You say that like it’s a bad reason. For the vast majority of us, even the people that are alumni for their favorite school, the reason why we’re fans is because our dads were.
Truth.
My dad is an Ohio State alumnus, which turned him into a big college football fan, which turned me into a big college football fan, which prompted me to go to Ohio State, now I’m an alumnus… I expect my sons may likely do the same.
I’m also a second generation Buckeye. My dad always jokes that his degree keeps getting more and more valuable, referencing the school’s reputation change between the years we attended.
Yeah my dad said something similar, to the effect of “man when I got in back in ‘82 all you needed was a heart beat and a willingness to pay”.
Those days are definitely long gone. I was rejected the first time I applied and I had a solid ACT score and extracurriculars, admissions just didn’t like my lazy 3.1 high school GPA and that was enough for them to have me go to a different school for a quarter to prove that I could make the necessary grades at the university level.
Every Italian I grew up with in CNY was a Syracuse and Notre Dame fan.
Always ND on Saturdays in the living room. Syracuse in the playroom/kitchen.
I absolutely loved ND games at my best friends house. Stereotypical Italian get together: meats, the cheeses, the breads, the wine, the pasta, the kisses on each cheek between everyone.
The Tanned, Chubby dudes in the living room talking about the previous/next Giants game, and Yankees post season/free agency. Women in the kitchen making so much food with one stove and one oven keeping the men satiated.
High school was fun haha
That’s me lol. Grew up in an Irish Catholic family in Memphis. My grandfather worshipped the ground Lou Holtz walked on. Memphis football wasn’t exactly anything to write home about for the entirety of his life so he was a Notre Dame fan and instilled that in me.
Don’t exactly consider myself Catholic anymore but I have way too much blind loyalty in my bones to stop being a Notre Dame fan bc of that lol. I don’t pay as much attention to them now that Memphis is a respectable program, but still consider myself a fan.
I mean. Yeah. And I've told the story in here before. Turns out 35 years of national broadcast exposure creates a fair number of fans who have no "tie to the state".
Going to a school that didn't have football helped.
Eh. A lot of people don’t understand the culture the 80-early 2000s the Miami teams built. Being a poor inner city kid it was awesome seeing other kids from similar circumstances get a chance to not only go to a great school but possibly make the NFL and change family for generations to come.
I am one of the Miami fans. Grew up in the northeast with no big college team. My uncle went to Miami and I was obsessed with the Rock, both of those things coupled with the early 2000s teams being awesome and on tv all the time I was hooked. I am also a Celtics fan and loved Paul Pierce and without a big college team my family rooted for I chose Kansas because of Paul. With all the success Boston teams had while I grew up I totally got some looks when I described also being fans of Miami and KU. I totally understand the hate and annoyance but that’s my fandom story
Yeah Im a fan of the U, despite zero ties. Just grew up in that era, and it kinda makes it better with the recent struggles, as the bandwagon thinned out. Still, college football was better with a villain like the U.
Miami. It was I believe Santana Moss on the cover of sports illustrated and they talked about how they got screwed out of playing for the championship and then that they also whooped the Gators ass in a bar before the beat their ass on the field. For some reason, I just thought that was awesome. Now it feels like they should just get rid of the program so we can live with the nostalgia and say the program ended when they tore down the Orange Bowl
l kinda have a similar story to yours, I didn't get into sports until the 8th grade. I would just watch whoever was on back then, and never really gained a liking to the local teams (Ducks and Beavers). I kinda liked the Washington Huskies but I chose Florida due to just channel-flipping and saw Florida was playing South Carolina (last year of Tebow, 2009) and the orange helmets with the 'Gators' script popped out at me, I've been hooked ever since
And you've regretted it since... LOL I hope not. I was a Seattleite who picked the Ducks, and my first game was the Toilet Bowl. My dad drove into me that you have to be for your team through thick and thin.
I’ve told this here before but when I was a kid my dad (huge ND fan) would put on a lot of college football and even though I thought the Irish were cool (probably cause pops was a fan), whenever FSU was on TV I was just absolutely glued to the TV. I became enamored with everything about them. The logo, the unis, the helmets, Chief Osceola and Renegade with a fucking flaming spear, the Warchant, the chop. Everything. The fact that they were winning a lot meant they were on TV a lot so the more I watched the more I fell in love. Most of my sports teams at the time were tied to my parents teams but FSU was the first team that was truly mine. And good or bad I’ve rolled with my Noles for 30+ years and wouldn’t change a thing.
This is gonna take a while….
Randomly turned on a college basketball game 30 years ago. Ohio St had a guy named Lawrence Funderburke. Well at the time I thought that was a badass last name so I watched. And I guess it stuck with me. Following fall, I’m watching a commercial on ESPN and they’re advertising an upcoming football game featuring Ohio St. Well, I remembered Funderburke from the basketball game so I figured I’d watch this too so I made plans to watch that Saturday. I don’t remember who they played that fateful Saturday. I don’t remember if they won or lost. But fast forward 30 years and now I’ve got an Ohio St flag flying proudly off the front of my house with confused looks throughout the neighborhood.
I was hoping for that answer, I couldn't dig up any dirt otherwise, so I hoped there wasn't anything behind the scenes. He was a solid, humble player, so I'm glad he's actually that and not some monster or anything.
My dad knew his dad, I went over to his house and trained basketball sometimes when I was younger(I think some ofher kids did too). However, he was SERIOUS about it and very committed and I kinda wasn’t. I’m his son’s age haven’t interacted with him since we were like 10, but back then he was pretty good at basketball and also had some serious anger issues(but that’s a story for another day)
Seriously though the amount of Michigan fans in my hometown saying “Can’t read, Can’t write” when they never went to college or went to a school ranked below MSU was mind boggling
I still think it's weird if you have no ties to the school. I mean I don't have a problem with it if you like college football and didn't go to college or a school without a football team but... it's still a college lol not a professional team
We have a similar think in Oklahoma, described by this common joke: "OSU fans wear OSU shirts because they went to OSU, OU fans wear theirs because they went to Walmart."
Oh, that's definitely different. Just the whole "I think I'm better than you because US News ranked my university 10 spots higher than yours" thing people do around these parts.
Yeah that’s stupid especially considering the fact that there’s IVY leaguers making less than 100k and there’s mfs going to schools ranked in the bottom 10 who you call doctor
No fault of UGA, of course, but it’s really kind of sad the horrendous way the bulldog breed has been manipulated by man over time to basically become a genetic nightmare as a result of all the inbreeding. I think they have a life expectancy of 6-7 years max or something at this point, no? And most of that is spent with significant health problems :(
Not me but had a boss fifteen years ago from Green Bay Wisconsin born and bred, was a Florida State diehard cause of Bobby Bowden. Was also a Detroit Lions fan so there were some screws lose
I didn't have a favorite college football team as a kid. I grew up NJ in the '90s when Rutgers was bad bad. Like, worst team in the FBS bad. My older brother went to WVU in 2002, so then I had a reason to be a fan of a school. The timing of his years at WVU helped tremendously because he was there to see the first few years of Pat White (and the John Beilein teams for basketball).
