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Originally Posted by lovespink88
What I am NOT okay with, is someone who has no connection to a team and is ALL. ABOUT. THAT TEAM. A co-worker is like this with Ohio State. He went to college in Indiana and has no other ties to Ohio State except that he lived there. WTF?! Another example is I have a friend who is a BIG fan of both Alabama and Florida even though she went to Illinois. Her only logic is that she lived on both states for a little bit when growing up. Again, wtf!
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I can see that.
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Yes, it can be made, but I don't agree with it  (As I mentioned before, I know it makes me sound snobby. I've accepted it. )
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LOL. Snobbery aside
, see additional point below.
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Originally Posted by thewasher418
This may be a Southern phenomenon. Down here college > professional sports for most people.
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Originally Posted by AOII Angel
That's just it. You grew up in an area with a glut of professional teams. In the South, especially, college sports are MUCH bigger than pro sports.
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This, this, this! Things have changed some as more and more people from "away" have moved in and as the Panthers, Bobcats and Hurricanes have come along, but in NC, college sports -- basketball in particular -- have always been a much,
much bigger deal than professional sports.
The Super Bowl? A good reason for the church youth group to get together at someone's house for a party. The World Series? Is that on tonight? The NBA (outside Charlotte)? The place where we can follow what those who played here did after college. Otherwise, pretty much irrelevant.
But the ACC Tournament? A reason for TVs in every office in the state. Yes, I remember in 7th grade when the teachers gave us busy work and the school played the ACC Tournament over the PA system on a Thursday afternoon. Yes, I've been to wedding receptions in church fellowship halls where TVs were set up in discrete places so that guests could keep up with the games.
The traditional question has never been "Do you root for any college teams?" It's "Who do you root for?," because it's assumed
everyone roots for someone. And it starts at a
very early age. Usually, it's a family thing -- "They're State fans" is kind of on a par with "They're Baptists."
And I wonder a little if attitudes about public universities vary from region to region. Here, the historical understanding was always that the University of North Carolina (the consolidated system, not just UNC-Chapel Hill) belongs to the people and has an obligation not only to provide educational opportunities but to serve the state. So I think there is some degree of stake-holding in and identification with those schools, even by people who didn't go there.
And looking at the bigger Southern conferences, I note that all but one of the schools in the SEC are public schools, and all but four of the schools in the ACC are public schools. (And two of those four are relatively recent additions to the ACC.) So, the conferences that many people follow are public-school heavy.