Whether one is a fan of a particular team was not the point. I took exception to what I perceived as painting the entire Patriots' fanbase broadly as the only one who might be fair-weather front runners and only since 2001. ALL fans care about winning and, unless there is some other attachment (Alma mater, for example), most factor winning as a large part for which teams to follow. Particularly true for pro teams, but college as well. My response was to illustrate that the current fanbase largely started to take notice nearly a decade prior to the 2001-'02 season.
UConn is also an example for this. They were fairly decent and Rentschler was near or at capacity for the better part of a decade after it first opened. Attendance and their following started to crater under Pasqualoni and since about 2014 for the most part, only the most ardent were in the parking lot on most gamedays and some of those wouldn't even bother going into the stadium either. Same with the basketball team. Attendance wasn't as robust during Ollie's later years as it was pre-2013. I don't think all of that apathy can be attributed to the conference.
At the end of the day, sports is entertainment and winning sure is more enjoyable than losing. What's the point in watching if one is not enjoying oneself?
Be all that as it may, win or lose today, I hopefully Mora can sustain what he's begun to build this year.
