Big ups, mad props and shouts out to the Bearcats of...drum roll, please...
...Northwest Missouri State University.
You thought I was going to say Cincinnati, didn't you?
No, it's the newly crowned NCAA Division II national football champions in Maryville, Missouri, a town of about 11,000 located an hour and a half north of my house in Kansas City.
Northwest Missouri State has now won three national titles in the last 12 seasons beginning with back-to-back crowns in 1998 and '99, but the Bearcats had been the biggest losers in Division II football over the past four seasons.

Despite dominating both their MIAA conference and the Midwest region for the last decade under head coach Mel Tjeerdsma (pronounced CHURCH`-ma), the Bearcats suddenly became the Buffalo Bills of small-college football by losing four consecutive times in the national championship game from 2005 to 2008.
What separates the Bearcats from the Buffalo Bills, however, is that each of the Bearcats' four championship losses came by a touchdown or less, and Northwest was tied or ahead well into the fourth quarter of each game. The Bills had only one close game and one last-second loss in their four Super Bowl appearances; the rest were over well before the fourth quarter.
And just as Buffalo's main bugaboo was the NFC East, the stone in Northwest Missouri State's shoe has been Grand Valley State, who rose to prominence around the turn of the century under new Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly.
In the 2005 national title game, Grand Valley scored to go up 21-17 with 4:35 to play and stopped the Northwest offense inside the five as time expired. The following season, Grand Valley scored early in the fourth quarter to secure a 17-14 win and their fourth national title in five years.
Northwest finally topped the Lakers 34-16 in the 2007 semifinals, and the Bearcats trailed Valdosta State 14-3 in the finals a week later only to rally for a 20-19 fourth-quarter lead. Valdosta answered with the game-winning touchdown in the final minute to win their second national title in five years, having done the same thing to the Bearcats' conference rival, Pittsburg State, in the 2004 title bout.
In the 2008 championship match, a heavily-favored Northwest squad was tied at 14 with Minnesota-Duluth until Duluth scored in the closing seconds to snatch its first-ever national championship.
Imagine it was your favorite team who went to the mountain top four consecutive times only to tumble back down the trail each time. Imagine you're a high school stud who signs with Northwest Missouri State in the spring of 2005 and then your next four football season -- the only four years of college football you will ever play in your life -- end with excruciatingly narrow losses in the national title game.
Imagine you're Mel Tjeerdsma or one of his Bearcat assistants who spent the last four off-seasons waking up in the middle of the night second-guessing themselves and wondering what might've been (or what they have to do). Imagine you're a Northwest Missouri State fan or alumnus who made the 10-hour trip to the shit-hole that is Florence, Alabama, for the last four seasons only to leave with the same sick feeling in your stomach each time.
Then came the 2009 season.
Tjeerdsma and his Bearcats were the preseason No. 2 team in the country only to start the season with a disastrous first half and a 19-14 loss at Abilene Christian. That woke Northwest up on the wrong side of the scoreboard, but all they did from there was run the table, reclaiming their 2-spot in the polls before avenging their only loss with a 35-10 spanking of Abilene Christian in the first round of the playoffs.
The Bearcats then edged undefeated and top-ranked Central Washington 21-20 in the national quarterfinals and clobbered California (Pa.) 56-31 to clear their road to Florence for a record fifth straight time.
Then came last Saturday, championship Saturday for Northwest Missouri State, again, and the second-ranked Bearcats found themselves face-to-face with a familiar foe: the third-ranked Lakers of Grand Valley State.
Northwest needed a victory in this game even more than they wanted it. Maryville, Missouri, was holding its breath yet again, hoping the fifth time would be the charm, hoping for the best while bracing for the familiar worst. To exorcise four years' worth of ghosts, Northwest Missouri State would have to prove itself both psychologically and physically on the biggest stage against a proven Grand Valley State program.
With that understood, Saturday's first quarter was crucial, and the Bearcats came out crushing. LaRon Council ran for 136 yards and two first-half touchdowns while Northwest's dominant defensive line helped protect a 21-0 halftime lead.
It could've been worse too. The Bearcats fumbled at the goal line going in for a 28-0 lead right before the half, and all-American safety Myles Burnsides had two third-quarter interceptions called back -- the second of which would've been a 72-yard pick-6.
Grand Valley State used its second life to come roaring back in the second half, closing the gap to 23-20 early in the fourth before Bearcat QB Blake Bolles floated a perfect Go-route to sophomore wide-out Jake Soy on 4th & 4 from the Grand Valley 26.
Soy -- a first team All-American who had dropped a deep ball earlier in the second half -- caught Bolles' bullseye and dragged a Laker cornerback into the end zone for the decisive touchdown with 10 minutes remaining. Suddenly Northwest Missouri State's haunted house was a castle in the sky, and the Bearcats finally found the key to the front door after being stopped at the gates so many times.
Now imagine you're a fifth-year senior on the 2009 Northwest Missouri State team who watched all the seniors in front you fail to break the hex in their final college game, and now you finally get it done against an old nemesis.
Imagine you're a Northwest Missouri State student skipping from house party to house party in Maryville last Saturday night knowing you'll be skipping all your classes Monday as well.
Yeah, that's how good this national championship feels for everyone involved with Northwest Missouri State football. That's what success feels like after four years of "failure". That's why there's always next year for your team even if this was the last chance for your seniors.
That's why we love sports and worship football in this country. That's why you keep on fighting even when the only enemy left is yourself.