Since none of our schools sponsor D1 (FBS) football, does anyone like myself root for a school they didn't go to for FB season?

I root for the local team, Rutgers. I'm a good Jersey boy so I support the Scarlet Knights FB program. I love football so it's hard NOT to have a team to pull for.

I dont really have the best luck, maybe judgement is a better word, in regards to college FB. When i was in college I was into BC. Mainly because many people at PC have siblings or even close friends that attend BC. so there was a personal connection. I am also partial to Army due to location and ive been to more games at Army then anywhere else. I also have a degree from Fordham so ive got that angle So not exactly the best lineup.
I was very disappointed when BC went to the ACC because I thought of it as a betrayal. i slowly got over that but im not totally back onboard
Of course ND was always in play as well and again I have a personal connection to that school. (an of course its appeal in the northeast) although if they lose i dont get that upset.
I try to pick one team from each conference to keep it interesting

Never gone to a school w/D1 football but I'm a Navy vet so I follow and root for Navy football.

I root for the SEC, PAC and anyone playing against Notre Dame. I actually love college football and enjoy watching the games on Saturday.

I'm a sports purist: I went to Illinois for undergrad, so the Illini are my first love for both football and basketball. DePaul is my 2nd team since I went to law school there.

In NYC over the years, I would say Notre Dame and Penn St. have always been the most popular teams. Rutgers never seemed to penetrate the market that much to me, but that may be due to the fact they normally aren't all that good. In recent years I've become more and more turned off by big time college sports. Schools now routinely stab long time colleagues in the back, while you constantly see the hypocrisy of schools that supposedly have such a high premium on academics, routinely have phoney grades and phoney classes for their star athletes. (See UNC) . The academic and sex scandals have become a real turn off. These days I find myself rooting hardest for Army and Navy. In my opinion there was no better game on TV last year than the game between those two. True student athletes giving their all to defeat their fiercest rival. No playing with one eye to the NFL, just wanting the glory of winning for their school, in the biggest game of the year. They may not have the same talent as bigger name schools, but if the talent level was the deciding factor on who to watch, then I'd skip college altogether and just watch the NFL. For my money, Army and Navy are what college athletics should be (and used to be) all about.

(04-29-2013 01:37 PM)hoops22 Wrote:  In NYC over the years, I would say Notre Dame and Penn St. have always been the most popular teams. Rutgers never seemed to penetrate the market that much to me, but that may be due to the fact they normally aren't all that good. In recent years I've become more and more turned off by big time college sports. Schools now routinely stab long time colleagues in the back, while you constantly see the hypocrisy of schools that supposedly have such a high premium on academics, routinely have phoney grades and phoney classes for their star athletes. (See UNC) . The academic and sex scandals have become a real turn off. These days I find myself rooting hardest for Army and Navy. In my opinion there was no better game on TV last year than the game between those two. True student athletes giving their all to defeat their fiercest rival. No playing with one eye to the NFL, just wanting the glory of winning for their school, in the biggest game of the year. They may not have the same talent as bigger name schools, but if the talent level was the deciding factor on who to watch, then I'd skip college altogether and just watch the NFL. For my money, Army and Navy are what college athletics should be (and used to be) all about.

Totally agree, hoping to make it to Philly this year for the game.

(04-29-2013 01:37 PM)hoops22 Wrote:  In NYC over the years, I would say Notre Dame and Penn St. have always been the most popular teams. Rutgers never seemed to penetrate the market that much to me, but that may be due to the fact they normally aren't all that good. In recent years I've become more and more turned off by big time college sports. Schools now routinely stab long time colleagues in the back, while you constantly see the hypocrisy of schools that supposedly have such a high premium on academics, routinely have phoney grades and phoney classes for their star athletes. (See UNC) . The academic and sex scandals have become a real turn off. These days I find myself rooting hardest for Army and Navy. In my opinion there was no better game on TV last year than the game between those two. True student athletes giving their all to defeat their fiercest rival. No playing with one eye to the NFL, just wanting the glory of winning for their school, in the biggest game of the year. They may not have the same talent as bigger name schools, but if the talent level was the deciding factor on who to watch, then I'd skip college altogether and just watch the NFL. For my money, Army and Navy are what college athletics should be (and used to be) all about.

