If you’ve watched almost any college football on TV the past couple seasons, you’ve certainly seen some of the Dr. Pepper “Fansville” commercials. One of the commercials from this past season features one of the characters as having a “side team;” or a team they follow outside of their main rooting interest. (You can check out the full commercial here if you’d like).
UNC has always been my primary rooting interest; in fact, it was pretty much my only rooting interest until the Carolina Panthers became
a franchise in 1995. For years, the Heels were the only college basketball team I’d follow and root for; other than keeping up with what impacts other teams’ actions would have on Carolina, I didn’t care if anyone else won or lost (except Duke and State; I care very much that they lose).
I moved out of central North Carolina in 2012 and ended up somewhere that college basketball is very much an afterthought. I missed living in an area where college ball was on everyone’s mind and rooting interests run deep. Partly as a response to this, I ended up following the local team, Middle Tennessee State (the other part: my spouse graduated from MTSU). They had a good basketball coach at the time in Kermit Davis and were a solid program. I also got to experience rooting for a mid-major program, which is very different from rooting for a blue blood like UNC. Watching them pull an upset over a Michigan State team that many had pegged as a Final Four team in 2016 was an awesome experience. Pulling for MTSU helped scratch a college basketball itch that I’d developed since leaving North Carolina.
So, I have a side team; I’ll try to catch a Blue Raiders home game or two every year if it doesn’t overlap with a UNC game. When they meet, it’s no contest; I’m rooting for the Heels (they faced off in football in 2013 at Kenan). Otherwise, I’ll keep an eye on MTSU and root for them to have the kind of mid-major magic that carries them into the NCAA tournament.
So, the question of the day: who (if anyone) do you root for? And if you do have a side team, how did you acquire it? And what’s your favorite side team moment?
