Is it OK to be a fan of teams from different schools?

[buckiprof]

I'm 20 yes...but I've been watching Ohio State football and Duke basketball since I was born (or young enough to know what I was watching and who I was rooting for)

Are you REALLY claiming that fandom is only determined by length associated with a specific team? What does age have to do with my validity as a fan?

I didn't claim anything in my post, just made an observation about your age and where I could see where JC was coming from in the bandwagon angle.

But now I guess I will make a claim in this post.

First, I am not claiming that fandom is determined only by length associated with a specific team. You are making that inference and making an incorrect inference at that.

Second, the whole point of you being 20 years old (really you are 19 and won't turn 20 until the end of this year) is that in your entire life, Duke has been one of the perennial powers in college basketball. That simply reeks of being a bandwagon fan. No biggie, just accept it for what it is.

I know a 15 year old who is a huge Colts fan. Both parents are Browns fans, but he loves those Colts. Now look at his age and look at how the Colts have done in his life...at least what he can remember. Yes, he is a bandwagon fan.

In 25 years, you will notice folks who are bandwagon fans. Usually they are much younger, easily influenced by who they see on TV, and simply cheer for the team that usually wins.

 

[Mr_Burns]

I was raised a Duke fan...by a man who ATTENDED Ohio State, has brothers who attended and PLAYED for Ohio State and lived in North Carolina for long enough to pick up a Duke allegiance simply because he loved the sport of basketball.

I'm not trying to offend you at all, but don't you think that makes your dad a bandwagon fan? Clearly I don't know anything more about your family than what you've shared (maybe they are from NC originally and I missed that somewhere), but your all caps examples accentuate the fact that since they are so invested in Ohio State, that they would naturally be Ohio State fans through and through. I'm guessing this move to NC was somewhere between 1985-1992, when Duke was really becoming a player on the national stage? If they loved the sport of basketball, I'm pretty sure Ohio State had a team at that time and they could have very easily continued to root for them, regardless of location.

Hopefully you don't take any of these responses as people telling you who you should root for. Being born and raised in central Ohio, I know that I see things differently than those of you who have lived in different parts of the country. However, if I were an Ohio State fan all the way, until I moved to, say, Spokane Washington, and became a die-hard Gonzaga fan, I wouldn't expect people in central Ohio to take me very seriously.

 

[Nutriaitch]

don't know how you do it Rob.

I don't pretend to actually follow basketball, but I always hope my team (LSU) does well in all sports. No way in hell I could ever utter a statement like the one you did (If LSU played team x in sport y, I'm pulling for team x.)

I would rather try to stop an outboard motor's propeller with my d!ck than root against LSU in any sport.

Here's why:
Football was my 1st love. My family has been having season tickets to LSU since the 40's. My dad took me to my 1st game when I was a couple months shy of 8 years old. I was hooked.

When I started really liking baseball a year or two later, I found out LSU played that sport as well. BAM! I found my team. Never even considered looking anywhere else.

I don't follow basketball, but in the rare event LSU is televised, no way in hell I could root against them.

The simple fact that you even looked for a different team in a different sport would have you banished from all family functions.

 

[Buckeye Maniac]

Not making an accusation here but do you consider yourself a "better" Ohio State fan than myself?

Yes.

 

[BB73]

I would rather try to stop an outboard motor's propeller with my d!ck than root against LSU in any sport.

This comment deserves some props.

 

[BayBuck]

Ok-theoretical question for you-or anyone else on the board. How do expansion teams fit in for pro fandom? I hate hockey and could care less about the Blue Jackets, but is it cool for an NHL fan in Columbus to switch allegiances to the Blue Jackets b/c they are local?

I think an expansion team in your hometown can trump a previous allegiance -- but there's a one-time-only opportunity to switch, and that decision must stand forever. I am a Buffalo native but have lived in Columbus for over 20 years, and when we finally got a meaningful pro sports team here I traded in the Sabres for the Blue Jackets without hesitation.

I do continue to be a Bills fan instead of the now-home-state Browns or Bengals (ick), but if my lifelong team ever decides to leave Buffalo for Toronto or LA or somewhere, I wonder if that will make me a free-agent NFL fan? (I did marry into a Steelers family... :tongue2:)

 

[matcar]

don't know how you do it Rob.

I don't pretend to actually follow basketball, but I always hope my team (LSU) does well in all sports. No way in hell I could ever utter a statement like the one you did (If LSU played team x in sport y, I'm pulling for team x.)

