It's not a rivalry unless.... wait, it's not at all.

Obviously since I've graduated from and spent many years at UC Santa Barbara, my athletic loyalties lie with the GAUCHOS. However, this is somewhat difficult to manage working for another Big West Conference team in the University of the Pacific.

When I was first hired on board here in the athletics department, nearly everyone inquired as to where I spent my undergrad years because I am one of the few non-Pacific alumni to secure a job here. Apparently they like to keep it all in the family, especially with the grad assistants.

Anyways, most of the coaches shunned me, my boss almost didn't hire me and many other employees downright told me they were upset with me, solely because I used to be a Gaucho. (Once a Gaucho, always a Gaucho, right?)

After his resignation, the men's tennis coach even told me, "If that's your car with the UCSB sticker, I wouldn't be surprised to one day find a brick in the windshield. And you can't do anything about it because I'm moving back to Europe next week."

For a little bit of background, UCSB has won the Big West Conference championships for many sports over the years. Pacific, who historically has had a really good men's basketball program, only had a handful of teams finish above .500 last year. Not looking very good when measured against Santa Barbara's success last year.

So long story short, a bunch of coworkers have told me they don't like Santa Barbara because we're simply rivals.

However, as a fervent Gaucho supporter who attended/worked at many athletic events in my four years at UCSB, I never noticed such a rivalry. In fact, the only team we vehemently hated was Cal Poly because of the geographical location of the two schools. Last I checked, Stockton is five and a half hours north of Santa Barbara and less than an hour from UC Davis, another Big West team.

Did I miss something here?!