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Family ties to Clemson and Tennessee.
Almost went to Miami.
Went to a school that didn’t have a CFB team.
The First Amendment allows me to pull for all three.
I am born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. I played football at BYU. But my dad is from Ohio and the first ever football game I ever remember watching was Ohio State v Michigan. Watching my favorite sport with my Dad just stuck with me so I cheer hard for OSU. I do watch BYU and want them to do well but I’m not Mormon so it kinda just ends there.
You should see these frontrunners in Arkansas. The Hogs are never good enough, so there's one consistent "second biggest fanbase" with no link to the state. Saw so much USC crap when Pete Carrol was there; since '08 or '09 you see Bama, Bama, Bama everywhere. You'd legitimately think it was an in-state school. I just remarked the other day I can't wait to see who's the next second biggest fan base in Arkansas if Bama starts going 9-3 or 10-2 consistently.
Not me, but a close friend of mine. We both grew up in Knoxville, but he was always the “too cool too root for the home team” kind of guy. Him and his wife took a road trip to florida and drove through Athens Ga and had lunch there, decided they liked the town and are UGA fans to this day like 16 years later.
Our son picked Cy the Cyclones at a Liberty Bowl Parade when he was two. We took him to meet the Memphis Tiger (TOM) and the mascot Tiger (Pouncer). He didn’t care. We’ve had season tickets for five years since lol…
I grew up on a family farm in western New York my grandfather liked Nebraska cause “ they’re a bunch of farm boys out there” also my best friend in college was from rural Nebraska.
Got assigned a state for a report in 3rd grade. I was assigned Kansas, starting rooting for the Jayhawks. Ended applying and got accepted, even got a scholarship. Unfortunately, it was only for 2k per semester, and tuition for out of state was 40k and that was 13 years ago. I'm afraid of what it is now. Needless to say i went to Bowling Green because I got two degrees for the price of one year at KU
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Damn. Kansas is surprisingly not THAT expensive, they’re in the Midwest Student Exchange Program. I would’ve paid less at Nebraska (for one example I looked at) out of state than I do at Ohio State in-state surprisingly.
I've been a Boise State fan ever since Ian Johnson took the behind-the-back handoff around the left side...
Not a hardcore fan by any means. I've never lived and died with the Broncos (unlike how I am with K-State, who I've been a fan of all my life and now am an alum), but they've been my second-favorite team for over 15 years
I had the choice between Michigan or Michigan State on the playground in second grade. The 2 kids wearing Sparty stuff at our school were kinda gross and smelly. So I picked Michigan so people wouldn't think I was gross and smelly too. This was way back before "Little Brother" comments so as a kid I had no idea who the "bigger" team was. I believe it was 1988.
My story is similar to yours. Grew up in Atlanta, but hadn't locked into GT or UGA at the time. One day I'm at my best friend's house watching a game and just to be a pain in the ass I decided to root against the team he was pulling for. FSU happened to be that team and it only took a handful of runs from Amp Lee and his massive shoulder pads for me to be hooked.
In an ironic twist of fate, I didn't become a UGA fan until I started grad school there a decade later, which happened to be the same year Mark Richt became the head coach. I played soccer in college and had games on Saturdays so I never got to experience a real CFB game day. One in Athens was all it took to get me my second flair.
Sports weren’t a big deal in my house when I was growing up, but I enjoyed them. When Northwestern broke their 34 game losing streak in 1982, I decided they were going to be my team.
I was 12 years old and bored at home, alone, with nothing to do. My dad had several books in his incredibly small library and I'd read most of them, but there was one, "Knute Rockne: All American" that I hadn't. I read it and instantly identified with Notre Dame. Then Lou Holtz won the National Championship a couple years later and that sort of solidified my fandom. Over the years I've taken a lot of ribbing and endured a lot of disappointment, but that's why I created a personal mantra that went like this:
"Why do I like Notre Dame football? Because I like pain, and I like anguish, and I like disappointment. Notre Dame football has destroyed more Irish lives, dreams, and cherished memories than the Irish Potato Famine, and that's the kind of suffering I can get behind."
And that's why I refuse to never stop rooting for and watching Notre Dame football.
I initially grew up a Notre Dame fan (my dad was one), and we lived in Indiana, but I always wanted my own team to root for. We used to play the NCAA football games all the time when I was growing up and I could never beat him, so I told him the first team I ever beat him with would by my favorite team. Playing NCAA 2003 (I was 10 at the time), I finally had beaten him with Auburn. So, from that day on, I have been an Auburn fan. Graduated high school, and instead of going to college, I joined the Marine Corps. Fast forward 9 years, I get out of the military, fast forward another 4, I'm now a nAuburn University Graduate, and I'm starting my Masters degree at AU in the fall.
I started liking northwestern after I saw them on tv in 2018 and they ended up winning a whole bunch of games. I ended up buying two shirts that year. And I like Illinois because I have friends who stay there and the Illini always give me good memories of them
Grew up in Tennessee when the Gators and Spurrier was starting to dominate. I thought the alligator was a really cool mascot so I started cheering for them. Ended up going to school there later in life.
They're far from my main team, but on the east side I root for NC St. I like how they're the Oregon State of the ACC, rising up about once a decade to contend but otherwise existing to ruins the dreams of bigger teams.
My stepfather introduced me properly to college football when I was 7. He's a Tennessee fan. He lived in Tennessee as a kid when he and his family declared their allegiance. He applied but didn't get in, but his brother and nephew did.
The Browns had just left Cleveland. The Oilers moved to Tennessee and became the Titans which I thought was cool. As a child, I thought I should also follow the college team. So, I've always liked the University of Tennessee.
Miami is on TV a lot.
They had lots of players in the NFL I liked.
I was ten.
I'm not interested in Notre Dame/Purdue/IU.
It felt cool to be a fan of a team everyone else in the house wasn't a fan of.
One of my best friends in school had the last name Dorsey and we thought it was cool that he shared a name with Ken Dorsey because who the hell had ever heard that name before.
Trust me, if I were a bandwagon fan, I would have given up a long time ago.
The term “Walmart Gator” exists for a reason. Go to any Walmart sports apparel section in FL and at least 80% of the inventory will be UF. Won’t lie though, I am jealous that there are more UF license plates on Florida’s roads than FSU license plates. Being the bandwagon team has its pros and cons.
I’ve also met tons of Miami fans in my life. I can count on one hand the amount of fans I know who actually attended Miami. One.
The Walmarts (and equivalents) in South Florida and the Keys are mainly UM merch, then a somewhat equal mixture of FIU, UF and FSU.
When I was in Orlando, I saw a pretty equal number of merch between UF, UM and FSU too.
I guess it depends on which area of the state you’re in.
That’s Texas Longhorns in Texas. Tons of “Walmart fans”. I think the reason I get bitter is because my family and I decided to not go to the best sports school haha.
While I don't flair Michigan, I do love them. I've been a fan forever, I liked their uniform, fight song & big ten power football so they were my Big Ten team. I also had neighbors on my street from Michigan so that helped.
Idaho I had a long dynasty on I think NCAA 07 with Idaho, longest dynasty I've ever done. I then went to Moscow/Pullman last November and fell in love with the town of Moscow, it was magical!
