Well, I actually was living down in Nashville for a few years before I came up to ND. I guess I moved away before ND became *the* national story, when I imagine I'd hear a lot of crap down there, but I do know a big Tennessee fan who was also a big ND fan (took the ND shirt off his back to give as a present at my going-away party). Knew some Bama and Auburn fans who, generally, just never mentioned ND. (Though most of my other friends down there were, coincidentally, from around the Elkhart-Mishawaka-Fort Wayne areas and were all Irish fans.)
As for Buckeye fans, I'm not so sure. My opinion, especially now, was to root for the northern (Big Ten) schools (save one), especially in bowl games against the SEC - enemy of my enemy is my friend, etc. I'm pretty sure there is a sizable chunk of those sorts. It was easy to transition in that way from OSU to ND, mainly because of a shared hatred of Michigan. Kept me from transferring there last year, against common sense probably....