Stewart Mandel fail

Alma mater is far more important than any team you "root for".  To be a "fan" of Michigan (as opposed to MSU, for example) is not much different than being a "fan" of Target (as opposed to Meijer's)...it's basically just a matter of where you choose to spend your time & money.

But when you are a student/alumnus of a university then you have chosen to be a part of that community (a community which also chose you, i.e., it's mutual).  You, the football team and all other parts of the university are, for better or worse, now linked in the perceptions of others.  It is in your own interest to suport the football team and likewise it is in the interest of the football team to support you.  If we wanted to be extreme about it, we could even consider students/alumni of one school who openly pledge support to another school's football team to be engaging in acts of treason.  That's seems a bit crazy...but maybe not too far from the truth when we consider the reactions at WVU when Coach Rodriguez left.

Being a fan is similar to being a customer or client whereas the relationship with your alma mater is closer to that of a shareholder.  I was a fan of Michigan until I went to school there.  Now that I have both a bachelors and masters degrees from Michigan, I am just as passionate about the University and the football team as I have ever been but I rarely consider myself a fan anymore.  

////////////////////////////////////////

I also think that there is another angle to this debate that is somewhat overlooked and that is the relationship of public and private schools.  In the early days of the US, the colleges and university were basically all private institutions (that is to say, without the geographic affiliations of the modern state university).  Hence the idea of "alma mater" and it's rivalries would predate the rise of the large publicly financed schools that began to emerge in the 19th century.  Even then, I doubt that before the emergence of televised football to the masses during the 1950s (or maybe radio a few decades earlier) that many average residents of Michigan would identify themselves as "Michigan fans."

Today, I think it is possible to argue that all (especially tax-paying) residents of a state have an interest in the football teams of the state university and, thus, may actually qualify as having deeper interests than the mere consumer-oriented "fan" that I described above.  Of course by that logic, as a native Michigander, then it might be argued that I'm just as tied into MSU as I am U of M which is a polemic that makes me somewhat uncomfortable.  In other words, I still believe that Mandel is correct, alma mater rules.