Around this time of year the disease known as “March Madness” is running rampant through college campuses. From the big schools in the Big East to the little ones in the NEC, students on college campuses around the country are hoping that their team will have a chance to attend the Big Dance. Oddly enough, it’s not only the students on these campuses that are behind on their school, but also alumni and other fans of these colleges. On espn.com Page 2 Jim Caple wrote a story about Washington the joy of watching Washington collect its first outright PAC 10 title. Caple, a graduate of the university, wrote nostalgically about watching his Huskies cut down the nets. Caple writes, “But for one afternoon, the sight of the Huskies climbing the ladder one by one to cut down a net turned back the clock and made even the oldest alumni feel young enough again to camp out in any weather for NCAA tournament tickets.”
When reading this article, I instantly made the connection between what Caple was feeling and what Daniel Wann described as team identification in the Handbook of Sports and Media. Wann described team identification as “the extent to which a fan feels a psychological connection to a team and the team’s performances are viewed as self-relevant.” (332)This explains why Caple, who graduated from UW in the mid 80’s, would still feel this way about his Huskies winning the championship. For Caple, there will always be this psychological connection between him and his alma mater because he identifies himself as being part of Washington. The team’s performance is self-relevant because he can remember back to the days when he was a student rooting for the Huskies.
While Caple does not appear to hinge his every life decision on the fate of Washington there are some people out there that do this with their favorite team. Personally, I know people whose moods are so drastically affected by something they have no outcome over. I am an avid sports fan and enjoy rooting for my favorite teams, but I have never been the type to let them affect how I live my life. Wann talks about the different coping strategies that fans use when their team loses. One of them is something people say all time is as Wann writes, “One way to ease pain of a recent loss is to remember past victories and/or focus on potential future triumphs.” (343)
As long as there are sports there will always be team identification and as long as there are those identifying themselves with a team there will be some who go overboard. So the next time your team loses a big game, don’t be the person who goes overboard because remember that sports are just a game.
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Well said!
ReplyDeleteDan, you first caught my attention when you brought up March Madness, by far my favorite time of year. I can catch some spring conditions on the mountains in Vermont, then come back to my enclosure and enjoy the excitement of NCAA basketball.
For example, the regular season came to end during the first weekend of Spring Break. So I packed my car, put my board on its rack and ventured into the wilderness. A solid two days at Stratton Mountain, seems as if it will be my last time up there this year. The conditions were consistent and overall it was a great year, but just like any avid snowboarder, especially here on the eastern shore the season seems too always end early.
When I returned from my trip I had a day to recap the past weekend and also the ski season. After coming to the realization that I would most likely be packing my equipment up for the season, I received a phone call from a high school friend. My friend Brett was calling to inform me that a bunch of my high school buddies were making a trip down to MSG from Albany for the opening round of the Big East Tournament. Before he could finish his sentence I found myself on StubHub and purchased $6 tickets which ended up costing me ten more dollars, due to ridiculous profit enhancing fees, but that is a whole other story.
So on Tuesday of Spring Break I made it to MSG just in time for the first game to tip-off. Notre Dame & St. Johns battled it out in front of a half-full Garden. At the conclusion of that game, Seton Hall and South Florida stepped on the court and by this time my $16 dollar purchase turned into court side seats at the “World’s Most Famous Arena.” It was a great night, tons of laughs and despite not getting to see Syracuse in person, I still had a gut feeling that good things were on the horizon.
So, the top two teams in the conference met on Saturday March, 14th for the Big East Championship. Syracuse the underdog, was set to face the Rick Pitno led powerhouse Louisville. Syracuse had THE best week of college basketball that I have ever witnessed. They may have been tired but their resiliency ultimately paid off. So as most of us already know, Cuse’ lost to Louisville by double-digits, it was disappointing but when I look back at the better moments during the week and season I can’t help but smile.
On page 342 of the Handbook, Daniel Wann states, “The nature of athletic competition guarantees that roughly half of the fans will be disappointed in the outcome of an event. As a result, many highly identified fans report depression, anger, and disappointment after watching their team lose.” I have personally been affected by my team’s performance before but if there was any change in my mood it was short-lived and temporary. I’m sure that many alumni, family members of players and coaches were dissapointted that the Orange couldn’t deliver a Big East Championship this year but hey at least they are in the NCAA Tournament and there will always be next year.
As both an athlete and a fan I have to say that this post related to myself in two unique aspects. I try and live by one of Ghandi’s saying’s “Live as if you were to die tomorrow, Learn as if you were to live forever.” Enjoy every moment that life has to offer and don’t let things that you can’t control affect you negatively. Tomorrow will always be waiting, you can’t win all the big ones, last but not least the powder is always deeper on the West Coast.