Thursday, October 1, 2026
As the 2026-27 academic year gets under way, it’s a good time to get motivated for the challenges and opportunities ahead, whether you’re a student, a parent or a teacher like me. The next nine to 10 months will be a time of growth, and include the occasional hurdle that will require us to employ old and new knowledge and skills. It would certainly help to be inspired by someone as you take on a new year. Well, how about an entire team?
I have been a professor of sport management for 21 years, 16 as a full-time professor at Farmingdale State College. I am also a huge sports fan. And in that time, not one team I closely follow — the New York Jets, Mets, Knicks and Georgetown University basketball — had won a championship. That is 83 years of futility.
Tack on the years since the Mets won in 1986, that’s another 20 years and another 80 seasons of no championships. That is a lot of losing. In fact, A.I. told me that the odds of none of my teams winning a title in 40 years was extremely low, roughly 0.44 percent. So you can imagine how strange, and great, it feels now, as I approach a new school year with a Knicks title under my belt.
Teaching sports management, I find a lot of motivation in working with students who are going to be the future leaders in this growing industry. But have I felt joy? Not really. To see your favorite teams lose year after year — and my teams seemed to lose a lot of painful games — sapped the joy out of being a fan. I’ve always felt like an outsider in the world of fandom, jealous of others around the country whose teams achieved their ultimate goal. We’re New York fans, for God’s sake. We deserved better!
Well, 2026-27 is shaping up to be very different. The magical playoff ride that started for the Knicks in April and culminated with an NBA championship in June continues on for us fans. At least it does for me. Frankly, though, I’m not sure what that means, or how I should behave at school.
After spending the past few months fist-bumping and high-fiving strangers in the street, in restaurants, on the train and on the subway, do I now continue that in the classrooms and hallways at Farmingdale? Can I keep saying, “Knicks in five!” as I do to my wife, members of my extended family and my best friends — but now to students and fellow professors? I sure hope so.
Turns out that urge is likely very normal. According to Todd Rogers, a professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School who leads the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative, “Fandom is a very communal phenomenon and has the potential to increase the quantity and quality of our relationships.”
All I can say is that I’m hyped. I have an energy now that I realize has been absent for the past 21 years. I know that I’ve always given students my best, but the effort was devoid of the joy that comes with cheering with thousands of other New Yorkers who share the beauty of being a sports fan — connection, camaraderie and community. I don’t ask students who their favorite teams are, but I’m confident that many I’ll interact with this year are Knicks fans, and that they’re hyped as well. And that will make this year unlike any other.
Sarbjit Singh is an associate professor of sports management at Farmingdale State College.
