Where are you all emotianally and existentially in your fandom

One more zen!

Been a fan since 88. Honestly from 2018 till 2022 I rarely watched a game. Same from 2013 to 2015. The last 2 years really sucked me back in, but I'll never be the hard core fan I was in the 90s and early 2000s. A lot of it is because I'm older, different hobbies and I'm not planning my entire weekend around football anymore. I was really excited Monday, but it was different on 97. Anyways team 144 will be my favorite Michigan team ever. I hope Michigan still kills it going forward.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever, that’s what I say.

Equanimity is always the goal. Somewhat at odds with the tenets of conventional sports fandom, so to resolve the tension I indulge myself the periodic bout of intense passion and rage. As a treat. All things in moderation—and that includes moderation.

But at the end of the day, fandom is a journey, and the journey is the thing. Let me put it to you this way: I kept my old Adidas gear even though the highlighter maize just looks wrong. Before this week, I looked at the Adidas logo next to the M with a sort of disappointment—an ugly memory and a longing for what could have been. Now, it looks like a badge of honor—a scar from our collective journey through the long, dark night of the soul that is now a memory of trials overcome.

For the first time, I look at it with pride. And that’s a beautiful thing, my friends.

I still haven't gotten over being short on the 2 point conversion against Bob Griese's Boilermakers in '64, costing Bump the NC. 

This is some consolation 60 years later.

😁

I am shocked at how much I cared about this team, and by how badly I wanted them to win (for them, for me, mostly for my UM diehard son). I'm in my late 50s, and mostly have had sports in perspective as "the most important of the unimportant things" for a while.

Further adding to the keep-it-in-perspective outlook, my father passed away October 1. He was in his mid-80s and was very much at peace with the exit, but still. That's the kind of thing that I *thought* would preclude having a heart attack during a muffed punt return.

More than anything, I'm grateful. Got to see two games in person (one in A2, one at Maryland), shared the season with my son, watched an extremely likeable group get it done. 15-0. Life is beautiful.

Ecstatic. 15-0. National Champions. Three straight Big Ten Champions. Perfection.

Nervous that Warde will fall into the trap of internal hire will keep train moving when most of the evidence shows that is not the case. Far more proof that an internal will be Larry Coker than Lloyd Carr.

Michigan is an elite program. It should hire elite head coaches,  not inexperienced cosches. Harbaugh is the straw that stirs the drink. Without him it stagnates and loses it’s taste.

It's interesting to me how many of us reference peace. I feel the same way. I don't feel particularly elated. But, at least for now, I don't want or fear anything with respect to Michigan football. Everything is cleansed and settled. 

I am wherever the opposite of the place the Buckeye fans are right now.

I feel as if I am no longer waiting for Godot.

Great, but I want this "Stalions thing" to get resolved. I put it on the mental back burner to focus on games and keep everything positive, but now I want to put it behind us. I'm tired of reading about it, hearing about it, seeing comments about it. I know some of those won't go away -- Michigan State and Ohio need them more than I need them to go away -- but it's time. And fuck anyone who tries to bring us down. So tired of them, too. 

I liked the Lloyd Carr era. I started school with you in 1999 so I missed 1997. I was okay with 8-10 wins because I assumed we were at least capable of beating OSU, winning the Rose Bowl, being national champs and it would one day happen.

Then during RR and Hoke, I had to reprogram my fandom. I realized I was a fan of just another team. I had to find the joy in beating Indiana. At least we had our big wins over Notre Dame.

Harbaugh brought back the Carr era feeling. Until Columbus 2018. That broke me. Felt like my fandom was in purgatory. 2019 was like being a Penn State fan now. Yeah we won a bunch of games, what's the point. 2020 seemed like hell.

Even through all of 2021, I figured, okay, at least we're back to purgatory. I mean, we even lost that game in East Lansing. And then we beat Ohio State. And everything changed. We were out of purgatory. We were in heaven.

And now as Blake said, business finished. It leaves me feeling like this particular story is complete. I'm sure next year I'll be desperate to win every game in the moment but right now I feel like the next story and the next challenge is going to start. Maybe it's with Harbaugh, maybe it isn't. But I feel like we're about to embark on a new adventure either way. (Unless JJ comes back, then it's still on.)

I feel old.

I've been a Michigan fan since 24-12, 1969, watching my father and uncle get emotional about beating Ohio. I wounld up attending Michigan.  Undergrad (2 of these) and Master's degrees (2 of these as well), and I never missed a football game as a student from 1974-1981.  I've followed the team ever since.  My parents had season tickets for 30+ years, then we would gather on Saturdays to watch games at their house.  I lived it all:  Bo, Moeller, Carr, Oh-My-God-It-Can't-Get-Any-Worse-Than-This, Oh-Yes-It-Can. Harbaugh.