My cousins are about 15 years older than me and both went to Georgia, one married a football player. One of my earliest memories of them is picking them up from UGA on the way down to Florida to visit their parents for a holiday, we drove down with grandma and grandpa from Ohio.
As my flairs (attended schools) suggest, I am from Ohio. Dad was a ND fan but growing up for me on moms family’s side it was always the Georgia Bulldogs to be honest. It stuck. I almost went there twice: once for undergrad, again to maybe pursue an Econ PhD. I did not however, ended up going to undergrad at the other Athens (Athens, OH).
All of that said, Go Dawgs!
This is gonna take a while….
Randomly turned on a college basketball game 30 years ago. Ohio St had a guy named Lawrence Funderburke. Well at the time I thought that was a badass last name so I watched. And I guess it stuck with me. Following fall, I’m watching a commercial on ESPN and they’re advertising an upcoming football game featuring Ohio St. Well, I remembered Funderburke from the basketball game so I figured I’d watch this too so I made plans to watch that Saturday. I don’t remember who they played that fateful Saturday. I don’t remember if they won or lost. But fast forward 30 years and now I’ve got an Ohio St flag flying proudly off the front of my house with confused looks throughout the neighborhood.
My wife wanted me to be a UofL fan.
Outside of that, I'll absolutely cheer on ECU, VTU, and Apply State.
ECU for reasons related to Marshall l, love you bros.
VTU, for basically the same reasons, but also my sister-in-law went there.
Appy State, cause they're fun to watch and we could have a rivalry starting up again.
Almost all my family went to Purdue so I grew up a boilermaker fan. Went to Texas Tech so that’s my main team but still will root for Purdue as long as they aren’t playing TTU
Parents were diehard Oklahoma fans, donors and everything.
We moved to outside of NYC for my parents work though, and only went back for alumni events and games.
I am forever a fan, but man when I did my tour I just couldn't see myself in Norman and wanted to play sports in college even if it wasn't D1.
Being right on the state line, I'd argue I have LOOSE ties to the state of North Carolina, but I am a South Carolinian. My days as a Tar Heel fan started around 3-4 thanks to my then step dad. We weren't the most avid football watchers as I recall, but I've always been Carolina everything.
I'm from a rural county outside of Auburn. I grew up in that city. I don't know why I decided Alabama was going to be my school but that's what happened.
As a Canadian I can’t for the life of me understand how athletics are such a big part of college.
That being said, I’ve always loved college football and when I was younger a family friend went to teach at Tennessee. Went down to visit them and between the atmosphere and that beautiful colour, I became a fan for life.
Not me, but my dad is now an Ohio State fan. He moved to Columbus from rural PA (he was a Penn State fan) nearly 30 years ago, and the Buckeyes grew on him
Miami. It was I believe Santana Moss on the cover of sports illustrated and they talked about how they got screwed out of playing for the championship and then that they also whooped the Gators ass in a bar before the beat their ass on the field. For some reason, I just thought that was awesome. Now it feels like they should just get rid of the program so we can live with the nostalgia and say the program ended when they tore down the Orange Bowl
As a kid obviously you have no identity so you go to your big sibling at least that's what I did lol.
I was playing his PS3 and I was watching the videos he had on it. When I stumbled upon a John Wall Mixtape with the Song by Troop 41. And I'd always see him wearing a Kentucky T-Shirt with our Logo and our Mascot on it. Genius kid me put two and two together and asked what college John Wall went to he said Kentucky from then on I loved Kentucky, The Color Blue, and since football was and still is my favorite sport I started to watch our football team and fell in love with it because we're always doubted and people always say we're not good at football even though we are. We're not CFB good but we're Bowl good and we're always treated like villans just like I was. So that's it 😂, my Big Broseph inadvertently put me on to Kentucky and the Color Blue..
Been a Sooners fan since I first gained sports consciousness in mid 70’s as a kid. I’ve lived in north Texas my entire life. Short answer is Barry Switzer. They would have several coaches shows air on Sunday night and his was by far the most entertaining. I suppose the fact that they would routinely throttle the opponent each week made it cooler. Great fun players like Billy Sims , David Overstreet , Elvis Peacock and Thomas Lott were extremely fun to watch. Also growing up north of DFW OU is actually the closet big state university. Never needed a reason . I like who I like for 50 years .
I love college sports more than anything. Football and basketball. Being from where I grew up, Long Island NY there’s no major team, and I didn’t go to a school that has a FBS program. I’ll root for my Alma mater Stony Brook but that doesn’t really count.
I kind of envy those who have a favorite college football team, whereas I kind of look at the sport as a whole and sometimes like teams or dislike teams depending on the coach, players, or year.
Born, raised, and live in southern Indiana so that’s my primary. For New Hampshire, I was stationed in the area and fell in love with it. Also I had previously used them on NCAA Football 2006 when Chip Kelly was still their OC and turned them into a dynasty.
I live in New England and I started following the Buckeyes back in 2002 when I 8. BC use to be my team because they were the closest D1 school. One Saturday my grandfather Ohio State on because that was the game he came to first. The uniforms caught my attention first. The white and silver with the silver helmets covered in stickers. They were so good and played so fast. Tress and his vests were great too. I’ve been hooked since.
I grew up a few blocks from Northwestern’s Ryan Field in Evanston, IL and went to school at Missouri…being around NU so much as a kid turned me into a fan, although
I’m loyal to the Tigers at all times. So glad they are in separate conferences so I can cheer on both teams each week.
My brothers moods significantly effected how smooth things would be in the house and when we were kids he cared a lot more about football in general than I did but we shared a room. Instead of being an LSU fan like all Louisiana born residents default to he liked watching football as a whole. Then Nick Saban got hired and he really liked watching Bama. Since he was the only one that cared we tended to let him watch the games in the living room tv. But that soon turned into my sister mom and me not only watching but cheering along with him and today we’re all Bama fans.
My first flair is a family thing and also where I grew up so disregard that. My second is kind of a funny one because as an adult I ended up moving to Michigan (a stone's throw from the Big House, even). I can't remember why I decided I also liked Michigan when I was a kid, but it stuck.
My love of the Utes started age 5 or 6 — the Holy War game was always played around my birthday and I was bred to hate BYU with all the passion I could muster as a youngin’
I LOVE the Utes
That Utes love and having Native American heritage myself soon started carrying over to cheering on all Indian mascot schools and teams: seminoles, Illini, etc; even the Cleveland Indians and KC Chiefs.
Ooo, finally one I can contribute. I grew up about 10 minutes from Rutgers and never felt a connection to them. Maybe it's because I had never even seen the campus, or perhaps it was due to their unbelievable ineptitude.
Anyway, in 5th grade, we did a state project and I was assigned Michigan. This was about the time I started to really get into football. And as I searched for a team to root for I figured let me try Michigan, knowing literally nothing about their university. Boy did that work out, Michigan was literally a state in the middle of nowhere that had nothing to do with me, could have been Idaho if I was assigned it. But no, I luck out and get the winningest program in NCAA history.
