What is a "Blue Blood"?

Who is a Blue Blood?

  • Duke

    Votes: 129 96.3%

  • Kentucky

    Votes: 129 96.3%

  • Kansas

    Votes: 125 93.3%

  • North Carolina

    Votes: 130 97.0%

  • UCLA

    Votes: 67 50.0%

  • Michigan State

    Votes: 24 17.9%

  • UConn

    Votes: 24 17.9%

  • Indiana

    Votes: 41 30.6%

  • Villanova

    Votes: 20 14.9%

  • Louisville

    Votes: 15 11.2%
  • Total voters
    134
CuseJacket

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During the NCAA tournament you hear it thrown around, sometimes liberally and sometimes with a narrow definition. How do you define the term and what teams qualify?

Poll included... pick the teams that you consider "blue bloods". Any teams you would add?
 
travgt01

travgt01

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Duke, UK, KU, UNC, UCLA, and IU are the obvious ones. They have all been really good for a really long time. Even when they have down periods, they bounce back and win big (NC, FF, conf champ). Duke's program success is the youngest of the bunch and have had all of their success with one coach. I'd put Uconn, sparty, nova, louisville, zona, michigan, osu, syracuse, and florida in the tier below them. Then gonzaga, xaiver, cincy, nc state, Wisconsin, maryland. Georgetown and st johns were at one time up there but they have struggled way to much over the past 20 years.
 
ramblinjacket

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travgt01 said:
Duke, UK, KU, UNC, UCLA, and IU are the obvious ones. They have all been really good for a really long time. Even when they have down periods, they bounce back and win big (NC, FF, conf champ). Duke's program success is the youngest of the bunch and have had all of their success with one coach. I'd put Uconn, sparty, nova, louisville, zona, michigan, osu, syracuse, and florida in the tier below them. Then gonzaga, xaiver, cincy, nc state, Wisconsin, maryland. Georgetown and st johns were at one time up there but they have struggled way to much over the past 20 years.
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Duke made 3 FF in the 60's, 1 in the 70's and was the 10th winningest program of all time before Coach K took over. Their success is not that young.

Duke, Kansas, UNC and Kentucky are the obvious 4. UCLA and IU are the next in. If IU had been just a touch more relevant recently they would be a no-brainer to me too.

To me it means historical success, going back decades, that includes multiple championships and a state and school where basketball is king.
 
jeffgt14

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ramblinjacket said:
state and school where basketball is king.
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This is the key to me. Villanova has had a ton of success even dating back to the 80’s but you just don’t think of them as a basketball school.

UConn is another interesting concept. You could make the argument they’ve had more success the past 25 years than any other school on that list outside UNC and they aren’t far behind either but memories are short.
 

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Blood is blue when it lacks oxygen. So to me a Blue Blood is someone who sucks all the NCAA money oxygen out of the room. They are impervious to prosecution by the NCAA and literally march to a different set of rules than everybody else. This should not be confused with the term cold blooded, like a snake. In fact, snake blood is various colors that is non-blue. Although many blue bloods behave like snakes.
 

lv20gt

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IMO if you have to try and justify an answer you aren't a blue blood. Duke, UNC, Kansas, and Kentucky are the blue bloods imo. Of course I probably have a bit of a recency bias against some of the other contenders, namely IU and UCLA
 

RamblinRed

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I picked the first 4 and the last 2.
i like Pea's definition alot.
I'll add a blueblood needs multiple national titles, preferably over multiple generations and at least 1 in the last 10 yrs, 15 at most, or kids simply will have no memory. Also, multiple coaches having a title at a school is a plus.

The first four are pretty obvious.
It is has been so long since IU and UCLA have had Natl titles I sort of knocked them out.
Mich St and UConn are the 2 hardest for me. I'm still going back and forth on Mich St. They have multiple national titles by different coaches but the most recent is 18 years ago.
UConn gets left out by me largely due to them moving down to the American. I think that hurts. If they were still in the BE I would probably change my vote on them.
 

FightWinDrink

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lots of history, accolades, titles. The kind of schools random people know are good at the sport. I look at it like football too where theres blue bloods and new bloods. Teams like UConn and Louisville are like the basketball versions of FSU/UF/Miami success to me
 
okiemon

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FightWinDrink said:
lots of history, accolades, titles. The kind of schools random people know are good at the sport. I look at it like football too where theres blue bloods and new bloods. Teams like UConn and Louisville are like the basketball versions of FSU/UF/Miami success to me
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Not sure ai consider those all as football blue bloods, but that’s another conversation. I get your point, though.


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FightWinDrink

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okiemon said:
Not sure ai consider those all as football blue bloods, but that’s another conversation. I get your point, though.


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Yeah I don't consider them either. I see them as really strong programs in recent history that people commonly know about because of success in the last 30 years or so but they lack the long history that's usually tied to a blue blood. I'd consider the football blue bloods to be teams like Ohio State, Alabama, Michigan, USC, Notre Dame, and Oklahoma. I voted for Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, UNC, UCLA, and IU as my blue bloods here, although I could see why people are pretty iffy on the last 2 as they've kind of faded from contender form.

UConn and Miami though would be my example from both sports that titles isn't what defines a blue blood though.
 
CuseJacket

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Seems this poll has had enough run time to draw some conclusions.

1) Most believe there are 4 blue bloods - Duke, UNC, Kentucky and Kansas

2) Next on the list is UCLA at 46%, followed by Indiana at 32.9%. This suggests that anyone can become a blue blood, or by virtue of mediocrity remove themselves from "blue bloodness".

3) UConn, despite 4 NCAA titles to Indiana's 5, came in last in voting at 7.9%. UConn is also an interesting contrast against Michigan State, who has 2 just titles and comes in at #7 in our poll with 22% of folks believing they are a blue blood. This suggests perhaps some recency bias i.e., UConn is not currently nationally relevant despite winning it all in 2014, or perhaps folks deem the last 20-25 years of dominance as an insufficient period of time.

4) Recency bias only goes so far. Villanova, winners of 2 of the last 3, comes in 9th in our poll with 17% of the vote. Perhaps it is easier to fall from the blue bloods than it is to join them? Curious what folks think it'd take for Duke, UNC, Kentucky or Kansas to fall from the ranks.
 
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