The 2026 Northwestern Essay No. 2--How to Be a Responsible Sports Fan

Tomorrow, Northwestern with open its 2026 football campaign against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.  The game will be played at Northwestern's exceptionally cool and beautiful temporary stadium on Lake Michigan.  The game starts at 8 pm Eastern/7 pm Central and can be seen on the BigTen Network, which is available on many cable and satellite packages as well as through the FoxOne app/stream service.  Which is how I will be watching the game.  Sigh.  Remember kids, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

Having gotten this out of the way, I would like to kick off this season by discussing how to be a responsible sports fan.  Being a sports fan is, or at least can be, a perfectly reasonable and productive lifestyle choice.  But there are also some ways in which it can become very toxic, both to yourself and those around you.  Fortunately, these toxic dimensions can be avoided by keeping a few simple principles in mind.

1.  This is Supposed to Be Fun.  Since 2011, I have lived in Columbus, Ohio.  Columbus is the epicenter of the phenomenon that is Buckeye Nation, i.e. fans of The Ohio State University.  Having lived here for 15 years, I now have many friends who are Ohio State fans, and many of them are wonderful people.  But I have made an observation over these years--they don't seem like they really enjoy being an Ohio State fan.  When they win, it is treated as something that is expected, like breathing air.  When they lose, it is an existential crisis.  I don't see them having a fun time being a part of this community, win or lose.

I believe very strongly that this defeats the purpose of being a sports fan.  There are many things in life that you are obligated to do that are unpleasant.  Why would you add something entirely optional onto the pile of unpleasant things?  You don't have to do this, and if this is not a positive experience for you, you should not do this.

Now, it is true that inherent in the experience of being a sports fan is some degree of ups and downs.  It is more fun when your team wins than when they lose, for example.  So the question is not whether every single moment of the sports fan experience is a positive one, but whether this element of your life is, in the aggregate, adding to your total happiness.  This means both that the plus side is actually positive and that the minus side is not so negative that it cancels out the positives.  

It is also important to point out that this is not a settled question.  Being a fan of a particular team can go from being fun to being unfun and visa versa.  For example, in addition to Northwestern, I also follow the Columbus Blue Jackets of the NHL.  The Blue Jackets are drifting perilously close to the unfun category for me.  It's not just that they haven't won anything in a while (and never won anything of consequence), but that the team as an institution is becoming increasingly unpleasant and obviously cheap, including firing the radio broadcaster to save a few bucks and uniquely charging for watching their games on Amazon Prime (on top of the Amazon Prime subscription, as opposed to the other NHL teams on Prime which do not charge extra).  I am not completely committed to ditching the Blue Jackets, but if I do ditch them I will have no qualms about deciding that I am done with a team that is not bringing me joy and replacing them with a team that does (or finding some other thing that you enjoy instead).  

Along those lines, there is another version of this unfun sports fan experience that should be called out.  There are people who will tell you that following a team, especially following a team that is bad, is a character-building experience.  To these people, the fact that it is unfun to follow this team is the point, that they are somehow elevating their personhood through suffering via a sports team.  I think this attitude is very dumb and the people who really push it are very annoying.  I hate masochism dressed up as virtue, and this is one of the spaces that you see it often.  It's totally fine to say "this team is bad but I am still having fun anyway."  But saying "it is an awful experience following this terrible team, but I am becoming a better person through this suffering" is perilously close to a personality disorder.  Just stop.

2.  This Is All Arbitrary, and That's a Good Thing.  In all sports, and in particular in college football, having rivalries with other teams is a big part of the experience.  As I will likely discuss in future posts, I really dislike the University of Iowa, and I don't care for the University of Illinois much.  But I don't think that the University of Iowa or the University of Illinois are bad in some objective way.  And I certainly don't think the people who are fans of either of the U of I schools are objectively bad or wrong for doing so.  I understand that my dislike of these two schools is fundamentally arbitrary.  

As long as you recognize this, rivalries are very fun.  To borrow a wrestling term, all rivalries are kayfabe--you pretend that you have solid reasons to hate the other team, but you know deep down that those reasons are fake.  This is one of the ways where sports fandom can be a vehicle for catharsis--you can take pleasure in triumphing over your foes and seeing them be defeated with no actual consequences to them or to you.  If we were to beat Illinois this year, my happiness at this outcome is buoyed by the fact that Illinois fans are not really going to suffer any material consequences for being on the other side of the outcome.  Because wanting real harm to other people is bad, and makes you a bad person.  But because this is all arbitrary and not real, you can indulge in these feelings without feeling guilty.

At the risk of beating up on Ohio State fans again, here in Columbus come the middle of November you will see street signs with red tape over any letter "M."  Again, as long as you understand that this is all performative and fundamentally unserious, this is fine.  But I think some Ohio State fans really believe that Michigan and Michigan fans are actually wicked, and that's when it comes close to a personality disorder.  

3. Manage Your Expectations.  Last year, Northwestern went 7-6, including a bowl game win.  This season, we are playing a much, much tougher schedule--according to Bill Connelly's SP+ ranking system, Northwestern has the toughest schedule in the country.  South Dakota State is a really tough opener, given that SDST won a FCS national championship in 2023.  We also play road games against three teams (Indiana, Oregon, Ohio State) currently ranked in the Top 10.  On the flip side, we have upgraded at quarterback and offensive coordinator, so we should be more dynamic offensively.

Given these two countervailing forces, I would be thrilled if we repeat our 2025 record--go 6-6 in the regular season, go to a low-tier bowl game, and win it to finish with a winning record.  For me, even though the record would be the same, that would be a sign that the program is moving forward.

There are people who will read this and say "that's soft, you should have higher expectations."  First, being a sports fan should not be an exercise in developing moral virtues--see my previous discussion that this is supposed to be fun.  Second, I understand that I don't follow Ohio State or one of these top tier programs.  I follow a team that is the smallest school by far by enrollment in the Big Ten.  Expecting a national championship every season is just not realistic and is setting yourself up for disappointment.  

But the real reason to do this is because it makes it so much more enjoyable when they exceed expectations.  Suppose Northwestern wins all their non-conference games, beats Michigan State in East Lansing (and boy will we talk about that game when it comes up), beats Illinois, beats Minnesota and Rutgers, and steals a game against either Penn State or Iowa.  They would end the regular season 8-4.  That would be awesome!  Then they would go to a mid-tier bowl game, and it would be the best season for the program since the weird COVID season in 2020.  I would be thrilled.  And I would be thrilled even if we get our doors blown off in Eugene or Columbus or Bloomington.  You can choose to be upset about losses or you can celebrate the wins, and the distinction there is usually a product of where you set expectations.

4.  Don't Get Sucked Into the Vortex of Sports Talk.  Watching games is fun.  Going to games is super fun.  Talking to friends about the games can be fun if your friends are cool.  But I find that The Discourse around sports is not fun, especially The Discourse that comes out of Professional Sports Talk--ESPN, Fox, other TV networks, sports talk radio, etc.  The Sports Talk Discourse, like the overwhelming majority of professional Discourse in 2026, is predicated on making you mad.  What you are supposed to get mad at is a moving target, but you are supposed to get mad about something.

There is a perverse part of ourselves that can get pleasure out of being mad.  But that is the ultimate form of empty calories.  In the long run, it isn't a positive element of your life.  It doesn't make you happy ultimately and it is not fun.  And, once again, this is supposed to be fun.  Don't take on additional things that make this experience unpleasant.  Just watch the games.

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