How faithful should Utah fans be to sports?

This archived article was written by: Trenton Kinney

If you have not heard, Brigham Young University is in the Sweet 16. I’m sure I didn’t need to tell you, I’m sure the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint membership has been updating you with every half of ball. With Jimmer leading the way, their season quickly became the “hot topic” in Utah.
I am not from Utah and honestly can say I hate BYU. I’ve been told I need to cheer for BYU though because I live in Utah…won’t happen. Why is this expected?
I promise there are people who have been born and raised in Utah and won’t cheer for the Cougars. They are the Utah Ute fans. Is it expected for them to cheer for another Utah team, although they are rivals? So this got me thinking, if you live somewhere, do you have to root for the team in your state, no matter what?
Before I begin, let me tell you some of my opinions about BYU. I like the Jimmer story and think he is a good college basketball player, but if I shot 50 times a game, I think I could have 40 points a game. Not to mention having him go to the NBA, can you say bust? When you have the games they had to get into the Sweet 16, it’s not to impressive. We will see how they do when they play a team that knows what defense is and who has more than 2,000 students enrolled. But that is not here, nor there. Sorry BYU fans.
Back to the point of the article. When I hear BYU fans telling Utah fans they need to cheer for them because they live in the same state, I just shake my head. Come on guys, that’s like saying the Yankees and the Red Sox are in the AL East so cheer for one of them. You can’t cheer for those two teams just because they are in the same division.
A better example for me is telling you if Oregon State was in the national championship, I would cheer for them, if you know me you know that it will never happen. The only Oregon team in my heart is the Ducks.
If people want to make this rule about the same state cheering, then why doesn’t the baseball team and the scream team drive to SLCC next year when they have games? Maybe that can bring the baseball team and the Scream Team closer.
Being an opinionated writer, I’ve found a lot of people don’t share my same views. They complain about my opinion, and I know tons of people will disagree with me on this one. They’ll say the only reason I wrote this is because I don’t like BYU, or because I just want to stir up commotion. Which I hope to do.
But before you say that just think BYU fans, if Utah was in and BYU was out, who would you be wanting to win? I bet 90 percent of you would love to see the Utes get beat. There are tons of factors that go into cheering for your team; family members, location, friends, where you go to school, etc.
But the most important thing that makes your choice, is your heart, not where you live. GO VCU!