As a college sports fan, both of hockey and football, I notice a recurring trend every January when bowl games roll around.
Fans proclaim their support for whatever conference their favorite program plays in, even rooting for a rival in hopes that their victory will make the conference look superior.
I guess I have to ask—why?
As a fan of the Big Ten's Michigan Wolverines, there is only one instance when I'm rooting for anyone other than the Wolverines—when someone is playing the Buckeyes, also a Big Ten school.
What do I care how the rest of the conference does? In the bigger conferences especially, there are enough power programs that it's pretty much guaranteed that a poor showing from top to bottom isn't going to wreck the conference.
Hell, the Big 12 has been a two-team race since its inception, though the Big Ten has been basically the same.
What satisfaction am I supposed to be getting if the Big Ten wins more head-to-head matchups against the SEC or Pac-10, especially if it's involving a team that I would normally root against with all my might?
I never understood SEC fans proclaiming to have the best conference in the country. Is this just a fallback when your team flounders? Something to cheer about when your team is playing in a meaningless bowl game?
Maybe there's something I'm missing here, but my allegiance is to my team and my team only.
Well, and to whoever is playing Ohio State, too.
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2 months ago
When Michigan's opponents win games, it boosts the Wolverines strength of schedule, thereby improving their computer rankings and also making their wins more impressive to pollsters. For example, winning against a well-regarded 10-1 Ohio State squad is more beneficial to Michigan than defeating a 4-7 Ohio State team of cupcakes. Therefore, you should root for the Buckeyes in their out-of-conference contests. Whether you like it or not, the performance of fellow Big Ten teams reflects upon Michigan, for better or worse.
If I didn’t know any better, I would swear the author is new to the sport of college football, as evidenced by the profound lack of understanding demonstrated in this article. Please consult the following article for further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_Championship_Series
from 2 months ago
Final rankings and preseason rankings. Isn't there a trophy that goes to the conference with the biggest win-loss gap in the bowls? College Football doesn't end at the end of the season. It is year round and continuous. Example. It is not College Football season, and here we are talking about it. Bowl or regular season, a team will only benefit from a out of conference win by a a conference mate.
2 months ago
It's actually pretty simple. You want your team to win all of it's games, but you want the teams you play to win all of their games except yours. It makes your school look better and might help push it into a better bowl game.
Also, with the internet, college football has gone from regional to national. It changed the landscape of college football forever.
2 months ago
i think we're all (including ryan, the writer of the article) well aware of the wonders of the bcs point system but i'm still in complete agreement with him. eff rivals to hell. in conference or out. i'm an fsu boi and my second favorite teams (i have 2) are whichever is playing the gators and canes each saturday. i have conference pride but nole pride first and foremost and next to winning (which we haven't been doing much of lately !!!) seeing those jackasses lose is slight consolation... and yes even when were running s*&t it was great seeing them both fall.
from 2 months ago
If you’re content to see Florida State beat up on an increasingly ugly Miami team each year, then you’re not doing your team any favors. Great programs thrive upon great competition. The epic battles between Miami and FSU in the ‘90s elevated both teams in national esteem because both programs excelled. Until someone besides Virginia Tech steps up in the ACC, Florida State’s conference wins will be tainted and they’ll fail to climb back into the top of the polls.
from 2 months ago
Ted, thank you for your description but yes, I'm fully aware of that. Again, that's not usually why one roots for a conference. I hear all the time around bowl season "well at least Big Ten Team X beat Pac-10 Team Y". Who cares? It's not affecting anything meaningless end of the season polls.
2 months ago
Here is the thing,
If you have two teams with the same record going for one more desirable bowl spot, the team from the "tougher" conference will almost always be chosen.
That is why it matters.
from 2 months ago
Yet, again, I'm not stating during the season. As I clearly said, BOWL SEASON when nothing matters anymore, yet people still say they're glad a team in their conference won.
2 months ago
Being from the South, I know that this is aimed at SEC fans (for the most part). And I am going to tell you why this exists. I am doing this with the hopes that you really want to know and aren't just setting up the ability to "take down" the first guy who comes along and explains it.
