Ah, the national title game of college basketball. The graduation ceremony of college hoops commences Monday night as the Michigan Wolverines take on the Louisville Cardinals. National title game tips on CBS around 8:30 CDT.
So as you watch the national title game, do you show allegiance to your conference brethren?
As your team is no longer playing, do you root for your conference rival on the bigger stage? Or do your natural rivalries still hold in the national title game?
Read through some interesting opinions of players, coaches and fans. And comment with your opinions and thoughts below.
Last night, I watched the Final Four with David Kmiecik, the finest college basketball mind you will ever find, and the man who gave me the idea/pushed me to start this website. Between the two of us you had two really big college hoops nerds: One Illini graduate (myself) and therefore a “Big Ten guy,” and one Marquette alum, therefore a “Big East guy.” Just like the Michigan vs. Syracuse battle to reach the national title game we were watching.
But it’s not always that simple.
I always say “anyone but Notre Dame and/or Ohio State.” I hate Ohio State because of conflicts with their media relations department and even more conflict with their fans. I was even named two years ago as “an enemy of Ohio State” by the “Buckeye Blacklist” Twitter account. The account no longer exists, but you get the idea. Michigan is as “anyone but Ohio State” as it gets. Plus temporarily jumping on the Go Blue bandwagon shows solidarity for the Big Ten Conference in the national title game.
If Ohio State is my most hated 1a. than Notre Dame is my most hated 1b.
My disgust for them is also largely based on professional reasons. So I was all about the Alabama Crimson Tide in that national title game. Michigan and Notre Dame have a rivalry, so once again the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But wait, I started grad school at Michigan State, the same semester they won the national title. So there’s some Spartans allegiance in me too. Which conflicts with rooting for the Wolverines in the national title game. I finished my MBA at Loyola, but mid-majors don’t really factor into this equation, so any Horizon League allegiance, of which I have none, is irrelevant.
We can make one thing clear: the “Axis of Evil” does exist and it includes Ohio State, Notre Dame, ESPN’s Darren Rovell and the ’90s band Smashmouth.
Liking two Big Ten teams is like the Green Day song “Walking Contradiction.” My quasi-MSU partisanship -although that will soon dissipate if Michigan State IDIOTS LIKE THESE KEEP BURNING FURNITURE in the streets of East Lansing every year they don’t reach the national title game- always comes second to being an Illini.
Shannan Ball Younger is a friend of mine and Chicago Now blogger. This is a very good piece she wrote on how to make the NCAA Tournament educational for children. She went to Notre Dame for undergrad and law school. She’s from the heart of Buckeye country, and married a Michigan man. Yes, those three factors do not equate.
“Being from Columbus, with a mom who went to FSU, a dad and everyone else who went to OSU, meant college sports was huge in my house. I raised the stakes by going to ND, and marrying a man who graduated from Michigan may have been the cruelest thing I’ve ever done to my dear father. What this means, though, is that I get great drama on a regular basis,” Younger said.
“I get to enjoy the best of sports. I always cheer for my Irish against other teams, but as time has gone on, I’ve found it easier to cheer for the Wolverines and Buckeyes. While I couldn’t imagine that while a student at ND, I’ve learned that having the people around me be as happy as they can be, directly benefits me as well. My husband has taught me that not everyone in Michigan can be described by the foul words to the school’s fight song (although they do ALWAYS go through my mind first when I hear it),” she continued.
More on those foul words below.
A lot of Michigan State fans took the road of natural rivalry over conference solidarity this NCAA Tournament. Both the Wolverines and the Spartans played close to home in Detroit for the NCAA Tournament’s opening weekend. State had the early game, Michigan had the late tip. It was widely reported that many Spartans bought South Dakota St. gear (Michigan’s first tourney opponent) to wear cheer against Michigan. Now that UM is in the national title game, I guess they had the last laugh. But the whole little brother complex makes MSU fans to hating Michigan what Russell Crowe is to awful singing.
And it’s understandable, as Michigan (along with Duke) has a reputation for being a safety school for elite, privileged boarding school snobs who couldn’t get into the Ivy League. If there’s one thing America dislikes- it’s snobby entitled rich kids.
Still the Michigan fight song is the Mozart Symphony #40 of college football. It’s phenomenal; even if it’s lyrics include “champions of the WEST,” despite Ann Arbor being in the EAST time zone. Because when it was written, in the 1640s or whenever…yeah, I know it was early 19th century. What we know today as the Midwest was considered “western frontier” then, a dangerous place with “injuns” and “scalawags.”
And speaking of the fight song, here’s the parody of it. Enjoyed by Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan State fans alike. Warning the next graph has NSFW LANGUAGE AND HOMOPHOBIC SLURS!!!
Hail to those MOTHER FUCKERS
Hail to those BIG COCK SUCKERS
HAIL, HAIL, to Michigan
The Cesspool of the West
Hail to those FORNICATORS
Hail to those MASTURBATORS
HAIL, HAIL, to Michigan
The Cesspool of the West
For some reason, Ohio State fans same to be the most belligerent, combative and argumentative with me on the internet. Of all teams. There are a couple good, reasonable ones like TSB commenter tOSG, the Ohio State Guy though. And of course Shannan, who gave me her take on cheering for the conference:
“Cheering for your mortal enemy in the National Title game? That’s tough. A lot of people I know in Columbus refused to even watch the Michigan game last night. However, somewhat similar to my home situation, I’m coming around to the way of thinking that what’s best for the tribe (be it in my home or conference), is ultimately what will further the greatest good,” she said.
This topic also came up when I was covering the Illini in the NCAA Tournament in Austin. A reporter asked the Miami Hurricanes coach about Gophers supporting the Illini.
Q. Illinois has a lot more fans in town than anyone else, quite a few more, it seems. And I’ve spoken to a lot of Minnesota fans who are all going to get behind Illinois as well. Is that a Big 10 type thing?
COACH LARRANAGA: Tell them I said thanks. I got a brother who lives in Minnesota, will that help?
(Laughter.)
So then I asked a follow up to Coach Jim Larranaga
Q. Following up on an earlier question, have you ever noticed a similar thing with the ACC teams and fans where they kind of back each other like the Big 10 does?
COACH LARRANAGA: Well, I think that all leagues have a tremendous loyalty to each other. And you like to see your league do well. It’s about earning respect and we’re very, very proud of being members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. We think we have got the best basketball league in the country and I’m sure there are a lot of other leagues, including the Big?10 that think they have the best. So when we’re watching an ACC team play against another outside opponent, we cheer for the ACC team as well.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an author and regular contributor to MSN, Fox Sports , Chicago Now, Walter Football.com and Yardbarker. Banks has appeared on Comcast SportsNet and the History Channel, as well as Clear Channel, ESPN and CBS radio all over the world. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@PaulMBanks)
