It’s almost the Fourth of July, which means that the team-related pissing matches previews at OTE take a backseat for a week as we come together to celebrate—OK, argue about in the name of tradition—the thing that binds the actual members of this conference: Midwesternness! (Sure, and Americanness, but what’s Americanness without being a little exclusionary?)
Over the course of the week (hell, maybe even today) there could be anywhere upwards of one additional article(s) celebrating the various things we consider a part of this crazy world we live in—tailgating, football, patriotism, and God knows what else.
And I’m kicking it off, just so you’re not sitting here wondering when the hell Maryland Week is. (Probably sometime around Week 4 of the season.)
Four years ago now, FiveThirtyEight came out with a summary, based on reader responses, of which states were in the Midwest. It gave us this laughably-wrong map:
To rectify that, we’re going to try this fun little exercise: Completely and totally ripping it off!
That’s right: Fill out the form below and tell us what states you consider to be a part of the Midwest!
Feel constrained by arbitrary boundaries often defined by waterways, some weird-ass stones with Maryland or Pennsylvania coats of arms on them, or, the farther west you go, just simple lines of latitude and longitude because we said “Fuck it, it’s a Dakota and that’s good enough”? There’s a free response section! Go nuts!
We’ll publish these when I’m at a computer—hopefully this weekend, but I’ll be up North and probably not actually trying to publish these findings. Maybe Sunday. Or next week.