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Ohio Football

Topic: The rules of college sports fandom

Topic: The rules of college sports fandom

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sargentfan
General User

Member Since: 3/16/2005
Post Count: 917

Status: Offline

The rules of college sports fandom

Posted: 8/14/2012 4:00:55 PM

Love this article posted today on Grantland. This should be referenced when talking to tOSU supporters in Athens and any other scenario that might be brought up.

D.A.
General User

Member Since: 8/6/2010
Location: Georgetown, ME
Post Count: 1,190

Status: Offline

RE: The rules of college sports fandom

Posted: 8/14/2012 4:58:12 PM

^Dude hit the nail on the head from my perspective. Thanks for posting; fun read.

Last Edited: 8/14/2012 4:58:36 PM by D.A.

The Few, The Proud, The Bobcats!

And for the record, I hate tOSU, and Ricordati and Torgerson are DB's.

"This isn't just another walkover from the MAC." Kirk Herbstreit, another DB, on College Football Gameday

cjlipps110
General User

Member Since: 12/4/2010
Location: Wyoming, OH
Post Count: 82

Status: Offline

RE: The rules of college sports fandom

Posted: 8/14/2012 4:58:55 PM

Nice article. I really like this: “I’m a fan of the school I grew up down the street from.”
"Sigh. Growing up near a university isn’t a good reason to root for them beyond high school. For instance, I grew up in Fort Worth near TCU. In 2010, when TCU won the Rose Bowl, I could have played the “I grew up there” card as a sneaky route to backdoor double-fandom. But that wouldn’t have worked for two reasons. One, I would have been cheating on Texas (which was 5-7, but that’s life). Two, the hometown rule would benefit people who grew up in Columbus, Tuscaloosa, Boise, etc. This kind of fandom is both prohibited and despicable."

I grew up in Cincinnati. I rooted for UC some, but mostly rooted for Michigan because my dad went there. When I went to OHIO, I totally dropped my allegiance to U of M, and became a Bobcat purist. I got a job in the Toledo area this past year, and was invited to numerous Michigan football games. Sure, I had fun, but I remember when Michigan played SDSU... the same day OHIO played at Rutgers. The OHIO game was starting during the second half of the Michigan game, and I was totally checked out of the Michigan game, glued to my phone in the middle of 113,000 people. I also attended UM/WMU, UM/EMU, UM/Nebraska, and UM/OSU. But during all of those games, I felt no connection at all to that team. The only real emotion I expressed was confused anger when the U of M students kept yelling "F*** OHIO" during the OSU game. Sure, I liked it when Michigan beat OSU, but none of those games came even close to the feeling of beating BGSU with the last second field goal to clinch the MAC east. I bet there were less than 2,000 people there, and it was about 30 degrees that night, but that experience was better than any Michigan game I ever attended.

This quote from a few years ago sums it up perfectly for me: "The reason I root for Ohio is I went to school there, I got my degree there and met my wife there. Ohio is part of my life and not some football factory I chose to root for because I'm sure they will win a lot and not bruise my ego. Ohio fans root for their school. OSU fans root for a football team."

-66

Victory
General User

Member Since: 3/10/2012
Post Count: 2,327

Status: Offline

RE: The rules of college sports fandom

Posted: 8/14/2012 5:16:13 PM

I am glad someone is posting something like that. But I don't think that it needs to be so complicated. Its as simple as this. You aren't a FAN of a sports team but a SUPPORTER of a school. There is a big difference there. One implies that you watch the team just for your own entertainment as in it is there to serve you needs and desires the latter requires some sort of an obligation on your part. I went to Ohio and was the benificiary of scholarships and the contributions of everyone that came before me and I recognize that Ohio has helped me become more successful in life than I otherwise would have been that I owe something back.

But I think that you can be a friend of the school and contribute to it in some way and you are OK in your rooting interest no matter if you went there or not. But just being a fan and nothing else implies that even though the employees are unpaid that the school is running a business in the entertainment industry. (It is sort of like just being a fan of a high school or little league team.) That's where ALL of the corruption comes from. Instead student-athletics being what it was supposed to be, the thing that keeps this nations best athletes in school until later in life, it becomes the thing where recruiters and agents essentially separate them from it ant an early age.

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