More Ways to Enjoy College Football

Good morning, Fantastic Football Fans!

Are you feeling motivated this morning? I certainly hope so. I know that I am!

Do you enjoy college football?

Are you interested in having some new experiences?

Would you like to explore new dimensions of life?

Are you ready for more excitement?

If you answered "yes" to any two of these questions, this blog post can transform your fall Saturdays.

Most people watch football on television . . . and that's it.

What a waste!

I recently had an experience that convinced me to be more active in attending college football games at schools where I was never a student. Why? I had the best college football experience of my life at the Michigan-Penn State game in Ann Arbor.

Let me tell you about this amazing trip.

In early August, I attended a seminar in Las Vegas run by Jack Canfield called Breakthrough to Success. During the seminar, we were encouraged to develop Mastermind Groups (like-minded people who will support each other). One of my group members is Kevin Hill, who is a Michigan graduate and varsity letter holder in wrestling. Kevin started reading my blog and saw my entry on August 31 where I talked about enjoying the upcoming college football season,

Rah! Rah! Siss Boom Bah! -- Are You Ready for a Great College Football Season? (see http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005_08_31_livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars_archive.html)

One of the items on my list (number five) was to attend a game for a top team you've never seen before.

Kevin asked me if I would like to attend a Michigan game with him. We checked out schedules and found that we were both available for the Penn State game in Ann Arbor. At that point Penn State was undefeated and ranked in the top ten nationally. It looked like a great opportunity.

In preparing for my trip, I wrote about my experiences on October 14,

Prepare for a College Football Game Better Than a Billionaire (see http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005_10_14_livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars_archive.html

Naturally, conditions turned out to be quite different than I expected.

A huge storm hit Boston before I left. With major flight delays up and down the East coast, my airline wasn't able to get me to Detroit. I had the choice of sleeping in an airport somewhere or flying out the next day. I chose to return home and start out the next morning. So my hotel room at the airport went unused that night because I had prepaid for it on priceline.com (a drawback to that money-saving approach).

When I arrived in Detroit, it was like someone had thrown the "warm weather" switch. The sky was blue and it was over 70 degrees. I began to realize that my foul weather gear wasn't going to be required any more that weekend.

I drove to Ann Arbor where I met Kevin. We transferred into his SUV and headed off to tour the campus.

I had been looking forward to the tour because I hadn't been in Ann Arbor in many years.

Kevin immediately surprised me by presenting me with my Michigan colors in the form of a great t-shirt and sweatshirt appropriate for the game. I had planned to buy the same things on my own and greatly appreciated his gift. Michigan fans are supposed to wear yellow to the games, and I didn't own anything yellow before that day.

We next headed off to an old college haunt that has great sandwiches. We lazed outdoors at a picnic table and swapped stories. From there, we walked the campus and made a detour to visit the art museum (a personal interest of mine).

That night we headed up to Kevin's home territory in Fenton, Michigan where I was to stay in his family's lakeside "cottage" which is actually a lovely home. While there, Kevin took me to yet another great restaurant for a delicious dinner.

Saturday morning, it was another great weather day. We had time to visit and look around his home town. Due to television plans, the kick-off wouldn't be until late afternoon.

We stopped by a great cider mill and enjoyed the warm fermented juice. From there, another great meal awaited us in a sports bar where there were six large-screen televisions and a dial that allowed you to pick the sound feed you wanted to listen to.

We walked up towards the stadium. On the way, Kevin and I dropped into the club for varsity athletes and I met some of his friends from college days. The photographs and memorabilia were great, and the uncrowded bathroom was also conveniently located not far from the stadium.

Through his university connections, Kevin had been able to buy tickets on the 40 yard line at just the right height in Michigan Stadium.

And then we saw the wildest football game I've ever seen.

You can read about the game at http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/cfoot579/5103357/detail.html and http://www.umich.edu/~mgoblue/football/02-03/release-10-12.html

The game was decided on the final play . . . and Michigan won. It was great!

Since then, both Michigan and Penn State have gone on to have fine seasons. Michigan moved up in the rankings and Penn State dropped slightly. Both teams will appear in bowl games.

What are the lessons for you?

1. Make attending a top college game a higher priority than anything else you do each college season.

2. Pick a location where there are a lot of other interesting things to do while you are there.

3. Attend in a large stadium. It's more exciting.

4. Go for a home team where the fans are well behaved.

5. Ask a friend to show you the sights.

6. Get help from an alum for obtaining good seats.

7. Arrive the day before the game.

8. Attend with someone who was an athlete at the school.

9. Stay around for the celebration (if there is one).

Can any billionaire do better? I doubt it.

Billionaires aren't likely to want to sit in the stands like an ordinary fan. College stadiums usually don't have luxury suites.

Billionaires are likely to realize that arriving on campus will probably trigger lots of donation requests. If they accede to those requests, the game will cost them a lot more than it will cost you.

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N.B. As you can tell, I'm experimenting with color. Let me know what you like and what I should change about my use of color. Many thanks to Linda Grace for her suggestions which I am following!

Please let me know what else you would like to learn, and I'll do my best to help in future blog entries.

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If you are visiting today because someone invited you, I'm delighted to meet you! Let's stay in touch.

Remember to also visit

Live Spiritually Better than a Billionaire at http://livespirituallybetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Be More Successful than a Billionaire at http://bemoresuccessfulthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Enjoy Mansions Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoymansionsbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/, and

Be a World Hero Better than a Billionaire at http://beaworldherobetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/.

I offer individual on-line tutorials and in-person seminars on living better than a billionaire on five dollars extra a day, creating 2,000 percent solutions (20 times the results with the same effort), developing more profitable business models and designing strategies that work regardless of the business environment. For information, contact me at ultimatecompetitiveadvantage@yahoo.com.

I am available to you as a speaker on these subjects. You can find my background at http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005_08_30_livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars_archive.html/.

May God bless you.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell