Watching this Oregon St/Stanford game makes me realize how far I am from west coast football. I'm assuming the culture is completely different at Oregon State compared to the football games i've been to in the South. I'd like to experience games in other parts of the country (heck, in our conference that won't be so hard).

With that being said, do those of you that are removed from your Alma mater or childhood team (geographically) find yourself rooting for any teams around you? I suppose if I lived in Corvallis Oregon I might buy a t-shirt, go to a few games and root for the beavers (who doesn't love a beaver?) when they're on TV.

When my great aunt and her husband moved to Greenville he immediately began supporting ECU academics and athletics. Sadly, I did not know either of them very well, but heard stories about my grandmother's brother-in-law. He believed in supporting his local schools regardless of location. I believe he was in the third highest giving level for athletics and supported the university academically (and I didn't find out any of this until my JR year of college). I've always admired this about him and may follow suit (to the extent that I can...Pirates have to come first). He went to Oklahoma if anyone's wondering.

tl;dr do those of you that are removed from your Alma mater or childhood team (geographically) find yourself rooting for any teams around you?

After I graduated from UConn, I moved to Dallas and completed a masters at SMU. I still live in Dallas. In Texas, I just root for SMU.

The only exception is that I root for Houston whenever they're playing a school outside of our conference.

Buckeyes and Yellow Jackets.

May they never meet in football.

(10-26-2013 11:48 PM)ncbeta Wrote:  Watching this Oregon St/Stanford game makes me realize how far I am from west coast football. I'm assuming the culture is completely different at Oregon State compared to the football games i've been to in the South. I'd like to experience games in other parts of the country (heck, in our conference that won't be so hard).

With that being said, do those of you that are removed from your Alma mater or childhood team (geographically) find yourself rooting for any teams around you? I suppose if I lived in Corvallis Oregon I might buy a t-shirt, go to a few games and root for the beavers (who doesn't love a beaver?) when they're on TV.

When my great aunt and her husband moved to Greenville he immediately began supporting ECU academics and athletics. Sadly, I did not know either of them very well, but heard stories about my grandmother's brother-in-law. He believed in supporting his local schools regardless of location. I believe he was in the third highest giving level for athletics and supported the university academically (and I didn't find out any of this until my JR year of college). I've always admired this about him and may follow suit (to the extent that I can...Pirates have to come first). He went to Oklahoma if anyone's wondering.

tl;dr do those of you that are removed from your Alma mater or childhood team (geographically) find yourself rooting for any teams around you?

No.

i started following syracuse even harder after moving out to colorado

(10-27-2013 12:37 PM)john01992 Wrote:  i started following syracuse even harder after moving out to colorado

But the number of schools you list on your profile says that your answer should be YES...

I follow Tennessee. Although my heart is still with West Virginia...

(10-27-2013 12:55 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  

(10-27-2013 12:37 PM)john01992 Wrote:  i started following syracuse even harder after moving out to colorado

But the number of schools you list on your profile says that your answer should be YES...

I follow Tennessee. Although my heart is still with West Virginia...

yeah, if i spend a significant amount of time at a particular school.....

i will start following them.....

although i do cap myself at 5

I'm the 5th generation of Alabama graduate in my family and as a kid I was a huge Alabama fan and all. Growing up around the world and especially in high school in Houston I was most certainly an Alabama fan.

I was also always a Cajuns fan because of where I was born and the fact that a Cajuns game was the first game I ever went to.

It's led me to have a disliking for certain teams and their fans; I must admit.

Christopher Newport did not have a football team when I went there. But as a DC resident Yes - I root for CNC/CNU in football as well as all the tidewater colleges, and even Maryland which is a local team (but a yankee team). BUt I have been here 33 years now and grew to like Georgetown and became a big east fan also.

I'm not much of a Big Ten fan, but I want to see the Gophers succeed. However, I don't watch them week in and week out.

WV born so I was an 'eer from the start. Parents split so we moved to NY and I ended up moving to Buffalo to go to UB. Now married and not leaving so very cool to live 10 minutes from my alma mater. In a way, my heart belongs to UB, but my ass belongs to the Mountaineers.

My family also lived in ATL for a time in the mid 80's. I had a secondary 'like' for Tech....until they beat WVU in the '97 Carquest Bowl.

In a word no. Fortunately alma mater is the local team. If I lived elsewhere particularly in a non-Big Ten area I would likely find myself very casually following the local team, but I doubt I'd be an actual fan. Allegiance to Rutgers runs pretty deep for me.

ODU Didn't Have A Football Team When I Went There But I'm A Huge Fan Now. That Said I Wear My SDSU hoodie As Much As My ODU One.

I'm a South Carolina football fan, but the local teams here are The Citadel and Charleston Southern. I try to go to one Citadel game a year, but they've been so average for decades some years it's hard to be interested.

In my lifetime (21 years) they've only had 6 winning seasons, and most of those are six or seven wins. The last year they made the FCS playoffs was the year I was born. CSU has gotten better this year, but it is a 30 minute drive from my house.