I would rather try to stop an outboard motor's propeller with my d!ck than root against LSU in any sport.

Here's why:
Football was my 1st love. My family has been having season tickets to LSU since the 40's. My dad took me to my 1st game when I was a couple months shy of 8 years old. I was hooked.

When I started really liking baseball a year or two later, I found out LSU played that sport as well. BAM! I found my team. Never even considered looking anywhere else.

I don't follow basketball, but in the rare event LSU is televised, no way in hell I could root against them.

The simple fact that you even looked for a different team in a different sport would have you banished from all family functions.

Yes, it's pretty obvious that TheRob is a bandwagoner as this "split loyalties" based upon what sport your watching is garbage. I don't know how an Ohio State fan could root for Duke, unless they were playing against TSUN.

I lived in Georgia for a while, loved it there. Met Vince Dooley and liked the man. I suppose I might even enjoy watching them play, but I'm not a fan of UGA. tOSU is the ONLY choice.

 

[OSU_Buckguy]

Not making an accusation here but do you consider yourself a "better" Ohio State fan than myself?

all of us do.

 

[OSU_Buckguy]

It's my fault that the teams I root far are successful?

If I had said I'm an Ohio State football fan and a Virginia Commonwealth basketball fan would you have made the same statement?

i guess it's just an amazing coincidence then that you're not a virginia fan but instead a fan of one of the winningest programs of all time. imagine that.

 

[BayBuck]

I'm 20 yes...but I've been watching Ohio State football and Duke basketball since I was born (or young enough to know what I was watching and who I was rooting for)

Are you REALLY claiming that fandom is only determined by length associated with a specific team? What does age have to do with my validity as a fan?

The point you seem to be missing is that with college sports you're not following teams, you're following schools. You can't pick and choose different schools for each sport, especially when you take the better one for each sport, that's practically the definition of bandwagoning. You get ONE school as your #1, and they trump all others in ALL sports, though you are allowed second- and third-place teams depending on your family or geographical or academic ties to them.

The only exceptions IMO are for multiple alma maters, which can be like 1A and 1B, but a favorite team is like a wife: can you really love two women equally? In this situation OSU is the keeper, the one you settle down with for good; Duke basketball is that pretty little fling you had as a kid. It's time to grow up and move on.

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

The point you seem to be missing is that with college sports you're not following teams, you're following schools.

says who?

 

[BB73]

says who?

Says BayBuck. The names are in the upper left part of each post. Duh.

BTW, if you're willing to switch from The Orange to the Buckeyes in bball, we'd be willing to ex-'Cuse you.

 

[BayBuck]

says who?

That is one of the cardinal rules of sports fandom. College sports don't exist independent of their schools, and picking and choosing sports from different schools is for the 20-year-old Robs of the world. Frankly, anyone who follows OSU football out of anything but love and admiration for The Ohio State University as a whole, is probably also a bandwagon fan IMO.

 

[JCOSU86]

i guess it's just an amazing coincidence then that you're not a virginia fan but instead a fan of one of the winningest programs of all time. imagine that.

I'd like to build on this sentiment: Rob, imagine Vanderbilt fans. Do you know any? Hell, I've never even met one. Now, imagine the white-hot epicenter of bandwagonfuckdom - The Dallas Cowboys. Know any Cowboy fans? Don't fucking lie. I've found these bandwagonfuckiest of bandwagonfucks every where I've lived. What does that tell you?

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Good gravy...

Have to agree with those who say ya gotta have a #1 and that that number 1 trumps in all sports. Ohio State could be involved in a competitive basket weaving tournament... I'm rooting for them.

The opposite is like saying "Well, of course I root for USA hockey, but when it comes to curling I'm a real big fan of Canada. Cross Country Skiing? I'm all Norway, all the time!" No... it doesn't happen. You pick your number 1, and it's number one in all sports in which it competes.

Now, when it comes to your secondary teams, I see no problem liking North Carolina basketball, for example, but not giving two shits about UNC football.

There is a "different sports = ability to have different allegiance caveat" though - If you live in a city which does not have a professional franchise in the sports in question, you may be a fan of one professional team in some professional sport- say the Cavs, this does NOT require you to also be a fan of the Indians in baseball. If you like the Pittsburgh Penguins, you don not have to be a Pirates and Steelers fan as well.

Conversely, as soon as the Jackets came to Columbus, they had to become my number 1. There was no option in the matter. I still like the other teams I've always liked in the NHL... but the CBJ trumps.

It's just the way it is.