Are you a fan of the Illini or any other cellar-dwelling team? 

Tired of seeing a team lose in hilarious new ways every weekend?

Are you miserable because repping your school colors invites ridicule from your friends from Florida State or Oregon? 

Do you want to enjoy watching football Saturdays instead of dreading turning on that TV? 

Then I suggest adopting an SEC West team. Stop watching losing football and put those wasted hours toward watching good football. 

By adopting a team from the best conference in the sport, your Saturdays will be filled with football. Good football. 

Don’t believe me? Glance over this week’s Associated Press top 25 poll and notice that five of the seven SEC West teams are in the top 25, with four in the top 10. These rankings are on the heel of one of the most exciting and upset-heavy weekends in the sport’s history. 

Ole Miss upset Alabama. Mississippi State welcomed Texas A&M and Kenny Hill to Starkville, Miss., and soundly defeated them. Auburn beat LSU so badly LSU went from being ranked 15th to being unranked. 

I make this plea to you because it was a few years ago that I hopped on the SEC bandwagon, specifically for Alabama in 2008, once I was frustrated watching Illinois lose to the likes of Minnesota. 

The difference in football could not have been more startling between the two. Alabama had a suffocating defense and a strong running back tandem of Glen Coffee and Mark Ingram. My interest skyrocketed when the Crimson Tide, ranked No. 1, faced off against No. 2 Florida in the SEC title game.

Alabama would lose, but moving forward, it would be my second team to root for. Then came the championships in 2009, 2011 and 2012. So yeah, I made the right choice. 

Is this the classic definition of hopping on a bandwagon? Perhaps. But there is no rule clearly stating fandom must be contained to one team. There’s no fun in that because of the sheer number of college teams. There are bound to be some bandwagon fans.

There’s also no rule saying if you do adopt another team, that team must be from the SEC West. I just highly recommend doing so because of how good the conference is. Consider for a moment that for the duration of the BCS National Championship, SEC West teams appeared in seven of the 16 games, including two teams in 2011 (Alabama and LSU). From 2003 to 2013, SEC West teams won six of the 11 BCS titles. 

The College Football Playoff can allow unheralded teams to sneak in and wreck havoc, maybe even defeating an SEC West team. Major upsets and other exciting games have already been played, so upsets should be expected come late December. It’s now or never to claim a new team. 

Don’t forget to look to other conferences for a team to follow: 

Are you someone who likes chaos? Offense with little defense? Look to the west, to the Pac-12. 

Do you respect powerful traditions? Maybe Texas or Oklahoma is a good fit. 

Are you someone who knows he doesn’t always put forth his best, but does just enough to get by? Then a Big Ten team is perfect for you.

Whatever you decide, it’s time you enjoy watching good football on Saturdays. 

Erik is a senior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @e_prada.