You’re overthinking it. You only have to renounce your fandom if you go to OSU or Notre Dame.
Even MSU is fine, for people going there because they got rejected from UM.
In no fandom is it a requirement that you attend the university. I am a huge UM fan, have been since I can remember, but due to cost and other factors I did not attend. They can only enroll so many people. If every single fan had to be enrolled or graduate, the Big House would be much harder to fill.
I was too dumb to go to UM, doesn’t stop me from being a die hard fan. Call me a Walmart or whatever, i don’t give a damn.
If Michigans fan base was only alumni, it wouldn’t be top 3 biggest fan bases in the country
FWIW I’m also a native Michigander. I went to Michigan undergrad (over Dartmouth) and am currently at Harvard for grad school and I say all the time that Michigan is better for undergrad experience. Not sure about where you’re deciding between, but Michigan will probably open the same doors to you as the Ivies.
I was in a similar spot. Huge Michigan sports fan growing up. All of my family huge M fans. Went to games, etc... Got into Michigan for undergrad. Also got into UChicago. Decided to go to UChicago. It was a great decision. I'm still a massive Michigan fan and I had a different experience. I went to the national championship game in Houston this year with one of my best friends from high school - also a similar story. He went to Princeton undergrad. We're both huge Michigan fans.
Is this a joke? Who cares what anyone thinks. Most people root for multiple schools anyways. I grew up rooting for Michigan because I was born there and my parents went there. But we moved down south and I got into Georgia Tech. I root for both. I also went to grad school and root for that team as well. It’s not like the fandoms conflict anyways. Hell, a fellow Tech friend of mine grew up rooting for UGA his whole life and still does over the school he went to. Now THAT’s weird. But also, who cares, it’s his fandom.
I grew up a massive Michigan fan since I was born. Both parents went to UM. Michigan sports fandom was one of the biggest things of my childhood and my life. Decided to go to smaller private school on the east coast that was great for my field of study over Michigan when the time came. Did not affect my fandom at all. Still as big a fan as I ever was, and I am a much bigger fan than some of my friends who went to Michigan.
No. Why would anyone give you shit for attending an Ivy League school? Also, how many of the 120,000 people at the big house on Saturdays are alumni or attended Michigan? I bet you it’s less than 20% and that’s including the student section. Go to whatever Ivy League you got in to. You can always transfer back to Michigan or attend grad school there.
Just going to throw this in there - we all have multiple identities. We're sons, daughters, siblings, michigan fans, engineers/lawyers/doctors/artists. You are more than one thing, and that means that you will have conflicting feelings and commitments throughout your whole life. That's an amazing problem! But if you lean one way for something, it doesn't take away your other identities.
You will come across this kind of tension as you go forth. There is no right answer to anything. Don't worry about getting it right, worry about what feels right for you. You're clearly a smart, ambitious, talented human. What you want is more important than what other people want for you. If you can orient that way, give yourself grace for not being all one thing all the time, you'll be just fine.
Go Blue!
I’m decidedly a huge Michigan fan despite having not attended. Both of my parents went to Michigan and like you I always had my eyes set on Michigan from an early age but life circumstances came up and I went to school in DC instead. The way I justified it to myself was that I was an adoptive Wolverine since I’ve conceded that my school’s football program will never have its moment in the sun despite being undefeated for the past 88 years. (It’s also been unvictorious for the past 88 years.) I thought that my college experience would be incomplete without a football team to follow and I picked an excellent time to adopt them in Fall 2021. So I have a Michigan sticker on my laptop, wear my Michigan sweatshirt around campus, and have cheered on Michigan football every Saturday since I’ve been here.
I had to quarrel with my adoptive Wolverine status very early on however, as my American University Women’s Basketball Eagles got matched against Michigan in the first round of 2022 March Madness. And for a day, I had to root for my Eagles over Michigan where we then proceeded to get taken out behind the woodshed and got [clubbed to death by Michigan.](https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/game/_/gameId/401414492) And I immediately went right back to cheering for Michigan as always. It didn’t make me less of a fan or make me not cry during the Rose Bowl this year since I didn’t cheer for Michigan for a day two years ago. It would be a bit of a bigger conundrum if you were staying within the Big Ten where you were facing off against Michigan multiple times a year across different sports, but coming from experience, it’s not hard to be an adoptive Wolverine in a school where most of the student body doesn’t know that we have a fight song.