Well Rutgers has been making HUGE strides in NJ and that is a major part of the NYC market. I was in HS in the late 90's and Rutgers was a joke and no one rocked Rutgers gear. Since then the block R has been very prominent in the Garden State. The move to the B1G and having teams like OSU, PSU, UM and MSU visit regularly will help make the fan base grow to that next level. They really did win the realignment lottery.

I enjoy the college brand of basketball more than the NBA. For me, football is just the opposite. The style of play in the NFL is much more compelling.

(04-29-2013 01:37 PM)hoops22 Wrote:  In NYC over the years, I would say Notre Dame and Penn St. have always been the most popular teams. Rutgers never seemed to penetrate the market that much to me, but that may be due to the fact they normally aren't all that good. In recent years I've become more and more turned off by big time college sports. Schools now routinely stab long time colleagues in the back, while you constantly see the hypocrisy of schools that supposedly have such a high premium on academics, routinely have phoney grades and phoney classes for their star athletes. (See UNC) . The academic and sex scandals have become a real turn off. These days I find myself rooting hardest for Army and Navy. In my opinion there was no better game on TV last year than the game between those two. True student athletes giving their all to defeat their fiercest rival. No playing with one eye to the NFL, just wanting the glory of winning for their school, in the biggest game of the year. They may not have the same talent as bigger name schools, but if the talent level was the deciding factor on who to watch, then I'd skip college altogether and just watch the NFL. For my money, Army and Navy are what college athletics should be (and used to be) all about.

To be sure, I hear this complaint a lot lately, but that's very much romanticizing the past. All of the money issues, academic improprieties and sex scandals have existed in college sports for decades. It's just that we have a 24/7 news cycle now to expose them all. The actions that caused SMU to go on the death penalty occurred over 30 years ago and they certainly weren't the first to brazenly break the rules. Bear Bryant didn't magically get all of his players year-in and year-out by just grit on the recruiting trail and neither did John Wooden at UCLA.

So, I have no issue with people believing that colleges are being hypocritical. They definitely are. I just don't think it's anything different than what we've seen in the past. Inflation has made the dollar figures bigger, but the principles and courses of dealing are the same. (Granted, my preference is to see an open free market where players are paid in line with the amount of money that they're bringing to their respective schools, but that's another topic for another day. A lot of other fans seem to take the opposite tack in wishing for a cap or curb of the money in sports, which I believe is a futile and, in many ways, an anti-competitive exercise.)

I follow Missouri football b/c I went to camps there in high school.

Missouri to the SEC to me is the parallel of SLU's involvement in the Big East discussion. The flagship sport in the move is the one under the highest scrutiny.

In general the service academies probably. Other than that it's situational and whoever is playing Rutgers. If they never win another game I'd be thrilled. And based on their division, I'll probably be happy more often than not.

Every D1 basketball program is my state sucks at football, so I never really got into it. KState was once voted the worst program of all-time (yes, literally the worst), and KU has taken up the mantle over the past few years. There really isn't enough to root for. I like the NFL a lot more, though the "local" team is still one of the worst franchises in the NFL (the Chiefs).

All in all, I usually pick a team every year and follow them. Last year KState was actually decent, and I watched a couple of other teams a lot (Oregon and Texas A&M for instance). The year before it was Oklahoma State and LSU. It isn't always teams competing for a national championship, but I usually like to watch teams that are either exciting or have a lot of storylines.

I grew up in Iowa City...and about half my family went to college at Iowa and half (including me) went to Creighton...so definitely it's the Bluejays for hoops and Hawks for football...