Much of this phenomenon has to do with regional pride. Whether you think it's right or not, the South could all be one big state as far as cultural things go. There isn't that much difference between an Arkansas fan and a Georgia fan...and we all know it. College football is a religion in the South and we all belong to the same denomination. We may have different church locations (Georgia, Bama, LSU, etc.) but our denomination is all SEC football.
This is partly because of Bear Bryant establishing Bama as such a dominant force in college football and the rest of the Southern teams took great pride that he could beat all the other region's best. Many fans also realize that their schools had to make moves to catch up to them so they made us all better. It's also probably partially because there aren't really that many "established" pro teams in the South. Once you get past the Florida panhandle, you aren't in the "South" anymore so the Florida pro teams don't count. Atlanta teams have generally not been very good. Ditto with New Orleans. Tennessee only very recently got a team.
At any rate, we see ourselves as Southerners of which college football is only one of the many things we like in common. We all love barbecue. We all like beer. We love the hot women at the tailgate festivities. Many of us (though certainly not all) like to fish and/or hunt. You could think of most of us as a big family. Therefore, if you considered the SEC to be one big group of 12 brothers, you would understand. Think of your own siblings. You may say nasty things about your brother and have fistfights in the back yard. But, in the end, nobody else better badmouth your brother or that person will be answering to you. That really is the mentality in the South.
There are exceptions. Many Bama fans cannot bring themselves to pull for Auburn in a bowl game even though it helps the conference maintain its standing as the nation's best. I personally find it hard to root for Tennessee under any circumstances. But I have friends that are UT fans and we joke and it never gets out of hand. There is a Southern gentility about the whole thing in that we can get very rowdy but we always try to stay respectful.
You may be thinking "those hicks, those rednecks." In some ways, that's part of it. I will admit that for most "rednecks" their favorite sport is football (and usually the college kind), and that they very strongly pull for their own teams. However, they pull for the Southern teams against the non-Southern teams too. It's just a Southern thing.
Again, you seemed to genuinely want to know so I don't expect for this to come back and bite me.
2 months ago
Let me add to what I just said. Here's something else you don't see much in other conferences. Tommy Tuberville was the Ole Miss coach before the Auburn coach. Nick Saban was the LSU coach before becoming the Bama coach. Steve Spurrier was the Florida coach before he became the South Carolina coach. Houston Nutt was the Arkansas coach before he became the Ole Miss coach.
There aren't many other conferences whose fan bases could so quickly accept as their own the coach someone who used to coach a rival or another conference school. But it's because we're all tight that way. The way we see it, it makes for some good Saturday drama and some pretty funny T-shirts that get sold by the merchandise vendors in the parking lots.
And the reason that we find it so easy to pull for another school when they play outside the conference is because we know they're fans are pulling for our team when we play out of conference. And believe me, when your team doesn't "represent" we the fans hear about it from the other schools fans.
from 2 months ago
Its a phenomenon I don't fully understand, but maybe that's my midwestern/Big Ten upbringing. Either way, I'm glad you don't see animosity from Ole Miss fans towards Nutt since he was a former Razorback along with the other coaches you mentioned.
God knows Buckeye fans would sh*t bricks if Lloyd Carr or Gary Moeller were hired for any job that had anything to do with Ohio State.
2 months ago
I see the validity in your points and thank you for being the only one to rationally state it without trying to take a shot. I still couldn't imagine rooting for anyone else in the Big Ten for any reason, really aside from the strength of schedule issue. But thank you again.
2 months ago
No problem. I've actually been thinking of writing an article on this very thing (and may still do that). Fans of schools in other conferences don't seem to "get" us. I think some of this helps explain it. It doesn't mean people in Cali or New York will somehow ever think of it as "normal." I'm just explaining it as I see it...being a lifelong (39 year) resident of several states in the South (Arkansas, Florida, Georgia).
2 months ago
You bring up some great points, Ryan, but I gotta admit, as a fan of the team Florida humiliated the season before, it was nice to see someone (anyone, for that matter) from the Big Ten defeat the Gators.