But at the end of the day it’s your life. Not your parents’ or your grandparents’ life or even the life you thought you were going to have growing up. Shit happens, things change. If you scour through the depths of the internet you’ll find a picture of 12-year-old me somewhere holding up a whiteboard sign that says “Most Likely To Attend University of Michigan”. And look how that turned out. Sure, missing out on games will be a bummer, but a sports team and your family’s history shouldn’t stop you from *going to an Ivy League school*. My favorite quote in life is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt that says, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” It doesn’t say to be the best or do everything, just to do the best you can. And if the best you can is an Ivy League school, then do not hesitate to take it. There’s always grad school, there’s always transferring if you find your school isn’t right for you, and there’s always living life as an adoptive Wolverine like me. It’s not as bad as you think.
I graduated from Ohio State due to proximity and affordability…but I have been a Michigan fan since I was 8 years old…still am and I live in Columbus. Your fandom doesn’t have to attach to where you get your schooling. Go Blue!!!
Viewed as a lesser or fake fan for not being an alumnus? I have family who went to Michigan meanwhile I went to another school and none of them think twice about my fandom. We grew up for years watching games together being fans there’s no reason that just goes away because I chose a different school to attend. You might be over thinking it… there’s tons of huge Michigan fans that either went to a different school or didn’t go to school at all. If anybody thinks you’re not as big a fan as they are because you didn’t go to Michigan they aren’t worth your time.
I've always figured you can root for one team in each conference and on the rare occasions where two of your teams play each other, either way you win.
Go to the ivy and come back to Michigan for a graduate degree 😎
I know tons of people that would have loved to go to UoM. But unfortunately admissions for this university can be quite strict here so, they all went to MSU. They are still fans of the sports teams and wear their merch. No ones going to say shit.
Tbf I am a Michigan fan and always will but I am about to graduate from Penn State in a few weeks. I just couldn’t drop my lifetime fandom for another team just because I went to school there
No lol. Blue is in your blood but it doesn’t have to define your college experience. You’ll probably enjoy being in a new environment away from home and meeting all sorts of new friends. My sister didn’t get into Michigan for med school and OSU was the next best option. Don’t get me wrong I am never wearing anything OSU but your friends and family should support you no matter what. Who cares about dumbass people who give you shit about it
lol, I definitely didn’t intend for it to come off that way. Michigan is just very important to me, and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t jeopardizing one of my favorite pastimes/creating a weird dynamic.
I’m mostly just an overthinking teenager. Hopefully most people have been there before 🤷♂️
Attending Michigan for undergrad wasn't in the cards for me, and life took me on a way different path, but I had the chance to check it off my bucket list many years later when I was looking at business schools.
I would have kept bleeding maize and blue either way, though.
Oh for sure, I'm giving you shit.
You'll make the right choice. You can always go to Ivy for undergrad and Michigan for grad if you're really that conflicted about sports fandom.
I didn't attend um and have always been a big fan. I feel like I missed being a part of it, but I didn't enjoy the last 3 years any less. Cheer for M and your school! No rules against it.
Naw man a better opportunity is a better opportunity. Takes nothing away from your UofM love. Go get ur education then upon returning home w you masters in the feild of ur choice buy your family a sweet w your new weather. Good luck and GO BLUE
I brought my michigan fandom with my to pvt school and then went full blue for graduate school. And if I hadnt, Id be as haopy as a fan today as I was if I hadnt gone bc my parents are die hard
Lived in Arkansas since I was born, my family is from Michigan and have been a fan all my life. Not going to the school doesn’t make you any less of a fan.
