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Reddit's College Football Hierarchy of Allegiance - agree or disagree with the list?

RollWave35

RollWave35

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Seems pretty solid to me. But opinions will vary.

http://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/2hw25s/the_college_football_hierarchy_of_allegiance/

THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL HIERARCHY OF ALLEGIANCE:

How to choose who you should root for:

1. Your undergraduate alma mater - This should be the first and foremost team you root for, above all others. The only exception is if you attend/ed an institution that does not field a football team. Should that institution start up a football team, it automatically becomes your first team. It is your alma mater, for god's sake.

2. (really 1.5) Your employer - If you currently work for an instutition that fields a football program, you may pull for them as much as you pull for your alma mater. You should especially support your employer while on campus in a professional capacity, or while attending your employer's sporting events. If it comes down to employer vs. alma mater, the proper course is to take a public stance of neutrality while privately rooting for your alma mater.

3. Your graduate school (if applicable) - If you attended grad school, you may root for them, but always behind your undergraduate program.

4. Your parents' alma mater or favorite team - This goes double if both parents attended the same college, as that institution is at least partially responsible for your very existence. If both parents pull for rival teams, call a family therapist. If your parents served in the military, you may put the relevant service academy here, even if your parents didn't actually go there.

5. Your spouse's alma mater or favorite team - Never go to bed angry.

6. Your siblings' or close friends' alma maters - That's almost as good as if you yourself attended, especially if they can hook you up with tickets.

7. The dominant football power in your area growing up/the underdog football power in your area growing up - This is basically cultural osmosis. You're from Michigan? You're gonna grow up with Michigan or Sparty. You just ARE. NOTE: If your alma mater is a direct rival of the dominant football power, you are required to side with your alma mater in any and all possible scenarios.

8. Service Academies/Perennial Underdogs - Some folks put the service academies around here as a show of patriotism or support for the military or whatever. That's cool, just be aware that the lion's share of the military doesn't give a wet fart about the service academies' football programs. Other folks put a consistent no-hope squad on their allegiance list. You can do that too, but it doesn't really count.

9. Whatever. - If you've made it this far down, you can basically put whoever you like here, as far as I'm concerned. Most decent folks will have no more than three teams they pull for.

AVOID: Ironic enjoyment - Pulling for a team as a joke. College football is not a joke.

AVOID: Bandwagoneering - Oregon, Bama, whoever's winning right now because you're a loser and you just latch on, remora-like, to the team most likely to make you feel like you matter.

REMEMBER: WHEN IN DOUBT, ALMA MATER ABOVE ALL OTHERS.
 
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Three more I would include as reasons to follow a school, though not necessarily the die-hard level of fandom :
If you have college-age kids, the school they attend. My die-hard Wake kid went to APP; he's still a Wake fan but we enjoy pulling for both schools now.
If you relocate to an area, the local university. I can tell Wake has picked up a lot of fans this way from talking to transplants at the football games. We may not be their #1 team (seems like a lot came here from Big 10 country) but they pull for us locally.
Particularly from a smaller community, if a local kid goes to a university previously not on your radar and you follow them closely for all 4 of his years and then maintain a level of interest afterwards.
 
I think there's some room for readjustment between 4-7. Your childhood geographically-based favorite team is a pretty strong pull.

For me, it's stronger than parent's school (spouse and siblings all went to Wake), and I would assume it is for many unless your parents went to a school with a strong football tradition and indoctrinated you (my parents went to Vandy, so maybe that's the issue)
 
Number 7 is at the bottom of my list in every sport.

My order for general sports are my undergrad, family's allegiances, graduate school, insert whoever the underdog of the month is. Of course a lot of these mentioned are overlapped since I grew up a Wake fan, my family went to Wake, and my girlfriend went to Wake. I can't even think of another team I would pull for other than State since half my family went there. Even to that end my interest in State isn't very high.
 
1/4. Wake
3. Johns Hopkins (Grad school... we have a team!)
6. 'Bama (Sister grad school)
8. Navy (Grandfather was in Navy, so there's that)
 
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Looks good. Just needs the caveat that 1.5 through 7 can eat a D if they are rival schools to #1.

#7 definitely would be #1 on a Hierarchy of Hate list.
 
