Question: What's wrong with being a bandwagon fan?

[KrAzY3]

I think there's some understandable resentment for fans that only cheer for a team when they are winning. Having said that, I'd really prefer to have them than to not have them. The more support a program has the better, so if some pundit on TV keeps singing the praises of Alabama I'm all for it, even if he's going to move on to some other team when the going gets rough. The more merch Alabama sells the more the program makes and the more the program can do.

As far as graduating from Alabama, that whole thing is nonsense. My family is nearly all Alabama fans, I remember a birthday party of about 50 people of which 40 were wearing Alabama gear and one was wearing Auburn gear and getting nasty looks. Most of my family unfortunately are not college grads at all, my dad had to drop out of high school to support his mother and siblings who lived in a one room house.

It takes a special kind of idiot to tell someone like my father he couldn't cheer for Alabama because he didn't get the opportunity to go to college. He was pretty good at sports to, all city as a youth in football, good enough at softball to get a job because of it and even become a ringer for a local TV station. He never even got to play high school sports though...

Now my wife is getting her masters from the University of Alabama and currently has a 4.0 GPA. Why is she going there? Why was she so excited to be going there? She's from Germany... the legacy of being an Alabama fan is something I passed on to her, which my father passed on to me. She didn't magically become a more legitimate Alabama fan the day she got accepted.

 

[AUDub]

I believe the term you are searching for is "sidewalk fan".

There is a chasm of difference between sidewalk and bandwagon fans. I have respect for the former - my father was one and so was I prior to attending and graduating from UA. The latter will jump off the bandwagon when things go badly.

Came in here to make this distinction and glad somebody beat me to it.

 

[CrimSonami]

Some refer to us as "Sidewalk Alumni" and I'm so very proud to be one of those! College wasn't for me but it doesn't mean my fanhood should or can be restricted.

 

[DzynKingRTR]

I grew up a Bama fan. I decided on a career that Alabama did not teach. I went to a school that barely had sports at all. I was there 2 years before I learned we had a basketball team.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

It’s what fans of teams that don’t win a lot of championships tell themselves about people who root for teams that do.

They can’t beat the rival on the field, so they need something to make themselves feel morally and intellectually superior to the rival’s fans.

Characterizing the fans of the winning programs as “bandwagon” simultaneously (1) makes them feel more pure in their affection for their own, and (2) allows them to throw shade at the fans of the winners, casting them as mercenary front-runners.

Even when we’re going through a down period, they know that it’s a question of when, not if, we’ll be back. And they hate that with a passion.

In the words of Lucius Accius and Crimsonaudio, “Let them hate, so long as they fear.” And they do fear.

 

[Evil Crimson Dragon]

I grew up a Bama fan. I decided on a career that Alabama did not teach. I went to a school that barely had sports at all. I was there 2 years before I learned we had a basketball team.

KSU?

 

[DzynKingRTR]

KSU?

Southern Polytechnic State University. They merged with KSU. I still don't acknowledge it is real.

 

[Windsortide]

Bandwagon =New England Patriot fans under 40! LOL

 

[bamaclimber]

I was a Bama fan before I was a Bama student. I was a Braves fan before I was a Bra....wait, I never even played little league. Oh well. Still a Braves fan!

I see what you did there.

 

[tlockwood]

I did not have the opportunity to attend Alabama. We didn't have the money for any major college and my education after high school was earned on Parris Island, SC.

Years later I was able to attend college online. It was the only way I could afford to go to college.

At mu 20 year high school reunion, one of my classmates who was able to go to and graduate from Auburn was ribbing me for not being a Bama grad. His girlfriend ultimately called me a bandwagon fan because I was a Bama fan. I told her I was also a Braves fan and I had never played for them. It stopped the conversation.

I don't know what kind of Bama fan I should be called...I prefer loyal.
I was a fan through the later years of Coach Bryant. I was a fan through the 80s. I was a fan while stationed in Italy in a barracks full of Miami fans when we smoked them for NC #12. I've been a Bama fan through Fran, the Mikes, and now with Saban, I will be a fan for the rest of my days. And when I die, I will sit in Heaven with the former coaches, players, alumni, and regular fans who weren't able to attend the university like myself.

Roll Tide and I hope to be a fan through many more great years!

 

[tmv85]

An auburn grad I worked with ridiculed anyone who was a “sidewalk alumni” of Bama, yet her father, a JSU graduate, was, in her words, the biggest Bama fan alive. I always scratched my head at that.

 

[Evil Crimson Dragon]

Southern Polytechnic State University. They merged with KSU. I still don't acknowledge it is real.

I went to KSU..............it is odd that both are together now

 

[DawgAlum2054]

I went to KSU before I went to UGA

nothing wrong with being a fan of a school you did not attend. However, there are a lot of people who are only fans of a team because they win, that’s a band wagon fan

New York Yankees fan, patriots fan, Ohio state fan and Golden State fan all at the Same time as an example.

 

[Probius]

I am an alumnus of the University of Alabama (class of 2004) but I was a Bama fan long before I attended the university. I always thought of Bama as being my home state team. I'm a Bama fan because I love my home state. How is this any different than an NFL fan pulling for the team from their city/state?

 

[Redwood Forrest]

My parents were not football fans. I "discovered" football when Bama stomped Nebraska in the Sugar Bowl, 65 or 66 season I think it was. I have zero connection with Bama. Yet there is something about hearing Yea Alabama that stirs me. I can't explain it. I have been, over the years, an LSU, FSU, a Miami fan -- before they became Thug U -- a Penn State and an Arizona State fan. But those faded unlike cheering for Bama. I guess I was a fair weather fan for those other teams.

 

[81usaf92]

Bandwagon =New England Patriot fans over 40! LOL

Wouldn’t it be UNDER 40?

 

[81usaf92]

I went to KSU before I went to UGA

nothing wrong with being a fan of a school you did not attend. However, there are a lot of people who are only fans of a team because they win, that’s a band wagon fan

New York Yankees fan, patriots fan, Ohio state fan and Golden State fan all at the Same time as an example.

IDK if I would put Ohio St in that distinction. Oregon comes more to mind than Ohio St.

 

[Windsortide]

Wouldn’t it be UNDER 40?

You would be correct!!!

 

[rolltide_21]

I am the first person in my family not to go to UA. I wanted to go to seminary instead and chose that path. But, had I not gone there I would’ve been at the Capstone like the rest of my family. So, I have no issues with being a sidewalk fan (whatever that actually means). Ive thought about going back to school to get my M.S. in Clinical Counseling and becoming licensed. Looked at Bama’s program but it’s very expensive like most of their graduate programs. I can get the same degree with licensure (after clinical hours) at UNA for half the price. I completed my M.Div. in 2014 (90 graduate hours) so I am in no hurry to go back to school ha!

 

[CB4]

Life long Bama fan here. Through thick and thin. Attended my first Alabama football game in 1968. I have two degrees, and neither from the Capstone. Like many here, my plan was to go to school in Tuscaloosa. However, financially I wasn't able. I spent my first year living at home, working, and attending classes full time. Same was true with second degree...married, working, and family soon to start.

"Band wagon", "Sidewalk", "Pool Hall" alumnus....call me what you like. Whatever helps you get through the day. That is more about you than it is about me.