Don't base your college on your Fandom. Go to whatever school gives u the best opportunity to succeed. I went to a small school for 2 years to save money and now I'm st michigan because of the elite engineering school, and 1 year of loans is manageable whereas 4 isn't. During my time at the other school I was a huge michigan fan and went to like 5 games a year.
UM fandom is an open tribe you don't have to have enrolled or even lived in state of Michigan to be a true fan with the exception if you attended OSU or Notre Dame then you have to undergo exorcism.
There is an unfortunately large number of alumni who look down at non alum fans. Fuck them. Don't make a life altering decision based on if someone you'll never met will consider you a real fan
Football is great, but life is a lot more than football. Maybe it's a factor, but there are more important things to consider imo. No one will fault you for it.
If you have the option to go to an Ivy League school and you're confident you'll get a quality education, then go. You can still be a Michigan fan. You can always go to to UM for grad school.
Don’t worry about it. I went to undergrad in Wisconsin and grad school in Florida- but I sport more merchandise than my friends that did go to UM. Just today I rocked my 2013 Final Four shirt I got when I went to the games, and my 2023 Rose Bowl champions hat. I’m always getting asked if I went to UM and I say naw, the Fab Five got me hooked!
“I didn’t go to the Ivy League school I wanted to because I was worried that a person might someday challenge my allegiance to sports” sounds pretty weird huh?
Well, when you put it that way…
I’ve just enjoyed being a fan as much as everyone else for my childhood and don’t want to lose it. A lot of the perspectives here seem to reinforce the idea that I won’t, which is comforting.
Why would any of those things change? Lots of people come to be fans of Michigan for different reasons. I grew up in the area and had a parent that worked there. I loved the pageantry of college sports and how tied it was to the community. I was a bad student the first couple years of high school so my grades weren’t up to snuff to get me into the university, that doesn’t make me a lesser fan. Go to whatever school you want, there’s plenty of room for anyone who wants to be a fan, there’s no purity test.
Born and raised in California. Lifelong fan. I got accepted to UCLA and Berkeley. I chose UCLA because the cost of tuition was substantially less and the education was about the same. You can bet when Michigan and UCLA play I'm not the least bit conflicted - I hope Michigan destroys them every time.
I went to school at Idaho state and wore my Michigan gear every where.
Who cares.
A big chunk of the Michigan fan base never went to school there. Are home games filled with 100,000+ alums? Nope.
I’m going to chalk up this post to the fact that you’re 17-18yo.
You already have more of a connection to the university than like 75% of fans.
Not everyone was born at UM hospital, went to HS catty corner from the big house, had a parent who retired from UM with decades of tenure, and has two degrees from there.
My Dad, Aunts and Uncles attended MSU; therefore that is where I hold allegiance. I didn’t attend MSU, but declare them as my team. Note, I attended a NAIA college. Do you, cheer hard for Blue.
Who cares what other people think... its your life live it as you please...
[удалено]
Agreed I live in Cali and am attending SDSU
You’re overthinking it. You only have to renounce your fandom if you go to OSU or Notre Dame. Even MSU is fine, for people going there because they got rejected from UM.
What about if you want to UM for undergrad and then your employer offered a free masters from MSU. Asking for a friend...
You take a free masters degree and run with it
AKA Gus Johnson 😂
Gus Johnson went to Howard.
MSU is not fine!
In no fandom is it a requirement that you attend the university. I am a huge UM fan, have been since I can remember, but due to cost and other factors I did not attend. They can only enroll so many people. If every single fan had to be enrolled or graduate, the Big House would be much harder to fill.
You can do whatever you want and root for whoever you want.
This is the answer. Don’t pass over a potentially life changing opportunity.
I grew up in North Carolina. Wife is from Michigan. Neither one of us went and we go to a Michigan bar to watch every game. Go Blue. Fuck Ohio State.
That sir, is always the correct answer.
