Bumped from the Diaries. Regular visitor USCLink has his thought on whom to root for and why. Good Read Link!- Paragon SC

For me, College football has always been about rooting for someone.  Whether its Army vs Navy, ND vs Anybody, or Boise State against Georgia, I always have a favorite.

Most people do.  Its how we work.  Whats interesting to me is how different some people's rooting styles are.

Another thing worth noting is how the BCS has changed how people root.  Although its usually impossible to root for your archrival, when there are 5 undefeated teams and 'SC's SoS isn't measuring up for some reason, you are torn in different ways.

Here's my personal rooting philosophy, set up in a 3 Laws, I Robot sort of way:

1. Always root for 'SC, and what is best for 'SC.
   
2. Prior to the Rose Bowl, Always root for Texas. (parents were alum, entire family went to Texas...now I want them to win out their season putting them on a 33 game win streak in the BCS championship game, where they play against, and get dominated by us...it may be spiteful, but its kind of poetic too, but I digress)
   
3. If not in violation of 1, Root for the pac-10.
   

4a. If not in violation of 1, Root against Notre Dame and fUCLA.
4b. If Either ND or fUCLA are undefeated, root FOR them until they play us.

5. If ND or fUCLA are going to lose, I want them to lose BIG.
   
5. Root against the SEC.
   
6. If 1-5 are not applicable, just root for a good game.
   
7. If I can't figure out something from the above, GO UNDERDOGS!!!

Those are my five tenets, in the order in which I value them...#2 is in limbo, but as soon as Texas loses, I'll have more perspective on that.  The "Sooner" the better.

This means that I was rooting FOR the bRuins in that ugly because they were undefeated going in.  However, since they lost in very entertaining and VERY big fashion against Arizona, I was more or less satisfied.

It made the thrashing at the colliseum a bit less important as fUCLA lost their BCS hopes here...Reggie is still beautiful though

As a result that makes for some very interesting choices in intersectional matchups.  PB over at BON has a list of the different intersectional matchups in week 1, 2, and 3.

Week 1 and 3 for example, have these games listed:
Cal vs. Tennessee
Florida State vs. Miami
ND vs. Georgia Tech
Washington State vs. Auburn

LSU vs. Auburn
Florida vs. Tennessee
Michigan vs. ND
Clemson vs. Florida State

So, according to my criteria, I'm pulling for Cal over Tenn, GT vs. ND is a wash b/c of rule 4/6, Wazzu over Auburn (especially this one...I arbitarily have chosen to dislike Auburn), and I'm apathetic regarding FSU or Miami, so Rule 7 applies.

You still play offense...now go all Spurrier on the SEC ok?

In week 3, I'm pulling for LSU over Auburn in a sloppy game that makes both teams look bad as per rule 5, and Florida over Tennessee, b/c Urban Meyer is bringing his spread offense into the SEC, so he doesn't count as an SEC coach yet in my mind.  If ND beats GT, then i'm pulling for ND.  If GT beats ND, Michigan's got my vote.

Its odd, and inexplicable, but its the way I root for teams.  I want us to look as good as possible, which is really driven home by the teams we play doing well.  I was rooting for ASU over Rutgers, Cal over BYU, Northwestern over fUCLA, tOSU over ND, and Oregon over Oklahoma.

Having someone or something to root for makes every game more interesting.  Who's got your pick?