I grew up a UK fan, went to UNC for my Master’s, and went to IU for my Ph.D. I also did an internship at UCLA and took a class at Duke. So I’ve spent significant time at 5 of the top 6 college basketball programs all-time. And now I teach at UC, another powerhouse program. Because of this, I have a very complicated hierarchy of rooting interests.
Here, in order, are the teams I most root for:
1. Kentucky Wildcats
2. Indiana Hoosiers
3. North Carolina Tar Heels
4. Cincinnati Bearcats
5. Xavier Musketeers
6. Ohio State Buckeyes
7. Marquette Golden Eagles
8. Butler Bulldogs
So when two of my teams are playing each other, you can check the above list to see which team I’m cheering for.
During March Madness, I typically cheer for the underdog unless one of my teams above is playing.
I actively cheer against certain teams. Feel free to ask me which ones.
You should make a complete ranking of all the D1 teams then create an analytic that scrapes the ESPN scores page each day and calculates how happy you are with the results. Because emotions work way better when you first calculate how you should feel, right?
That’s a brilliant idea. I will do it when I have some free time (i.e. might be a while…)