The most annoying college sports traditions
One school’s beloved pastime might annoy the heck out of everyone else. Here are 21 school traditions that other college sports fans find loathsome, obnoxious or just plain dumb.
Big heads (San Diego State)
San Diego State’s rabid cheering section The Show has been credited with coming up with the idea of using oversized cutouts of heads to distract opponents; a group member printed up a big Michael Jackson head during the 2002-03 season. Ever since, sports fans across college and pro sports have copied this, going bigger and more bizarre with their “big head” signs by choosing random celebrities, fictional characters or even portraying the athletes themselves. Regardless, the signs have become so commonplace that they’re more of a distraction to fellow fans trying to watch the game than the players.
The Tomahawk Chop (Florida State)
Even Florida State isn't sure about its “Tomahawk Chop” and war chant, later adopted by the Atlanta Braves and the Kansas City Chiefs. FSU claims to have invented the chant and hand motion, though the university itself isn’t proud of it. Former FSU President Dale Lick wrote in a 1993 column for USA Today: "Some traditions we cannot control.” The chant itself is droning and incessant while the hand motion is an offensive stereotype.
Curtain of Distraction (Arizona State)
Since it debuted in 2014, the Curtain of Distraction has helped the Sun Devils’ student section, the 942 Crew, be mathematically proven as the most distracting student section in college basketball. The curtain remains closed until a rival player winds up to shoot a free throw. It’s then pulled back to reveal anything from an Elvis impersonator to a shark attack to Olympian Michael Phelps in his Speedo. It’s hysterical to watch — unless you’re the team they’re playing.
Calling the hogs (Arkansas)
One of the most irritating cheers in college sports is University of Arkansas fans Calling the Hogs. This might be because the tradition of chanting “wooo pig sooie” isn’t confined to stadiums, but can be heard anywhere fans congregate, from airports to Disney World. Razorback fans love the call so much, it’s an additional skill you can download for the Amazon Alexa personal assistant.
Cameron Crazies (Duke)
Duke’s men’s basketball student section earned its nickname by being one of the most intense in college sports. The organized annoying they do of visiting players includes insulting chants that are coordinated on cheer sheets, “hexing” players who foul out and getting close enough to touch players who are inbounding the ball. Though they’ve mellowed out a bit in recent years thank to intervention from the university and coach Mike Krzyzewski, they remain one of the most irritating fan bases in college sports and contribute to why many people love to hate Duke.
Couch burning (West Virginia)
While not at all an official or university-encouraged activity, couch burning has become a shameful defacto tradition at West Virginia. So much so that the university has produced PSAs to discourage it, and the city of Morgantown, where the school is located, banned outdoor upholstered furniture and upped the penalty for couch burning from a misdemeanor with a fine to a felony with jail time. According to the city manager in 2015, there had been 3,000 street fires in Morgantown in the prior decade.
OH-IO (Ohio State)
Congratulations, Ohio State. Your fans can spell your four-letter state name. Fans certainly get plenty of practice since spelling “Ohio” seems to be Ohio State’s main schtick, from fans chanting it and spelling it with their arms to the marching band spelling it out in “Script Ohio” at halftime. Every season. Since 1938. OK. We get it.
Throwing tortillas (Texas Tech)
Plenty of fans have thrown items like cans and trash onto the football field to voice their displeasure at a game’s outcome. Northwestern students in the ‘80s were so discouraged by on-field action that they begin staging marshmallow fights to make game day more fun. But Texas Tech Red Raiders fans stand alone in their unique food tradition. They throw tortillas at kickoff, despite outside food not being allowed at the stadium. According to lore, in 1992 an ESPN announcer said that there was "nothing but Tech football and a tortilla factory in Lubbock." The actual story is probably that the practice evolved from throwing soda lids. But ever since, rabid fans have thrown tortillas at football and some basketball games, though landing them on the playing field incurs a penalty. Visiting fans have to make sure to guard themselves against an errant projectile tortilla.
The pink visitors locker room (Iowa)
This college football tradition affects visiting players and not fans. In 1979, former Iowa coach Hayden Fry had the walls of the visitors locker room at Kinnick Stadium painted pink. When the stadium was updated in 2005, the pink was carried over to the carpets, lockers, toilets and showers. Fry’s logic was that pink psychologically has a calming effect on people, so they'll have a harder time getting pumped up for games. While it didn’t bother some, other coaches such as Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler saw red in that room. He reportedly hated it so much that he put paper on the walls to cover the color.
Barking (Georgia)
The majority of college sports fans leave the animal noises to the sound system, with one notable exception being University of Georgia fans. A tradition that needs to retire is Bulldog Nation barking at opposing fans. It’s cute when it’s done by a kid, but a grown man barking in someone’s face comes off as manic. The only one who should be barking at a Georgia game is Uga, the bulldog mascot.
The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (Stanford)
The Stanford University marching band isn’t like other bands. According to NPR, they’re “the only university marching band to be repeatedly fined and banned by the NCAA” as well as booed off the field and suspended by their own school. Their polarizing, provocative on-field routines are meant to be humorous but sometimes cross the line to offensive and even interfere with the game. Many non-Cardinal fans find their “jokes” and wacky uniforms to be insufferable.
