4 ms·
Speaking as a Michigan grad, his description of the the UM / OSU rivalry sounds completely foreign to me. It's true I do know a few "how stupid OSU is" jokes,
by colomon 11y ago
Speaking as a Michigan grad, his description of the the UM / OSU rivalry sounds completely foreign to me. It's true I do know a few "how stupid OSU is" jokes, but I've never perceived them as anything but standard ingroup / outgroup jokes. (Think dumb blonde jokes here.)
But I've always seen the game as the best public school in Michigan versus the best public school in Ohio, two great universities with great football traditions. I've no idea why you'd think of OSU as hillbillies; I don't know that I've ever heard that association made.
Now Michigan versus Michigan State fits right into the model he's talking about. But even there it seems a real stretch to describe it as class warfare.
- lftl 11y agoMy impression of the Auburn / Alabama rivarly is the same. I think we could just as easily have picked a different anecdote, and make the case that it's AU looking down at AL as lower class: It's a relatively common joke to ask Alabama fans if anyone in their family actually went to college, much less to Alabama. Tommy Tuberville, while AU's coach, said that Alabama seemed to have a lot of "walk-on fans" who never went to college. I think the author went off the rails trying to tie in class warfare (it is the Slate). Narcissism of minor differences really hits it on the head. The most intense rivalries seem to come where there's more overlap in the constituents, and the differences between them really are petty.
- cafard 11y agoThe NY Times wrote up Auburn's philosophy department a few years ago. They did find room for that great thinker Bear Bryant's dismissal of Auburn as "just a cow college."