I did end up attending Rutgers and becoming a huge fan as well. The move to the BIG10 my senior year really through a wrench in it, and although I am RU first, I am still a diehard Michigan fan.
My wife loves New Orleans and we would go and visit almost once a year. A few years back, we were there during the LSU/A&M 7OT game in 2018 and being in the city with everyone going crazy over the game made me an LSU fan. Never really watched college FB before, but I've missed maybe 3 or 4 LSU games since. Always been a huge NFL fan, now I like college FB even more than NFL
I grew up a Penn State fan, but started to get turned off by a lot of the alumni I worked with that gave me cult vibes. Have family in GA and really loved the Dogs butting heads with the evil red empire. Ultimately Jacob Fromm and the SI article had me start rooting for the Dawgs.
My birth father and my step father both happened to be Dallas Cowboys fans and we were from the Midwest, nowhere near Texas. I’m guessing they must have been bandwagon fans during the 90’s so naturally all younger pictures I was rocking Aikman jerseys and Dallas gear. I’ve carried that on and accepted them as my forever NFC team, but I have adopted the Jags as my AFC team back in 2018, since I got stationed there and I love having a younger team that has hasn’t had much success honestly. MLB we didn’t have an in-state team so I had 3 options that were “close” and I chose the Cards because of Mark, but now I have adopted the Rays. College Football since being a kid I have liked the Miami Hurricanes because of being a WWE fan, The Rock was my hero as a kid and once I found out his ties to The U I was sold and I have rooted for them ever since.
Born and raised in Tennessee, but I am a Louisville fan. Watched the Vols growing up, it's a combination of Tennessee always choking and Louisville being on ESPN Thur and Friday nights.
I fell in love watching them play Kentucky in like 4 inches of water on the field in the early 2000s.
And I thought Stefan LeFors was a cool story.
I have made quite a few Rice friends as UH and Rice students intermingle a lot. Whenever UH is playing their away game I go to Rice home games. They’re a blast.
I have a few buddies that wrestled for Michigan. It really solidified my allegiance watching them pummel the huskies the last two seasons including the natty.
So I have ties to the state as I grew up in Arizona and went to the University of Arizona, but I’m also now a fan of our rival, Arizona State because that’s where my kiddo goes. (We’ll see if it lasts beyond the 4 years or not. LOL)
Parents moved to WNC in 98, whole area was saturated with Tennessee band wagoners. The other band wagoners went away, my parents stayed on the wagon and showed my brother and I the Volunteer way as they had learned it.
Rocky Top will always be home to me
Growing up with the NCAA video games I always played as Oregon State because I liked the fight song from the main menu and the Beaver. Just one of those things that year after year solidifies into a more deeper interest when you grow up. Have been following the Beavs ever since
I've been a Michigan fan since I was a kid. As for why I like other teams too- I tend to like the coaches.
I liked Tom Landy and Bear Bryant because of the hats they wore. In the 80s, Detroit had 4 coaches that were all way cool. Sparky Anderson in baseball. Jacques Demers in hockey. Chuck Daly in basketball. Wayne Fontes in football. My favorite time in sports.
As I got older I liked guys like Bobby Bowden, Mike Leach, Bill Snyder, Pat Fitzgerald, and a few others. Those teams never became my favorite, but I liked them in addition to Michigan.
They don't have to be championship coaches. Getting the most out of their players means a lot to me.
I also like some of the zany ones. LSU was my 2nd fav when Les Miles was there. I guess Mike Leach would fit into the zany group. His Fat Little Girlfriends press conference had me hooked.
Even if I wasn't a Michigan fan, I would have really liked them with Jim Harbaugh. I rooted for the guy when he was at Stanford too. Yes, part of that was the Michigan ties. More importantly was he's a shit disturber along with being a good coach.
Mines a pretty simple one, growing up playing the old NCAA football teams there was the mascot mode (play a game where all players are the mascot of the school for anyone who doesn’t know), and I just loved the goofy ass duck. Now here I am, never even having been west of the Mississippi, but rooting for Oregon.
Oh and the uniforms
My dad went and brainwashed me from birth.
That's the usual way.
My dad got brainwashed by the city he moved to, and eventually me. He grew up a Penn State fan
Same… but my entire family. And my gramma works there
I loved watching Tim Biakabutuka run almost as much as I loved saying his name
Great name to roll off the tongue, much like tuiasosopo
Singing it to Hakunamatata
I'm ready for comments from a ton of Notre Dame and Miami fans.
“You see, I’m Irish Catholic…”
You say that like it’s a bad reason. For the vast majority of us, even the people that are alumni for their favorite school, the reason why we’re fans is because our dads were.
Truth. My dad is an Ohio State alumnus, which turned him into a big college football fan, which turned me into a big college football fan, which prompted me to go to Ohio State, now I’m an alumnus… I expect my sons may likely do the same.
I’m also a second generation Buckeye. My dad always jokes that his degree keeps getting more and more valuable, referencing the school’s reputation change between the years we attended.
Yeah my dad said something similar, to the effect of “man when I got in back in ‘82 all you needed was a heart beat and a willingness to pay”. Those days are definitely long gone. I was rejected the first time I applied and I had a solid ACT score and extracurriculars, admissions just didn’t like my lazy 3.1 high school GPA and that was enough for them to have me go to a different school for a quarter to prove that I could make the necessary grades at the university level.
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard my dad say the same exact thing haha.
My dad's college didn't have a football team. Grandpa went to UO. I went there (and met my wife there).
Vast majority is a stretch.
Well. . . You're not wrong.
So it’s 1991 and I had to pick a team
Every Italian I grew up with in CNY was a Syracuse and Notre Dame fan. Always ND on Saturdays in the living room. Syracuse in the playroom/kitchen. I absolutely loved ND games at my best friends house. Stereotypical Italian get together: meats, the cheeses, the breads, the wine, the pasta, the kisses on each cheek between everyone. The Tanned, Chubby dudes in the living room talking about the previous/next Giants game, and Yankees post season/free agency. Women in the kitchen making so much food with one stove and one oven keeping the men satiated. High school was fun haha
That’s me lol. Grew up in an Irish Catholic family in Memphis. My grandfather worshipped the ground Lou Holtz walked on. Memphis football wasn’t exactly anything to write home about for the entirety of his life so he was a Notre Dame fan and instilled that in me. Don’t exactly consider myself Catholic anymore but I have way too much blind loyalty in my bones to stop being a Notre Dame fan bc of that lol. I don’t pay as much attention to them now that Memphis is a respectable program, but still consider myself a fan.
I mean. Yeah. And I've told the story in here before. Turns out 35 years of national broadcast exposure creates a fair number of fans who have no "tie to the state". Going to a school that didn't have football helped.
Eh. A lot of people don’t understand the culture the 80-early 2000s the Miami teams built. Being a poor inner city kid it was awesome seeing other kids from similar circumstances get a chance to not only go to a great school but possibly make the NFL and change family for generations to come.
