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TCU's fan base is pretty small. No real bandwagoners, either.
Being a school of only 10,000 students located in an area where you have to compete with the Cowboys (which in itself is enough), the Rangers, Mavs, Stars, two other FBS schools (really three, but UT-Arlington has no football program) for attention, and in that same area, you have alumni from UT, A&M, Tech, UNT, SMU, OU, Ok. St., Arkansas, Baylor, and plenty of others thanks to so many transplants coming into DFW.
It's hard for the Frogs to gain the same amount of attention, but the few fans TCU has are REAL fans. Many feel it's better to be a small base instead of a bunch of t-shirt fans from other parts of the country like certain other schools. TCU is to Fort Worth what USC is to most of L.A. or what the Longhorns are to Austin, and it's mainly SWFW where you'll see the large purple flags and gear in stores. Even during the season, our everything in downtown lights purple:
TCU's fan base is pretty small. No real bandwagoners, either.
Being a school of only 10,000 students located in an area where you have to compete with the Cowboys (which in itself is enough), the Rangers, Mavs, Stars, two other FBS schools (really three, but UT-Arlington has no football program) for attention, and in that same area, you have alumni from UT, A&M, Tech, UNT, SMU, OU, Ok. St., Arkansas, Baylor, and plenty of others thanks to so many transplants coming into DFW.
It's hard for the Frogs to gain the same amount of attention, but the few fans TCU has are REAL fans. Many feel it's better to be a small base instead of a bunch of t-shirt fans from other parts of the country like certain other schools. TCU is to Fort Worth what USC is to most of L.A. or what the Longhorns are to Austin, and it's mainly SWFW where you'll see the large purple flags and gear in stores. Even during the season, our everything in downtown lights purple:
you talk about what you would like to see TCU do in the D/FW market. I sure wish Northwestern could do something like this in the Chicago market. And NU doesn't even have to share a metro area with anyone like TCU does with SMU.
I'm an Auburn fan. We are among the elect. You come to an Auburn game and our fans don't shout obscenities at your fans. We welcome you to our tailgates and give you beer and food. We talk about the game as if it were a game, not as if it were a matter of life and death. If you beat us after the game, we'll say, "Hey, good game. Drive safely on the way home," and your car will not be vandalized in the stadium parking lot.
Unfortunately, we share the same state with Alabama fans. The biggest collection of stump-neck, gap-toothed, knuckle-dragging, polyester-wearing, stoop-gait, slack-jawed, mullet-haired, biscuit-eating, cousin-kissing, mouth-breathing bunch of hayseeds every accumulated in one spot on the planet earth. I know nice Alabama fans. It just happens to be the other 99% that makes the 1% look bad.
At Texas Tech University, current students and alumni fill the stands on Saturdays. I'm a Tech alumnus and I've been to many of the home games over the years. Alumni are a huge factor in game attendance. The football stadium would probably be half-empty each week it it wasn't for alumini attending the games. I would say it's probably mostly alumni that watch Tech games on TV. Texas Tech is a large university and currently has about 30,000 students. There might be some T-shirt fans, but nowhere near as many as the University of Texas or probably even Texas A&M. Lubbock is a city of about 230,000 in population in a remote part of the state and there are no other large universities anywhere near Tech that competes for their fanbase. The citizens of Lubbock are very supportive of the university. For example, you see the "Double T" symbol that represents the university displayed in a lot of places around town. I would say the geographic footprint is mostly in West Texas but there are also some Tech alumni in other parts of the state. For some reason a lot of students at Tech are from the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. It was that way when I attended Tech back in the early 90's and it's still that way. As a result, that metro area in particular has a lot of alumni. That's always been somewhat puzzling to me since Lubbock is so far from Dallas-Fort Worth (about 300 miles away). The only explanation I can think of is that Lubbock is even further away the other large Texas metros (San Antonio, Austin, and Houston). In recent years Tech has played Baylor University at a neutral site in the DFW area each year (mostly Cowboys stadium), with a lot of those DFW alumni attending the games.
