Quote:
Originally Posted by cuervo72
Honest question about fandom; say Rutgers gets good in oh, 2020. Will alumni from thirty years earlier much care, or does enthusiasm for a program start with the students who were there when a sport was big? In other words, if football wasn't a thing when you were in school, will you much care if it becomes a big thing? Are bandwagon fans as big as they can be in the pros (where it is largely a geographical)? Or are we just thinking of the NY/NJ area getting into it rather than just alumni?
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Anecdotally, every Rutgers fan I know cares far, far, far more about college football then when I went to school there (98-02 - when we were TERRIBLE). When the school was really good in the late 00s, Rutgers alumni all over the country really did care quite a bit.
In addition, as Logan pointed out, the switch to the B1G helps a lot. I remember all the Penn State, Michigan, and Ohio State fans who lived in NJ. By being in the same conference, it really increases the amount of interest - now you can discuss football with your friends (and how much our team got killed by them... well sometimes we pull a win out)