Have you ever seen that sign on Interstate 75 welcoming drivers to Gainesville, home of the national champs?
The second those guys in hard hats stuck the base of that sign in the ground, that act officially proclaimed Gainesville to be TitleTown in my book.
Well, ESPN wants to reopen the TitleTown debate as part of its annual "it's summer, and we need 'SportsCenter' filler" series.
In May, the network will hire a panel - hopefully with more astute experts than Adam Sandler and Jessica Biel - to determine 19 of the 20 finalists.
Fans choose the 20th finalist to round out the field.
Then, ESPN will fill more time on "SportsCenter" by visiting each city in July, à la "50 States in 50 Days" in 2005.
At the end, fan voting decides which city is truly TitleTown.
Allowing online voting generally comes with obvious flaws, and this case is no different.
Joe Sports Fan can't differentiate Allendale, Mich., from Alliance, Ohio, (both nominees) but certainly knows that Boston is where Larry Bird and Bobby Orr once reigned, so a big city with droves of sports followers holds great odds.
And just what criteria must a city meet to earn TitleTown status?
Well, ESPN's Paul Severino laid out general guidelines on an ESPN.com video.
"TitleTown is synonymous with greatness," Severino said, adding that your team has "the support of the most passionate fans in America and the perspective that comes with historical achievement," among other things.
There are several methods to make your pick.
Historically, Green Bay, Wisc., has been known as TitleTown for the Packers' football dominance decades ago, so I would understand sports purists voting for that one.
Based on history, you can also make a case for Dallas (home of America's team, the Cowboys) and Detroit (aka Hockeytown, USA, and home of the Pistons).
But if you vote based on recent success, Gainesville has got to be the pick.
And it's my pick, too.
In my opinion, TitleTown is a nickname that migrates from city to city based on recent and current success.
Five years ago, no way is Gainesville even mentioned in this conversation.
Five years from now, who knows?
But now, Gainesville fits the bill.
No other city has experienced the same national prestige as Gainesville in the last two years. That's well documented.
UF football is among the top 10 programs in the country in average home attendance.
Basketball games don't draw as well compared to other powers (UF generally ranks in the 30s nationwide for home attendance), but the O'Connell Center only holds 12,000.
And not that it matters much on a national stage, but UF is among the elite in volleyball, gymnastics, softball, golf, swimming and tennis.
So Gainesville gets my vote and should be a contender when the finalists are announced.
Several cities on ESPN's list don't merit the same acclaim as Gainesville.
I cannot understand voting for a city just because it's home to the nation's longest high school football winning streak or a junior college hockey team that's run out of rafter space to fit banners.
That's great on a local level, but you should be able to locate TitleTown on a map.
Yet ESPN listed several small Cinderella towns like Naperville, Ill., and Winona, Minn.
Not all big cities are high on my list, either.
I won't vouch for my hometown of Chicago because the Cubs are in a 100-year drought, the Blackhawks haven't won a Stanley Cup in nearly 50 years and the area colleges, DePaul and Northwestern, are pathetic in major sports.
Not even Michael Jordan can make up for that.
New York? No, not if the Giants, who play home games in New Jersey, are the only champions in the last seven years.
What will really make things interesting is what happens in the NBA playoffs.
Say the Boston Celtics win it all. Then Boston has the Celtics, the Patriots and the Red Sox on its resume.
Gainesville wouldn't stand a chance.