I'm an Auburn fan. We are among the elect. You come to an Auburn game and our fans don't shout obscenities at your fans. We welcome you to our tailgates and give you beer and food. We talk about the game as if it were a game, not as if it were a matter of life and death. If you beat us after the game, we'll say, "Hey, good game. Drive safely on the way home," and your car will not be vandalized in the stadium parking lot.
Unfortunately, we share the same state with Alabama fans. The biggest collection of stump-neck, gap-toothed, knuckle-dragging, polyester-wearing, stoop-gait, slack-jawed, mullet-haired, biscuit-eating, cousin-kissing, mouth-breathing bunch of hayseeds every accumulated in one spot on the planet earth. I know nice Alabama fans. It just happens to be the other 99% that makes the 1% look bad.
do bama's and auburn's fan base break down geographically at all or is the state really a total mix of both (I mean, of course, outside of tuscalousa and auburn)?
University of Oregon (UO or U of O, not OU) is located in Eugene, OR, situated at the southern end of the Willamette (Wil-lam-ette) Valley. Eugene has a population of 150,000 and is known as the Emerald City or Tracktown USA. Two rivers run through town and it is about an hour to the coast and an hour to skiing. It drizzles from October to May, but actually gets less overall rain than one would expect. Since it drizzles so much, it is green all year round. The town is known to be a hub for hippies, anarchists and subculture folks, which gives rise to such mocking slogans as, "Where Tie-Dye hasn't died since the 60s" and "Eugene: Where more white people have dreadlocks than the entire island of Jamaica." And like all hippie hubs, it is commonly referred to as The Republic of Eugene. It is a very active and fit city- jogging, hiking, cycling. Animal House was filmed there- nuff said.
The university is a rather small university for a public school- 23,000 (and had fewer than 20,000 when I went there). It has strong programs in Architecture (Green), Journalism, Business/Sports Marketing and Education. Of course there are a lot of kids who spend their days playing hackey-sack before classes, but one can still get a great education there...and herb if that is your thing. Mother Jones consistently ranks U of O as one of the most politically active schools in the nation- with a HEAVY liberal lean (in fact, I can't recall meeting a conservative person in all my years there). It doesn't have a huge Greek scene, but they're around. Lots of microbrews are consumed in the indoor practice facility next to Autzen Stadium before the game and at half- but sadly, not everyone makes it back before the 2nd half kickoff- a common complaint. Our announcer always tells us the weather, such as 70% chance of rain, but we know..."It Never Rains in Autzen Stadium." He also tells us the current scores around the country and then, "Here's the score you've been waiting for...Wagner 7 Slippery Rock 23" and we all cheer if Slippery Rock is winning. Before the 4th, we dance to "Shout." (not nearly as impressive as Wiscy's Jump though).
The fans are a combination of alumni, students and just fans. Oregon is basically divided between Beavers and Ducks- hence the Civil War. Autzen gets crazy during gamedays, that's why ESPN Gameday loves going there. The tailgating blows compared to the south/Texas, but inside the Autzen Zoo (a name dating back decades), it is very SEC-like. Unfortunately, some of our fans are, well spirited really isn't the word, but rather rude at times- usually drunk college kids. We have been known to harass UW fans considerably- but then again, they are beneath us . We don't have a lot of the same old traditions as other schools (AU's eagle, UTK's T, and UT's Texas flag, etc), but we hate doing the wave and it always dies out before going around- it was a Fusky thing back in the day. However, us more mature folks will offer a good local beer and shoot the **** with you before the game. It's a cool place and I would love to move my family back from Austin one day...and then I would remember the rain and rush right on back to Texas.
Last edited by Acuda; 08-14-2012 at 09:45 PM..
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. We don't have a lot of the same old traditions as other schools (AU's eagle, UTK's T, and UT's Texas flag, etc), but we hate doing the wave and it always dies out before going around- it was a Fusky thing back in the day. However, us more mature folks will offer a good local beer and shoot the **** with you before the game. It's a cool place and I would love to move my family back from Austin one day...and then I would remember the rain and rush right on back to Texas.