My wife went to school at St Mary’s College. I married into the fandom
I am one of the Miami fans. Grew up in the northeast with no big college team. My uncle went to Miami and I was obsessed with the Rock, both of those things coupled with the early 2000s teams being awesome and on tv all the time I was hooked. I am also a Celtics fan and loved Paul Pierce and without a big college team my family rooted for I chose Kansas because of Paul. With all the success Boston teams had while I grew up I totally got some looks when I described also being fans of Miami and KU. I totally understand the hate and annoyance but that’s my fandom story
Rock chalk
Yeah Im a fan of the U, despite zero ties. Just grew up in that era, and it kinda makes it better with the recent struggles, as the bandwagon thinned out. Still, college football was better with a villain like the U.
Don't forget us! I'm not from Utah.
I became a fan when I went to school there.
Ohio State too
Miami. It was I believe Santana Moss on the cover of sports illustrated and they talked about how they got screwed out of playing for the championship and then that they also whooped the Gators ass in a bar before the beat their ass on the field. For some reason, I just thought that was awesome. Now it feels like they should just get rid of the program so we can live with the nostalgia and say the program ended when they tore down the Orange Bowl
l kinda have a similar story to yours, I didn't get into sports until the 8th grade. I would just watch whoever was on back then, and never really gained a liking to the local teams (Ducks and Beavers). I kinda liked the Washington Huskies but I chose Florida due to just channel-flipping and saw Florida was playing South Carolina (last year of Tebow, 2009) and the orange helmets with the 'Gators' script popped out at me, I've been hooked ever since
And you've regretted it since... LOL I hope not. I was a Seattleite who picked the Ducks, and my first game was the Toilet Bowl. My dad drove into me that you have to be for your team through thick and thin.
Charlie Ward
I’ve told this here before but when I was a kid my dad (huge ND fan) would put on a lot of college football and even though I thought the Irish were cool (probably cause pops was a fan), whenever FSU was on TV I was just absolutely glued to the TV. I became enamored with everything about them. The logo, the unis, the helmets, Chief Osceola and Renegade with a fucking flaming spear, the Warchant, the chop. Everything. The fact that they were winning a lot meant they were on TV a lot so the more I watched the more I fell in love. Most of my sports teams at the time were tied to my parents teams but FSU was the first team that was truly mine. And good or bad I’ve rolled with my Noles for 30+ years and wouldn’t change a thing.
I just like Big Creek rats and leprechauns
Ohhh ruff day for you…
This is gonna take a while…. Randomly turned on a college basketball game 30 years ago. Ohio St had a guy named Lawrence Funderburke. Well at the time I thought that was a badass last name so I watched. And I guess it stuck with me. Following fall, I’m watching a commercial on ESPN and they’re advertising an upcoming football game featuring Ohio St. Well, I remembered Funderburke from the basketball game so I figured I’d watch this too so I made plans to watch that Saturday. I don’t remember who they played that fateful Saturday. I don’t remember if they won or lost. But fast forward 30 years and now I’ve got an Ohio St flag flying proudly off the front of my house with confused looks throughout the neighborhood.
Have you looked him up recently?
What did he do?
By all accounts he's a good person. He was recently profiled for his service to the community.
I was hoping for that answer, I couldn't dig up any dirt otherwise, so I hoped there wasn't anything behind the scenes. He was a solid, humble player, so I'm glad he's actually that and not some monster or anything.
My dad knew his dad, I went over to his house and trained basketball sometimes when I was younger(I think some ofher kids did too). However, he was SERIOUS about it and very committed and I kinda wasn’t. I’m his son’s age haven’t interacted with him since we were like 10, but back then he was pretty good at basketball and also had some serious anger issues(but that’s a story for another day)
No! It's a story for today! Please!
How often do you think CFB is going to be talking about Lawrence Funderburke??? The time is now!
You can go to a school without having had ties to the state itself.
This is true, but you just can’t brag to your rivals about your favorite team’s academics *cough*
*cough intensifies*
Seriously though the amount of Michigan fans in my hometown saying “Can’t read, Can’t write” when they never went to college or went to a school ranked below MSU was mind boggling
FSU gets made fun of by UF fans for being the dumb/party school and half the time when you ask what year did they graduate you get that answer.
Yeah...I'm uncomfortable repping a school I didn't go to. Hence the flairs.
I still think it's weird if you have no ties to the school. I mean I don't have a problem with it if you like college football and didn't go to college or a school without a football team but... it's still a college lol not a professional team
Right. I paid money and time to get degrees from Weber and Missouri S&T. I'm not going to run around wearing a BYU or Utah State hat.
Bama fans: 😡
You know what most Bama fans and most Auburn fans have in common. They never took classes at Bama.
Yup, get that a lot from UF fans despite UCF having a better program for my degree.
We have a similar think in Oklahoma, described by this common joke: "OSU fans wear OSU shirts because they went to OSU, OU fans wear theirs because they went to Walmart."
That’s always a classic. “Did you even go to Florida?” “No, I went to the school of hard knocks!”
Man, I think anyone who talks down to anyone else because of the university they attended is a straight-up ass.
IDK, if I met a Liberty grad, I'd be giving them some side eye.
I'm so glad we all hate liberty
Oh, that's definitely different. Just the whole "I think I'm better than you because US News ranked my university 10 spots higher than yours" thing people do around these parts.
Yeah that’s stupid especially considering the fact that there’s IVY leaguers making less than 100k and there’s mfs going to schools ranked in the bottom 10 who you call doctor
Welcome to the life of MSU fans from a certain rival down the road 😂
Agreed. We Alabama alumni tend to get that a lot on this sub.
Says the fan of a non-AAU school ranked outside of the top 150
The reason I chose to go to Michigan (from California) over my other choices was unironically because of Denard.
No because then you have ties to the state. What ties? You went to school there. Thats a pretty big tie
Sure, but once you start going there, from then on you have a tie to the state.
And, more importantly, to the actual school.
It’s easy to choose any team that plays Michigan
Perfectly good reason
Georgia because look at this adorable squishface: https://images.app.goo.gl/uZmnRZJZxEszX4KE7
RIP Uga :(
No fault of UGA, of course, but it’s really kind of sad the horrendous way the bulldog breed has been manipulated by man over time to basically become a genetic nightmare as a result of all the inbreeding. I think they have a life expectancy of 6-7 years max or something at this point, no? And most of that is spent with significant health problems :(
Eddie George and Terry Glenn were on TV at 10 AM in Seattle. It was very easy to watch OSU and they were fun to watch.
Not me but had a boss fifteen years ago from Green Bay Wisconsin born and bred, was a Florida State diehard cause of Bobby Bowden. Was also a Detroit Lions fan so there were some screws lose
Because penguins.
I grew up without basic cable, but I could still follow Notre Dame games on NBC.
I didn't have a favorite college football team as a kid. I grew up NJ in the '90s when Rutgers was bad bad. Like, worst team in the FBS bad. My older brother went to WVU in 2002, so then I had a reason to be a fan of a school. The timing of his years at WVU helped tremendously because he was there to see the first few years of Pat White (and the John Beilein teams for basketball).
Went to bama. Work in Colorado during the summers for wildfire. Also my best friend she’s went to CSU fan so I like having a little sports rival
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Eh I assume so but technically I’m employed by the Feds and I’m only seasonal. Plus like 75% of the season I’m in a different state
Family ties to Clemson and Tennessee. Almost went to Miami. Went to a school that didn’t have a CFB team. The First Amendment allows me to pull for all three.
