Which brings us to this week's poll question: Which Big Ten team has the most generally obnoxious fans? That is, whose fans do you hate the most? Who would you least like to be near for three hours on game day?
I've wanted to ask about this for a while, but it is always hard to know the right time. During football or basketball season, opinions could be swayed by a recent bad experience or by who is having a dominating season. So maybe now is a good time, as we're looking for content and we're all getting excited that football is under three weeks away.
So who is it? Which Big Ten team's fans are, quite frankly, the worst? (And not in the "They're the worst because they can't fill their tiny stadium" kind of way.)
Also, remember, Notre Dame isn't in the Big Ten. And we already know they're horrible.
36 comments:
I mean, this has to be Ohio State, right? I'm not even sure who else would even be close.
Wisconsin.
Can't believe this is a poll... is it just to see how much ohio state wins by?
Hahaha, you guys are great. I actually didn't think OSU would run away quite as much as they are... but hey, it's still early. I want lots of votes on this so we'll remind via Twitter and whatnot.
Could be a landslide.
It has to be O$U because their fans feel entitled just like their players. It's what made Brees to Moraleeeees so much more heavenly.
Yeah, I think the only question is the margin of victory. In fact, I suspect if you threw Notre Dame in the mix, OSU would still have more than 50% of the vote.
I'd also be interested in something of a national poll, although I'm not sure how easy that would be to run. Perhaps "primaries" at the conference level and then a general election among the winners? I mean, who wouldn't love to see Notre Dame, Ohio State, and USC battling it out for #1? (In this context only, of course.)
Outside of ND fans, the only fans I have had major probelms with in Ross-Ade were Wisconsin and Michigan fans under 30 and Purdue fans over 60.
Yeah, Ohio State's overwhelming arrogance can be extremely annoying, but as a group they generally come to Ross-Ade to have a good time. I haven't had any tailgate confrontations or seating problems with Buckeye fans as I had from the other four groups mentioned above.
I'm gonna have to go against the grain and say Penn State. This is both from my personal experience with them and from general perceptions. As evidence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDiRPUiQZHc (even OSU fans look good next to them)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N1o6JXRe4w (also note the confederate flag in the background, despite the fact that Pennsylvania is a northern state)
I will say that OSU fans are a very close second, though.
I'm going with Wisconsin. Nothing like having the Badger Homecoming court yell F-U Purdue as we walked by. Or having Badger fans follow you for two blocks into their stadium yelling the same thing. The best show of class, though, was when they pelted an elderly lady in the head with ice for daring to where Black and Gold. Stay classy, Madison!
aO$U, hands down. Worst collective fan base out of those I have EVER met in ANY context. They've got some quality individuals, sure, but we all do. The question is, though: "who has the worst?"
IU, Michigan, and Wisconsin all tie for a distant second place in my book.
Iowa is a dark horse though for polls in a year or more... OMHR could rise up and become uber-obnoxious in light of our brand new, err... century-old rivalry.
honestly, some of our own fans, specifically the uber-mom who sits in front of us, barely pays attention, complains the whole time, does nothing to stop her kids from crawling all over the place, and often leaves by halftime. If you hate it that much, don't come.
All schools have their moments. Two years ago some of our OSU friends attended the Purdue - OSU game with us and a few drunk Purdue students were so obnoxious afterwards, throwing things, yelling things and trying to get them to "throw a punch". It was embarrassing for me as it was their first time on Purdue's campus. We were planning to head over to Harry's after the game, but ended up going back home to Chicago because of all the "drama" the few Purdue students caused trying to start a fist fight. It was so sad.
Ohio State, hands down. I went to the Purdue/O$U basketball game in Columbus this past season with the Paint Crew and they would not stop heckling us and told us we should leave early because we were getting destroyed (we showed true class by staying until the bitter end). Michigan does come 2nd, and then IU of course, but that's mostly because they are our rivals.
