MU vs. Sconnie

[JD]

I was just wondering because a co-worker of mine went to the University of Madison, and he was stating how he cheers for MU basketball only during March madness.  I expressed my disgust for the University of Madison school, so I refuse to cheer for them in any sport.

[martyconlonontherun]

I feel its ok to root for both teams for 2 reasons:

1. I'm allowed to because I financially (albeit very insignificantly) support both schools. UW through taxes and MU through my huge, massive debt.

2. It's a representation of a community (since I live in WI). In HS, you hated the other schools but I feel you cheer for them at state (if you loss to them in sectionals) since they are now the team representing your hometown. I would rather see a Big East team win over a big ten team win since it represents my school in some way. But UW also represents my home state, and if MU isn't there, why not root for them. Unless you are a FIB, then you couldn't understand. 

[ATWizJr]

As a WI native, Milwaukee to be exact, I see no problem with cheering for Badger sports teams with the exception of BB when they play us.  I mean, why not cheer for Badger hockey or football?  We're not a competitior in these areas.

[Blue Horseshoe]

I take a macro look that if it benefits UW, overall it is bad for business at MU.

[brewcity77]

UW is one of our current most bitter rivals. If they're the enemy in basketball, I'd feel hypocritical cheering for their other sports. And just because I live in Wisconsin doesn't make me an obligatory UW fan any more than living in Milwaukee would make me an obligatory UW-Milwaukee fan.

[martyconlonontherun]

I take a macro look that if it benefits UW, overall it is bad for business at MU.

I take a macro, macro look that if it benefits UW, Wisconsin produces better basketball players. MU also benefits and this breeds even better Wisconsin bball players and suddenly UW and MU become the Duke/UNC of the midwest with intense, high-caliber rivalry.

[martyconlonontherun]

UW is one of our current most bitter rivals. If they're the enemy in basketball, I'd feel hypocritical cheering for their other sports. And just because I live in Wisconsin doesn't make me an obligatory UW fan any more than living in Milwaukee would make me an obligatory UW-Milwaukee fan.

You mean you didn't buy the 2 for $99 season ticket offer?

I guess I'm the type of sports fan that is more of a 3rd-party viewer than a passionate fan. I don't scream at the tv over a bad play or anything like that. So when it comes to this, I don't view UW fans as the scum of the earth, nor do I ever hate the teams we play against. When it comes to MU, I see the good/bad in Buzz, saw the bad in Crean before he left, and the good in him now. I don't see anything making me hypocritical for cheering for MU first and then UW second, in any sport.

[RyanConroy]

Hate for every sport.

[augoman]

as a MU alum and a former baaajr shared-season tckt holder (ftball only), I am embarrassed by the behavior of the fans at the games.  drunkeness is the order of the day, and f-ck em bucky is the battle cry.  no thank you.  thank God my daughter picked Northwestern, as I now can get my college football fix in a civil atmosphere.  
I always laughed at their bball team, and see no reason to stop doing so now that bobo has some success.
My favorite teams are MU first, NW football, and whomever is playing uw-madison.

[Hards Alumni]

as a MU alum and a former baaajr shared-season tckt holder (ftball only), I am embarrassed by the behavior of the fans at the games.  drunkeness is the order of the day, and f-ck em bucky is the battle cry.  no thank you.  thank God my daughter picked Northwestern, as I now can get my college football fix in a civil atmosphere.  
I always laughed at their bball team, and see no reason to stop doing so now that bobo has some success.
My favorite teams are MU first, NW football, and whomever is playing uw-madison.

Might be a civil atmosphere, but there sure isn't a lot of winning...

It must be exciting to hear the student section chant in binary code!

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

I love watching Bucky lose in any sport.

[mu03eng]

I think you can pick another school for football but I don't think it can be a rival in basketball.

Having said that this invokes an interesting topic with my wife recently.  She is a badger grad and fan(fanatic in football, casual with everything else) but she wears mu gear for games and knows mu ball really well.  I'm a huge PSU football fan and it drives her nuts, so she offered a trade, she would be all in on MU sports if I dropped Penn State for Becky football.  I would never do that, but I'm curious what the board thinks of that

[Skatastrophy]

I think you can pick another school for football but I don't think it can be a rival in basketball.