But right now?  I feel...good. 

The good guys won for a change.  And the "almost but not quite" moments of past years have been transformed into a beautiful prelude to this beautiful championship. 

It's all come together, and past disappointments have become just a part of the amazing ride that Michigan football has taken me on for the past...half-century.  Yeah, I feel old.

But right now?  I feel...good.

I’ve been through two or three of these—the Tigers in 1984, the Wings in 1997, and of course Michigan in 1987.  

Every time I said “now that they’ve won it, I’ll be less intense next year and the year after.”  That’s never happened.  I don’t think it’s possible for me.  I get as invested in it as before.  

So, good advice is to just enjoy this for as long as you can.  Just soak it up.  It’s so rare and so fleeting.  And then there will be Team 145.  

I graduated undergrad in 1990/med school in 1993 and was raised as a Michigan fan by my parents, so I remember my first heartbreak with the Bo/Ricky Leach teams in the 1970s.  
While Bo was obviously a legend, there was always a frustration that we never had that perfect season. I also wanted to see a basketball championship (which I got in 1989). When the 1997 team went undefeated, I got to experience something I had never seen before. I just wanted a zero in the loss column for one year. I was happy and content with Michigan Football, and my fandom changed. I also thought that the way the sport has been going, it would be impossible for Michigan to compete for a national championship. There wasn't a level playing field. After the RR/Hoke years, I would be content with the 10-2 seasons and a trip to the Citrus Bowl.

However.

I got tired of the haters. Maybe because Harbaugh was our QB my freshman year, I always had faith in him, even during the COVID year. If nothing else, he was developing teams with good kids, and the players were developing during the season. After 2020, I was happy- it had been ages since we won a B10 title/beat OSU, and there was no way we were beating GA that year. After last year, I was frustrated with how the year ended,  but I was still happy. Great kids and a thrilling year. My only disappointment was the TCU game ended up being the last game I watched with my dad before he passed away in August and teared up a lot this season becuase I didn't get a chance to talk to him about Michigan's season. 

 
Going into Monday night, I wanted the team to win, not so much for my Michigan fandom, but I was really pulling for the kids and their families. They had invested so much that I would be incredibly heartbroken for them had they lost.   Seeing Kris Jenkins on the field with his mom post-game is a prime example of this.  I've been enjoying the ride and celebrating with many of my Michigan friends across the country. I'm also enjoying so many of my friends in Reno reaching out to me to congratulate me (sort of strange since I didn't do anything other than wear my lucky shirt).  
It's been an extraordinary three years, and it won't stay like this, so let's savor the moment. 

Appreciative

I'm like many here who are saying they can calm (the fandom) down a little.  I believe it for me too.

And then I find myself trying to categorize what I just witnessed. 

While brushing my teeth today I asked myself:

"Where do you put Corum and Saintristil  on the all time favorites list?"  And then I answered myself "Right now, I have to put Corum #1"..... "but don't do it yet.  Let some time pass before switching out Dennard."  "Both guys represented everything you want from a Michigan Player..... they were electric and played the game with a smile and yet with passion."  " Even the opponent couldn't help but respect them." " Like Moe in basketball."

So then I thought, "holy shit.  You are probably crazy. You have 6 million things going on and you are having a Michigan Football debate with yourself at 6am?"

For the next 6 months it will be mostly a Michigan Football Fast.  And in August, I'm usually starving.  So am I really going to be able to tone down the fandom when the next season comes?

My first game was the Notre Dame game where Desmond made the catch in the corner across from the student section and was on Sports Illustrated.

For the record, I had every intention of watching the Championship game on replay after my daughters BB game.  But I changed the plan at the last minute.  I watched the first quarter or so at home.   My selfless wife came through and drove an 1 1/2  hours up the Columbia River Gorge in a driving rainstorm while I watched on my phone.  It wasn't as bad as you'd expect since I had top quality noise canceling headphones.  I had to pause it several times during the basketball game but I caught up when I could. 

I am not dressing up in Michigan Gear or bragging to everyone here in Portland.  My close friends are all texting with congratulations even if most are Duck and Beaver fans.  My OSU friend put a sticky note with a huge asterisk on my desk.  I thought it was funny.  I had put a camera on his desk before the GAME with a tag that said, "Michigan Scouting Dept" 

Everyone knows who I am.  I went to MICHIGAN.  But like most of you, that was just a starting point of all the things I've gone on to do.    