Do I support my local team? Truthfully, not really. I haven't been to a Troy Trojans game in a very long time. It's kinda hard to do when you're working in retail though. I don't support my alma mater in basketball and baseball for the same reason. Think of it this way:
my "Monday" is Friday, and my "Saturday" is Wednesday. That's partly by choice though, but when you consider that my only other choices were Mon/Tue, Tue/Wed, you can see my point. The weekend is extremely critical in retail, and coverage is extremely important to have then. Think of it as how important it is to have people in your office on Monday. If I didn't work in retail, I might look at supporting the local team more or even going to some of my alma mater's games in the winter.

I am fortunate to hold three degrees from three different excellent institutions. I loved one of them, liked another and appreciate the third. In fact, I keep an eye on all three each Saturday.

However, my favorite college football team, Pitt, is not a school with which I have ever had a formal relationship. Still, ever since childhood they have been my team and I have always followed that program closely, even when I was living in various other parts of the country. I am back in Pittsburgh now and raising an adorable little boy with my wife.

For me, I think it comes down to allegiances forged in childhood. Pittsburgh is decidedly a pro sports town first, last and always. More specifically, as people all across the country know, Pittsburgh is all Steelers all the time. There is a 35 year waiting list for season tickets.

As such, my father could not afford to take me and my three other siblings to too many Steelers games so he took us to Pitt games instead. Pitt was absolutely AWESOME when I was a kid so that helped too.

As an aside, I'm Irish Catholic so, like most Irish Catholics, most of my uncles were in law enforcement on some level. One of my great uncles, Tom, was a City of Pittsburgh policeman. On Saturdays, he earned overtime by manning Gate Six at old Pitt Stadium.

When Tom died I couldn't help by notice that a lot of sympathy cards referred to him not by his given name, Tom but rather by his nickname, "Gate Six." I asked my Dad about it and he told me that Tom was known as "Gate Six" because everyone who knew him would get in for free simply by going to Gate Six - including us! My Dad estimated that he never paid for a single ticket for us when we were growing up and I never had a clue.

So, for me, while I absolutely LOVE the Steelers, Pirates and Penguins, as well as my various alma maters, my heart has always been with Pitt and it always will be no matter where I live.

(10-28-2013 12:51 PM)Dr. Isaly von Yinzer Wrote:  I am fortunate to hold three degrees from three different excellent institutions. I loved one of them, liked another and appreciate the third. In fact, I keep an eye on all three each Saturday.

However, my favorite college football team, Pitt, is not a school with which I have ever had a formal relationship. Still, ever since childhood they have been my team and I have always followed that program closely, even when I was living in various other parts of the country. I am back in Pittsburgh now and raising an adorable little boy with my wife.

For me, I think it comes down to allegiances forged in childhood. Pittsburgh is decidedly a pro sports town first, last and always. More specifically, as people all across the country know, Pittsburgh is all Steelers all the time. There is a 35 year waiting list for season tickets.

As such, my father could not afford to take me and my three other siblings to too many Steelers games so he took us to Pitt games instead. Pitt was absolutely AWESOME when I was a kid so that helped too.

As an aside, I'm Irish Catholic so, like most Irish Catholics, most of my uncles were in law enforcement on some level. One of my great uncles, Tom, was a City of Pittsburgh policeman. On Saturdays, he earned overtime by manning Gate Six at old Pitt Stadium.

When Tom died I couldn't help by notice that a lot of sympathy cards referred to him not by his given name, Tom but rather by his nickname, "Gate Six." I asked my Dad about it and he told me that Tom was known as "Gate Six" because everyone who knew him would get in for free simply by going to Gate Six - including us! My Dad estimated that he never paid for a single ticket for us when we were growing up and I never had a clue.

So, for me, while I absolutely LOVE the Steelers, Pirates and Penguins, as well as my various alma maters, my heart has always been with Pitt and it always will be no matter where I live.

I am Irish Catholic and was born/raised near Pittsburgh.

My story is similar to yours. I am a huge Pirates, Steelers and Pens fan and have been since the mid Sixties.

The only difference? My entire extended family has been die hard Notre Dame fans since my Grandfather and Dad began following them after reading about this little Catholic school beating mighty Army with the forward pass in 1913.

When not playing my Hawks, I do like to see Northwestern win.

I live in S. Jersey/Philly area. Ever since the 1973 John Capelletti Heisman season when I was a grade school kid I have followed Penn State. PSU is kinda the local team in the sense there are loads of alums in Philly metro area. Never followed Temple or Rutgers, frankly both those schools were jokes in 1970's and 1980's when I was growing up and PSU was a powerhouse so that probably made the choice easy.

(10-29-2013 10:17 AM)KevinSmith Wrote:  I live in S. Jersey/Philly area. Ever since the 1973 John Capelletti Heisman season when I was a grade school kid I have followed Penn State. PSU is kinda the local team in the sense there are loads of alums in Philly metro area. Never followed Temple or Rutgers, frankly both those schools were jokes in 1970's and 1980's when I was growing up and PSU was a powerhouse so that probably made the choice easy.

Actually, we were pretty good in the 70s. Penn State only beat us by a point in 75 and 76 and 3 points in 78. Our 79 team beat Cal, WVU, Syracuse, Rutgers, Cincy and Hawaii. We were not bad until 86, which is when Temple continued to get worse and worse until Golden got here. We were far from a joke from 73-85.