My dad went to Chapel Hill so I grew up as a combined Wake and Carolina fan (parents went to grad school at Wake, grandad did undergrad and law here). parents pull for Wake now over Carolina, but still like them. when I got into Wake I said fuck Carolina and never looked back. that may change if I were to somehow go to grad school or have a kid who went there. wife's dad went to Duke and she still pulls for them any time unless playing Wake, which really kills me.
 
1, 4 Wake
4 Ohio State

I try not to talk about tO$U on here, especially after OCC. Pulled for Wake hard the only two times we faced OSU while I was in undergrad. Not sure we've played them since. Easy call given the conflict, but it's rarely there. This Thanksgiving will be my fifth THE RIVALRY.
 
I have a few lady friends from Wake who went to UNC for grad school and/or married UNC grads who post their pro-UNC drivel and pics on Facebook on Saturdays. Just sad.
 
1. Wake. Despite Chairman Ron's best efforts.

2. Used to be Md@Alaska because I'm from there and used to have season tix as a kid. But now that they've left the ACC, they're dead to me. It's not like I hate them - just don't care either way. Kinda like how I feel about the Colts since they left for Indy.

3. VT & UVA. I've lived in VA for 20+ years now, and I've rooted for both state schools. I've kinda liked VT a bit better, and that's been mostly because I've liked their coaches better - really liked Beamer, though he's slowing down, and thought Greenberg did a decent job. I wasn't a big Welsh fan and despised Groh. I like London the guy, but feel bad for him because he's just not a good coach. I liked Gillen personally but he had his foibles as a coach, despised Leitao but now really like Bennett and enjoy having UVA season tix at JPJ.

4. The rest of the ACC not named Dick, State and UNC. Will always root for GT, Clemson, FSU and even the newcomers in OOC games.

5. Whoever is playing against the SEC. Kinda been impressed with and like much of the PAC-10 the last few years.
 
My grad school was UVA because it's a damn good school in my field and it was readily available, but I can't pull for them mostly because of the #7 backlash that so many others have described.
 
Not much disagreement on that list, except I'd bump 2 down to 4 and move 4 up. Instead of 1-2-3-4, it would be 1-3-4-2, with 3 and 4 being swapable.

It is hard to abandon allegiance to the team you grew up rooting for with your parents. I certainly haven't, and thank God for that because Wake sucks balls in everything right now.
 
This is easy for me. My wife's alma mater doesn't play football and I grew up in NJ, so there is no dominant football power in the area.

1 - Wake
Tied 2 - UGA (son's alma mater) and Penn State (both parents, yes I still root for Penn State)
3 - Bloomsburg State (brother)
 
1. Wake Forest



10. ACC schools other than duke AND Graduate School #2
 
Shorty said:
This is easy for me. My wife's alma mater doesn't play football and I grew up in NJ, so there is no dominant football power in the area.

1 - Wake
Tied 2 - UGA (son's alma mater) and Penn State (both parents, yes I still root for Penn State)
3 - Bloomsburg State (brother)
Click to expand...
Are you conflicted when YOUR DAWGS face off against the mighty power that is Bloomsburg State?
 
I went to Wake Law and UGA undergrad, but I consider Georgia to be my NFL team and Wake as my college team. I was at both schools for 3 years and my best friends are from Wake rather than UGA. My dad, mom and brother all went to Troy, but until recently, they weren't FBS, so I never really developed an allegiance to them. My dad raised me Auburn, but once I went to Georgia, I developed a good ol' fashioned hate for them. I attend more Wake sporting events and would probably end up rooting for whichever team needed the win more if they ever faced off. In basketball, I pulled for Wake since basketball means little to UGA. I still remember the D.A. Layne game with disappointment, for example. I'm pretty close to a sports polygamist.
 
the only people who care why other people cheer for their teams are uber donk face painters that probably went to a middling athletic school. i guess that's why evryone here agrees with the list.
 
1. App. Alma mater

2. Wake. Father's Alma mater


Because most of my teams suck I get REALLY pissed when someone pulls for a team they have no connection to. I get even more pissed when the pull for a team they have no connection to only when the team wins.
 
1. Wake undergrad and both parents are alums

1a. South Carolina, grad school and live in Columbia. Wife is also South Carolina grad school.

I'm trying to raise my kids to like both schools equally, but mainly thanks to Jeff [name redacted] and Steve spurrier (and cocky the mascot), they are probably 90% gamecock and 10% deacon.
 
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