On the other end of the spectrum, Penn State fans have been some of the best. At the Big Ten tournament this last season, the Penn State students in attendance were dedicated (made the long drive to Indy) and decent guys. Helped coordinate with us to root for Purdue against MSU and commiserated with us when we lost.
I've had no problems w/ PSU fans...in Happy Valley they were pretty excellent hosts and I went when Brees was there, so Purdue was competing with them, not getting shellacked.
aOSU fans have been bad in Columbus and in God's Country. Wisconsin fans are pretty horrible during late games as they get filled with liquid courage. IU fans are just silly and don't seem to bother me too much. I actually had a pretty horrible run-in with Northwestern students at RA back in the mid-90s.
An Ohio State University. I can't even stand to be in the same stadium as OSU fans, much less sit next to them. "Hey Stadium! O-H..." Goes through me every time. Yes, we know you can spell your four letter words....we're all very impressed.....jackwads.
When 20-something 200+-lb guys (6 crammed in 4 seats) feel the need to shove a 15-yr old female (simply having the gaul to stand in front of them at her seat), that qualifies as the worst to me. OSU. Night game at Ross-Ade 4years ago. It would take a lot for any fanbase to ever exceed that in my opinion. Given the fact that 90% are white trash and have no association with the school other than making the typical "everybody cheats" excuses for the athletic programs, I will never have an even slightly positive comment about any of them. Even the little 5-6 years olds they bring to the games are uber-obnoxius.
Michigan. I was in AA a few yrs ago (we won BTW F YEAH!) and I was there with my wife, the only 2 Boilermakers in a sea of 100,000 it seemed. I got heckled, yelled at, stuff thrown at me, etc. And some stupid trailer trash biatch had the nerve to actually look me in the face and say "Did you even go to Purdue?"
Um, yes, you dumb 8itch I did. I have not one but 2 degrees from WL thank you. So I replied, already knowing the answer:
"Did you even go to Michigan?"
Crickets. I got the most perfect response ever:
"I went to another school in the state of Michigan."
So I ROFL my ass off and said "Have fun, go cheer on your home team at Grand Valley State. Oh, and BTW Ralph Bolden just scored another TD on your sorry ass defense."
LOL
Wisconsin, hands down. I've seen them curse out both the woman wearing a Purdue shirt pushing a stroller AND the infant in the stroller. I've seen them pick fights with a 70 year old man wearing Purdue a sweatshirt. They have a complex in thinking they're in the same historical and elite class as Ohio State and Michigan, but deep down realize they're more in line with Purdue and Michigan State.
Obnoxious? OSU no question. Actual jerks? Wisconsin.
I went to the Purdue at Michigan game 2 years ago and didn't get heckled hardly at all.
I went to the OSU game 3 years ago and don't remember getting heckled.
I always go to the IU game and they don't have anything to heckle about!
I didn't have any trouble at Illinois last year either. I do usually sit in the mostly Purdue seats so that probably makes a difference.
That being said, the fanbase that has annoyed me the most at home the past 15 years is Wisconsin, although Michigan fans last year almost past them. Badger fans I have seen at Ross Aide have been by far the most obnoxious.
Worst fans: OSU
Most obnoxious fans: Wisconsin
OSU definitely has some pretty obnoxious fans, but I gotta vote for Nebraska simply because of their "We're gonna come in and dominate the B1G cuz the Big 12 is better" mentality. That may not apply to all their fans, but it pisses me off none the less.
Wisconsin. Went there for the '98 night game (their Homecoming), which gave those mouth-breathers all day to get liquored up. Got called every filthy thing in the book just walking around the stadium.
I've had bad encounters with three separate fan bases in RA.
One with Wisky fans. Bar none - the most obnoxious. And the reason we moved our seats from the south end of the stadium to the north.
Second, with a drunk OSU woman that would not shut up about how bad we were. Never wanted to hit a woman so badly.
