College Football: The Logic of Conferencism

I was in a bar in Madison, Wis., home town of the Wisconsin Badgers, and I was watching the first game of Iowa's 2010 season.

In this game Iowa barely edged out FCS foe, Northern Iowa, 17-16, needing two blocked field goals in the closing seconds to win.

Needless to say, I, an Iowa fan, was on pins and needles.

Meanwhile, most of the Badger fans in the place were happily rooting for UNI, cheering for the upset, and an embarrassing demise for the Hawkeyes.

I found this disheartening.

What sense did it make rooting against Iowa in that situation? Where was their Big Ten pride? Where was their conferencism?

This brings up the obvious question: What is conferencism?

To the best of my knowledge, it is a term that was coined by Baby Tate to mean a tendency for fans of one team to root for all other teams in his or her team's conference.

Wins by this conference prove conference superiority which, in turn, proves individual team superiority.

For example, next season the Penn State Nittany Lions of the Big Ten Conference will be squaring off against the Alabama Crimson Tide of the Southeastern Conference.

The Big Ten vs. the SEC is the hottest conference rivalry there is.

In effect, it is a somewhat safe bet that fans of fellow Big Ten teams such as the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Michigan Wolverines will be rooting for the Nits to pull out the victory.

Meanwhile, one can also make a safe guess that fans of the Florida Gators and the Tennessee Volunteers will be rooting for the Tide to win.

With that in mind, I will turn to my rooting hierarchy:

1—I root for the Iowa Hawkeyes and anything that is beneficial to the Hawks.

2—I root against Notre Dame and for anything that is harmful to the Irish.

3—I root for Big Ten teams.

4—I root for Iowa State.

As for No. 2, that has to do with my own dislike for the Irish, and has nothing to do with conferencism. In effect, put that aside.

However, No. 3 and especially No. 4 might seem somewhat confusing to my fellow Hawkeye fans.

Nevertheless, I assure you, I am not an adherent of some sort of twisted altruism that wants to see my fellow Big Ten and Iowa brethren do well for their own sake.

I assure you, outside of No. 2, my rooting hierarchy flows quite naturally and logically from my first tenet.

I am, without a doubt, a Hawk fan through and through, and that informs any other football interests or predilections I may have.

It simply comes down to the following: If Big Ten teams that Iowa plays do well and Iowa beats them, then Iowa comes out looking good.

If Iowa State, a team that Iowa plays annually, does well, then Iowa looks good.

To put it in concretly, if Iowa State goes 11-1—a far-fetched dream, I know, but bear with me—with that one loss to the Hawkeyes, how do the Hawkeyes look?

On the other hand, if Iowa State goes 2-10 with one of their two wins being over the Hawkeyes, how do the Hawkeyes look?

Unfortunately, that last scenario is not all that far fetched. Despite a 5-2 record over the Clones the last seven years, those two losses have been painful, and frankly, embarrassing.

The reason those losses have been embarrassing is because outside of the Iowa game, it is typical for ISU to not show up for the rest of their season.

In effect, they play their yearly Super Bowl against Iowa, and take the rest of the year off.

This—Iowa State's subsequent play more than any losses—makes Iowa look bad in the eyes of the rest of the country, who, quite frankly, do not understand the Iowa-Iowa State dynamic.

Yes, it is nothing more than a bunch of outsider's perceptions, but this is the world of the BCS; strength of schedule or not, perception is everything.

Needless to say, it is exactly the same scenario with conference foes.

If Wisconsin beats Iowa and then proceeds to lose the rest of its games, it makes Iowa look bad.

On the other hand, if Wisconsin wins all of its games, then Iowa looks much better.

I realize logic and fandom do not go hand-in-hand.

The idea that a 'Bama fan would root for Auburn is absolutely ludicrous, no matter how logical it is. The same with Georgia and Georgia Tech, Ohio State and Michigan, and even Iowa and ISU.

Nonetheless, there is a logic to it, and a logic to conferencism. You might even call it enlightened self-interest .

Consequently, when Badger fans root against Hawkeyes, especially in a meaningless game to them against UNI, it pains me.

Not even as a Hawkeye fan, but as a rational human being, I have difficulty understanding why people would essentially root for their own indirect demise.

Like it or not, teams within a conference are tied together. One team's loss hurts the entire conference.

In effect, much as I'm sure it will pain them, Auburn and Michigan fans would only be rooting against their own well-being, if they root against 'Bama and Ohio State during their out-of-conference games.

Nevertheless, I'm sure they will. Such is the illogical nature of fanaticism, zealotry, and rivalries.

Then again, perhaps that is the magic of college football.