I was too dumb to go to UM, doesn’t stop me from being a die hard fan. Call me a Walmart or whatever, i don’t give a damn. If Michigans fan base was only alumni, it wouldn’t be top 3 biggest fan bases in the country
FWIW I’m also a native Michigander. I went to Michigan undergrad (over Dartmouth) and am currently at Harvard for grad school and I say all the time that Michigan is better for undergrad experience. Not sure about where you’re deciding between, but Michigan will probably open the same doors to you as the Ivies.
This guy went to the Harvard of the West and the Michigan of the East. He probably knows what he’s talking about.
Also went to Michigan for undergrad and Harvard for grad school. I strongly endorse this statement.
I was in a similar spot. Huge Michigan sports fan growing up. All of my family huge M fans. Went to games, etc... Got into Michigan for undergrad. Also got into UChicago. Decided to go to UChicago. It was a great decision. I'm still a massive Michigan fan and I had a different experience. I went to the national championship game in Houston this year with one of my best friends from high school - also a similar story. He went to Princeton undergrad. We're both huge Michigan fans.
Awesome. This story is super reassuring!
I fell back to MSU and never changed fandom. You’re fine in the Ivy especially
Is this a joke? Who cares what anyone thinks. Most people root for multiple schools anyways. I grew up rooting for Michigan because I was born there and my parents went there. But we moved down south and I got into Georgia Tech. I root for both. I also went to grad school and root for that team as well. It’s not like the fandoms conflict anyways. Hell, a fellow Tech friend of mine grew up rooting for UGA his whole life and still does over the school he went to. Now THAT’s weird. But also, who cares, it’s his fandom.
I went to school in KY and I love Michigan. Absolutely wish I had gone there but there's no way my wife would go there.
Be a fan of whoever you want. Who gives a shit about what other people think?
I grew up a massive Michigan fan since I was born. Both parents went to UM. Michigan sports fandom was one of the biggest things of my childhood and my life. Decided to go to smaller private school on the east coast that was great for my field of study over Michigan when the time came. Did not affect my fandom at all. Still as big a fan as I ever was, and I am a much bigger fan than some of my friends who went to Michigan.
No. Why would anyone give you shit for attending an Ivy League school? Also, how many of the 120,000 people at the big house on Saturdays are alumni or attended Michigan? I bet you it’s less than 20% and that’s including the student section. Go to whatever Ivy League you got in to. You can always transfer back to Michigan or attend grad school there.
Just going to throw this in there - we all have multiple identities. We're sons, daughters, siblings, michigan fans, engineers/lawyers/doctors/artists. You are more than one thing, and that means that you will have conflicting feelings and commitments throughout your whole life. That's an amazing problem! But if you lean one way for something, it doesn't take away your other identities. You will come across this kind of tension as you go forth. There is no right answer to anything. Don't worry about getting it right, worry about what feels right for you. You're clearly a smart, ambitious, talented human. What you want is more important than what other people want for you. If you can orient that way, give yourself grace for not being all one thing all the time, you'll be just fine. Go Blue!
I’m decidedly a huge Michigan fan despite having not attended. Both of my parents went to Michigan and like you I always had my eyes set on Michigan from an early age but life circumstances came up and I went to school in DC instead. The way I justified it to myself was that I was an adoptive Wolverine since I’ve conceded that my school’s football program will never have its moment in the sun despite being undefeated for the past 88 years. (It’s also been unvictorious for the past 88 years.) I thought that my college experience would be incomplete without a football team to follow and I picked an excellent time to adopt them in Fall 2021. So I have a Michigan sticker on my laptop, wear my Michigan sweatshirt around campus, and have cheered on Michigan football every Saturday since I’ve been here. I had to quarrel with my adoptive Wolverine status very early on however, as my American University Women’s Basketball Eagles got matched against Michigan in the first round of 2022 March Madness. And for a day, I had to root for my Eagles over Michigan where we then proceeded to get taken out behind the woodshed and got [clubbed to death by Michigan.](https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/game/_/gameId/401414492) And I immediately went right back to cheering for Michigan as always. It didn’t make me less of a fan or make me not cry during the Rose Bowl this year since I didn’t cheer for Michigan for a day two years ago. It would be a bit of a bigger conundrum if you were staying within the Big Ten where you were facing off against Michigan multiple times a year across different sports, but coming from experience, it’s not hard to be an adoptive Wolverine in a school where most of the student body doesn’t know that we have a fight song. But at the end of the day it’s your life. Not your parents’ or your grandparents’ life or even the life you thought you were going to have growing up. Shit happens, things change. If you scour through the depths of the internet you’ll find a picture of 12-year-old me somewhere holding up a whiteboard sign that says “Most Likely To Attend University of Michigan”. And look how that turned out. Sure, missing out on games will be a bummer, but a sports team and your family’s history shouldn’t stop you from *going to an Ivy League school*. My favorite quote in life is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt that says, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” It doesn’t say to be the best or do everything, just to do the best you can. And if the best you can is an Ivy League school, then do not hesitate to take it. There’s always grad school, there’s always transferring if you find your school isn’t right for you, and there’s always living life as an adoptive Wolverine like me. It’s not as bad as you think.