Smurf Turf (Boise State)
What is the deal with Boise State’s iconic, annoying Smurf Turf? Also given such titles as “The Blue Plastic Tundra,” the blue turf was installed in 1986 and became the first and most notorious non-green stadium surface. This unique home-field advantage is hard on the eyes for fans and players, especially when the Broncos wear all-blue uniforms.
Boomer Sooner (Oklahoma)
To rival fans in the stands, it can feel like “Boomer Sooner” is the only song the University of Oklahoma band knows how to play. In fact, in the 2018 Rose Bowl game against Georgia, the band played it for almost every play, even after the Sooners lost the lead. A failed OU third down conversation? Time for “Boomer Sooner!” According to Reddit, the band played it 84 times in total in that single game. Afterward, USC’s marching band, the Spirit of Troy, which is infamous for overplaying its school fight song, tweeted “Mad respect for that level of annoyingness.” The band’s official count was 1,104 times during the 2017 season. No wonder other fans are peeved.
Duck noise makers (Oregon)
The 2010 World Cup had vuvuzelas, which led to them being banned four years later in Rio for the Olympics. The Oregon Ducks had duck bill noisemakers, known as Duck Lips, which became barred by the Pac-12 in 2011. There was officially a league-wide policy on artificial noisemakers, though only Oregon’s quacking kazoos got the boot.
‘What is your profession?’ (Michigan State)
It seems only natural that the Michigan State Spartans would pilfer something from the 2006 movie “300” since it’s about the Spartans. Except that the Spartans lost the Battle of Thermopylae. Miserably. And the “Spartans” in that battle were mostly Greeks. These facts don’t stop Michigan State from playing the clip on the Jumbotron and grunting a response to the question posed by Gerard Butler’s King Leonidas. Butler himself even visited the school for Midnight Madness and the homecoming football game in 2010, which further ingrained this tradition.
Cowbells (Mississippi State)
Need more cowbell? No! Cowbells might be a beloved tradition by the Mississippi State Bulldogs dating back to the 1930s, but these instruments were considered so aggravating that they were sidelined by the SEC from 1974 until 2010. That year, Mississippi State’s famed cowbells were allowed back into football stadiums provided Bulldog fans only ring them during timeouts.
Turkey gobbling (Virginia Tech)
Virginia Tech’s annoying tradition isn’t a chant or cheer but rather a sound effect played throughout the football stadium. Plenty of stadiums use effects like the noise of their animal mascot, but barks or growls don’t make you clap your hands over your ears quite like the cry of the HokieBird, which is basically a turkey that evolved from the school’s former nickname, the Gobblers. If it’s not blasting for the scoreboard speakers, you might hear the turkey call emanating from a fan’s noisemaker. Basically, the gobble is inescapable.
Toast Toss (Pennsylvania)
The true champions of throwing food on the field are students at the University of Pennsylvania. Between the third and fourth quarters of a football game, UPenn students sing “Drink a Highball,” which includes the line: “Here’s a toast to dear old Penn.” Since no alcohol is allowed at the stadium, students improvise, throwing more than 20,000 pieces of toast as well as bagels, muffins and other baked goods down onto the track around the field. According to the Penn Currant, a modified turf cleaner called the “toast zamboni” picks up the food at the end of the day. The tradition has faced criticism for being a waste of money and food, though the school supports hunger-related charities to counteract the cost.
‘Rocky Top’ (Tennessee)
Many discussions on fan forums are dedicated to college football fans’ distaste for “Rocky Top,” the unofficial fight song of the University of Tennessee. This distaste seems to stem from the fact that it’s simple and catchy as well as the sheer amount of times the band plays it. The Volunteers’ marching band, the Pride of the Southland Band, played the song 438 times during the 2016 season, according to the Tennessean. That’s an average of about 34 renditions of "Rocky Top" per game day. This has been described by Bleacher Report as “psychological warfare” in the form of a song.
Rolling Toomer’s Corner (Auburn)
This college sports tradition is more annoying to the Auburn groundskeepers than to anyone else, though it’s also a frustrating sight to see for rival fans. Starting in 1896, people started tossing ticker tape over the telegraph wires at the spot nicknamed Toomer’s Corner after big road victories. It later evolved to throwing toilet paper around the corner’s oak trees. The long-standing tradition ticked off one bitter Alabama fan after Auburn topped the Crimson Tide. He poisoned and killed the original oak trees in 2010 and was sentenced to three years in prison for the damage, but the Tigers were resilient and continued the tradition.
Rammer Jammer (Alabama)
Part of what makes this song so annoying is that it gets played quite a lot since Alabama is perennially good at football. What really make it get under the skin of the Crimson Tide’s opponents are the lyrics: “We just beat the hell out of you.” These taunting words get directed as an opposing team mere seconds after their defeat, whether by 50 points or by 1. And the lyrics allow students and fans to relish the other team’s defeat rather than celebrating their victory, which is why so many college football fans find it distasteful.
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