This post is not about millionaires buying up sports teams,  but rather about the little people. People like you and me who enjoy watching sports and love it when our team wins games, and ultimately wins championships.

Everyone's got their team right? Whether it be basketball, football, baseball. Major league, minor league, college, or pro. And when our team is in the spotlight everyone loves to talk about how "we're number one" or "we're the best team out there". But under what circumstances should you be allowed to refer to a team as "we"? I mean, even in pro sports, can anyone who is a fan just jump on the bandwagon and start saying stuff like, "We really owned the Cowboys in last week's game?" Die-hard fans would probably say no. In fact, I believe a few of the Miller Lite Man Laws address what it means to be a "true fan".

But sure, that's talking more about pro sports. What about collegiate sports? I was at a retreat last month, and while there we watched the UT vs. Nebraska game. Someone had video taped the game and we ended up watching it late at night after all the retreat activities were over. As you may know, the game was a nail-biter and UT ended up winning it with a last minute field goal. Everyone cheered and celebrated, but not everyone there was a UT student. While everyone should be allowed to celebrate, non-UT students began referring to UT as "our team", or saying things like "We're gonna win the championship this year like we won last year!" I ask you, the reader, is that permissible? Should non-students or non-alums be allowed to refer to a college team as "we"?

This became the topic of debate in our lab this morning as we were discussing the craziness that was the Louisville vs. Rutgers game last night. What is the criteria for referring to a college team as your own? Here's what we came up with:

1.  You must be an alumnus/alumnae, or a current student of that school.
2.  You can be from that area, but once you attend another school, your responsibility is truly to your own true college.
3.  You have to have followed that school for years, even in the years that they sucked.
4.  You began to refer to the school as "we" when the school sucked bad and no fairweather fan would have wanted to be associated with the school.
5.  You have a sibling that attends/attended that school and they follow the team religiously or your family is considered a (insert college name here) household.

We came to the conclusion that while many addendums can be made, really the first two (or even the first one itself) are the ones that truly count.

But the debate rages on...