Having said that this invokes an interesting topic with my wife recently.  She is a badger grad and fan(fanatic in football, casual with everything else) but she wears mu gear for games and knows mu ball really well.  I'm a huge PSU football fan and it drives her nuts, so she offered a trade, she would be all in on MU sports if I dropped Penn State for Becky football.  I would never do that, but I'm curious what the board thinks of that

I think it would be a fair trade for you to go full neutral in football, but changing alliance from Penn State to UW-Madison is a big swing. 

[ringout]

Been a Badger FB fan since 1971 (I was 11), watching Rufus the Roadrunnner Ferguson destroy NIU.  Enjoy the whole game day experience. Nothing better on a nice fall day.

Absolutely detest BoBo and BAAAADger BB.

[Freeport Warrior]

Started rooting for Badgers football in '77 as a 10-year old because a kid from my hometown was the running back, Troy King. Probably didn't even know where Milwaukee was at that point. Have been rooting for them ever since, probably with the same intensity I root for MU bball. Ruined my night last week to see them lose to MichSt, especially because the table was set for them. Felt exactly the same when MU lost to Mizzou, Kansas, NC and Wash.

Agree with ringout on the atmosphere -- love fall in Madison, going to a few games -- nothing else like it. To me, it blows a Packers game out of the water, not even close. In 1998, before kids, my wife and I got bumped on a Midwest Express flight and got 4 roundtrip tickets each. That year we went to every home and away game. Some of the best times of our lives.

I am looking forward to going to Madison on Dec. 3 to root on MU at the Kohl Center, then hopefully heading to State Street to root on the Badgers in the Big Ten Championship game and watch them hand it to Mich St like they should have last week.  I have more than a few friends rooting the same way. To each his own.

[MerrittsMustache]

I grew up in the Chicago area and, being a good Catholic boy, I was a big Notre Dame football fan. As I got older, I also grew to appreciate what Barry Alvarez had done at Wisconsin and cheered them on in the Rose Bowl (from my couch). However, when I was in HS and visited ND and Wisco, I ceased being even a marginal fan of either school. I'd like to say that it was because my allegiance to rival Marquette was incredibly strong from the beginning but, in actuality, it was that my distaste for the students and administrators that I spent time with at the other schools that actually drove me away. Had I gone to one of my other two top choices - Northwestern or SLU - I likely would have still felt dislike for ND and Wisco, but attending MU just fueled the fire.

Long story short, I don't cheer for the Badgers in any sports.

[Eye]

Hate in basketball and football, don't care in all other sports other than hockey, bandwagoner there (guy I did radio with in La Crosse used to do their games on the tape delay on public TV, now does the Admirals), fan in club baseball (kid I coached plays for that team).

[MUBurrow]

OH. MY. GOD. MADISON IS THE BEST SCHOOL IN THE WORLD! NUMBER ONE PARTY SCHOOL IN AMERICA!!! YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED BEER PONG UNTIL YOUVE PLAYED IT AT A MADISON PARTY. AND THE SCHOOL IS SO. GREAT. I AM GOING TO HAVE A MUCH BETTER JOB THAN YOU AND BE WAY RICHER WHEN I GRADUATE! WHY WOULD YOU EVER GO ANYWHERE ELSE??!?! IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU!?

If you went to a public high school in WI and went to Marquette, this is what your senior year was like, and what its like whenever you talk college with people from home. Maybe this is a more recent development with the whole party school publicity, but for that generation at least, it doesn't take long to wish losses on them wherever they go.

[copious1218]

OH. MY. GOD. MADISON IS THE BEST SCHOOL IN THE WORLD! NUMBER ONE PARTY SCHOOL IN AMERICA!!! YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED BEER PONG UNTIL YOUVE PLAYED IT AT A MADISON PARTY. AND THE SCHOOL IS SO. GREAT. I AM GOING TO HAVE A MUCH BETTER JOB THAN YOU AND BE WAY RICHER WHEN I GRADUATE! WHY WOULD YOU EVER GO ANYWHERE ELSE??!?! IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU!?

If you went to a public high school in WI and went to Marquette, this is what your senior year was like, and what its like whenever you talk college with people from home. Maybe this is a more recent development with the whole party school publicity, but for that generation at least, it doesn't take long to wish losses on them wherever they go.

HA!  Two stories along this same line:  1) A woman my wife used to work with actually said she graduated from the Harvard of the Midwest when she met me (meaning Madison) - ridiculous.  2) A woman I work with said she would not be able to even comprehend the concept of her child wanting to go anywhere besides Madison.

