Mountaineer

verb (Mountaineers, Mountaineering; past and past participle Mountaineered)

The act of losing a football game to an opponent (typically, Syracuse) that your fan base considered to be so inferior that it was an insult to have to play them. This superiority complex is made all the more glaring by the fact that your team is historically mediocre, and by many indications fairly evenly matched to the opponent. Despite losing, claims of superiority usually persist after the game, with comments such as, "we didn't really care about this game," "our conference is better," or, "we're in the AAU!" being employed to make up for the loss. Most perplexing, fan bases have been known to continue to refer to the winning opponent as "very, very bad." These feelings of superiority are sometimes aided by confusing conference affiliation for team affiliation.

History:
West Virginia vs Syracuse, 2012 Pinstripe Bowl: Origin of the word. In the weeks leading up to the game, commentators on The Smoking Musket complained that they deserved a better opponent than Syracuse. West Virginia lost the game, 38-14.

Maryland vs Syracuse, Nov. 9, 2013: Prior to the game fans on Testudo Times counted Syracuse as an easy win. Maryland lost to Syracuse, 20-3. After the game, Syracuse was called "very, very bad" on the blog.

Minnesota vs Syracuse, 2013 Texas Bowl: Like West Virginia a year before, commentators on The Daily Gopher complained that they deserved a better bowl and opponent. Minnesota lost 21-17.

Despite being warned that they risked Mountaineering, and despite having only a single 9-win season since 1905, Minnesota fans claimed they were superior to Syracuse, and would surely beat them soundly.

Minnesota Mountaineered the game, 21-17.

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