Stereotypes and the Big 12

As WVU is entering its inaugural season in the Big 12 football conference, it will be exposed to a broader audience of football fans as they will be playing teams such as Oklahoma and Baylor. These teams are a huge step up from playing teams such as Pitt and Rutgers in the Big East Conference. With seven home games this season, including five Big 12 Conference games, the Appalachian region continues to receive a vast amount of media attention to cover the football game. Of course, there are lots of inaccurate stereotypes about this region reported on networks such as ESPN because WVU is in Appalachia. Visitors to the region might rethink some of the stereotypes they learned about people in West Virginia to realize that this region is just as unique as any other place in the United States.

With every football game you have the local crowd made up of students and residents of Morgantown and surrounding areas, and then you have the visitors from the opposing school. Since all of WVU’s Big 12 opponents this year are from the Midwest region of the US, they probably have a false misunderstanding that the people of Morgantown are crazed hillbillies who get drunk before games and smash cars and burn couches. That’s not always true. Visitors from other regions can experience pieces of Appalachian culture in Morgantown in different places, such as the many restaurants in the downtown region or by interacting with the locals. A majority of locals are extremely friendly with the tourists and are happy to show them the best places to experience a true part of West Virginia. Because of the friendliness of the locals, the visitors may consider coming back to Morgantown on a non-game day weekend to experience more of Morgantown or might even explore other areas of Appalachia.

With the Appalachian region comes many stereotypes about how people look, dress, and act. Visitors come to this region, whether it is for WVU or not and sometimes has an experience completely opposite of what they expected. Many of the common stereotypes about the Appalachian region are:

·         Everyone is poor and lives in run down cabins

·         All men are coal miners

·         Nobody wears shoes

·         The only music that is played is bluegrass with fiddles and banjos

·         The main beverage is Mountain Dew

·         Everybody is illiterate and doesn’t receive a basic education

If there’s one thing that ties WVU’s roots to Appalachia during a football game, it is the Pride of West Virginia’s pregame show.  The band runs through the tunnels of the stadium and plays songs such as “Hail West!” and “Fight Mountaineers,” but then the show turns to “Country Roads” and “Simple Gifts,” two songs that have deep ties to the Appalachian region. Most people in the country know these songs and easily connect them to West Virginia, including the Big 12 conference members. For any visitor attending a WVU football game, the Pride grabs the attention of everyone in the stadium for their superior sound and powerful appearance. After hearing the Pride for the first time, anyone who thought West Virginians couldn’t play quality music will rethink the stereotypes they previously had about the region.

As football season begins, the teams of the Big 12 and their fans attending games in Morgantown will be astounded by how little they know about who Appalachians are and how they have a good time at a game. With the new conference will come many challenges, but fans of WVU will always remain loyal to their team in a festive manner and will always welcome visitors to the area who are experiencing the Appalachian culture for the first time.

                                                                                                         

                       -C