Sports bigamy and bandwagoners (was: Pics of your UT Room!!!)

[Vercingetorix]

My contempt for sports bigamists and bandwagoners is fairly well known, so in another thread over in the main forum, Bill asked me this:

Originally Posted by volfanbill

totally off topic Vercin, but I gotta ask since you are so adamant about sports bigamy.

In your opinion what do you think I've my collegiate affiliations? I'm a UT football fan and that's it. I will cheer for Old Dominion when they start football in 2009, but they are in a different division altogether, so I think that should be ok.

In basketball however, I couldn't care less about what the UT men do. I am and always have been a Dukie. As we've discussed before, I follow what ETSU does just because they are the local school here where I grew up, and I have become quite the Old Dominion fan simply because I'm about to get my Master's from there. Neither of them comes close to Duke though.

So the question is do you personally consider me a sports bigamist because I have a different college football and basketball team? For this answer, I hope you can put away any hatred you may have for Duke and just answer the question...

Edit: I'm not going to be offended if you say I am, so don't hesitate to blast away if you feel the need to do so.

I started typing up an answer, but decided that I was probably going to have people rip me a new one over it, and I didn't want to threadjack too badly. So I moved it over here.

Anyway, my rules about sports bigamy and bandwagonism (since they are frequently intertwined) are pretty simple. Basically, in order:

1. If you went to school somewhere, you should support your school's teams. If you went to two (or more) schools, you should support both their teams, but if they're in the same division you obviously have to decide which one counts most. (A good friend has degrees from both Maryland and Georgia Tech; like most people, his undergrad school gets precedence, so he roots for Tech unless they play the Terps. I'm fine with this; in fact, IMO this is the only acceptable reason for sports bigamy.)

2. If you have a local team in a given sport and don't have a compelling reason (dad's team, you used to live somewhere else and you already have a team, etc.), you should support that team if you want to follow that sport.

3. If you don't have a school or a local team (or a family member's team, or something else compelling like that), then it's fine to just pick a team arbitrarily to support, with the understanding that the better the team you pick, the more you kind of suck. If you just happen to pick good teams in every sport, then you really suck.

4. You can't _really_ root for two teams that ever have any chance of ever playing each other; you can have only One True Team per league/sport. (Division I/II/III status in the NCAA is basically the same as being in different sports.) It's okay to _casually_ support teams other than your real team, especially local teams, as long as it's just casual and doesn't mean anything -- IF they do not regularly compete against your team. (For example, I tend to root for Georgia Tech a lot, since A) they're the local team, B) I have a lot of friends who went there, and C) their mortal enemy is UGA, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I go to some of their games and cheer for them sometimes. But I don't own any Tech regalia (I usually wear UT garb to their games, in fact), and if they lose, 15 minutes later I'm not thinking about it. The remote possibility that UT and GT might one day have to play each other keeps my support for Tech restrained.)

So no, I don't consider you to violate any of this. Old Dominion is your school, so you should root for them, but they're in a lower division. I'd probably sneer at your different football/basketball teams if you'd actually gone to either school, but since you're a free agent, it doesn't matter. Your rooting for ETSU is basically like my rooting for Ga Tech -- casual and unlikely to ever conflict with your allegiance to Duke basketball (or UT football, if they ever bring the program back).

I know you must feel much better to have my stamp of approval, right?

[Lexvol]

The older I get (given the nature of free agency and coaching changes) the more I find myself rooting for individuals and coaches. Of course I do have a list of teams that I could never support under any circumstances.

UT is the only team I am really passionate about, and the Braves and the Dolphins will also receive blind loyalty.

[doozer]

so if you live in a town like Knoxville, all professional teams are fair game?

[allvol123]

I break your rule #4 as I was a Steelers and Browns fan growing up, which really makes no sense. Steelers always won out for my affection when they played, but I loved the old Municipal Stadium in Cleveland on TV. I liked their uniforms and the cold weather they played in as well.

[doozer]

Municipal Stadium was a dump.

[allvol123]

Exactly.

[Vercingetorix]

Originally Posted by doozer

so if you live in a town like Knoxville, all professional teams are fair game?

Sure. I think I would tend to root for pro teams that were at least fairly close by in the region, but I wouldn't argue that it's mandatory. I know I wouldn't feel compelled to root for the Titans simply because they decided to name themselves after the whole state instead of just Nashville.

I have no problem with anybody from someplace like Knoxville rooting for any pro teams (with the caveat that they suck if they just happen to root for the Cowboys, Yankees, Lakers, etc.). Just pick a team and stick with them almost forever.

(When it's acceptable to fire a team would probably have to be a whole different thread, I think.)

[Vercingetorix]

Originally Posted by allvol123

I break your rule #4 as I was a Steelers and Browns fan growing up, which really makes no sense. Steelers always won out for my affection when they played, but I loved the old Municipal Stadium in Cleveland on TV. I liked their uniforms and the cold weather they played in as well.

The rules don't really apply to little kids, as long as they figure things out by about the time they learn to drive. I bet you don't identify yourself as a Steelers and Browns fan now.

[tvolsfan]

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

2. If you have a local team in a given sport and don't have a compelling reason (dad's team, you used to live somewhere else and you already have a team, etc.), you should support that team if you want to follow that sport.

I guess I better stop following baseball.

[doozer]

if the time comes to fire a team, i don't know that you could say that you were ever a big enough fan to begin with.

the NFL is really the only league i can definitively say i don't have a team i root for. it worked out quite nicely that way. as a kid, obviously i rooted for the 49ers because they were good as were always on TV. but as i began to play fantasy football, i found it much easier to remain objective when drafting players. plus it's nice to sit down on Sunday and not have to worry about my RB torching my favorite team. in other words, there's no conflict of interest.

[kptvol]

Is it cool if you just support whatever teams are currently dominant?

[doozer]

i would also add that if you claim somebody as your team, you should make every attempt to see that team in their home park/stadium/arena at least once.

[doozer]

Originally Posted by kptvol

Is it cool if you just support whatever teams are currently dominant?

i can think of a certain person around here who follows this line of fandom.

[allvol123]

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

The rules don't really apply to little kids, as long as they figure things out by about the time they learn to drive. I bet you don't identify yourself as a Steelers and Browns fan now.

Cool. Thanks, I did formulate the rooting for those teams as a kid. I guess now I only consider myself a casual NFL fan. I'd identify myself as a Steeler fan, the Browns kind of lost their luster after they ceased to exist for a while.

[tvolsfan]

Originally Posted by doozer

i can think of a certain person around here who follows this line of fandom.

Well they probably aren't a UT fan.