In Which PSUJunny Tries Social Experimentation: When Would You Root Against Penn State?

For example, this past Sunday, Maryland played against Navy. The daughter of the Navy coach goes to Maryland, and was at the game wearing a Navy jersey and rooting in favor of that team. I think that’s valid. Right?

I’m completely brainwashed

Sure on an individual basis you hope they would do well, but sorry hypothetical family, you’re going to lose to Penn State and you’re going to like it.

On the other hand:

If Nick Saban was our head coach? check
If Urban Meyer was our head coach? check
If Rich Rodriguez was our head coach? check
The list goes on

It sounds more like one of those situations where it’s a win-win (or a lose-lose, depending on how you look at it). Besides, if you’re related to me you should know who I’m rooting for.

If our football program’s standards start to fall, then I’ll be a bit conflicted.

I’m like you Junny, no kids yet. But I know if my offspring played for another team against PSU, I would no question be rooting for the team my kid was on.

ps, Ohio State or Michigan would never come into play, because no scenario would ever come to existence where my kid played for either of them.

And create a hybrid jersey. That way you too can be on television for 70% of the game.

where we would be playing Nebraska in the final game of the regular season. A win for them would deny Michigan a chance to play in the CCG. Assuming we already had our spot locked up in the CCG, I guess I wouldn’t necessarily root against PSU, but I would be ok with them losing

but I feel that if anybody says they wouldn’t root for their kids team, they are lying

and if they were on a team playing against PSU I would be rooting for them and their team all the way. But otherwise I cannot imagine another scenario in which I don’t bleed blue and white. And my kids better not go anywhere but PSU!

Oh, wahhhh I’d root for my kid.

Yeah, of course you’d root for him. If he’s playing football for someone else, then you’ve failed and you hope he can succeed so you can live vicariously through him. Hopefully he’ll still lose to Iowa.

Her son’s first Little League team? The Red Sox. Haha. She admitted that in the unlikely scenario that he became a pro and played for The Sox, she would become a Sox fan. It killed her, but any parent is going to support their child. It’s nice to think your child would not go to college with the enemy, but, a D1 opportunity is a D1 opportunity.

But I was born and bred a PSU football fan. My grandfather, father, brothers, friends, everyone was a penn state fan. One of my earliest memories is sitting in my parents living room during the 87 fiesta bowl with my dad and all his friends watching the national championship game. I even remember forcing my parents to allow my bday party a week early so it can coincide with the 95 Nebraska-Miami Orange Bowl. Ive never once faltered on my allegience to PSU football.

Then I turned 18 and went to Syracuse for undergrad.

Now, to my friends from college, I am a traitor to Syracuse. A few years back I went to the Dome to watch the game, and wore a PSU jersey (like 65% of the crowd). I do not apologize for being a PSU fan, but I wonder what the correct course of action is? Are you supposed to just do a 180 and start rooting for another team, even after 18 years of being a die hard, just because you pay (exorbitantly) to go there?

Also I am unfortunate enough to have a few friends that are Notre Dame fans that went to Syracuse and Penn State, and they seem to get a free pass on this.

I’ll likely never have to worry about this since I have two daughters, live in a house filled with estrogen, and won’t have to root for any football team other than PSU. However, if my daughters choose to attend a school other than PSU and decide to play women’s volleyball or other sport where they’d play PSU, then I would have to root for my daughter’s team. Remember when Brady Quinn’s sister was dating AJ Hawk and she wore that sewn together shirt to show she was rooting for ND and tOSU?

I will root for the schools they eventually go to in all instances except when they’re playing Penn State.

I can’t see myself putting my family’s schools before my own. I have pride in my school that I can never have for another school. Even while I’m attending Minnesota for grad school, I just can’t get into their sports or cheers the way I did at PSU. I’ll root for them in every other game, but come October 23rd, screw the Gophers. I assume that’s how I’ll feel when I have kids go off to their schools (though hopefully I’ll raise them as proper Penn State fans)

(if they wind up going to somewhere like Temple or Minnesota, then I suppose I’d “root” for their team, but not really)

then one of a few things would have happened.

Either I would have failed as a Penn State parent, and my child and I are not on speaking terms anymore and to spite me they went to this rival team

or they only got an offer to one school (but if this was the case, I doubt they’d be going to any school good enough for me to actually care about if they went there. As I said, if it was Temple or something, I’d halfheartedly “root” for their team, but in reality would be pulling for PSU)

or they attended the school as a sort of sleeper agent, in order to throw the game against PSU

or similarly, I offered to buy them a nice new car if they threw the game against PSU (what are the rules for something like that, anyway?)