Last was with a hoosier fan after they took the bucket.
Having said that, at the ND game last year in SB, my wife and I were approached in the tailgate area by a couple asking how we had been treated so far. After responding, they proceeded to tell us how poorly they were treated last year in WLaf. It was all a ruse to demonstrate how much better they were than us.
We apologized for a minority of fans behavior and invited them to our tailgate this year. We'll show them who's better....
For the record Minny fans are pretty cool and fairly welcoming. This was my experience at that game five or six years ago when we lost in double OT.
I think any of these universities with massive non- alumni fan bases are the most annoying. Do you have to go to a school to be a fan? No. But stop painting yourself scarlet and grey and calling yourself the "bucknut." Moron.
OSU fans were the only fans in my time at Purdue that came to West Lafayette and treated Purdue Fans like sh!t. Most notably in 2007 when we got blown out by OSU and they did their stupid OH-I-O chant in our stadium up 42-0 in the second half... Granted there were enough of them in the stadium to make the chant sound like we were in Columbus... way to go Purdue Alumni...
Worse yet, we were heckled on our way back to our car after just being beaten 63-7(or something like that) with OH-I-O chants. Classy.
where's Purdue in the poll?
Get lost, Ron. You've got your own teams' blog to cause trouble on.
I would have to go with TMill and the others who list older Purdue fans. They caused me more problems over the years than most others. Close second would be Wisco fans and getting taunted at Purdue by a group of guys wearing white and red overalls to the game. They are even worse in Madison.
I am full on board with over 50-60 Purdue fans who yell at me to sit down on a 3rd and 6 on our own 40. Seriously, stand up and yell for your defense, or get the F out.
For the record, Purdue fans aren't only absent from this poll because it's a Purdue site... it's also because given the competition, there's just no way Purdue has the most obnoxious fans. Sure, there are some jackasses, no doubt... but there's more apathy at Purdue than obnoxiousness.
Great feedback, by the way, guys and girls. This is good stuff. Getting me angry for football season... which may or may not be a good thing.
I know it's Big Ten, but ND would win in a landslide if included.
My first job out of college had me living on the north side of Columbus, OH. I can honestly say, Ohio State fans are the most annoying in the Big Ten. Those fans are just not fun to be around. I got all kinds of crap for being a Purdue grad...I got asked what conference Purdue was in and all kinds of other trash talk. But I put up with it and held my ground....and then out of nowhere the gods rewarded me with a football victory over Ohio State in 2009! I wore my Purdue shirt to work on Monday and no one said a word to me. Freakin' great time. I hope we pull something like that off again this year.
The first time I heard my Dad use the "F word" was when I was 12 years old. We had stopped at a gas station just outside of Lafayette on our way to see OSU game. A bus full of OSU fans pulled in also. After about 10 minutes of listening to their banter, my Dad yelled "Kiss my ass you F#$*eyes". He just looked at me and smiled. I knew then to start disliking OSU and my Dad was pretty cool.
I've honestly never had many problems with the fans from the other Big Ten schools and only a few times from schools not in the Big Ten (and I started going to games in the 1980s, for the record). Yes some of them sometimes can be a bit arrogant (such as Purdue's last win over OSU when they were calling for Tressel's firing after they were loosing a game to unranked Purdue.) Most of the OSU fans I know really just care that they beat Michigan and couldn't care less if they beat Purdue.
The worst fan I've seen was actually at a Purdue/Ohio State game a few years ago...and they were wearing a Michigan State shirt...so go figure that one. They were a few rows above us and the kid chucked an open beer can down towards the field, getting a few people wet and narrowly missing hitting someone in the head. One of our friends we were sitting with had to leave around that time and he told the stadium police about that and the MSU-"fan" was escorted out of the stadium pretty quickly after that.
However, that's really one of the only times I've come into contact with an annoying fan of another team.
Who voted for Iowa? I'd like to hear that story.
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