[Litehouse]

Maybe this is a more recent development with the whole party school publicity, but for that generation at least, it doesn't take long to wish losses on them wherever they go.

If anything, I'd say the partying reputation in Madison has decreased over the past 15-20 years as their sports teams have improved.  Partying used to be their only thing they were good at.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

OH. MY. GOD. MADISON IS THE BEST SCHOOL IN THE WORLD! NUMBER ONE PARTY SCHOOL IN AMERICA!!! YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED BEER PONG UNTIL YOUVE PLAYED IT AT A MADISON PARTY. AND THE SCHOOL IS SO. GREAT. I AM GOING TO HAVE A MUCH BETTER JOB THAN YOU AND BE WAY RICHER WHEN I GRADUATE! WHY WOULD YOU EVER GO ANYWHERE ELSE??!?! IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU!?

If you went to a public high school in WI and went to Marquette, this is what your senior year was like, and what its like whenever you talk college with people from home. Maybe this is a more recent development with the whole party school publicity, but for that generation at least, it doesn't take long to wish losses on them wherever they go.

It's not even that different if you went to a Catholic high school.

[MUfan12]

OH. MY. GOD. MADISON IS THE BEST SCHOOL IN THE WORLD! NUMBER ONE PARTY SCHOOL IN AMERICA!!! YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED BEER PONG UNTIL YOUVE PLAYED IT AT A MADISON PARTY. AND THE SCHOOL IS SO. GREAT. I AM GOING TO HAVE A MUCH BETTER JOB THAN YOU AND BE WAY RICHER WHEN I GRADUATE! WHY WOULD YOU EVER GO ANYWHERE ELSE??!?! IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU!?

If you went to a public high school in WI and went to Marquette, this is what your senior year was like, and what its like whenever you talk college with people from home. Maybe this is a more recent development with the whole party school publicity, but for that generation at least, it doesn't take long to wish losses on them wherever they go.

I'm gonna print this and show it to the next moron that says "You have to cheer for Bucky, you're from WI."

[macman320]

I actually like Madison as a fun place to visit and think they have some good (engineering) academic programs, but I hate their sports teams. Mostly because of conversations like this:

me to a badger fan, "so, who so you think your biggest rival is?"

badger fan, "We don't really have a rival. Whoever is the best in the conference, usually Ohio State."

Along with the previous posts, I don't really understand either why the entire state worships that school including people who didn't go there. I have a friend who got rejected by Madison in high school, went to UWGB before transferring to MU, and attended grad school at MN. He said he hated bucky in high school, but yet still cheers for them. Perhaps I'm jealous they have such a strong following, but it's so annoying how people from there talk about it as the "only" school.

[brewcity77]

You mean you didn't buy the 2 for $99 season ticket offer?

I guess I'm the type of sports fan that is more of a 3rd-party viewer than a passionate fan. I don't scream at the tv over a bad play or anything like that. So when it comes to this, I don't view UW fans as the scum of the earth, nor do I ever hate the teams we play against. When it comes to MU, I see the good/bad in Buzz, saw the bad in Crean before he left, and the good in him now. I don't see anything making me hypocritical for cheering for MU first and then UW second, in any sport.

Wow...seriously 2 for $99? That's ridiculous. But if I got a second set of season tickets, it'd be to the Marquette women.

I think what drives me nuts is I know very few UW fans that went to Wisconsin that I can enjoy talking sports to. I love Marquette, but I can acknowledge the faults of our players, coach, and program. I've never met a UW fan that could do the same. And I hate how every Stevens Point or Eau Claire or Parkside alum seems to think that they are also Badgers. Umm...no, if it wasn't Madison, you're not a Badger.

[Onions!]

Wow...seriously 2 for $99? That's ridiculous. But if I got a second set of season tickets, it'd be to the Marquette women.

I think what drives me nuts is I know very few UW fans that went to Wisconsin that I can enjoy talking sports to. I love Marquette, but I can acknowledge the faults of our players, coach, and program. I've never met a UW fan that could do the same. And I hate how every Stevens Point or Eau Claire or Parkside alum seems to think that they are also Badgers. Umm...no, if it wasn't Madison, you're not a Badger.

This^, precisely this, my friends that go to all of these schools were "heartbroken" by that loss on Saturday against MSU...No you don't go to Madison, you go to Oshkosh, you're a Titan not a Badger.