Star compares KU, MU, KSU fans

[KCPowercat]

This is really getting off topic of ksu fans are the richest and least bandwagony.

[phxcat]

There is a very simple explanation for this difference between KU and MU fans.  KU basketball wins.  Every year.  Over the past 30 years, KU has more wins than any other college program.  This is the reason KU fans place their college above the Royals and Chiefs in this metro, especially given how sorry both the pro teams have been over the same period.

As much as I hate to agree with Metro on this, I think this is the key.  KU has tradition as well as recent success, while on the St. Louis side, the Cardinals have tradition and recent success.  St. Louis also has relatively recent success with the Rams, while MU has been good, but not really comparable to the Cards.  Reverse this, and Kansans are wearing Royals gear and St. Louisans are wearing MU gear.  Ohio and Michigan, despite being the homes to multiple major league teams, are big time college sports states, as the homes to a couple of the major college sports powers. 

[MoMan]

Not trying to flame, but if MU won a national championship, went to a Final Four, or had a big time football program on par with KSU in the 90's/2000's, etc, you'd see their passion more like that of KU/KSU.

Georgetown, Miami, Boston College, and Illinois have won national championships and/or had "big time" programs in football or basketball over the past couple of decades but it hasn't made fans in those cities "passionate" the way that, say, Kansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Nebraska fans are.  

As GRID points out, when universities in small, agrarian states don't have to compete with professional sports, cultural attractions, and other diversions, it's a lot easier to cultivate a rabid fan base in their captive markets.

[KCMax]

Georgetown, Miami, Boston College, and Illinois have won national championships and/or had "big time" programs in football or basketball over the past couple of decades but it hasn't made fans in those cities "passionate" the way that, say, Kansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Nebraska fans are.  

As GRID points out, when universities in small, agrarian states don't have to compete with professional sports, cultural attractions, and other diversions, it's a lot easier to cultivate a rabid fan base in their captive markets.

Those were all pretty brief runs. I think you need sustained success to have that kind of following.

Although U of Miami has....and I would bet that if you went around Miami you'd find they're the second most popular team in the city behind the Dolphins. And talk about a city that loves wearing sports gear - you'll find tons of people wearing Hurricanes gear, although its more of a fashion statement than anything.

Another example would be Detroit, which has U of Michigan as close as KU is to KC, and Michigan State is not much further. I haven't spent much time in Detroit, but I'd guess the college teams aren't as prevalent as they are here.

Anyone been to Charlotte? Will you find lots of UNC and Duke gear being worn?

[brewcrew1000]

I've been to a Charlotte Bobcats game and more fans were talking about UNC,Duke and NC State then talking or even watching the NBA game going on.

[Highlander]

There is a very simple explanation for this difference between KU and MU fans.  KU basketball wins.  Every year.  Over the past 30 years, KU has more wins than any other college program.  This is the reason KU fans place their college above the Royals and Chiefs in this metro, especially given how sorry both the pro teams have been over the same period.

There is some truth to this but when I was at Kansas during the 80's, they didn't win, at least not until late in the decade.  Allen Field House was half empty on many occasions so KU fans can be every bit as disinterested as other fans in the nation when their team is not doing well.  The corollary is that during that same time and well into the 90's, Missouri did win.  They ranked in the top ten in college basketball attendance during that time period as well.  The data are there, look it up.  What I do not understand is why Mizzou is not supporting Anderson's teams.  While they haven't won a NC, they were arguably the best team in the big XII two years ago and went to the Elite eight.  Last years and this years performances have been more modest but both well over 20 win seasons. 

It's tough regain confidence after a debacle like Quin Snyder but Grid's premise that Missourians do not care about college sports is wrong....Mizzou had, in the not too distant past, among the highest fan support in college basketball.  Nationwide, the amount of people attending collegiate sports dwarves professional sports, by a huge margin (except for maybe baseball).

[shinatoo]

There are essentially 3 professional sports teams in the metro to follow, depending on which sport your a fan of: the Chiefs, the Royals and KU. Like it or not, KU is one of probably 10 true marquee college basketball programs in the country, and anyone who follows basketball (NBA or college) knows it. Following Kansas basketball (or any college ball for that matter) is akin to following minor league baseball, and while some people might like to pretend that that's what people in Omaha do since they don't have "real sports", a whole host of other people follow minor league baseball because they like the game at many of levels of play. What's more, when it comes to college basketball and football, there are many people who actually think the game is better/more entertaining/more fun/whatever at the college level. Myself included.

