There’s a saying that college football - and sports in general - during your college years are what the sport will always be to you. I think I generally agree with that, because as LSU fans we get a great glimpse into that: my generation considers Alabama our most important rival, while LSU fans a class cycle above me would consider it to be Auburn, and above them, Auburn, or even Texas A&M.
This is how we get people who are old enough to have opinions on REM saying things like “college football is better when USC and Notre Dame are good” despite today’s recruits who dictate what the game itself looks like having no idea what a good USC team looks like.