What’s a ‘Fan Nation’?

On a growing list of overused and under-deserved sports cliches, no single cliche chaps my ass more than when schools, players or fans over inflate their team’s importance by attaching ‘nation’ after the team’s mascot.

The latest examples of this phenomenon have come from Tim Tebow and Craig James describing the Florida and Texas Tech fan base as ‘Gator Nation’ and ‘Red Raider Nation’ respectively. I’ve had the privilege to live in the Northwest, Southwest and Southeastern parts of this great country, and I can guarantee you there is no Gator or Red Raider ‘nation’ out there.

Simply stated, it’s a crutch used by fans to validate their loyalty, and is strikingly similar to the ego-centric world view of adolescence.

As gay sports fans we are, on average, smarter than your average straight sports fan and so we should be more selective in our use of certain terms. It’s only possible for one group to have the most fans, best fans or most rabid fans.

We can’t have several ‘nations’ of fans within this one nation of ours so there must be some set of criteria used to define what a ‘nation’ of fans looks and feels like. And so, I volunteer the SportsFags.com criteria used to determine which teams truly have a ‘nation of fans’.

Note: No straight people were harmed or used for research purposes when developing this list.

Criteria for a ‘fan nation’

1. National fan base - I’m an Auburn graduate and so when I see another Auburn fan outside of the Southeast I get excited. I realize this excitement automatically excludes Auburn from using the term ‘nation’, because if we were truly a ‘nation’ of fans, seeing an Auburn fan in Boise would be common and not out of the ordinary. Part of having a national fan base means there’s a good chance that you see a fan of your school or team regularly, no matter where you live.

2. Travel extremely well - have you ever been to a game where you observed a large number of visiting fans in attendance? That’s what’s meant by traveling well, it’s not just about selling out the visiting team’s allotment of tickets but also grabbing up tickets from the home team’s fans as well, it’s about hearing a loud roar when the home crowd is quiet.

3. Sustained success - a ‘nation’ of fans takes time to develop and those fans have stuck with the team through both the good times and the bad.

4. Success not attributed to money - if your team is able to outspend everyone else, there will be many people who identify with your team, but who will quickly disown your team when adversity strikes. We all know the person who pulls for the Cowboys, Yankees, Lakers, Manchester United and Florida Gators, they are front runners not fans.

5. One per sport.

Using the criteria above SportsFags.com has vetted all of the fan bases, both college and pro, and determined the only schools or organizations who can lay claim to having a ‘fan nation’.

Baseball – Boston Red Sox
Football – Pittsburgh Steelers
Hockey – Detroit Red Wings
Basketball – University of North Carolina Tarheels
NASCAR – Dale Earnhardt Junior tip of the hat to twitter friend @jch68