College Team Fandom

[RockRaines]

Bitter ND fan? Don't lose at home to Boston College and that doesn't happen. It's been that way in college football forever. FSU beat 5 or 6 ranked teams, including Florida (#6?), Miami (#3) and Nebraska (#2) in the Orange Bowl.

Yeah I dont remember it being that controversial.

[cabiness42]

Bitter ND fan? Don't lose at home to Boston College and that doesn't happen. It's been that way in college football forever. FSU beat 5 or 6 ranked teams, including Florida (#6?), Miami (#3) and Nebraska (#2) in the Orange Bowl.

 

Any any system in any North American sport, head-to-head is the first tiebreaker when teams are tied for something. Teams had the same record and ND won head-to-head, which was the exact rationale everybody used in 1989 when Miami and ND finished the season with the same record.

 

[ChiSox_Sonix]

Any any system in any North American sport, head-to-head is the first tiebreaker when teams are tied for something. Teams had the same record and ND won head-to-head, which was the exact rationale everybody used in 1989 when Miami and ND finished the season with the same record.

 

That's actually not true.

 

But anyways, they lost after the fact. Were they really supposed to have remained #1? They dropped to 3 or 4 and the teams behind them moved up. It's what happens all the time in college football. Doesn't mean it makes any sense, but it's always been about WHEN you lose in CFB. And ND's loss was bad timing. FSU's title in '93 was deserved and nothing was handed to them. They won when it was most important. Do you honestly think the #1 team beating the #2 team in the Bowl game is going to NOT be still ranked #1 when the final rankings come out?

[IlliniKrush]

Grew up an ND football fan because of my Dad and Grandpa. Didn't have any ties to any other team.

 

Similar to dasox, by sophomore year in college I was all Illini. Each year, my care for ND has dwindled more and more. Illini are my team because I went there. ND isn't really mine.

 

When you combine this with the absolutely ridiculous fan base (as evidenced here, for starters), Declan Harris and that nonsense, Lizzy Seeberg and that cover up/lack of investigation/whatever you want to call it, Kelly and Swarbrick and the way in which they dealt with those things compared to the Te'O stuff...I just don't care anymore.

[Jenksismyhero]

I'm all things Illinois despite not going there (went to Illinois Wesleyan instead), but I grew up 10 minutes from Champaign and my family had basketball and football season tickets from the time I was in grade school through high school. So that fandom has always stuck. Illinois basketball is easily my favorite sport/team to follow.

 

For some reason I became a huge Emmit Smith fan his last year at Florida and his first year or two at Dallas in the early 90's. From there I started to follow the Cowboys more and became a huge fan by 1992, their first Superbowl, through the late 90's. Urlacher's rookie year in 2000 brought me back to being a full-time Bears fan.

 

And yes, to this day I still icky about liking and rooting for the Cowboys.

[Soxbadger]

I was always a Bears, Sox and Bulls fan. For college I liked players more than teams when I was young. I liked ND because of the Rocket for a bit. I then liked FSU (Warrick Dunn, Boulware, Brooks).

 

I always liked Michigan and Illinois because my cousins went there and those were the 2 schools I was supposed to pick from.

 

I then went to Wisconsin...

[cabiness42]

That's actually not true.

 

But anyways, they lost after the fact. Were they really supposed to have remained #1? They dropped to 3 or 4 and the teams behind them moved up. It's what happens all the time in college football. Doesn't mean it makes any sense, but it's always been about WHEN you lose in CFB. And ND's loss was bad timing. FSU's title in '93 was deserved and nothing was handed to them. They won when it was most important. Do you honestly think the #1 team beating the #2 team in the Bowl game is going to NOT be still ranked #1 when the final rankings come out?

 

Florida State shouldn't have been ranked #1 going into the bowl games. There were two undefeated teams plus a one-loss team that had beaten them. They should have been ranked #4 at best.

[southsider2k5]

I'm all things Illinois despite not going there (went to Illinois Wesleyan instead), but I grew up 10 minutes from Champaign and my family had basketball and football season tickets from the time I was in grade school through high school. So that fandom has always stuck. Illinois basketball is easily my favorite sport/team to follow.

 

For some reason I became a huge Emmit Smith fan his last year at Florida and his first year or two at Dallas in the early 90's. From there I started to follow the Cowboys more and became a huge fan by 1992, their first Superbowl, through the late 90's. Urlacher's rookie year in 2000 brought me back to being a full-time Bears fan.

 

And yes, to this day I still icky about liking and rooting for the Cowboys.

 

IWU had an awesome basketball program back in the day. When I was in school at Manchester, we ran into you guys a couple of times in the tourney.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Proximity and being very Irish, and it being huge in our family is why I'm a Notre Dame fan.

 

I go to Ball State, which is why I'm a Cardinals fan.

 

Both are pretty legit reasons. The only team in ALL my sports that I like for no GOOD reason is the St. Louis Rams. I just gravitated towards them when I was younger and they had Warner, Bruce, Holt, Faulk, Archuleta. Purely bandwagon reasoning for how I came to like them. Every other team I like is either family or location based.

[BigEdWalsh]

For me the Fighting Illini just because I come from Illinois. When I was a kid the Loyola Ramblers had a great basketball team and I went to a few games. Later DePaul was THE team and for awhile when the Bulls were pretty bad I swear DePaul was more popular.

These days, my youngest son went to the University of Utah and I went to a number of football games. Had a total blast. I live only maybe 2 miles from BYU but I hate them, or should I say loathe them. Out here there is a very intense rivalry between the U and BYU. For many, it's a Mormon and anti-Mormon thing.

When it's all said and done I still have a soft spot for Illinois schools even though I haven't lived in Illinois since the late 70's.

[ChiSox_Sonix]

Florida State shouldn't have been ranked #1 going into the bowl games. There were two undefeated teams plus a one-loss team that had beaten them. They should have been ranked #4 at best.

 

Ok...

[Jenksismyhero]

IWU had an awesome basketball program back in the day. When I was in school at Manchester, we ran into you guys a couple of times in the tourney.

 

They still do really. They were in the final 4 during my time there (early 2000's) and had won a championship a few years prior to that. I think they were back in the final four last year or the year before, and I got an email saying they were #3 in the country this preseason. The games are glorified high school games (or for many, probably equal to high school games) but they were still fun to watch.