Throughout my USAF career I would see the local teams occasionally: Purdue, Ball State, Sacramento St., FSU, UT-Austin and now UTSA. Now living in San Antonio, I casually follow UTSA and like to see them do well. I've average about 2 UTSA games a year. Ofcourse my passion and loyalty lies in my hometown team (Cuse). Both my sons are Cuse fans but nowhere near to the level I am as they never lived in Syracuse and grew up as Air Force Brats.

Being an Army brat, we moved a lot. Originally from North Carolina and after a 3 year tour somewhere, we always returned to North Carolina. I liked playing football but didn't care much about college football into my early teens. We were stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma when I was in junior high and two years of high school. I started following the Sooners while we lived there. Coach Barry Switzer use to come down to the school for recruiting and I spoke with him many times. We came back to North Carolina my senior year. Honestly, I had barely heard of East Carolina (this was around the Art Baker years), when I decided to go to school there. I won't say I fell in love with the city of Greenville, but I liked the area and never left after graduation. I've been a diehard Pirate since my first year (still watch OU here and there, but not fan like back in the day). Can't say if I moved somewhere else, I would or wouldn't support the local team, but after 20+ years of living in Greenville and being an alumni, this Pirate bleeds Purple.

I follow Northern Illinois, DePaul, and Northwestern.

I've lived virtually my entire life in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, with a couple of years as a student at A&M and the first two years of my life I was in Oklahoma, but I have no memories from before I turned 2, so I really don't count that.

Growing up I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to college sports, but would cheer for A&M and Texas whenever they were good. I also had family in Nebraska that were Huskers fans and would cheer for them as well. I started high school a couple of years into the Big 12 formation and at that point I began to favor the Texas schools over Nebraska. I really Major Applewhite, although that may have been more because I liked the name Major. When looking at colleges I barely chose A&M over Tech (I wanted to be an architect while I was in high school, and Tech has a very good program, however my senior year I began to focus on Computer Science and switched to A&M)

All that being said, the three main state schools aren't that close to DFW. TCU, SMU, and UNT are all division 1 programs close by, and there's also UT-Arlington for basketball and baseball. I'll watch and cheer for them when they are on TV, and I will check the scores online otherwise. I've never actually been to any of their games, but have considered doing so a few times, but most of my friends aren't that interested and/or there's another big game at the same time. It's a joke that Aggies get brainwashed at fish camp, so if they are on, they get my primary focus - especially with the turnaround they've had the last couple of years.

I was really excited for TCU to get the Big 12 invite, there hasn't been big time college football played within DFW since the breakup of the SWC. TCU hasn't done bad so far, and if they can stay in the middle of the pack most years I would have to call the transition a success. TCU and SMU don't have a lot of alumni, and they don't really get that much public support locally, but there are a lot of bandwagon fans ready to jump on if they do. I think I saw more TCU stuff when they went to the Rose Bowl then in the 15 years prior to that combined (including Tomlinson's Heisman campaign year).

I'd really like to see UT-Arlington restart their football program, and see UNT raise up their profile. UNT just moved into C-USA and I think that will help some. Both of those schools (and Texas State) have over 30,000 students and are comparable to Texas Tech and Houston in that regards and could/should have a lot more public support behind them. Most of the people that went to UNT or UT-A that I know cheer for the University of Texas, or don't follow football at all.

The state of Texas has so many FBS universities, and I really want them all to do well. If any school in my state is playing someone out of state I'll cheer for them. Or I'll at least cheer for their opponent to lose (I find it really hard to cheer for Longhorns)

If all of that above was too long to read, I'll go to and watch the Aggies on TV - another other "local" team I'll watch on TV and check their scores online, but don't go to the games or buy their gear.

If I happened to go to a politically neutral event (i.e. ECU is NEITHER of the two teams playing I am watching) I would wear neither schools colors and just watch.

I'd probably pick one I'd pull for more than the other though.


Not sure what I would do if I lived too far away from my school that I could never attend any games... If I wanted my college sports fix at an event in person I don't know what I would do, although if it was politically neutral (aka NOT NCSU, UNC, Duke, Wake Forrest ect... ) would I go? What I buy season tickets?....
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As far as Pros go...

I have teams I like, I have teams I hate. I probably wouldn't wear Hurricanes or Panthers gear to game not involving them though. I might would color coordinate for the team I'd pull for or buy a souvenir piece of clothing for the occasion.

I'm originally from Birmingham, grew up in New Orleans but I now live in the Atlanta area. Im a UAB basketball season ticket holder as well as ASU football. I honestly don't follow any of the Atlanta area colleges closely but I will catch an occasional Georgia State, or GaTech game and I always go to homecoming at Morehouse.

I've always supported OSU more for the fact that they are a good outlet for state pride than because they are my alma matter (not a lot of college pride, but I'll admit going to the games their helped too).

If I moved somewhere else, I could definitely see taking a passive interest in the state/local teams (assuming its outside the Big Ten). If a local team was big, I'd root for them I think. If not (and even if so maybe), I'd root for the biggest state school.

I have always support U of L since I move to and then graduated from the University of Louisville. I love to hunt and fish, Since I live in Louisville I do not miss football games. However, if I lived in a distant location, I would record the televise U of L games and go hunting or fishing on those Saturdays instead of go to see a local school. I might go to Thursday night game for a local school or a game of national importance though.