Kirk Ferentz’s daughter goes to (went to) PSU. I found out this weekend because my roomate’s girlfriend blurts out “Hey, Kirk Ferentz is my sorority sister’s dad!” while I was flipping through football.

In this hypothetical 2035 Volleyball Championship, will PSU still be on their current win streak? We should be around a 1,000 wins in a row by then. I think you could concede one for your daughter

My parents didn’t coerce me into being a PSU fan. In fact when I was thinking about college, I was dead set on PSU, and they encouraged me to look around at other schools just in case I didn’t get into UPark like I wanted (I didn’t get into UPark, but my allegiances ran deeper than my own disappointment).

It may not have been intentional, but my parents did everything right to breed a Penn Stater (and now my sister and I both go here). They never forced PSU on us, but Arts Fest was one vacation destination every single year, and from a young age, I fell in love with this place (the campus, the town, and the college).

My parents’ college friend’s son (who is actually currently my roommate in West Halls, not by coincidence) lived in Texas his whole life. His Dad is from New York, but was in Texas for work. His dad really wanted one of his two kids to go to PSU. His daughter liked it, but got into and went to Wake Forest (apparently not an easy thing), and I’ve often seen his dad wearing a Wake hat (and actually they went to the Orange bowl AND the outback bowl in 2006 when Wake won the ACC). I believe I remember his son telling me his dad offered to pay for all of college if they went to PSU (now he may have paid either way, I don’t know, but that’s just what I remember). But I have a feeling my parents, despite their PSU allegiances and alumni status would never have given me the same offer if I wasn’t looking at PSU.

But seriously, look into brainwashing your children. If you have a baby that’s crying, play the tOSU fight song or Hail to the Victors, and when he/she is laughing, make sure you’re playing Fight On State. Kidding aside, if you want to breed a Penn Stater, do what my parents did: try to let them develop a love for Penn State (the school, the teams, State College, and the campus). Make them feel like it’s almost a second home to them, like I do, and it will be tough for them to deny their urge to bleed blue and white. Of course this gets tougher the farther you live from PA. If I ever have kids, it’s what I’ll try to do with them.

If they ever switch to those Nike Pro Combat uniforms — or any other god awful uniform experiment.

My 3 kids nursery rhymes were the Penn State fight songs. They’re either going to Penn State or I’m signing them up for the Marines.

1) Your child will go to Penn State or that child is dead to you (I’d be willing to bet the majority of people that fall in this camp DO NOT have children)
2) Your child means the world to you, and you will root for them no matter where they go (conversely, the people in this camp have children, for the most part)

Not having a child, I don’t have to make that decision. However, to address some comments above, here is full disclosure (for those that did not know):
- My wife went to Michigan; our children will go to one of our schools or an Ivy League school if they suck at sports (which they won’t cause I LETTERED IN VOLLEYBALL IN HIGH SCHOOL SO THAT MEANS SOMETHING)
- I will begin indoctrinating my child with Penn State from before birth. I will play the fight song to the child in the womb; I will routinely say “We Are…” to my wife’s stomach; etc.
- I will be very disappointed if they do not go to Penn State, but they could certainly do worse, academically, than some of the other Big Ten schools

Being married to a Wolverine is really f-ing with your head isn’t it?

The very title of this post is hateful and indicates to me that Junny needs to go to his room and think for a while. You can leave your room at suppertime and for potty breaks.

I would root for him to throw for 400 yards and a bunch of touchdowns. Then I would root for Michigan to be up 4-5 points in the final minute. Penn State would call timeout with approximately 30 seconds remaining. Ref adds 2 seconds to the clock for reasons unknown to man. Penn State throws for winning touchdown as time expires, leaving me with pure jubilation at the success of both my son and favorite team, sending me into a perpetual state of zen-like nirvana.

I don’t care if my kids are heisman winners on any other team out there. I will still root for them to get their butts kicked by my treasured Blue and White. The only way I will root against Penn State is if they ever hire Steve Spurrier as the head coach after JoePa retires. He goes on to alter the uniforms to include players’ names as well as pictures of Lions on the sleeves. Then, he decides to focus only on Offense and never hires a defensive coordinator to replace the ones that refused to play for him. He recruits LBs and turns them into QBs, and the only way he can be fired is if they lose every game in a season. It would hurt me, but the outcome would be so worth it.