Colleges

Consuelos boards Bulls' bandwagon

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published September 28, 2007

Actor Mark Consuelos said his timing as a college student was all off, because USF didn't have have a football team when he went to school there.

"I spent my first two years of college at Notre Dame, which obviously had one," Consuelos said Thursday by phone from New York. "I knew (later) that USF had started a football program, but last year was the first year I really noticed. I would be considered a major bandwagoner, but you have to start somewhere."

Consuelos, 36, who starred on All My Children, said he started following USF again because his wife, actor Kelly Ripa, has a Rutgers alum for an agent. "USF almost beat them, and I remember thinking, 'They have a nice team. They might be really good next year.'"

Consuelos, who graduated in 1994 with a marketing degree, said he'll be watching tonight's USF-West Virginia game - while nervously flipping to check on his stumbling Mets - and said he has been neglectful in getting himself USF gear to watch in. "I've got to find a green and white jersey to wear," he said.

Does his wife, of TV's Live with Regis and Kelly, pull for the Bulls? "I'm not sure she's really aware USF even exists," he said, joking. "She knows Jon Gruden makes crazy faces after every play, but that's really about the extent of what she knows about sports in Tampa. But if USF beats West Virginia, I'll make sure she talks with Regis about it."

[Last modified September 27, 2007, 21:27:18]