The other day, a local sportswriter wrote about Michigan winning the College football championship and how fans of other Big Ten schools should\/could share in the victory-almost as if it was a victory for the conference. Admittedly, he is a product of the university.

Michigan has always been a rather large fish in an ever-expanding large pond and maybe hasn’t been as popular with fellow big-tenners. If you live in the Midwest, as I do, you’re sure to know a few Michigan graduates-you have to, and if you think you don’t-then they are among the quieter ones. I know several MSU fans who aren’t reveling in the Wolverines national championship. I don’t think it’s merely an anti-Wolverine thing because I don’t know too many alums for passionate fans of one team that root for conference foes. 

College sports are different from professional. I don’t know any Red Sox fans that felt the Yankees’ multiple World Series rings reflects well on the rest of the division. Conversely, I think everyone in the SEC is proud of all the successes in the conference-even if they don’t root for anyone else in the conference. However, I did a feature on one baseball player who played at Auburn, that openly roots for The Crimson Tide.

Personally, I did not take any satisfaction when Jim Boeheim and Syracuse or John Thompson and Georgetown won basketball titles. We all find different reasons for rooting for or against teams, schools, or coaches. 

Fans of specific teams in multi-sports cities, should at least appreciate that the city can benefit when one of the teams wins it all-even if it’s the team one abhors.

I think fans and alums don’t quite appreciate that people outside of the cocoon, don’t love our teams/schools as much as we do. Maybe in some cases, it’s the fans that other people don’t like. Not every fanbase is made up of good losers and good winners. When teams achieve national notoriety, like the Dallas Cowboys, they wear targets on their backs. Some teams and their fans embrace the black hat status. Ergo, when they fall flat on their faces, there are plenty of people to rejoice in their downfall.

Obviously, one of the things that changes the equation is the finances. College conferences benefit financially when any of their teams participates and wins bowl games. I don’t know how this benefits the average fan though.

I think some fans of professional teams realize that if a division or regional foe wins, it could serve as motivation for our team to spend more or serve notice on ownership. Both ML teams in NYC are aware of each other’s presence and the press the other is receiving.

Every so often we get a National Championship, Super Bowl or World Series, where there is only a lesser of two evils. Some people will claim to root for the underdog-until their team is playing the underdog. Michigan hasn’t been the David in a century, but I know some of their passionate supporters see themselves that way.