Teams you love to hate but will occasionally root for

by F-Bomb

From time to time the average college football will fill his day with other games while waiting for their game to come on. So when we sit down to watch a rivalry game like that of Michigan and Michigan State, we must pick someone to root for, but who? I say to this we must root for MSU. Despite the fact that ND has suffered at the hands of MSU a ton over the past several years, we must pull for them. This all stems from the history of MSU and Michigan. Basically Michigan tried to blacklist MSU from joining the Big Ten conference prior to 1950. Often Michigan looks at MSU as the bastard step child while U of M is the prim and proper heir to the throne of everything. So rooting for MSU is rooting for the underdog everywhere. It’s the same as rooting for Rocky or Rudy. So once again we find ourselves rooting for those we hate.

This occurs with other Notre Dame opponents as well.

When you see the famed winged helmets of Michigan hatred brews from deep within.

Being Notre Dame Alums, we hate Michigan like no other team on our schedule. We can all point to one game or another over the years where Michigan has just killed ND in terms of score or their spirit. However lately I have found myself rooting for the Maize and Blue. This is blasphemous for sure but it’s the lesser of two evils when they play those Scarlet and Gray wearing Hellions from Columbus. So here we are, as the title of the article suggests, rooting for a team we love to hate.

You can even root for Purdue but that is solely out of pity for them.

Now, from year to year the balance may swing from one team to the other. These choices for teams to root for are not concrete. Years when Ohio St. is down and Michigan is up then we switch but I really dislike OSU.

You may ask yourself if it’s ever alright to root for USC or Ohio State and the short answer to that is as long as they are winning this much, then NO.

So in the end its alright to root for ND opponents.