Originally Posted by
Kalam
It sounds like college football actually has a dynamic more similar to English soccer than any US professional sport. Teams never move location, rivalries are very important, lots of local flavor (less now that a lot of the flavor has been deemed "racist" and getting pushed out) and even mediocre teams can have very storied traditions and large and rabid fan followings (eg. Tennessee Volunteers have sucked for a long time and still draw an average of 90K fans for home games pre pandemic).
Yes you are correct, I would suggest it is more akin to college football than professional. Football is a tribal/ cultural thing that is pretty much a rite of passage for most kids growing up that stays with you for life through the ups and downs. A typical match day may involve getting up early, going to the pub and off course lots of chanting and singing for your team and then celebrations or commiserations after the game also invariably at the pub. What you wont see is BBQ's set up with both sets of fans enjoying each others company , that just does not happen as the rivalry is often too strong, this rivalry also breaks out into the 'hooligan ' element which is also still quite strong in the UK with pretty much all teams having their 'hooligan element' many fans will talk about not just their club but their 'firm' like the ICF, Headhunters, MIG's, Away Day Raiders, Bushwackers etc etc which forms a sub culture within. The main distinction between the fans and the hooligan element is often clothing and attire with fans typically wearing 'colours' whereas
hooligans dress in Stone Island, Aquascutum, Fred Perry etc etc. Anyway I digressed but the point i am making is that culture is also a huge factor.