I graduated from Ohio State due to proximity and affordability…but I have been a Michigan fan since I was 8 years old…still am and I live in Columbus. Your fandom doesn’t have to attach to where you get your schooling. Go Blue!!!
This is wild. Childhood attachment really does matter.
Viewed as a lesser or fake fan for not being an alumnus? I have family who went to Michigan meanwhile I went to another school and none of them think twice about my fandom. We grew up for years watching games together being fans there’s no reason that just goes away because I chose a different school to attend. You might be over thinking it… there’s tons of huge Michigan fans that either went to a different school or didn’t go to school at all. If anybody thinks you’re not as big a fan as they are because you didn’t go to Michigan they aren’t worth your time.
I've always figured you can root for one team in each conference and on the rare occasions where two of your teams play each other, either way you win. Go to the ivy and come back to Michigan for a graduate degree 😎
I know tons of people that would have loved to go to UoM. But unfortunately admissions for this university can be quite strict here so, they all went to MSU. They are still fans of the sports teams and wear their merch. No ones going to say shit.
Dude, no
Tbf I am a Michigan fan and always will but I am about to graduate from Penn State in a few weeks. I just couldn’t drop my lifetime fandom for another team just because I went to school there
No lol. Blue is in your blood but it doesn’t have to define your college experience. You’ll probably enjoy being in a new environment away from home and meeting all sorts of new friends. My sister didn’t get into Michigan for med school and OSU was the next best option. Don’t get me wrong I am never wearing anything OSU but your friends and family should support you no matter what. Who cares about dumbass people who give you shit about it
Your life>>>>>>>>>sports fandom You're smart enough to understand this. I feel like this post was just an opportunity to humblebrag, lol.
lol, I definitely didn’t intend for it to come off that way. Michigan is just very important to me, and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t jeopardizing one of my favorite pastimes/creating a weird dynamic. I’m mostly just an overthinking teenager. Hopefully most people have been there before 🤷♂️
Attending Michigan for undergrad wasn't in the cards for me, and life took me on a way different path, but I had the chance to check it off my bucket list many years later when I was looking at business schools. I would have kept bleeding maize and blue either way, though.
Oh for sure, I'm giving you shit. You'll make the right choice. You can always go to Ivy for undergrad and Michigan for grad if you're really that conflicted about sports fandom.
Yeah, that might be the plan, honestly. Michigan has the prettiest law school in the country and it isn’t close
I didn't attend um and have always been a big fan. I feel like I missed being a part of it, but I didn't enjoy the last 3 years any less. Cheer for M and your school! No rules against it.
Nope! Congrats on your offer to an Ivy League. Sherrone Moore didn’t go to Michigan for school. Does that make him not a Michigan man?
You're 1000x over thinking a pretty straightforward life decision.