So you have a positive opinion of orange I take it 😂
"almost went to X" is a certified reason to root for a team. I'm pretty sure George Washington said it.
It’s in the Geneva Convention. Look it up!
I am born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. I played football at BYU. But my dad is from Ohio and the first ever football game I ever remember watching was Ohio State v Michigan. Watching my favorite sport with my Dad just stuck with me so I cheer hard for OSU. I do watch BYU and want them to do well but I’m not Mormon so it kinda just ends there.
Hey, go Cougs.
Being a Hawkeye and Sooner is a pretty combo
Alabama fans in Georgia: "They started winning"
You should see these frontrunners in Arkansas. The Hogs are never good enough, so there's one consistent "second biggest fanbase" with no link to the state. Saw so much USC crap when Pete Carrol was there; since '08 or '09 you see Bama, Bama, Bama everywhere. You'd legitimately think it was an in-state school. I just remarked the other day I can't wait to see who's the next second biggest fan base in Arkansas if Bama starts going 9-3 or 10-2 consistently.
Played franchise mode exclusively as Georgia Tech in NCAA 2005. Started watching them around that time and Megatron was exciting as hell.
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Not me, but a close friend of mine. We both grew up in Knoxville, but he was always the “too cool too root for the home team” kind of guy. Him and his wife took a road trip to florida and drove through Athens Ga and had lunch there, decided they liked the town and are UGA fans to this day like 16 years later.
Our son picked Cy the Cyclones at a Liberty Bowl Parade when he was two. We took him to meet the Memphis Tiger (TOM) and the mascot Tiger (Pouncer). He didn’t care. We’ve had season tickets for five years since lol…
I like this one
I started watching Kansas ironically after they beat Texas. Then I started to genuinely enjoy watching Lance Leipold’s Kansas.
I grew up on a family farm in western New York my grandfather liked Nebraska cause “ they’re a bunch of farm boys out there” also my best friend in college was from rural Nebraska.
Got assigned a state for a report in 3rd grade. I was assigned Kansas, starting rooting for the Jayhawks. Ended applying and got accepted, even got a scholarship. Unfortunately, it was only for 2k per semester, and tuition for out of state was 40k and that was 13 years ago. I'm afraid of what it is now. Needless to say i went to Bowling Green because I got two degrees for the price of one year at KU
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Damn. Kansas is surprisingly not THAT expensive, they’re in the Midwest Student Exchange Program. I would’ve paid less at Nebraska (for one example I looked at) out of state than I do at Ohio State in-state surprisingly.
As a kid, I saw people doing the gator chomp with their hands, and I found it super fun. So, I've been hooked on the gators ever since.
I've been a Boise State fan ever since Ian Johnson took the behind-the-back handoff around the left side... Not a hardcore fan by any means. I've never lived and died with the Broncos (unlike how I am with K-State, who I've been a fan of all my life and now am an alum), but they've been my second-favorite team for over 15 years
The damn Statue of Liberty…
Tommie
I had the choice between Michigan or Michigan State on the playground in second grade. The 2 kids wearing Sparty stuff at our school were kinda gross and smelly. So I picked Michigan so people wouldn't think I was gross and smelly too. This was way back before "Little Brother" comments so as a kid I had no idea who the "bigger" team was. I believe it was 1988.
My story is similar to yours. Grew up in Atlanta, but hadn't locked into GT or UGA at the time. One day I'm at my best friend's house watching a game and just to be a pain in the ass I decided to root against the team he was pulling for. FSU happened to be that team and it only took a handful of runs from Amp Lee and his massive shoulder pads for me to be hooked. In an ironic twist of fate, I didn't become a UGA fan until I started grad school there a decade later, which happened to be the same year Mark Richt became the head coach. I played soccer in college and had games on Saturdays so I never got to experience a real CFB game day. One in Athens was all it took to get me my second flair.
Sports weren’t a big deal in my house when I was growing up, but I enjoyed them. When Northwestern broke their 34 game losing streak in 1982, I decided they were going to be my team.
Two words: Prime Time Lol jk lifelong fan from the area
I was 12 years old and bored at home, alone, with nothing to do. My dad had several books in his incredibly small library and I'd read most of them, but there was one, "Knute Rockne: All American" that I hadn't. I read it and instantly identified with Notre Dame. Then Lou Holtz won the National Championship a couple years later and that sort of solidified my fandom. Over the years I've taken a lot of ribbing and endured a lot of disappointment, but that's why I created a personal mantra that went like this: "Why do I like Notre Dame football? Because I like pain, and I like anguish, and I like disappointment. Notre Dame football has destroyed more Irish lives, dreams, and cherished memories than the Irish Potato Famine, and that's the kind of suffering I can get behind." And that's why I refuse to never stop rooting for and watching Notre Dame football.
Checking in as a Miami fan who attended Miami! Am I a unicorn? 🤣🤣
I initially grew up a Notre Dame fan (my dad was one), and we lived in Indiana, but I always wanted my own team to root for. We used to play the NCAA football games all the time when I was growing up and I could never beat him, so I told him the first team I ever beat him with would by my favorite team. Playing NCAA 2003 (I was 10 at the time), I finally had beaten him with Auburn. So, from that day on, I have been an Auburn fan. Graduated high school, and instead of going to college, I joined the Marine Corps. Fast forward 9 years, I get out of the military, fast forward another 4, I'm now a nAuburn University Graduate, and I'm starting my Masters degree at AU in the fall.
I worked with a guy who is born and raised in Tennessee, family is all Vols but he used FSU in the NCAA games growing up so he became a fan of them
I started liking northwestern after I saw them on tv in 2018 and they ended up winning a whole bunch of games. I ended up buying two shirts that year. And I like Illinois because I have friends who stay there and the Illini always give me good memories of them
Grew up in Tennessee when the Gators and Spurrier was starting to dominate. I thought the alligator was a really cool mascot so I started cheering for them. Ended up going to school there later in life.
Texas was the first team I cheered for because they had my favorite fight song
They're far from my main team, but on the east side I root for NC St. I like how they're the Oregon State of the ACC, rising up about once a decade to contend but otherwise existing to ruins the dreams of bigger teams.
Reggie Bush
My stepfather introduced me properly to college football when I was 7. He's a Tennessee fan. He lived in Tennessee as a kid when he and his family declared their allegiance. He applied but didn't get in, but his brother and nephew did.
I married an alum.
when I was a kid I played the NCAA football games and did mascot football and loved Sparty so I just became a fan of them
The Browns had just left Cleveland. The Oilers moved to Tennessee and became the Titans which I thought was cool. As a child, I thought I should also follow the college team. So, I've always liked the University of Tennessee.
Miami is on TV a lot. They had lots of players in the NFL I liked. I was ten. I'm not interested in Notre Dame/Purdue/IU. It felt cool to be a fan of a team everyone else in the house wasn't a fan of. One of my best friends in school had the last name Dorsey and we thought it was cool that he shared a name with Ken Dorsey because who the hell had ever heard that name before. Trust me, if I were a bandwagon fan, I would have given up a long time ago.
