Every experience is different. I have lived in the metro for 20 years, am an alumni of BC, and even today spend an unhealthy amount of time in the local bars. I have always found the BC following to be laughably bad, even when they field decent teams. Aside from the uconn hate, they suffer from Bu/Nu hate, anti-Catholic hate, Blue collar hate, and casual observer apathy. It is hard to identify with BC unless you are an alumni, and even then you may already have deeper rooted passions developed before school. They have leveraged the media and tie-ins with the Red Sox well, yet they are still invisible to most people. I think OSU probably doubles or triples there active fanbase downtown.