Now that I have your attention, I have a question. Why does the fan base occupying Cockytalk focus so exclusively on your team. Is there a lack of serious interest in WCBB among these fans, so it is exclusively RAH RAH all things SC? They are hardly alone in this among big time women's programs, and attendance figures are more than impressive, but is there any staying power in it about WCBB?
Well, if visiting fans lurked less and posted more (respectfully) that would probably help. We take to most nice visitors well (ask Nuyoika).
You also have to realize you're not dealing with the same kind of fanbase that you'd find here. Within its own fanbase, SC WBB doesn't hold the same proportion of fans that UCONN WBB probably holds in its fanbase. For every 3 UCONN fans 2 are probably UCONN WBB fans. At SC, for every 4 Gamecocks fans, maybe 1 is a WBB fan... and that's because (1) you're dealing with a fanbase that's still warming up to WBB and (2) it's the South, college football is King. I think people fail to understand the grip college football has on the South.. you'll never understand it until you attend an SEC football game and witness the pageantry (and revelry) for yourself. It's not even just about the game. It's an event. It's southern opulence and tradition meets sports.
So how does this relate to your question... CockyTalk is really a football message board. The majority of fans are there to talk football. Football fans are not like basketball fans... basketball fans welcome banter and trash talk, football is territorial and so are the fans. Tread lightly when you step on their turf in the beginning, but if they see that you're not trolling and are just there to talk WBB then most will gladly welcome you. Fanbases grow over time. Eventually you'll see more talk of other programs there but right now.. not really, unless it involves some sort of breaking news.
Also, you have to respect the wishes of the admins... some boards are strictly about Gamecock sports or relative happenings.. "Fowl Sports" is about anything relating gamecock basketball, men or women's. If you post a thread, it can be about another school but the Gamecocks have to factor in somehow or the admins will move it to another board. There are other boards that are more lax but fans seldom use them because there's little need to talk about other schools since we have so few visiting fans that actually post.
I would love for us to talk about other schools more on CockyTalk... that's primarily why I hang out here. To talk WBB.. Not just about SC or UCONN..
y'all have a great thing going here.
