HOUSTON — College football is the best sport in America for three simple reasons: pride, pageantry, and passion. Those same traits made the Netherlands vs. Sweden World Cup match over the weekend special. It was a spiritual cousin to college football. 

The pride people feel for their college programs, even ones they didn’t attend, is amplified compared to NFL teams. There is a deep-rooted, generational love and pride for a university that can define families and entire regions. The pageantry on a college football Saturday is timeless. When the Aggies saw off the Horns. When College GameDay comes to town. 

And then there is the passion. When 100,000 people converge into the same stadium wearing the same colors, singing the same songs. They hug strangers after touchdowns and forced turnovers. They embrace and provide a pat-on-the-back when something goes wrong. We carry the wins and losses to work and to family functions. We’ll sneak away from a loved one’s wedding with a cell phone to watch the final five minutes of a rivalry game. 

The state of Texas does everything big, especially football. The cartoonishly large mums under Friday Night Lights. The pep rallies. The stadiums. The tailgates in the fall in places like Aggie Park or in West Texas. From The Hilltop to Third Ward to El Paso, we care, and we care deeply about our teams. 

I’ve been lucky enough to watch multiple games at every FBS stadium in Texas. I’ve gone around the country and covered games in Death Valley, Happy Valley, and in The Shoe. Five teams from Texas have reached the College Football Playoffs for the first time since 2022, and I’ve been fortunate enough to cover each of them, from TCU’s win over Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl to Texas A&M’s loss to Miami. 

But nothing I’ve seen compared to the scenes on Saturday outside of Houston Stadium (NRG) when The Dutch converged onto Space City. They call it “Oranjekte”, which means Orange Madness. Thousands and thousands of Dutch fans, and locals who wanted to join in on the fun, arrived at Historic Rice Stadium at 8 a.m. for a noon game dressed in traffic-cone orange for a 2.5-mile walk to the stadium. 

There was a double-decker bus painted orange that required a six-week boat ride to reach Galveston. The tradition started two decades ago when a couple of Dutch fans bought the bus as a joke during a trip to the UK. There is Daniel Oordt, known as the “Orange Suit Man” who travels the world supporting The Oranje. He’s a pilot by trade and a supporter by choice. He hasn’t missed a national team game since 2015 outside of the ones closed during COVID. 

“This is our passion,” he said. “We see the world through orange-colored glasses and we want you to experience that, as well. The World Cup is a celebration and we can celebrate with the best.” 

He wasn’t lying. By the time the orange bus blaring European House Music was a mile from the stadium, there was a sea of people stretching back a mile. Traffic was stopped on Greenbriar Drive. And the party didn’t stop when the party reached the stadium because the Netherlands scored two first half goals en route to a dominant 5-1 win over Sweden that all but locked up the Dutch’s trip to the knockout stage. 

The Netherlands has a long and storied history in soccer. But they’re considered the best footballing country to never win a World Cup. There was a blind optimism in the crowd. This could be their year, and the blowout win only served to propel those feelings. 

Soccer was looked down upon growing up in Texas in the 80s and 90s. There is that famous line from King of the Hill where Hank tells Bobby, “Soccer was invented by European ladies to keep them busy while their husbands did the cooking.” 

But I dare a soccer hater to say that to a Dutch fan on a World Cup matchday. You wouldn’t. Not out of fear, but respect. If you love college football, you’d love the experience of gameday between two countries on the other side of the world. 

That is because passion, pageantry, and pride are contagious and universal. They break down language barriers or cultural differences. That is what is beautiful about soccer, and especially the World Cup. Sports are a unifier. And we need as much of that as we can get as a society, at the moment.