Sports fans across the country are worried about catching the latest sports disorder, bandwagoning. A bandwagon fan is one who routinely switches up their favorite teams to ones that are winning. This usually happens after the game has been played, but in extreme cases can occur during the game. Symptoms of this disorder include citing jersey design, certain players, mascots, or the team name as reasons they like a specific team.

Junior Blake McMullin doesn’t like these types of fans.

“Bandwagoning is stupid because people aren’t really a true fan of that team” Blake said.

The bandwagoning issue came up again when in early February, there was a sudden surge of Seattle Seahawk fans, with some coming from Denver, Colorado. This also happened just a few years after a large fan movement from Indiana to Denver which left people wondering how we can avoid this.

“I hate how people jump from team to team. You have to get emotionally connected,” Preston Olschewski, a junior, said.

Extreme cases of bandwagoning include “fans” switching between hated rivals. People have been known to jump from the University of Utah to Brigham Young University depending on the sport and on who is winning. This has also been known to happen with other heated rivalries such as the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, and the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. This can also happen collegiately with fans jumping from Duke to North Carolina.

Shandon Pendleton is not one of these fans.

“You can’t just always pick the team that wins. Whatever happened to loyalty?” the junior questioned.

Many people claim they like a team because of a particular player, but don’t go from a Cavaliers fan to a Heat fan, just be a LeBron James fan! There is nothing wrong with being a fan of Paul Pierce, while still being a Celtics fan.

Jimmer Fredette himself has more fans than the Sacramento Kings or Chicago Bulls. Jimmermania may be back on as The Jimmer recently signed with the Bulls. Fredette received a standing ovation from Bull’s fans as he entered his first game as a Chicago Bull.

The March Madness NCAA tournament is the only time bandwagoning is acceptable. If 15 seeded Florida Gulf Coast just knocked out Georgetown, you can go ahead and cheer for the Eagles, but don’t say you’ve always been a fan. You didn’t even know who they were the week before the tourney.

Although it might be tempting to become a fan of a winning team while your favorite team is struggling, stick with your team! Things will get better and then you can truthfully say “I’ve always been a fan of this team.”