It's just an extension of Southern regionalism. I don't really feel that way for the most part. Other SEC teams losing could give my team a bump in a particular recruiting battle or something like that. Has nothing to do with the South. Might be prevalent there too but folks in the Midwest love the big ten. My older family are all Iowa fans but they pull for all big ten teams. Same with many of my friends and several posters here have expressed this sentiment. It's true, this is Big Ten country and most fans of Big Ten schools feel a bond with the other schools, even the ones we hate. Not sure how that will change with Maryland and Rutgers through. However, I don't root for Ohio State or Michigan State under any circumstances. I do kind of pull for Northwestern and Illinois except when they play Michigan, and the other Big Ten schools I'll root for under certain circumstances (like the NCAA Tourney if they haven't particularly annoyed me during conference play)