I'm For Team Humanity

I went to a college gymnastic meet recently (for the first time) and remembered the world of sports all too well after being out of them for so long.
Back-story: I never really watched a lot of sports growing up, and only participated in church sports. After becoming a mother at age 21, I became more a fan of people in general, rather than siding with teams. Over the last 15 years, I've helped women through labor and taught childbirth classes, done mentoring, music writing, homeschooling, and am a huge advocate of natural medicine and good nutrition.
So, upon entering the gymnastics competition, the first thing I noticed was all the people. Oh, the crowds.
The second thing I noticed was all the paraphernalia - the sweatshirts, concessions, posters, the fan fingers, etc...
The third thing I noticed was the announcer.
Next was all the noise - the cheering especially.
It took at least 20 minutes for us to find a seat... And then we started really noticing and appreciating the competitors. I cheered when someone did well and noticed that sometimes not everyone was cheering with me.
In all reality, I didn't know what type of gymnastics competition this was going to be before coming- professional is all I was told...
So then I realized that it was a state university against a different state's university... and that the times that I was cheering and no one else was, were the times the non-home university was showing their skill.
I had been out of the sports arena for so long (besides a couple of kids sports one year - and INTO the compassionate and humanity world for all that time that I thought it was so rude for only the people that came to support the other state (which were only a handful) to be cheering for that team.
I started to wonder why no one would cheer for them even when they did good. Why, when someone does a good job, is it not popular to cheer for them? Because they aren't on the team of your favorite university?
I knew and remembered what the answer was... Pride. School pride. "But school pride is good isn't it?" Well, maybe not always.
I am not going to try to change the world on this issue here by extensively explaining why this is just not humane or fair...
I will say, though, that I am on team humanity... and that when someone does a good job, I'm going to cheer for them no matter what team they are on...