What Your Team's #Hashtag Really Means

Last season, as I was killing time at work, I decided to start doing some research on Louisiana's upcoming opponent. The Cajuns were hitting the road in week four; a trip to Akron was on the schedule. Louisiana was coming off of a 70-7 drumming of Nicholls State but I had no idea what kind of team they would be going up against.

As the Cajuns were cruising to their first victory of the year, the Zips were in search of their second. A last second loss to Michigan in the Big House spoiled what would have been the biggest win in program history. So as I'm trolling on twitter, I see one of the greatest tweets of all time. It was a picture of Akron scoring against Michigan and the caption read "ON THE RISE" (the score was also included).

No way they're serious; they can't be "ON THE RISE", after a loss. It was a close loss, but a loss none the less. Poor Akron, was that really how they were treating this game? I guess nearly beating Michigan must mean your team is on the up and up. Since, the Zips were "ON THE RISE," I wasn't sure why the Cajuns should even make the trip. Surely they didn't stand a chance. (Louisiana would go on to beat Akron 35-30) That piece of twitter gold got me thinking, what are teams really saying with the hashtags they use?

After two evenings of trolling the Group of Five Twitter accounts, this is what I came up with:

• Our first category is teams using #ontherise, #riseup or #(insert team name)up , who usually have nowhere to go but up! Of the nine teams that consistently use this hashtag, only two posted winning records in 2013. So Buffalo and UTSA time to ditch #HORNSUP and #BIRDSUP.
• Our second category contains the most popular hashtag these days - #GOTEAM, 20 schools have adopted this hashtag as their own rallying cry. This can be boring, but hey if it works for your school, by all means don't stop. However, some schools should consider switching things up, and trying #ontherise out. They can use all the help they can get!
• Then we have category three, or #STUPIDSHIT, as I like to call it. These always involve some sort of play on words. Examples would be #BLEEDGREEN or #BROHOMSQUAD or #roWINg. We all like to be clever, just most of us are not good at it (for the record #BROHOMSQUAD is awesome). Other #STUPIDSHIT includes stating the obvious; isn't everyone trying to #WINTHEDAY or #ATTACKTHEFUTURE? It's a challenge to find the right balance of cleverness without being stupid! I've got faith in the schools stuck in category three, they will figure it out, and God help us if they don't.
• The final grouping consists of several universities who haven't figured out its 2014. That's the only explanation for not having Twitter, right? Yes I'm talking to you Eastern Michigan and UTEP, get it together!

Now that you know what your team is really saying when they add those hashtags at the end of a tweet, unless you're a New Mexico fan. Can someone explain #OWODOD????

REMEMBER:FOOTBALL IS LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AWAY