It's not black and white ... or blue and gold

Because I have loyalties to three universities, I'm a bit of a chameleon when it comes to college sports.

My wife Jane, on the other hand, is about as black and white (or as blue and gold) as you can possibly be about college sports. For her, it's Notre Dame or no one, the Notre Dame way or the highway.

I am a proud graduate of the University of New Hampshire and wear my blue and white team colors and Wildcat mascot logo whenever and wherever the need arises. But I'm more diverse about my affiliations and affections because of my daughter Elizabeth's undergraduate and now graduate studies at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., and the fact that my son David attends Boston College. So while I'm definitely a Go Wildcats kind of guy I'm there when necessary for the Bobcats and the Eagles.

Jane and I, for example, made a trip to Notre Dame for the Fighting Irish game against the U.S. Air Force Academy. As a man of many hats, I was there as a Falcons fan, given my grade school upbringing at the Academy where my Dad was an Air Force officer and an English professor in the 1960s. Jane wore her Irish garb, I borrowed Air Force garb from assorted family. We were quite the couple on a campus full of Irish, but I had the last laugh: Air Force 41, Notre Dame 24.

The Division I athletic clash is further deepened by the fact that Jane's daughter Eileen is currently at Notre Dame. One fantasy we had last fall was for me, Jane and David to travel out to South Bend, Ind., for the BC-ND football game, but David was studying abroad and unavailable. So we've turned our attention to the 2008 season -- the Fighting Irish are scheduled to play at Boston College on Nov. 8. Assuming of course we can pull off getting tickets, the hope is to get Eileen east for the game. Talk about sibling rivalry -- or, in this case, step-sibling rivalry.

My more immediate attention is focused on hockey and the fact that we're getting close to the end of the season and therefore close to the post-season and the possibility that UNH, QU, BC and ND will qualify for the NCAA tournament. According to the most recent national rankings, UNH is 4th, BC is 7th, ND is 9th, and QU is 16th.

Now I know what follows gets pretty deep into the weeds of too much detail, but there's a possibility that the four schools could end up going to the same regional tournament. My hope -- no my nirvana -- is for the four of them to play the regional tournament scheduled for March 22-23 in Worcester, Mass. I've got the tickets, I've got the lodging; now all I need is the right schools to get there with me and Jane.

My favorite web site right now is USCHO.com, and if you're into college hockey this is a web site for you. Each week it predicts the pairings for the tournament, broken down by region. This week's brackets prediction -- "bracketology," as USCHO.com calls it -- has only BC playing in Worcester next month (along with Michigan, Minnesota State and Bemidji State). Notre Dame and Quinnipiac are out in Colorado Springs, and UNH is in Madison, Wisc.

Hmmm ... that isn't the dream combination at all.

For the time being, until the official pairings are set by the NCAA, Jane has got to join me in cheering for as many of our teams as possible to get to Worcester. At least for my sake, UNH has got to get to Worcester. After that, she can cheer all she wants for the Irish to the exclusion of everyone else. And, for me, at that point it's the Wildcats all the way.


Paul Briand writes a weekly column about the fun, fears and flab-fighting foibles of middle age.