I've grown up around college football. I've been going to the University of Miami football games practically since I was born, and I've fallen in love with the game for a million reasons. However, as I've gotten older, I've noticed small things about the atmosphere that surrounds my favorite sport and have come to understand the subtle sexism within it.

When I tell people, especially guys, that I like college football, I am expected to prove to them that I actually like it. I am interrogated. Who's my favorite team? What was their record last season? Who is their coach? Who's my favorite player? What's his life story? If my answer to one of these questions isn't satisfactory, I'm laughed at, and my passion for the sport is suddenly nonexistent in their eyes. If a guy says he likes college football, on the other hand, he's not expected to prove anything. He's believed. He's asked, nicely, what team he roots for, and a general conversation follows.

When I say I like college football, it's automatically assumed that I'm in it for the vibes. I'm in it for the hype and the spirit of the crowd. I'm at the game to take pictures with my friends and look cute as I cheer for plays that I don't understand. Yes, I enjoy all of that, but I also love the game itself. I love the strategy. I love looking for open receivers and sitting at the edge of my seat waiting to see if the pass is complete and if we're getting the first down. I love yelling at refs when I can see a penalty and they can't, and I love pretending that I could play better than the actual players while knowing there's no possible way I could ever. And yes, of course, I love cheering over a touchdown.

At games, guys just can't help but mansplain every play, every call, and every flag to me. I could be in the middle of explaining a rule to someone, and some guy will decide he needs to explain that same rule to me. It's assumed that I don't know what I'm talking about because I am a girl, and men love telling me that in the tone you'd use to talk to a kindergartener. No guy has ever assumed that I actually know the rules of the game I love.

Also at games, there's an expectation to celebrate with the strangers surrounding you. After a good play, you high-five them as if they're your best friend. After a touchdown, you may even hug them like you've known them all your life. I've only recently realized that I'm not included in these stranger-turned-friends bonding moments. Guys high-five guys, but when there's a girl around, they either fail to acknowledge our existence altogether or look at us, consider it, and think better of it. It's like we're just something on the bleachers, not an actual fan.

I love college football, and I mean I really, truly love it. I love the atmosphere. I love the game. I love the memories I have with my family and the friends who feel like family at tailgates and in stadiums all over the country. Being a girl doesn't change the fact that I genuinely love the sport, and my love for it isn't something to be celebrated as setting me apart and making me "not like the other girls". It's just something I've grown up with and that is a part of me.

What I don't love about college football is the subtle sexism that exists in it.