College football fans: A question

[Tommy_Carcetti]

I was hoping for some input as to a question I had about a certain type of college football fan. Maybe someone can enlighten me in these regards.

I was wondering what is the rationale of a fan of a college team who:

a. Is not a student at the college whose team he/she is rooting for;
b. Is not an alumnus of the college whose team he/she is rooting for;
c. Does not have a close family member who is a student or alumnus of the college whose team he/she is rooting for; and
d. Does not live--nor has ever lived--in close proximity to the college whose team he/she is rooting for.

I've come across these fans and I just don't understand them. Myself, I'm more of a pro football fan. This is in great part due to the fact that I went to one Stetson University, who hasn't fielded a football team in over four decades, and even when it did have a football team, it wasn't very good. I'll follow the University of Maryland lightly, since I grew up in Maryland and they actually paid my dad's paycheck, but their football performance has always been spotty at best. Living in Florida now, I just look at the intra-state rivalries (UF, FSU, UMiami) with a sense of detached amusement more than anything else.

And unlike the pros, rooting for a college rarely is attributed to rooting for the players on the team, as most notable college football players have about two years to shine and then they are gone.

But I'll ever so often come across some guy (for example) who lives in Arizona but is a die-hard Michigan fan, even though he's not a Michigan student or graduate and has no attachments to Michigan.

Maybe I can try to understand the psyche of these fans. Right now it just seems a little foriegn to me.