OPINION: I'm entering the fan transfer portal

This is not an announcement I make lightly. I know the gravity of the moment and understand that backlash will be swift and unforgiving. After careful consideration with my family and friends, I have decided to enter the fan transfer portal. 

Effective immediately, I am transferring may fandom allegiance from the Nebraska Cornhuskers to the New Mexico Lobos. 

I grew up believing fandom was a lifelong contract. You were usually born into it and held the line no matter how bleak times got. Like a grizzled Nebraska team of yore, we football fans are a tough lot and move our dedication and pride onto the drive, game, season, player or coach. 

For 25 years, including my entire tenure at the university, Nebraska has promised a rebuild. Then we'll rebuild that rebuild. The next coach is going to find success because the Big Red is still one of the top college football programs in the nation, with the best facilities and fans, right? Right?

My moment of clarity came Dec. 26 when I attended the Rate Bowl in Phoenix with my fiancée to watch the Lobos take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers — a powerful Big 10 team who easily marched down the field and wore down the Cornhusker team earlier in the season, when Husker fans were still optimistic. 

The Lobo team showed up. The lineman held their own against a larger Minnesota team. The Lobos played tough throughout the contest and sprinkled in trickery to keep the game exciting and the Gophers on their heels. 

The Lobo fans showed up. They easily outnumbered Minnesota fans, making up 75% of the roughly 27,000 announced fans in attendance. They were loud and the players were responding on the fields and sidelines. 

Are the Lobos a perennial powerhouse? No. Do they strike fear into the hearts of opposing fans and players? No. Do they have deep pockets and a desire from New Mexicans to prioritize resources to prop up the football team with high-paid players and coaches? OK, still no.

But geographically, the move makes sense for me. Nebraska is flat, cold and emotionally attached to its corn-fed ethos that is fueled by a battle on the gridiron. New Mexico fans show up when they want to. Nebraskans talk about the home sell-out streak that dates back to when President John F. Kennedy was in office. New Mexicans think it's cool if 30,000 people show up to a game. 

During the football season, Lobo home games are played alongside hiking and biking trails, mountain ranges, ski resorts, golf courses and hot springs. New Mexico fans are not obligated to go to the game because it was hard to snag a ticket that had to be purchased with a significant financial commitment in advance. At University Stadium, there's always room for you. Lobo fans go to games because they are excited, and if not, they'll book a tee time on a beautiful Saturday in the fall. 

For some, this is classic bandwagon behavior. I like to think that I'm stepping off the bandwagon and into a gently used sedan. I grew up watching Tom Osborne, Tommie Frazier, Blackshirts and the option win national championships on TV. But I've also been embarrassed when caught in public wearing a red sweatshirt with an overweight farmer on it while the nearby television set to ABC shows the entire country that Nebraska is down 35-0 at halftime. 

To Nebraska, thank you for everything. The Cornhuskers have taught me valuable skills like patience, loyalty, perseverance and the determination it takes to stay emotionally hinged cheering for a team that finds a different, inexplainable way to lose a one-score game in the fourth quarter week after week. 

But I am transferring to New Mexico. I'm sure there will still be dark times for fans ahead. There will be losses. There will be disappointments. Players will transfer. Coaches will leave. But at least it will be sunny. 

I guess it's true what they say. Everyone is a Lobo. 

Ryan Boetel is the Opinion editor at the Albuquerque Journal.