Nail me to the cross because I'm about to say something not exactly flattering to the vast majority of the Alligator readership.
I love college football, a little less than DiFer, but still quite a bit.
But I don't love the overwhelming majority of college football fans.
I follow all sports religiously, and college football fans rub me the wrong way far more often than any other sport's fan base.
There are certainly knowledgeable, rational and respectable college football fans, and if you are one of those people then please don't take offense at the following.
Here are the five most annoying things about college football fans in descending order from least to most annoying:
5. Hating on rivals when they are better than your team. I understand everyone who goes to Florida hates Miami and Florida State and vice versa. I even understand talking smack when a rival school goes down in a ball of flames.
What I don't understand is how a Miami or Florida State fan is in any position to mock a Florida fan while the Gators are winning championships. I'm not saying they should be congratulating the Gators, but at least save you obnoxious banter for a time when your team is relevant.
4. Taking message boards as gospel. There are a lot of Web sites out there that do a fine job reporting on the day-to-day happenings of college football teams. Unfortunately, the Internet is often a lawless place where speed is valued far more than accuracy. Time and again, we see things reported online that turn out to be false. Every time your team gets a "commitment" from a hot recruit, I really don't want to hear the endless bragging about how he is going to lead your team to four national championships. He might just turn out to pull a Nu'Keese Richardson and de-commit on Signing Day.
3. Being wasted at games. I like to drink. You like to drink. Sometimes I like to drink too much, and I'm sure you do too.
However, I hate sitting next to the belligerent drunk while watching my team play, and I'm sure that you do too. For some reason, getting wasted and going to the game has become as much a part of gameday tradition as chants and fight songs. And when a team is bad, the game seems to get in the way of its fans' binge drinking.
Even more perplexing is getting trashed for big games. One of my friends once got so drunk at the Florida-Georgia game that he passed out for the entire first quarter.
That doesn't exactly spell devotion in my opinion.
2. Booing the officials no matter what. Perhaps this bothers me because I am passionate about the sport of football itself and not just "my team."
There is no rule that says the officials must make every call in favor of the home team, so when you clearly identify a penalty that happens to be on your own team, take your anger out accordingly - on the player and not the official.
1. Thinking your fan base is somehow different. Without a doubt, the thing that bothers me the most is hearing, "Team X's fans are by far the most obnoxious." The mentality of every college football fan is roughly the same - support your team no matter what, hate on everyone else no matter what and don't concern yourself with any kind of objectivity.