I just threw up in mouth a little.

[NDTeve]

Georgetown, Miami, Boston College, and Illinois have won national championships and/or had "big time" programs in football or basketball over the past couple of decades but it hasn't made fans in those cities "passionate" the way that, say, Kansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Nebraska fans are.  

As GRID points out, when universities in small, agrarian states don't have to compete with professional sports, cultural attractions, and other diversions, it's a lot easier to cultivate a rabid fan base in their captive markets.

When has Illinois been good at anything for a sustained period? They had a fart in 2004 with Self's players. And way to name teams in top 10 largest markets. Are Florida fans nuts because there's nothing to do there? What about Texas or North Carolina? I'm sure most would consider Missouri much more cultured having so much more to do than North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Georgia, etc.

[mean]

I've only spent a bit of time in Wichita, but it seems like the Chiefs are majorly #1 there

This is what I came here to say. Find yourself in a bar in Wichita during a Chiefs game sometime, and tell me those folks aren't nuts for the Chiefs.

[chingon]

Like I said, Chiefs football is big throughout Kansas, even out west, although you start to see some Denver influence. So are college athletics, especially K-State and KU, since they tend to serve as markers of the east/west split in Kansas culture, the urban/rural (in the true demographic meanings of those words, not in the internet citynerd sense)  divide in Kansas culture, and to a lesser extent the liberal/conservative split. MLB fans in Kansas are largely Royals fans.

Its pretty simple to understand: Kansas City is the closest big city of any relevance to most of Kansas both in terms of population and geography. It certainly doesn't hurt that the word Kansas is in its name, as a large part of sports homerism is simply repping your place. But more crucial in this specific instance is the fact that Kansas City is functionally Kansas' big city. There's lots of Patriot and Redsox fans in Vermont, New Hampshire and main for the same reason.

[NDTeve]

Its an interesting dynamic. Wichita is a Chiefs town. Yet Springfield is as well (in spite of being a Cardinals town).

[KCMax]

I have friends in St Louis that are still Chiefs fans because they grew up with Martyball being the only team in the entire state and they just never changed allegiances.

[MoMan]

When has Illinois been good at anything for a sustained period? They had a fart in 2004 with Self's players. And way to name teams in top 10 largest markets. Are Florida fans nuts because there's nothing to do there? What about Texas or North Carolina? I'm sure most would consider Missouri much more cultured having so much more to do than North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Georgia, etc.

My post was in response to your contention that "if MU won a national championship, went to a Final Four, or had a big time football program on par with KSU in the 90's/2000's", the passion of Mizzou fans would be "more like that of KU/KSU".  

Since all the schools I named have accomplished one of those feats without generating notably passionate fans, I'm not sure what you're arguing.  But it sounds like you and I agree that the particularly rabid college sports fan bases are concentrated largely in the agrarian Midwestern states and in the South.  

[KC-wildcat]

But it sounds like you and I agree that the particularly rabid college sports fan bases are concentrated largely in the agrarian Midwestern states and in the South.  

You?re wrong.  The popularity of College sports in America and the insanity of the fans are unlike anything seen in most pro sports (NFL being the exception) and it?s pretty much the same in any region of the country except for the northeast, west coast, and rockies.  The agrarian nature of a state is wholly irrelevant. 

Look at each Conference and the passionate fans in each state:

ACC:  S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Virginia, Florida. 
SEC:  Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee
Big 10:  Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Penn, Indiana, Wisconsin
Big XII:  Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa
Big East:  West Virginia, Kentucky
Random:  Utah

I just listed half of the United States and the only agrarian states are Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Iowa.  Missouri is basically a combination of an agrarian state and a deep-south state.  Plenty of hard working, blue collar farmers balanced by a healthy portion of backwards, meth-smoking racists.     

[kcmetro]

Missouri is basically a combination of an agrarian state and a deep-south state.  Plenty of hard working, blue collar farmers balanced by a healthy portion of backwards, meth-smoking racists.     

[Highlander]

I just listed half of the United States and the only agrarian states are Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Iowa.  Missouri is basically a combination of an agrarian state and a deep-south state.  Plenty of hard working, blue collar farmers balanced by a healthy portion of backwards, meth-smoking racists.     

I hope that last statement was tongue in cheek.  Missouri has almost no deep south aspect to it at all.  The Bootheel, limited in area and population is the only thing in Missouri I would call the deep south.  The Ozarks are what they are, very sparsely populated as a whole and definately redneck but certainly not deep south.  Missouri's bootheel did produce  the backward meth-smoking Sherly Crow      and the Ozarks (or at least Springfield) contributed Brad Pitt to American pop culture. 