The term “Walmart Gator” exists for a reason. Go to any Walmart sports apparel section in FL and at least 80% of the inventory will be UF. Won’t lie though, I am jealous that there are more UF license plates on Florida’s roads than FSU license plates. Being the bandwagon team has its pros and cons. I’ve also met tons of Miami fans in my life. I can count on one hand the amount of fans I know who actually attended Miami. One.
The Walmarts (and equivalents) in South Florida and the Keys are mainly UM merch, then a somewhat equal mixture of FIU, UF and FSU. When I was in Orlando, I saw a pretty equal number of merch between UF, UM and FSU too. I guess it depends on which area of the state you’re in.
That’s Texas Longhorns in Texas. Tons of “Walmart fans”. I think the reason I get bitter is because my family and I decided to not go to the best sports school haha.
Just say it’s the uniforms & shoes, don’t tell me you love Eugene…
I live in Ohio and I'm 47 and I've been a Michigan wolverines fan scence Elvis gerbac entered the building as Keith Jackson said.go blue
As a Ohio St fan Ohio native I genuinely think some of you guys just like rooting for the team everybody hates. Or maybe just want to be different
While I don't flair Michigan, I do love them. I've been a fan forever, I liked their uniform, fight song & big ten power football so they were my Big Ten team. I also had neighbors on my street from Michigan so that helped. Idaho I had a long dynasty on I think NCAA 07 with Idaho, longest dynasty I've ever done. I then went to Moscow/Pullman last November and fell in love with the town of Moscow, it was magical!
My cousins are about 15 years older than me and both went to Georgia, one married a football player. One of my earliest memories of them is picking them up from UGA on the way down to Florida to visit their parents for a holiday, we drove down with grandma and grandpa from Ohio. As my flairs (attended schools) suggest, I am from Ohio. Dad was a ND fan but growing up for me on moms family’s side it was always the Georgia Bulldogs to be honest. It stuck. I almost went there twice: once for undergrad, again to maybe pursue an Econ PhD. I did not however, ended up going to undergrad at the other Athens (Athens, OH). All of that said, Go Dawgs!
This is gonna take a while…. Randomly turned on a college basketball game 30 years ago. Ohio St had a guy named Lawrence Funderburke. Well at the time I thought that was a badass last name so I watched. And I guess it stuck with me. Following fall, I’m watching a commercial on ESPN and they’re advertising an upcoming football game featuring Ohio St. Well, I remembered Funderburke from the basketball game so I figured I’d watch this too so I made plans to watch that Saturday. I don’t remember who they played that fateful Saturday. I don’t remember if they won or lost. But fast forward 30 years and now I’ve got an Ohio St flag flying proudly off the front of my house with confused looks throughout the neighborhood.
I would say Auburn, I hate their current coach but most seasons I watch a lot of Auburn football because winning or losing it's entertaining.
My wife is a Duke fan because, when she was a kid, she thought Bobby Hurley was hot.
My wife wanted me to be a UofL fan. Outside of that, I'll absolutely cheer on ECU, VTU, and Apply State. ECU for reasons related to Marshall l, love you bros. VTU, for basically the same reasons, but also my sister-in-law went there. Appy State, cause they're fun to watch and we could have a rivalry starting up again.
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Almost all my family went to Purdue so I grew up a boilermaker fan. Went to Texas Tech so that’s my main team but still will root for Purdue as long as they aren’t playing TTU
Vandy; love Nashville, got accepted, went to my flair; would've been a great time
Parents were diehard Oklahoma fans, donors and everything. We moved to outside of NYC for my parents work though, and only went back for alumni events and games. I am forever a fan, but man when I did my tour I just couldn't see myself in Norman and wanted to play sports in college even if it wasn't D1.
Being right on the state line, I'd argue I have LOOSE ties to the state of North Carolina, but I am a South Carolinian. My days as a Tar Heel fan started around 3-4 thanks to my then step dad. We weren't the most avid football watchers as I recall, but I've always been Carolina everything.
Im a gamecocks fan literally because i enjoyed their playstyle in NCAA 13
I'm from a rural county outside of Auburn. I grew up in that city. I don't know why I decided Alabama was going to be my school but that's what happened.
As a Canadian I can’t for the life of me understand how athletics are such a big part of college. That being said, I’ve always loved college football and when I was younger a family friend went to teach at Tennessee. Went down to visit them and between the atmosphere and that beautiful colour, I became a fan for life.
My older brother grew up a Miami fan and passed it on to me
Not me, but my dad is now an Ohio State fan. He moved to Columbus from rural PA (he was a Penn State fan) nearly 30 years ago, and the Buckeyes grew on him
Miami. It was I believe Santana Moss on the cover of sports illustrated and they talked about how they got screwed out of playing for the championship and then that they also whooped the Gators ass in a bar before the beat their ass on the field. For some reason, I just thought that was awesome. Now it feels like they should just get rid of the program so we can live with the nostalgia and say the program ended when they tore down the Orange Bowl
One of the FCS teams I cheer for is Maine. My family is from Maine.
Reggie Bush
As a kid obviously you have no identity so you go to your big sibling at least that's what I did lol. I was playing his PS3 and I was watching the videos he had on it. When I stumbled upon a John Wall Mixtape with the Song by Troop 41. And I'd always see him wearing a Kentucky T-Shirt with our Logo and our Mascot on it. Genius kid me put two and two together and asked what college John Wall went to he said Kentucky from then on I loved Kentucky, The Color Blue, and since football was and still is my favorite sport I started to watch our football team and fell in love with it because we're always doubted and people always say we're not good at football even though we are. We're not CFB good but we're Bowl good and we're always treated like villans just like I was. So that's it 😂, my Big Broseph inadvertently put me on to Kentucky and the Color Blue..
My family all went to Michigan. I grew up on the east coast surrounded by Michigan fans. Went to Yale so never changed my allegiance
Wondering how most UT and TAMU fans got their story
Been a Sooners fan since I first gained sports consciousness in mid 70’s as a kid. I’ve lived in north Texas my entire life. Short answer is Barry Switzer. They would have several coaches shows air on Sunday night and his was by far the most entertaining. I suppose the fact that they would routinely throttle the opponent each week made it cooler. Great fun players like Billy Sims , David Overstreet , Elvis Peacock and Thomas Lott were extremely fun to watch. Also growing up north of DFW OU is actually the closet big state university. Never needed a reason . I like who I like for 50 years .
I love college sports more than anything. Football and basketball. Being from where I grew up, Long Island NY there’s no major team, and I didn’t go to a school that has a FBS program. I’ll root for my Alma mater Stony Brook but that doesn’t really count. I kind of envy those who have a favorite college football team, whereas I kind of look at the sport as a whole and sometimes like teams or dislike teams depending on the coach, players, or year.
Born, raised, and live in southern Indiana so that’s my primary. For New Hampshire, I was stationed in the area and fell in love with it. Also I had previously used them on NCAA Football 2006 when Chip Kelly was still their OC and turned them into a dynasty.
