I went to my last roadtrip as a student last weekend and it was a sobering (metaphorically speaking, of course) experience.  The UCLA game is kind of far away and since CW hasn't given me my allowance yet, I'm unable to go.  But in the spirit of the UCLA game, I've written up my top 10 roadtrips as a student.  It sounds really cool that I have a top 10 roadtrips list, but I've only been to 10, so it worked out pretty well for me.  Here's the list:

1. LSU '07 (Sugar Bowl): I might be a bit loose on my interpretation of `roadtrip', especially considering this was more of a vacation than a roadtrip, but I don't care because the Sugar Bowl was a terrific time.  I couldn't imagine blowing nearly a grand ever being any more fun than what the Sugar Bowl was.  From Hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's to karaoke at the Cat's Meow, New Orleans treated us well, despite the loss.  LSU fans were slightly mentally handicapped ("Tigahhhh bait!!!"), but that's to be expected.  At least the girls were attractive.  I have to say that if Notre Dame ever has another game in New Orleans, I'll be there, even if they're playing women's basketball.

2. Pitt '05: Kind of a strange pick, I suppose, but when you put the overall happiness factor on all the games I've been to, there was no game that I've been to where I've been more happy.  We kicked Pitt's butt that game and it was a great thing to see.  The city of Pittsburgh is surprisingly nice, at least on an early September day and the stadium on the river is a great thing that all cities should have.  The University of Pittsburgh's off-campus housing was disgusting, but I guess that's just part of the aura.  The tailgating was fun, except for the lack of porta-potties, which they more than made up for with an un-policed overpass right next to the parking lots.  Again, most of this trip was incredibly awesome just because the happiness that we got from finally knowing that we made the right choice with Weis, even if it was just for the 2005 season.

3. Georgia Tech '06: I'm not sure how a 4-day roadtrip from South Bend to the University of Dayton to the University of Georgia to Georgia Tech couldn't be in the top 3 and sure enough it is.  Tailgating at the Georgia game Saturday morning and then heading over to Atlanta to tailgate at GT might have been the coolest thing I've ever been apart of (scratch that: everything I do is the coolest thing I've been apart of).  The good news was that our tailgating lot was right next to the Varsity, which apparently is where America goes to get large, and that the lot was entirely full of Notre Dame students/fans.  Looking back on it, I'm not even sure Georgia Tech has a fanbase.  Let me know if anyone finds a GT fan.

4. Fiesta Bowl '06: At the time, this was one of our biggest games in the last 10 years or so.  We were finally a good team playing another good team for a chance to win our first BCS game ever and our first bowl game in over a decade.  Of course things didn't go as planned, but that first BCS bowl game was extremely exciting to be at.  Tempe, Arizona is a terrific place to catch a football game.  The stadium borders some desert mountain and the view is spectacular.  The NCAA, however, likes to sell it's soul for money and now the Fiesta Bowl is played in some suburb of Phoenix.  Good call, NCAA.  Anyways, this was an extremely enjoyable roadtrip considering Tempe is a fantastic college town and the women - holy crap.  That scenery was beautiful.

Note:  If you want to see something funny (in the privacy of your own home), Google `Notre Dame girls' and then Google `Arizona State girls'.  Make sure your filter is off.

5. PSU '07: I was dreading the Penn State weekend after our huge loss to Georgia Tech, mostly because I've heard stories about Penn State fans and how dumb/angry they can be.  But it turned out to be a fantastic trip.  Penn State might not have a good campus - at least from what I saw - but the college town and college environment is second to none.  South Bend gets a lot of crap for ruining college kids' fun and rightfully so.  Whoever runs this town should take a trip to College Station or whatever it's called and go to a block party there.  It was unbelievable how cops equipped with a paddy wagon didn't show up at 11 p.m. to bust the party.  Anyways, Penn State has a great college town and is set up for a pretty good tailgate action if you enjoy tailgating on cow fields.  We had over 100 people at our tailgate and I think we put most of the PSU fans to shame except for the 50-year old guy who repeatedly made us give him beer bongs.  It's weird because I think the drunker a PSU fan gets, the smarter he gets.  As a sidenote, I never did make it out to Joe Paterno's gravesite and I really regret it.

6. Purdue '07: I've been waiting for this Purdue game since I first heard about the whole `Breakfast Club' deal when I was a sophomore visiting one of my best friend's from high school at Purdue.  Basically, all the of age students go to bars before it gets light out with different kinds of costumes and end up getting really weird before the game.  This year, we got up at 6:45 a.m. (not a small feat when you go to bed at 3:30 a.m.) and stumbled through the dark to bars which open up shortly after that.  I couldn't tell you the names of the bars we went to, except one was Harry's Chocolate Shop, which definitely does not serve chocolate -- although that might be a creative idea for a bar.  We weren't able to tailgate, as it was an early game, but the whole pregaming at a bar at 7 a.m. was good enough for us.  Another highlight of the trip was a stop for dinner at the Boiler Mart, which is basically just Reckers (on-campus ND eatery) but with booze.  It would make a killing at Notre Dame.  If you would like to invest, email us at rakesofmallow@gmail.com.

It was much darker when we went

7. Michigan '07: Ugh.  I still have the taste in my mouth from that weekend.  A combination of celebrating a roommate's 21st and tailgating at 9 in the morning is a feat that only the strong can accomplish (if the owners of that Irish pub in Ann Arbor are reading this, my roommate apologizes for ripping the toilet paper dispenser off the wall.  I hope that my $67 bar tab made up for it).  The golf courses at Michigan do not suck, which is surprising because just about everything about Michigan sucks.  What sucks big time is `The Big House'.  What a crappy venue.  Seriously, if your restrooms are going to be porto-potties, at least get a lot of them so I don't have to miss the entire first quarter of the game, even if it only involved some of the worst teams in Division I football getting killed by a mediocre Michigan team.

8. Navy '04: The lone contender from freshman year and the only reason I went was because I was home for fall break at the time.  Not too many good stories from this one, except that Giants Stadium is a terrible place to play college football.  Oh, wait, they sell beer?  Scratch that last statement.  That place rules.  Oh, wait, they sell beer that costs $7.50?  That place still rules.

9. Purdue '05: As a lowly sophomore, we weren't quite prepared for roadtrips the way we are now.  We got to Purdue on Friday night so that we could go out, but we made the mistake of not having anything planned for tailgating at an 8 p.m. game.  Clearly a lack of experience on our part.  It certainly made up for it, however, with the spanking we gave Purdue.  At one point Quinn was something like 21 for 23 and I remember how good it felt after all those a-holes told us that God hates us.  The funny thing is that I'm pretty sure if he hated anyone, he would hate a Purdue fan.

10. Michigan '05: It feels good to put Michigan at the bottom of the barrel.  As I said, every roadtrip I've been on has been a good one, but this one was an early game and the tailgating was suspect.  The best part was telling the homeless people that picked up cans that they were from Indiana and couldn't be deposited in Michigan.  Does that make me a bad person?  Probably.  It was a terrific feeling coming out of that game and knowing that we just beat one of the best teams in the country (Michigan was a top 5 team at the time).  They later went on to finish 7-5.  Our bad!

So the moral of the story is: roadtrip.  If you're a student in college, you should do a roadtrip once every year.  It should be a required credit for schools.  Do it especially if you're a Notre Dame student, just to see what you're missing: big parties and some of the biggest idiots you'll ever meet.  Go Irish!