Should I root for the enemy?

[MrIrishCanadian1]

I'm a young Irish fan--in that I've only followed the Irish for a couple of years. And now I'm paying more attention to how our opponents are doing in their games against other teams. But I feel torn: should I root for our opponents, hoping that they'll win their matchup (assuming they're not playing us), or should I root against them?

I'm watching the Miami vs Kansas State game right now. And seeing Miami losing by a substantial amount, I can't help but think 'YES! TAKE THAT MIAMI, YOU SUCK!!' and grin in glee. But then I'm not sure that that's the attitude I should have.

Should I root for Miami? Should I be hoping that they start to overtake Kansas State? It seems like I should in fact. The reason being this:
(1) If we end up beating Miami when we play against them, I want to be able to say we beat a good team. Or, at least, the more wins Miami has on their schedule, the better we look for beating them.
(2) If we end up losing to Miami, I want to be able to say that we lost to a good team. Or, at least, the more wins Miami has on their schedule, the less humiliating it is for us that we lost to them.

So, it seems that whether we end up winning or losing to Miami, I will want Miami to have beat Kansas State.

Conclusion: since this argument generalizes, I should root for the enemy.

Is this the right way to think? But, then again, it gives me more peace of mind before the matchup with one of our opponents knowing that they have performed poorly...

 

[PraetorianND]

Best thing to do is not watch, check the box score, read the articles describing strengths and weaknesses.

 

[NDinFL]

Do not root for your enemies.

Root for their complete destruction.

 

[jakerbluegold]

I root for most of them, except for Michigan and USC. I like our strength of schedule to be good when we beat the living snot out of them down the road.

 

[PraetorianND]

I root for most of them, except for Michigan and USC. I like our strength of schedule to be good when we beat the living snot out of them down the road.

I hate USC. It seems like every day they do something more scummy than before. I honestly can't understand how they are still allowed to compete in football. They have zero ethics at that program.

 

[Redbar]

I have to hold my nose to post this but, ultimately if all of our opponents had one loss(us!), there could be no question who was the best team. I guess if you can be that calculating and Machiavellian it pays to pull for your opponents. Alas, I was never really good at calculations and I am not an oak, and I love it when scUM and U$C get their sh!t pushed.

 

[Old Man Mike]

I wouldn't say the operative word is "root". Any ND fan should be happy when one of our opponents wins on days not playing us, as beating them enhances our prestige. The only exceptions to this commonsense rule would be when that team is a serious recruiting rival, and laying some number of losses on them redounds to our positive recruiting position.

I believe that "rooting" really involves some degree of affection, which I rarely have for our scheduled opponents [Navy used to be an exception, but since I've decided that they are a dirty team, even that has gone].

 

[elboricua]

Here's the thing. Strength of schedule doesn't matter much. Wins do and ability to get backups experience against lesser teams also matters. ND is always going to play good schedules. But right now especially before the 4 team playoff goes into effect, it doesn't matter much.

If ND is in the top 14(I think) they will get selected for a BCS game. If ND wins a lot of games, they will tell recruits they won a lot of games. other schools will not be able to use the negative recruiting tactic that has been the most successful against them over the last 2 decades which is that they aren't winning. No one cared that Michigan played 2 good teams last year. Didn't matter. They went to the BCS because of their fan support. Same thing with ND.

 

[ulukinatme]

I root for most of them, except for Michigan and USC. I like our strength of schedule to be good when we beat the living snot out of them down the road.

This. Our opponents can all go undefeated until they meet us, for all I care, but if USC was 0-11 before we played them in Southern Cal, I'd be happy...unless we lost. Same with Michigan.