainly because I was completely flabbergasted by this guy.

"From Tennessee?  Did you go?"

At this point I realize the guy thinks I'm a Ducks fan on my way home from Knoxville.  I just kind smiled and shook my head, and he says "oh, just wearing your colors eh?  Well good win yesterday!" and heads back to his seat.  Rachel just starts laughing and says "you guys need to market better, honey."

 I realize that in pretty much every state in Big-10 country they only have one major state university (Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Penn State really have no major in-state rivals in football), but do Florida and Florida State have this problem?  Do people not know the difference between Washington and Washington State?  What made this all the more frustrating is that there were at least three Oregon fans wearing green and yellow on our flight who were in fact on their way home from Knoxville.  I don't know if any of them saw this drama unfold, but I'm sure they were high-fiving themselves on the inside. 

I'm not going to sit here and say that I know everything about sports.  There's a few schools out there whose logo I don't know off the top of my head, or if you said "what are the school colors of San Diego State, it might take me a second to remember."  But I'm not going to walk up to some guy and start talking about his football team unless I'm damn sure I know what the hell I'm talking about.

In the words of DMX:  "It's better to be thought dumb and remain silent than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."