[MoMan]

You?re wrong.  The popularity of College sports in America and the insanity of the fans are unlike anything seen in most pro sports (NFL being the exception) and it?s pretty much the same in any region of the country except for the northeast, west coast, and rockies.  The agrarian nature of a state is wholly irrelevant. 

Look at each Conference and the passionate fans in each state:

ACC:  S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Virginia, Florida. 
SEC:  Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee
Big 10:  Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Penn, Indiana, Wisconsin
Big XII:  Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa
Big East:  West Virginia, Kentucky
Random:  Utah

I just listed half of the United States and the only agrarian states are Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Iowa.  Missouri is basically a combination of an agrarian state and a deep-south state.  Plenty of hard working, blue collar farmers balanced by a healthy portion of backwards, meth-smoking racists.     

Even with the idiotic inclusion of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio, your self-serving list still excludes a majority of the U.S. population.  And is heavy with Southern and rural-oriented states.

FYI: Kansas, as well as a number of other states on your list, has more meth users and hard-working blue collar farmers per capita than Missouri.  And way fewer cultural institutions, professional sports franchises, and URBAN AREAS (you know--those populous places where meth-smoking racists and farmers live).

[pash]

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[Highlander]

I know this isn't what you were getting at MoMan, so excuse me for the following spiel—

almost all of Georgetown's students are from outside DC (and not many are from Maryland or Virginia either).  Then consider that Georgetown has about 7,000 undergrads, and BC and Miami have about 9,000-10,000.

Good post.  As I said before, the number of people attending college sport activities (primarily basketball and football) absolutely dwarves what the pros draw.  I'd venture to say that although games like the superbowl are more widely watched than the NC football game, the amount of people watching college ball on Saturdays is much greater than those watching the pros on Sunday.  Georgetown is actually a great example of fan support.   They are crazy about the Hoyas.  Even though they have a third the students that KU has, they draw between 10-12,000 to the Verizon Center for home games.  In a place like Washington where everyone is from somewhere else and went to college somewhere else, it's hard to inspire interest in college ball for a local team but they do a pretty good job.  

The idea that college sports aren't supported in large cities on the coasts is a myth.  I don't really think it's a good measure of sophistication at any rate.  Pro sports certainly appeal to a more redneck crowd than college sports which appeal to a more educated crowd so using that as a put down is pretty silly.  It's just that there are SO Many college teams that the interest in any one team gets more diluted and that's even accentuated in metros wher the populace is mostly from elsewhere.  You'd think in a place like Houston that University of Texas or A&M would be huge.  They are certainly a presence but not huge because so many people here are from elsewhere and earned their degrees somewhere else.  We outsiders all follow college sports, we just don't care for UT or A&M.  That's probably why KC is so big on their local college teams, most educated people in the city actually attended KU, KSU or MU.  That's not the case in a lot of larger metros.  Grid observes the same thing but he comes up with the wrong reasons to explain it.      

[GRID]

I don't have much more to say about this.  I'm standing by what I have said.  I never said college sports are not popular, I only said a far lower percent of the population cares about college sports and is obsessed with college sports in larger cities and on the coasts as a general rule of thumb.  Places like DC, San Fran etc are highly educated areas and tickets to pro sports games are high and typically bought up by the wealthy and corporations.   But sports in general are just not a part of people's lives at near the level they are in places like Kansas or Nebraska or Oklahoma they just aren't.  And that is especially true for college sports.  This is coming from a huge sports fan.


But this is one of the dumbest things I have ever read haha:

I don't really think it's a good measure of sophistication at any rate.  Pro sports certainly appeal to a more redneck crowd than college sports which appeal to a more educated crowd so using that as a put down is pretty silly.

Most people I work with, live near and know in this area make six figures and are highly educated.  Most don't give a rip about college sports yet most follow the NFL and MLB, NHL to a lesser degree.

None wear sports gear hardly ever or really even talk about sports hardly ever and once again, the NCAA tourney gets a fraction of the office talk here as it does in KC.

As far as rednecks.  Come on.  I've watched Nebraska, Missouri, Kstate, OSU etc play on TV and there is no shortage of rednecks that look like they are going to the farm for a beer and bon fire after the game.

We go to pro games all the time out here and I would say the fans are well off and well educated.  Shit, it cost $190 to sit in the lower level of a caps game and the skins get close to that.  The people that paid $20 to see some college game probably couldn't afford the parking.