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The psychology of a college sports fan

+1 HS
D-Day0043's picture
June 27, 2016 at 2:51pm
21 Comments

I'm bored. I'm sitting here laid up, high as hell, with my second shoulder surgery in five months. The wife is at work, the kids are at the Grandparents. It's just me and the dogs hanging out in the clubhouse.

I moved down here to the Tennesucky border a little over a decade ago. I live in between Bowling Green and Nashville, so I occasionally hear the local Nashville sports shows, although I usually just listen to the national shows. One thing that struck me was that Nashville ESPN radio always has a time slot devoted to the Tennessee Volunteers. Now I'm not a rocket scientist, but Vanderbilt is the local university of $EC school, yet they always devote time to the state school, Tennessee.

Now this has got me thinking about my experiences with fellow Bucks fans I've met locally and around the country.

I grew up on the northeast side of Cincinnati. My mother and father weren't huge sports fans, I played, so they pretty much followed whatever I was into. Buckeye football and basketball was always on local television, so naturally I watched, and became a huge Buckeye fan growing up in the 80's and 90's. Actually, there were a fair amount of Michigan fans sprinkled around that part of Ohio in those days as well, because Michigan was actually somewhat relevant at the time (lol!).

I was never questioned about my Buckeye fanhood in those days. Cincinnati was the local school, and yes, I still, and do pull for them to win. Growing up, we all knew who the "Big Boys" were. It was the Buckeyes, not the Bearcats, so nothing was ever really made of it.

After living in Tennesucky for a few years, I ran into some kat from Columbus, decked out in Buckeyes gear. I was decked out in mine, so we were immediately drawn to eachother. We struck up a conversation. He started asking some questions, where I was from, etc. I told him where I was from, and no I didn't go to Ohio State, I actually didn't go to college out of high-school I went to work. Most of my friends went to Ohio State and I would hang out there with them, and yes, if I would have went to college that is where I would have went. This dude looked at me with disdain, and said "Southern Ohio" people are not really true Buckeyes and was basically a shithead. Over the next several years I've ran into many Buckeyes fans across the country that had a similar attitude, yet down here in University of $EC country the attitude is totally different. Bandwagon fans abound! Loyalty be damned!

So...What has happened? Was it always this way, or is my perception off?

Also, I admit, that growing up, I never paid much attention to any other conference besides the B1G. I never started paying attention to other conferences until the University of $EC started thumping their chests. Did the $EC always have this attitude?

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