Tribalism

I'm writing this on a cold morning in Tennessee, where I'm attending a conference. It being a fall weekend, there's a lot of buzz about today's football game. The flags are out, the signs are up. Supporters of the visiting team have invaded the town - I know because of their sweatshirts and other clothing.

What is it about college sports, football in particular, that engenders such passion, especially among 'highly educated' graduates and faculty of colleges?

I'm sure that this isn't a new observation (I should peruse the sociology literature to see what's been done on this), but we identify with our colleges like people identify with tribes. The human instinct for competition makes us want to compete with a dominate other tribes. How do we do this? Since these particular tribes are more intelectual and social than warlike, we do it through our sports teams. What other way is there for my tribe (college) to compete with yours? It engenders pride at belonging to the victorious group. I think that's why sports such as football are so important to a college's psyche, and are so important for getting alumni to contribute money to the school. For those two reasons, we put up with the various other crap that comes along with fielding a football team.

Of course, there is the US News & World Report rankings, but we won't go there now.