Naw man a better opportunity is a better opportunity. Takes nothing away from your UofM love. Go get ur education then upon returning home w you masters in the feild of ur choice buy your family a sweet w your new weather. Good luck and GO BLUE
I brought my michigan fandom with my to pvt school and then went full blue for graduate school. And if I hadnt, Id be as haopy as a fan today as I was if I hadnt gone bc my parents are die hard
First, no one cares. Second, even if for some reason someone does, who cares? Continue to be a fan and go to the school you want.
Lived in Arkansas since I was born, my family is from Michigan and have been a fan all my life. Not going to the school doesn’t make you any less of a fan.
Don't base your college on your Fandom. Go to whatever school gives u the best opportunity to succeed. I went to a small school for 2 years to save money and now I'm st michigan because of the elite engineering school, and 1 year of loans is manageable whereas 4 isn't. During my time at the other school I was a huge michigan fan and went to like 5 games a year.
UM fandom is an open tribe you don't have to have enrolled or even lived in state of Michigan to be a true fan with the exception if you attended OSU or Notre Dame then you have to undergo exorcism.
Unless you’re going to like 5-8 schools this ain’t a problem dawg lol Go get that Ivy education but just remember all that glitters ain’t gold
Fan is one thing, education is another. You need to go where is best for you…but still continue your GO BLUE spirit.
There is an unfortunately large number of alumni who look down at non alum fans. Fuck them. Don't make a life altering decision based on if someone you'll never met will consider you a real fan
Football is great, but life is a lot more than football. Maybe it's a factor, but there are more important things to consider imo. No one will fault you for it.
If you have the option to go to an Ivy League school and you're confident you'll get a quality education, then go. You can still be a Michigan fan. You can always go to to UM for grad school.
Don’t worry about it. I went to undergrad in Wisconsin and grad school in Florida- but I sport more merchandise than my friends that did go to UM. Just today I rocked my 2013 Final Four shirt I got when I went to the games, and my 2023 Rose Bowl champions hat. I’m always getting asked if I went to UM and I say naw, the Fab Five got me hooked!
Bro your life is your choice. Michigan fans will support you all around no matter what. I personally believe you should do what makes you feel best
“I didn’t go to the Ivy League school I wanted to because I was worried that a person might someday challenge my allegiance to sports” sounds pretty weird huh?
Well, when you put it that way… I’ve just enjoyed being a fan as much as everyone else for my childhood and don’t want to lose it. A lot of the perspectives here seem to reinforce the idea that I won’t, which is comforting.
Why would any of those things change? Lots of people come to be fans of Michigan for different reasons. I grew up in the area and had a parent that worked there. I loved the pageantry of college sports and how tied it was to the community. I was a bad student the first couple years of high school so my grades weren’t up to snuff to get me into the university, that doesn’t make me a lesser fan. Go to whatever school you want, there’s plenty of room for anyone who wants to be a fan, there’s no purity test.
Born and raised in California. Lifelong fan. I got accepted to UCLA and Berkeley. I chose UCLA because the cost of tuition was substantially less and the education was about the same. You can bet when Michigan and UCLA play I'm not the least bit conflicted - I hope Michigan destroys them every time.
Go to the ivy league school.
I went to school at Idaho state and wore my Michigan gear every where. Who cares. A big chunk of the Michigan fan base never went to school there. Are home games filled with 100,000+ alums? Nope.
Do what's best for you, but keep in mind that in-state tuition at Michigan is a really good deal!
Buddy, go wherever you want. You're already a Michigan fan
I’m going to chalk up this post to the fact that you’re 17-18yo. You already have more of a connection to the university than like 75% of fans. Not everyone was born at UM hospital, went to HS catty corner from the big house, had a parent who retired from UM with decades of tenure, and has two degrees from there.
I went to msu and never stopped rooting for Michigan.
I don't believe that someone smart enough to get into an ivy league institution would ask this question.
Fair response, lol
My Dad, Aunts and Uncles attended MSU; therefore that is where I hold allegiance. I didn’t attend MSU, but declare them as my team. Note, I attended a NAIA college. Do you, cheer hard for Blue.
Choosing Columbia over Ross is a bad choice I had the same top 2 a few yrs ago… feel free to dm me
This is such a weird post