Despite raving animosity during Rivalry Week, students feel safe to bleed blue on a red campus.
It’s unconventional, but not all BYU fans attend BYU and not all U fans attend the U. Stephanie Stagg, a graduate student in public administration, bleeds blue. She grew up a BYU fan and did her undergraduate education at the conservative school down south. Doug Woodbury, a sophomore at BYU in accounting, bleeds red. John Weist, a junior in psychology and English at BYU, started at the U but after a year of school, went to BYU when it offered him a scholarship. He is also a Ute fan.
The athletic fandom minorities find a lot in common. For instance, they’ll make exceptions and cheer for the rival team.
Stagg said she cheers for both teams because she wants “them to do well, except when they play each other.”
Woodbury and Weist only cheer for the U8212;except on rare occasions. When BYU played the Oklahoma Sooners at the beginning of the season, Woodbury and Weist made an exception and cheered for BYU because it was a good win for the conference, not just their school, they said.
Both environments also have been welcoming.
“I can wear a U shirt all day on campus and no one will say anything,” Woodbury said. Woodbury said he discovered that as long as he shows respect to his fellow classmates about their favorite sports teams, they show respect back.
Weist has a U sticker on his laptop and people often ask him why he has it, assuming he would be a BYU fan, he said.
When Stagg was growing up, she said she had some friends who were obnoxious U fans, but she found that stereotype to be untrue when she started going to the U, Stagg said.
Not that there isn’t any antagonizing.
Last week, an Associated Press article ran in the sports section of The Daily Universe, BYU’s school paper, about BYU’s loss to Florida State. The article says the loss changed the “Cougars’ hopes from the BCS, possibly even a national championship, to winning the Mountain West Conference title.”
Weist said some BYU fans have a sense of arrogance, which the school has not encouraged, that the team could still compete for a national championship this year, Weist said.
“Really? After two games?” he said.
