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