How Others See UK and U of L

A UConn fan with a blog has put together a quite good post in which he describes each of the Big East fan bases in terms of characters from The Simpsons. I enjoyed reading it. But I wanted to take exception to this statement about our friends who root for the University of Louisville, who he compares to Bart's friend Milhouse:

We have to talk Louisville fans, because despite having you around for several years now, I feel like we've never connected. You see, you've got a lot to offer -- great history, wonderful fanbase, a good coach -- but you're consumed by a preoccupation. Milhouse has his moments of glory, but it's always tainted by his barely suppressed anger that no matter how hard he tries, he's never going to get what he wants, because he's never going to be Bart. And Louisville fans, I hate to say it, but you're never going to be Kentucky. And now I'm going to go into hiding because I'm pretty sure some Louisville fans are going to try and kill me.

Now I can see why UConn fans would think that U of L wants to be Kentucky. But as I see it, this is almost the opposite of the truth. I think U of L fans see themselves as an outpost of urban cool in the midst of a vast rural wasteland. For the U of L fan base, it is always 1972 -- and they are the cool new urban kids taking on the old crackers who supported Adolph Rupp. Follow any thread on any U of L message board where people are talking about UK, and at some point the words "redneck," "cracker," or "racist" are likely to arise. So it's not true that U of L fans want to be UK; if anything, UK is the opposite of what U of L wants to be. Cardinal fans want the rest of the nation to appreciate how cool and urban and hip they are -- they want to be like Georgetown or UConn -- not like UK.

What's sad -- and what must be frustrating to U of L fans -- is that people from the East Coast, like UConn fans, can't see any difference between Louisville and the rest of Kentucky. These urban/rural distinctions that mean so much inside the Commonwealth seem trivial to people whose idea of a cool urban setting is Greenwich Village, not Fourth Street.