(This was written in full by pat. and posted by tbone)
Michigan and Michigan State begin the 2012 football season with two of the highest profile games in the country as Michigan squares off with Alabama in Dallas and the Spartans take on Boise State in a Friday night affair.
Tbone and I will be certainly be rooting for our respective Alma Maters, but what about rooting for our rival?
Blasphemy to some fans, but I think the discussion here is an interesting one.
When conference season rolls around, because they are in the same division, MSU and UofM benefit when their in-state rivals suffers a loss. Rooting against MSU simply makes sense for the Michigan fan in this scenario. The season opener, however, is a non-conference game which changes the dynamic. Michigan does not directly benefit from an MSU loss to Boise State. The only benefit I can see is the ability to take a little joy in a loss by a rival. Is that sufficient reason to actively root against a fellow conference team?
I will admit that rooting for MSU to win has gotten more difficult the past 4 years. When Michigan was routinely winning against their in-state rival it didn't matter much what MSU did outside of the Michigan game and it also helped this feeling that they were never really in contention competing against Michigan for a spot in a bowl game or for a Big Ten championship.
With MSU's improvement, that has all changed and it is certainly more difficult to pull for them. I think I actively rooted for Michigan State in only one contest last season, the bowl game against Georgia. I am on board with the consensus that the SEC is the best conference in college football (they have proven it on the field) but I believe the gap is much smaller than most make it seem. I will root for 11 of the 12 Big Ten schools in any matchup with the SEC and almost all Big Ten schools during the non-conference season. I like seeing the profile of the conference go up and I would love for the Big Ten to make a return to being the best conference in the country.
As it concerns the opener, I don't have a whole lot against Boise St other than believing they are regularly overrated because they don't play a tough schedule week in and week out. I probably won't care much either way to what happens in MSU's opener but I would rather see them win to elevate the perception of the Big Ten.
How about you, MSU fans, will you root for Michigan against the SEC evil that is Alabama?
My one caveat about all this...I do find it hard to root for OSU in almost any situation. I just dislike them so much I want to see nothing but sadness and despair for their fans. I may root for them in some specific case against an SEC school but it's not guaranteed.
Is that the way Michigan State fans view Michigan?
