Big Ten Fan Bases

[Foppa]

The following two fanbases suck:

 

Ohio State - there are so many of these efers in Chicago and they are so fricking annoying. The most passionate fans tend to be the ones that didn't go to the school. Ohio, Miami of Ohio, Marshall, etc. all bleed Ohio State crimson. I get text messages from some every Saturday saying how their team is so good. Every single one has a bs sense of entitlement...I hate them the most (sorry Manhattan).

Michigan - smug, arrogant, think they know it all from politics to water polo to football. Not really much else to say.

 

another thing about michigan: they actually think they won a national championship in 1997.

 

weird, huh?

 

Illinois student here... just wanted to see what fans from schools "offered" a chance to join the Big Ten are thinking. I agree with pretty much everything that people have been saying about us (Illinois fans). We don't really care about football unless we are good, which isn't often, or we upset a school known for football like Ohio State. We care much more about basketball here. That said, a lot of us (I'm not gonna lie I've joined in) make fun of schools with lower academic standards like Iowa because we all know someone from the suburbs of Chicago who really isn't smart at all but met the relatively low standards of Iowa and went there. So if you come to our house you'll get lame, arrogant comments from drunken fans. I remember one to an Iowa fan: "I got double-digits on my ACT, did you?"

 

Northwestern fans want so badly to be U of I's rival but most of us here don't care about them at all haha. I personally would much rather have an Illinois-Missouri rivalry; we play each other once a year in football and basketball anyways.

 

And I agree with most everything about Michigan. I just don't like that Michigan thinks it's like an Ivy League school under the guise of a public school. This, a popular shirt around campus, is how Illinois feels about Michigan hahaha

 

 

Welcome HuskerBoard! Thanks for sharing your perspective.

 

Oh, also I think if we had a chance to play and upset Nebraska in Champaign our Memorial Stadium would be packed and filled with energy. But I honestly don't really see you guys getting too excited about playing us if we came into your house though.

 

Every game in college football is important, and especially conference games. This day and age, you really can't downplay anyone, or you lose. It's that simple. You'd be welcome here, and hopefully enjoy the experience.

[Foppa]

Well the AP crowned Michigan national champions (12-0) #1.

 

ESPN/Coaches crowned Nebraska national champions (13-0) #1.

 

I'd take the AP poll over any other selectors back before the BCS.

Of course you would, they did pick your team after all. It's all good though, I imagine we would have done the same if the rolls were reversed.

 

At the end of day all we can do is think about what if Michigan played Nebraska in 97.

 

Regardless what anyone thinks what would happen both teams were crowned national champs and had great seasons to remember that year.

 

Pretty much.

[BigRedPowerWagon]

Hummm spending a bit of time over at the Hawkeye board. Mostly full of smartasses.

[sd'sker]

Hummm spending a bit of time over at the Hawkeye board. Mostly full of smartasses.

sounds like my kind of people. better than dumb arses.

[Caven]

Hummm spending a bit of time over at the Hawkeye board. Mostly full of smartasses.

sounds like my kind of people. better than dumb arses.

 

Oh we have plenty of those over there too.

[Captain K]

Hummm spending a bit of time over at the Hawkeye board. Mostly full of smartasses.

I'm doing my part over here.

[Caven]

Hummm spending a bit of time over at the Hawkeye board. Mostly full of smartasses.

I'm doing my part over here.

 

Which one you guys on? Hawkeyenation or one of the pay ones?

[JTrain]

For the younger "fans" in Iowa City, football is mostly an excuse for getting up at 5 am to get b******* drunk and sometimes pass out by halftime. They call this "tailgating", although unlike at most schools, it rarely involves a tailgate or a grill. Of course, drinking is present everywhere on football Saturdays in college towns, but in football-passionate towns it's more of a side activity surrounding the actual game, whereas at Iowa, it's the main event.

 

Most of the younger Iowans couldn't have cared less about Iowa football until Ferentz and Banks took them to the Orange Bowl. They are a pretty solid example of a bandwagon fan base. The town was in a frenzy when they were 9-0 and on the cover of SI last year, but had you tried catching a football conversation on campus during the fall of '06 or '07, you'd have had a tough time.

 

When a young Ferentz came over the from the NFL in '99, the fans supported him by not showing up to many of the games. I don't think I'll ever forget a local newscast from around that time advertising a family fun pack which included four hot dogs, four drinks and four game tickets for 40 dollars! Considering a hot dog and pop will run you around $8 at the average sporting event, well... you can do the math.

 

Now this isn't to say Iowa doesn't have its share of good, longtime supporters, because of course it does. But I think unfortunately (for them), they've been breeding a less-than-passionate brand of fan for a decade or more now.

[Caven]

For the younger "fans" in Iowa City, football is mostly an excuse for getting up at 5 am to get b******* drunk and sometimes pass out by halftime. They call this "tailgating", although unlike at most schools, it rarely involves a tailgate or a grill. Of course, drinking is present everywhere on football Saturdays in college towns, but in football-passionate towns it's more of a side activity surrounding the actual game, whereas at Iowa, it's the main event.