At the same time, the level of respect most Ohio State fans showed for Bo Schembechler following his death was admirable. God knows Bo gave one of the better speeches at Woody's funeral fifteen years prior. For as much as they hated each other on the gridiron, Ohio State and Michigan coaches (Woody and Bo especially) tend to give each other a lot of credit/respect off the field.
2 months ago
For this Ga fan it's a matter of pride, if Fla and Lsu can win the MNCG, then I feel my team would have had a good chance to.
In 1992 I went to the Fla citrus bowl and saw Ga's Qb Eric Zeier at hooters after the game, I ask him who he was pulling for in the NCG, he said the SEC, Ala was playing in the game.
If Ga beats USC in the MNCG in (09) Fla and Lsu fans will feel they could have also.
I think the way "they" decide who plays in the MNCG propels this sentiment even further, If your team was runner up to the SEC champ and they blew their opponent out in the MNCG, you feel your team probably could have to.
2 months ago
the satisfaction u get is u can say my team has the strongest conference.!!!!!!!!!!1
from 2 months ago
What are you talking about???
It is IMPOSSIBLE for a team to have the STRONGEST CONFERENCE, lolz :)
2 months ago
Ryan,
This nonsense with the screaming and yelling of SEC conference superiority relates to something that has not been mentioned fully in this thread.
Particular schools in the SEC want to claim that their conference is superior to all other conferences because they want to take credit for what other schools in their conference have accomplished even though they had nothing to do with putting in the hard work earned by that particular team. Really, what does a QB in Florida winning the Heisman have to do with the state of the Kentucky Wildcats football program? What does the fact of a Tennesee victory on the road against a non-conference opponent do for the state of the UGA Bulldogs own football program?
If certain schools and their fanbase do not feel comfortable to stand on the merits of what their own institution has accomplished, then it seems appropriate that they would try to reach into the accomplishments of another school to bolster their own argument about how strong their program really is.
By saying that an SEC team beat such and such team from another conference, so I believe my SEC team would be capable of beating such and such team from another conference is exactly what it is - trying to take credit for something that the non-participant SEC team really had nothing to do with except watch the game. Any team is capable of beating any team from anywhere on any given Saturday regardless of conference. The ball doesn't bounce a particular way just because of which conference it happens to be rolling around in.
I view this conference superiority argument merely as a distraction to obscure the fact that certain programs were not consistently successful on the field but should nonetheless deserve praise as a football program because of what their more successful conference brothers, such as Alabama and Tennessee, accomplished through their own hard work.
As a Big 10 guy, would you consider Northwestern a basketball school power just because it plays in the same conference as Indiana? Should the rest of the Pac-10 schools advertise the strength of their basketball program because of UCLA's numerous basketball titles? While each and every athlete at every school certainly works hard to accomplish what they want to accomplish on the field, at what point does standing on the merits of your own hard work and accomplishment cross the line and become a taking of credit for another's accomplishment?
The examples even transcend the sport of college football. Should the Baltimore Orioles be given credit for the success of the New York Yankees, a rival in their division? Should the Oakland Raiders use the argument that a foe in their division, the Chargers, has been successful the last few years so we are also even though the Raiders themselves have not? Should we believe that the 2008 New York Knicks are a team worthy of the NBA championship simply because they play in the same division as the eventual champion Boston Celtics? The phenomena of the conference superiority argument in college football seems strictly a product of the SEC and seems merely an excuse to prop up the merits of certain programs that were not historically successful on their own.
rodwood
2 months ago
jimson u CAN B IN THE STORNGEST CONFERENCE MY GATORS WOULD KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
from 2 months ago
I know that your team can BE in the STRONGEST CONFERENCE... but that is DIFFERENT than saying that "my team has the strongest conference", which is what you originally said, lolz :)
FLORIDA GATORS FOOTBALL
A TRADITION . . . SINCE SEPTEMBER 7, 1991
2 months ago
ok as my bro said b4 cut it out with all the lolz and omg's and that
from 2 months ago
OMG...lolz
2 months ago
Some of these comments hurt my head....
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