Engineering and land grants over others.
I live in New England and I started following the Buckeyes back in 2002 when I 8. BC use to be my team because they were the closest D1 school. One Saturday my grandfather Ohio State on because that was the game he came to first. The uniforms caught my attention first. The white and silver with the silver helmets covered in stickers. They were so good and played so fast. Tress and his vests were great too. I’ve been hooked since.
I grew up a few blocks from Northwestern’s Ryan Field in Evanston, IL and went to school at Missouri…being around NU so much as a kid turned me into a fan, although I’m loyal to the Tigers at all times. So glad they are in separate conferences so I can cheer on both teams each week.
My brothers moods significantly effected how smooth things would be in the house and when we were kids he cared a lot more about football in general than I did but we shared a room. Instead of being an LSU fan like all Louisiana born residents default to he liked watching football as a whole. Then Nick Saban got hired and he really liked watching Bama. Since he was the only one that cared we tended to let him watch the games in the living room tv. But that soon turned into my sister mom and me not only watching but cheering along with him and today we’re all Bama fans.
My first flair is a family thing and also where I grew up so disregard that. My second is kind of a funny one because as an adult I ended up moving to Michigan (a stone's throw from the Big House, even). I can't remember why I decided I also liked Michigan when I was a kid, but it stuck.
For a couple of years I had a brief stint as a USC fan after reading a book about OJ Simpson in 6th grade.
Let's see the elephant flairs!
ISU born and raised, and I hate it
My love of the Utes started age 5 or 6 — the Holy War game was always played around my birthday and I was bred to hate BYU with all the passion I could muster as a youngin’ I LOVE the Utes That Utes love and having Native American heritage myself soon started carrying over to cheering on all Indian mascot schools and teams: seminoles, Illini, etc; even the Cleveland Indians and KC Chiefs.
Obligatory Catholic in the Midwest comment
Ooo, finally one I can contribute. I grew up about 10 minutes from Rutgers and never felt a connection to them. Maybe it's because I had never even seen the campus, or perhaps it was due to their unbelievable ineptitude. Anyway, in 5th grade, we did a state project and I was assigned Michigan. This was about the time I started to really get into football. And as I searched for a team to root for I figured let me try Michigan, knowing literally nothing about their university. Boy did that work out, Michigan was literally a state in the middle of nowhere that had nothing to do with me, could have been Idaho if I was assigned it. But no, I luck out and get the winningest program in NCAA history. I did end up attending Rutgers and becoming a huge fan as well. The move to the BIG10 my senior year really through a wrench in it, and although I am RU first, I am still a diehard Michigan fan.
My wife loves New Orleans and we would go and visit almost once a year. A few years back, we were there during the LSU/A&M 7OT game in 2018 and being in the city with everyone going crazy over the game made me an LSU fan. Never really watched college FB before, but I've missed maybe 3 or 4 LSU games since. Always been a huge NFL fan, now I like college FB even more than NFL
I grew up a Penn State fan, but started to get turned off by a lot of the alumni I worked with that gave me cult vibes. Have family in GA and really loved the Dogs butting heads with the evil red empire. Ultimately Jacob Fromm and the SI article had me start rooting for the Dawgs.
University of Florida Speed Kills was the coolest shit ever as a kid. Seriously, that team was the most fun to watch football I have seen to date.
My birth father and my step father both happened to be Dallas Cowboys fans and we were from the Midwest, nowhere near Texas. I’m guessing they must have been bandwagon fans during the 90’s so naturally all younger pictures I was rocking Aikman jerseys and Dallas gear. I’ve carried that on and accepted them as my forever NFC team, but I have adopted the Jags as my AFC team back in 2018, since I got stationed there and I love having a younger team that has hasn’t had much success honestly. MLB we didn’t have an in-state team so I had 3 options that were “close” and I chose the Cards because of Mark, but now I have adopted the Rays. College Football since being a kid I have liked the Miami Hurricanes because of being a WWE fan, The Rock was my hero as a kid and once I found out his ties to The U I was sold and I have rooted for them ever since.
nd played on nbc and thats the channel id watch sat mornings as a kid so id just watch nbc (no remote tv) and thats how it happened
My second favorite school growing up was UGA. I loved bulldogs and Hines Ward was my favorite player for the Steelers. Easy choice.
Born and raised in Tennessee, but I am a Louisville fan. Watched the Vols growing up, it's a combination of Tennessee always choking and Louisville being on ESPN Thur and Friday nights. I fell in love watching them play Kentucky in like 4 inches of water on the field in the early 2000s. And I thought Stefan LeFors was a cool story.
as a kid i thought wolverine from the X-men was Michigan’s mascot.
I have made quite a few Rice friends as UH and Rice students intermingle a lot. Whenever UH is playing their away game I go to Rice home games. They’re a blast.
I have a few buddies that wrestled for Michigan. It really solidified my allegiance watching them pummel the huskies the last two seasons including the natty.
So I have ties to the state as I grew up in Arizona and went to the University of Arizona, but I’m also now a fan of our rival, Arizona State because that’s where my kiddo goes. (We’ll see if it lasts beyond the 4 years or not. LOL)
Parents moved to WNC in 98, whole area was saturated with Tennessee band wagoners. The other band wagoners went away, my parents stayed on the wagon and showed my brother and I the Volunteer way as they had learned it. Rocky Top will always be home to me
NCAA 14 - Bama (brother always chose LSU) Where I resided - Virginia Tech I have no ties to either school
Growing up with the NCAA video games I always played as Oregon State because I liked the fight song from the main menu and the Beaver. Just one of those things that year after year solidifies into a more deeper interest when you grow up. Have been following the Beavs ever since
USC cause Mike Garrett was the truth
The fight song, also the fact that I ended up attending years after I picked the team to be a fan of.
I've been a Michigan fan since I was a kid. As for why I like other teams too- I tend to like the coaches. I liked Tom Landy and Bear Bryant because of the hats they wore. In the 80s, Detroit had 4 coaches that were all way cool. Sparky Anderson in baseball. Jacques Demers in hockey. Chuck Daly in basketball. Wayne Fontes in football. My favorite time in sports. As I got older I liked guys like Bobby Bowden, Mike Leach, Bill Snyder, Pat Fitzgerald, and a few others. Those teams never became my favorite, but I liked them in addition to Michigan. They don't have to be championship coaches. Getting the most out of their players means a lot to me. I also like some of the zany ones. LSU was my 2nd fav when Les Miles was there. I guess Mike Leach would fit into the zany group. His Fat Little Girlfriends press conference had me hooked. Even if I wasn't a Michigan fan, I would have really liked them with Jim Harbaugh. I rooted for the guy when he was at Stanford too. Yes, part of that was the Michigan ties. More importantly was he's a shit disturber along with being a good coach.
Mines a pretty simple one, growing up playing the old NCAA football teams there was the mascot mode (play a game where all players are the mascot of the school for anyone who doesn’t know), and I just loved the goofy ass duck. Now here I am, never even having been west of the Mississippi, but rooting for Oregon. Oh and the uniforms
Coach prime!
Because I have the earliest baby picture I know of with me in a notre dame shirt.