I am not rubbing anything in to my Husky friends or the Bama friend.  I don't like the Bama friend as much so I am going to wait for the perfect time to remind him that Saban's last game was a loss to MICHIGAN.

But I am making sure people know that we outrushed the Huskies 303 to 46. 

The Character of our team speaks for itself and everyone got to see it in the most watched games of the year.  Oh, and they were pretty fucking good too.......in a total Harbaugh way.

Honestly happy, relieved and a little tired. 

I really didn't think Michigan could do this in todays college football.  Everything is against us, well almost everything, hard work still pays off.  We have rivals working together against us in ways we probably can't even fathom, the SEC got them to change camp  rules because of Harbaugh.

Alot of hurt is being washed away by this one great team.  These 3 years have been unbelievable in their own ways.  Tantalizing, remarkable and then getting over the line. 

One of the unique things about Michigan is our fan base's conviction that we face so many "institutional disadvantages" that we are unable to compete with other schools, despite the fact that we are, in fact, the winningest program in the history of the sport.

We tend to focus on our supposed higher ethical/academic standards than other schools, for instance, while discounting the benefits from having the most powerful and respected brand in college sports (if not in all American sports), constant TV exposure, and the benefits that come from that same academic reputation (i.e., a degree from the University of Michigan actually counts for more). For the smarter, more determined, more mature kid, where else would you want to play? Ohio State? I don't think so.

I'm not saying it equals out. But it is funny how often, over the years, it's been stated on this message board as if it were a matter of undeniable fact that we simply can't compete for recruits, we're screwed by NIL, and that our "standards" make it impossible for us to really excel.

And that will happen again over the next few months, as big-name recruits go to other schools, that people here moan about how bad we are at recruiting, for one reason or another.

I never believed that. I never believed that we couldn't compete with Alabama or Clemson (or Ohio State), and I don't believe that if Harbaugh leaves there aren't other coaches that can come in and do a damned good job. Will we find them? I dunno — that's a different question. We did great with Bo. We did poorly with Rich Rod. It's not an easy process, no doubt.

But it's great to be a Michigan Wolverine, and I wouldn't change a goddamned thing.

As a fan for about the last 17 years, I feel like I've peaked. It feels like we won, the good guys finally came out on top. The Game will never be the same again. The playoffs and Championships will never be the same again. College football will never be the same again. But right before it all finally collapsed and became unrecognizable, Michigan definitively shuts closed the mouths of every hater in a brilliant display of dominance culminating in Monday's coronation. 

I feel like I can die happy as a Michigan fan without anything else. I'll happily accept more, but I no longer need it. All my wildest dreams as a fan have come true in the most satisfying way possible at the best time possible. Go fuckin Blue. 

Two days later and we're all still basking in the afterglow. I love it, and I'm with you 

I think it's hard after you're engaged in an emotional journey to pull back after its over and feel satisfied about it.

There is desire to want to reclaim it, relive it, to keep wanting that loving feeling to never end. And, of course, life goes on. But there is peace.

And it goes along with a powerful emotional recognition of a memory nobody can deny, Michigan:  National Champions.

I actually met a girl THE DAY this season began and we slowly got to know and like each other more and more over the months as the season progressed. She watched her first games with me these playoffs and saw me in all my insanity. Watched the NC with me and referred to UM as "we". So that has been a nicely serendipitous thing.

But yeah this is 100% a denouement. I am content, basking in the afterglow (talking a little bit of shit online as well -- after all, great teams taunt). Overall just happily looking forward to what it feels like to be a fan of this team from here on out.

I feel like I got the thing many sports fans never get, a championship for the team they love deeply and irrationally. For that I'm just grateful. 

Hail to the victors, baby

I come from a Michigan family. I’ve been a fan since I was a little kid in the 90s. The 97 season is probably my earliest sports memory outside of Jordan’s Bulls. 

Since then, I was used to Michigan Football being pretty good at best, and embarrassing at worst.

The surprising success of the last three seasons brought me and my parents closer together and Monday felt like the culmination and storybook ending to an incredibly dramatic journey.

My feelings at the end were mixed. And for a season full of so many emotional moments. This was almost like a coronation. Felt like the first big ten championship after the 2021 osu victory. It seemed inevitable after the opening drive. 
Incredible joy that they won. But also sad that it’s the end of an amazing journey.  Most of these stars I’ve come to love over the last three seasons and possibly the coaches will be moving on next season. I feel like I could watch this particular team play on and on forever. Watching them battle and overcome the odds again and again was inspiring in a way that evokes the feelings only one other sports team has given me - the 2016 Cubs. But that particularly team felt (incorrectly) like the beginning of a dynasty. This feels like the end. 

