Until a couple years ago, I didn’t even realize Butler University was in Indiana. I knew it was somewhere in the East, but didn’t know where. Boston? Nashville? It was like Drexel, Murray State, Siena, Xavier, Robert Morris, and Radford. I had no idea where it was located, and no reason to care.

Now, suddenly, I have another Indiana college for which I’m obligated to root. But don’t we Hoosiers have enough already? We’ve got IU, Purdue, Notre Dame, Indiana State, and Ball State, plus a slew of small Christian colleges. That’s plenty to cheer for. But now I have to add Butler. And it’s really not a choice, since they did so well. Butler now joins IU and ISU as teams that made it to the NCAA Championship game. In Indiana, that’s a big deal.

But look at Michigan. They’ve got 10 million people, Indiana has 6.5 million. But when you think of colleges, only two come to mind–Michigan University, and Michigan State. Everyone in Michigan can be divided into two groups–MU fans and MSU fans. That makes it easy. Someday, those two groups will engage in a bloody civil war. It’s inevitable.

Or think of Arizona, which has a slightly larger population than Indiana. They’ve got Arizona State and the University of Arizona. That’s about it. Throw in Northern Arizona University if you want. Still easy to keep track of. Of course, there’s the ubiquitous University of Phoenix, but it doesn’t really count in my book, because it mostly exists in cyberspace.

But, I’ll squeeze Butler into my fanosphere. They earned it.