(02-08-2012 01:34 PM)CD11 Wrote: Haha yeah I know you meant Miami OH. That's why I was so sad. I don't want to be surrounded by those cretins in Carmel. IU fans I can live with. Purdue I don't even think has a fanbase. Butler's cool. Notre Dame's tolerable for the most part in my experience. But Miami OH? Gross. Your story about Hudson is really interesting BTW. Strange stuff.
Don't underestimate Purdue fans. Purdue has had top-20 attendance in basketball over the past two years, and and averages 46,000 in football (which is significantly more than IU). Purdue is one of those schools that has a lot of die-hard fans, but fewer t-shirt fans.
Indiana is organized like a southern state. There's the ag/engineering school (Purdue) and there's the liberal arts/fine arts/med school (Indiana). It's even a right-to-work state now. Speaking in generalities, the common Indiana man who didn't go to college will be an IU fan, unless he's a farmer, in which case he'll be a Purdue fan. So there are more "t-shirt fans" of IU. But there are not as many die-hard IU fans who went to IU as there are at Purdue, partly because IU is more remote and partly because fine arts majors aren't sports fans.
This stratification by job category leads to an intense-state rivalry that is more than just about sports, it's about your profession and lifestyle choice.
If I had to guess, I'd think there are a slightly more Purdue fans than IU fans in Carmel. Not only is Carmel much closer to Lafayette than Bloomington, but almost everyone in Carmel will have a college degree, which takes away much of the "t-shirt fan" effect.
You'd be surprised how few ND fans there are in Indy. They're definitely in 4th place. There's a lot more in Chicago, where they're in 2nd (behind Illinois).
Butler has become the T-shirt fan favorite in Indianapolis, particularly among the younger folks who were coming of age when they started getting good (2000-2008) and high-schoolers. But some IU fans resent this terribly, and think that Butler should know their place. I've heard the word "uppity" used once or twice.
Source: I go to Purdue now and my brother is a Butler grad. The Butler-Purdue and IU-ND doubleheader in downtown Indy was amazing to witness; I highly recommend getting a ticket to the next one.