What this team accomplished is remarkable in ways I think it will take years to appreciate. They didn’t just beat the teams in front of them. They beat the media, the public scrutiny, the private scrutiny, the anonymous coaches, endless hate and vitriol from other fanbases, suspensions, etc. 

I’m the kind of sports fan more attracted to inspiring stories and charismatic personalities then the grind of stats, schemes and recruiting. And this year really had it all.

I think time will only further exonerate this team from the Stallions allegations and I think this season will make one of the greatest sports documentaries if they ever get around to it. Go Blue Forever. 

Immortalized. They accomplished it all. We went from "I just want to beat Ohio State" to "This team should win a national title" in 3 seasons. You can't take this away from us, even though they all tried. Still no words, but the only one that matters is "champions". Die mad haters.

This is the second national championship that I've gotten to enjoy. I feel like I appreciate it more than the first. In the mid-nineties, when they last won it all, Michigan was at the tail end of a prolonged successful period. There were multiple Rose Bowl appearances from the late eighties to the late nineties. Michigan had multiple top ten finishes during that stretch. I was born into a highly successful period. My earliest football memories were of teams that were coached by Bo that were typically projected to be successful in preseason polls.

The victory over WSU and the national championship were obviously high points, and I fully understood that 97/98 was an extraordinarily special season. But it fit into the pattern of success that I took for granted. Plus it came in a year when Michigan Hockey won it all, the Red Wings were Stanley Cup Champs, and Michigan Basketball was at the tail end of a highly successful stretch that started with the 1989 National Championship. The Lions weren't good, but Barry Sanders was still playing, which made them worth watching. Sporting success was in the air.

Today, Michigan basketball is in a tailspin, the Wings haven't made the playoffs in years, Michigan Hockey hasn't won a championship in more than a decade, and the football program has only recently climbed out of a decade and a half of frustration and futility. Harbaugh had to build for eight years to get the program to where it is today, and none of the success that they have enjoyed could ever be taken for granted. This isn't a program that was born on third base. It had to scrap and fight to get where it is. I'm glad to have been there to witness the process, and to see Michigan football rise like a phoenix from the ashes.

I feel pretty good. Content, for sure. Vindicated in my obsessive fandom.

I also feel like I'll be hungry for more success come September. There will be less urgency, desperation, and imperative to win everything next year. But I will be glued to every game. 

Next season's schedule looks tough. Michigan will be going up against a ton of big name programs right from the start. It's the complete opposite of this season's schedule, in which we played about eight scrimmage games before the season really even started. Next year, everyone is going to be looking to take a shot at the king, and a lot of the teams we'll play early will have the dudes to knock us off if we're not on our game. It seems like a much less favorable scenario, especially considering all of the roster turnover that will happen. Next year's team will be much younger and less experienced than this year's team. But imagine how amazing it will be if they run the table... Next year is an opportunity for absolute immortality if they can run it back. How can you not be motivated to see what happens?

Who's got it better than us?

I am grateful that we all get to bask in the reflected glory of their accomplishment.  I was happy in 1997 and grateful I'd gotten to watch Woodson play, but I was living halfway across the country and couldn't stay invested.

But MGoBlog has brought that feeling back, of being part of a community, which revels in the wins and commiserates in the losses, and now we have Team 144 as our collective touchstone.

I spent a little time reveling in schadenfreude after the OSU win this year, and after the Alabama game, but mostly I try not to do that; it's not who I want to be.

It's surprisingly easy to avoid that now.  Teams 142-144 did what they did, and no matter what happens next, we will always remember watching them, cheering for them, and reveling in their accomplishments.  I don't need to taunt or rub anyone's nose in it, because we're here.  We're National Champions, center stage.  Anyone who wants to gripe about it is welcome to Die Mad, and offstage.

"Trouble with the snap" can no longer be used to hurt us. That's where I am with my fandom. The greatest failures post 1997 no longer matter. Hell, splitting the title (erroneously) in 1997 no longer matters.

15-0 is a monster season. 100% validated by getting to beat the SEC's best in Alabama.  If we hadn't beaten an SEC team, the narrative on the championship would be different.  Winning the very last championship under the four-team format is also special.  It is just beyond words what this team accomplished, and it will continue to set in as time passes.  

