by Jared Smith
We all know Atlantic City is a distant relative of the Philadelphia sports family, so that makes the professional rooting interest pretty much set in stone with Eagles, Phillies, Sixers and Flyers leading the pack. However the city of Philadelphia is very fickle when it comes to NCAA rooting interests, some people stick to the hometown team of Temple, some consider Penn State the hometown college for Philly residents, and even some go as far away as Rutgers for their fanhoods. So with all of those teams factoring into the equation in South Jersey, my question to this blog is what is the official college team for the Atlantic City area?
Happy Valley would be a lot happier with the support of South Jersey
For those of you that don’t know me personally, I am a recent Penn State graduate who moved to this area for career purposes. In the few months that I’ve lived here, I have not seen that much support for any of the three schools that I just mentioned. I see some PSU apparel here and there but nothing like I expected. I thought Jersey was all about Penn State, but I guess only the northern and central parts agree with that sentiment.
That being said, not only does this area not have an official college affiliation, it is even difficult to determine what conference the area roots for. Big East? Big 10? How about the NJAC? I just recently discovered that the Big Ten Network has officially found its way to South Jersey on Comcast Cable channel number 257, much to the delight of this fellow Penn State alum. So that maybe sheds a little light that the market might be slightly Penn State biased as only “Big Ten” markets are carrying the network on Comcast as ruled in the recent merger between the two companies.
So I guess I’ll let you guys do the rest of the talking, who do you root for? Do you think South Jersey has an official NCAA affiliation or are we simply the Ross Perot of the college football world?
Philadelphia’s residents are VERY front-running (thanks J-Roll) when it comes to college sports. I am personally a fan of Florida Atlantic University because i graduated from there, and Notre Dame because I grew up rooting for them as an Irish Catholic kid whose parents and grandparents rooted for them. My uncle also played for Delaware, who i’m also partial too.
In a broader sense, fans around here love Penn State for reasons unknown. They are 3 hours away for god’s sake. (No offense btw, Jared, they are a fine school, but represent everyhting wrong with the Philadelphia college sports scene.) Rutgers has lately been the college football team du jour because of their success. The fact that Paterno and Schiano head them up dos no harm either, with the strong Italian community in South Jersey/South Philadelphia. My closest friends root for their respective colleges, and I root for them when it doesn’t represent a conflict of interest. But, Philadelphia and it’s suberbs have a long way to go in this department, and for now it makes me sick.
From one perspective, would a person who never went to The University of Maryland and lives New Jersye root for them? No, they wouldnt. But they’re nearly as close to South Jersey residents than Penn State!
College sports just dont have a home here in South Jersey. People migrate to either their alma mater (I root for WVU cause I went there, before that I was a Alabama fam, b/c I liked thier helmets). or they cheer for a “national” team like USC, Miami, Notre Dame, Florida State and yes, Penn State.
This market is a pro sports market, always has, always will. Even when the A-10 basketball tourney comes to AC, the rooting interests arent distinct.
I agree with MG….But I do think Rutgers, if they could maintain a high level of play, over time people would support them. The article suggests that people go “as far away” as Rutgers. From Atlantic City Rutgers is an hour and a half ride. To PSU its like 4 hours, which makes more sense genius ?
In the south a school like Alabama, an hour and a half ride is a tradition, in NJ its a pain in the ass…but if RU can stay good over a ling period of time, I think they will begin to get more Southern NJ fans