Life is rarely clearly divided into good and evil, right and wrong, or black and white.

Harvard-Yale is one of those times.

Harvard students rarely vote unanimously on any issue, but take a poll the Saturday before Thanksgiving and everyone will agree on the inferiority of the Eli. Even Harvard students who are ambivalent at best about football join in on this one day of the year where we can unrestrainedly express our elitism.

There are no factors here to compromise your partiality.

There’s no question of rooting for that one guy on the other team who’s about to set an Ivy League record.

There’s not a thought in anyone’s mind of cheering on the opposing quarterback because you went to school with his cousin.

“What do a Harvard student and a Yale student have in common?”

“They both got into Yale.”

Harvard rules. Yale sucks. On this day, these are indisputable facts.

But what if it was more complicated?

Chances are if you were into college sports in high school, you had a university team from your state that you supported. Maybe it was State, maybe it was U; maybe your grandparents went there, maybe your parents work there. Regardless, you followed your college team through thick and thin, from bowl games to recruiting violations and from gambling scandals to BCS balderdash.

And of course, the annual rivalry game.

State vs. U. The Battle for State Rights. And out come the terrible, terrible jokes.

“Why do they have Astroturf at XSU?”

“To keep the co-eds from grazing.”