Are you an alternate reality me?

not a UM alum, but went to college from 99-03, and hit pretty much every other beat, including being ok with Harbaugh leaving if he wants to chase the Super Bowl championship.  The man did everything he set out to do here, so if his heart wants a Super Bowl Championship, no UM fan should begrudge him of an opportunity for him to chase it.

In a word, grateful. 

For all the reasons you and others have stated so truthfully - but mostly grateful for the people.

All the people, not just these legendary players and coaches. Each of whom will spend the rest of their lives exploring and re-lving all of these exceptional events, with each year that passes bringing a deeper, more vivid understanding of how special it all was.

So, to them and you all, Thank You.

I seriously felt a weight off of my fandom shoulders in 2021 when they won the B1G East, won the B1G championship, then made the CFP. Everything after that has just added icing to the cake. After Monday night I can’t find the cake, it’s all icing. Like good icing, not that butter cream shit. It’s euphoric.

I turn 71 in, quite literally, a couple of days. Monday set me for life. It was a stupendously glorious year...you cannot exceed 15-0...all is good.

Satiated.

I became a die hard fan in1968 when Woody went for 2 (thank you Woody). Bo came the next year and it began a 3 decade long period of greatness. Michigan was always good. Until we weren’t. The down years made me appreciate the past glory even more and also made me realize that nothing last forever and that dynasties die.

My passion waned in the lean years. I watched every game, but the highs didn’t feel as high and thankfully, the lows didn’t feel as low. I wondered if Michigan would ever be able to climb back to the top.

I was not on the Harbaugh train when he was hired, but I went along with it to give him a chance. I also wasn’t on the fire JH train in 2021. Let’s see if he can get this going after Covid. 2022 was great.  I thought we missed our chance when we didn’t win it all last year. I thought we had a chance to be good this year, but wasn’t sure. After 3-4 games I thought “Hey, we are pretty good.” After a couple more, it was “We can play with anybody.”

I have rewatched the OSU game, the Iowa game, the Alabama game several times. I have already rewatched the Washington game 4 times. Yesterday, I started rewatching the Alabama game again. My admiration for this team, these players and this staff continues to grow. What they have accomplished, is amazing. Congratulations to them. Business is finished.

I am content.

At 47 I'm just soaking this all in man.  Not thinking about Harbaugh leaving.  Not thinking about JJ leaving.  Just enjoying every moment of this.  Not letting anything steal this sweet feeling while it is here.  It will soon be gone.

Fandom: Higher than 1997-98, now at an all time high.

Emotionally: In awe but still spent about the false allegations. It's been a rollercoaster. Am finally being able to exhale. The upcoming drama on if Jim stays or leaves will not be as exhausting as these past couple of months (signgate news that broke in early Nov)

I feel like a lizard sitting on a warm rock on a very sunny day.

I'm at peace, as others have said, a little saddened that this era of college football is over, but happy that this resets the clock on so many records, and feels like anything could happen again.

We moved to Ann Arbor in 1988. My dad was a professor (and dual-degree alum), and we started getting season tickets when I was 8; we would walk the ~2 miles to the stadium, passing increasing crowds, and it was magical. I didn't understand the game at a strategic level, and firmly believed that Timmy Biakabutuka could have beaten any team in the country by himself (cue the SNL "Bears Fans" scenarios). Our family went to the Rose Bowl for the '97 game shortly before my parents split up, and Michigan football was one of the things that I hung onto in high school. I went away for college, went to UM for law school in 2006-2009 and (at the time) even masochistically enjoyed the fandom martyrdom of freezing against Minnesota, since I truly believed we'd be back on top. I just never thought it would take this long.
 

Personally, this team's resilience has been a source of steadiness. I started freelancing full-time after getting laid off in October of 2022 because my wife went back to work and we were only able to find half-time childcare for our then-2-year-old. She's now in a full-time program, but I haven't found the right opportunity to go back to traditional employment yet. I've been incredibly lucky that it's worked out (I was able to match my 2021 salary), but every month is variable, and seeing this team go out every week and get the job done, setting aside the new challenges, unforeseen wrinkles, and outside noise, has helped me get through my own anxieties.

My daughter has never seen Michigan lose to Ohio State. She hasn't been to a Big House game yet (maybe next year), and she doesn't enormously care (Tuesday morning I reminded her that Michigan won a championship and she said "Next time they win a championship you shouldn't be so loud"), but in the face of a chaotic, uncertain, complicated world, I love that this is something we have. That a team without any Heisman finalists could go out there and win it all. That Donovan Edwards could score 2 TDs in a quarter. That the team wasn't flawless, but were exactly what they needed to be.