 

Most of the younger Iowans couldn't have cared less about Iowa football until Ferentz and Banks took them to the Orange Bowl. They are a pretty solid example of a bandwagon fan base. The town was in a frenzy when they were 9-0 and on the cover of SI last year, but had you tried catching a football conversation on campus during the fall of '06 or '07, you'd have had a tough time.

 

When a young Ferentz came over the from the NFL in '99, the fans supported him by not showing up to many of the games. I don't think I'll ever forget a local newscast from around that time advertising a family fun pack which included four hot dogs, four drinks and four game tickets for 40 dollars! Considering a hot dog and pop will run you around $8 at the average sporting event, well... you can do the math.

 

Now this isn't to say Iowa doesn't have its share of good, longtime supporters, because of course it does. But I think unfortunately (for them), they've been breeding a less-than-passionate brand of fan for a decade or more now.

 

Man I don't know what rock you live under - but that is FAR from the experience I have had and seen over the past 20+ years. Fry pretty much turned Iowa football into what it is today back in the early 80s and with the exception of a few down years here and there tickets haven't been exactly easy to come by. Is it as hard to get tickets as it is to Nebraska games? Not at all. If you order them early enough you can get single game tickets to pretty much any game on the schedule. But to say it is a bunch of bandwagon fans is way off base. There were exactly 2 years where fan apathy had set in and that was the first 2 years of the Ferentz era because of how the Fry era ended and the fact that the fanbase had wanted to bring Stoops back home since he is an Iowa boy. It was the same type of fan apathy that I saw from the Nebraska fans here in Lincoln for a couple of years during the coaching turnover and they were giving away the last few thousand tickets to each game in order to maintain their sell out streak.

 

As far as tailgating - well I will just leave that alone since I have seen tailgating at both locations. Hopefully when Nebraska join the Big 10 we can get some Nebraska fans over to Iowa City and show them some good tailgating.

[Notre Dame Joe]

The following two fanbases suck:

 

Ohio State - there are so many of these efers in Chicago and they are so fricking annoying. The most passionate fans tend to be the ones that didn't go to the school. Ohio, Miami of Ohio, Marshall, etc. all bleed Ohio State crimson. I get text messages from some every Saturday saying how their team is so good. Every single one has a bs sense of entitlement...I hate them the most (sorry Manhattan).

Michigan - smug, arrogant, think they know it all from politics to water polo to football. Not really much else to say.

 

another thing about michigan: they actually think they won a national championship in 1997.

 

weird, huh?

 

Avoiding Nebraska in 97 saved Michigan from 50 years of underachieving. It was a necessary evil.

 

As for the fan bases, the most interesting is the UM vs eastOSU. OSU's rabid fans are all from Ohio whereas M is scattered around the country. It's the Gentry vs the Provinces. For that reason the fans in Columbus try to make outsiders feel as intimidated as possible [invest in fake license plates]

 

Playing in South Bend, the Big# fanbases weren't too much trouble. MSU was the most annoying because they were very blue collar; as in loud and drunk.

 

People still remember the nicest fans in 2000 were the visiting Nebraskans. Especially because most of us sat within a row or two of Red shirts in the stadium.

[VA Husker Fan]

Pretty good people from Big 10 schools here though. Good to see!

[BigRedPowerWagon]

Hummm spending a bit of time over at the Hawkeye board. Mostly full of smartasses.

I'm doing my part over here.

 

Which one you guys on? Hawkeyenation or one of the pay ones?

 

Caven look at my name, im at hawkeyenation. At least you arent 2 faced. For the most part people have been cival over there. The occasional smart ass comment i guess can be expected, but im sensitive.

[knapplc]

People still remember the nicest fans in 2000 were the visiting Nebraskans. Especially because most of us sat within a row or two of Red shirts in the stadium.

 

That may be an understatement. I forget what was going on in South Bend at the time, but you guys had less fans clamoring for seats around then than you traditionally do, and we packed your stadium like crazy:

 

 

I'm glad to hear that you remember our fans fondly, because we take pride in not being those typical asshat visitors (with the inevitable few asshats thrown in here and there). From what I recall in 2001 you guys were wonderful visitors and I daresay Nebraska would be ecstatic to be in the same conference as Notre Dame. I know that's a remote possibility, but one can always dream.

 

Welcome to HuskerBoard, NDJ. Make yourself at home, and any insight you have into the Irish this year - we'd love to hear it.

[VA Husker Fan]

Going to South Bend was the nicest experience I've had at a visiting stadium.

[hack]

Going to South Bend was the nicest experience I've had at a visiting stadium.

 

considering that is was for all intents and purposes a home game, yeah.

 

dunno if nebraska could get away with that now, but it'd be neat as hell to try.