mogrits on 
AParker on 
Willy Mac on A buddy of mine and I recently got into a heated debate the other day. The argument?
“If Clemson isn’t playing South Carolina, should you pull for them?”
One of his main bullet points is that it makes Clemson look better if we beat a team with more wins at the end of the year. He stated that it’d be best if we were to beat the best Carolina team we could. Everything comes into play at that point. Rankings, bowl selection, bragging rights, the ramifications of us ruining the end of their year yet again grow larger… I can see where’s he’s coming from too. Now that they’re decent year in and year out, it’s a higher stakes game. The game is not just to decide whether or not they stay home for the holidays anymore. The end-of-season showdown now determines how good of a bowl game each one of us will get into. Face it, more likely than not neither one of our teams is going to their respective championship game year in and year out.
One of his other points was that it makes not only the state of South Carolina look better in terms of football prowess and talent, but it makes the south in general look better than all the other regions. I agreed with him on his first point, but this point kind of turned me off of his argument. I don’t care what any other team in another conference does. If it’s not the ACC, I don’t care what region a team is from. Also, I want to be the best team in this state. Not only that, but I’d like for Clemson to be consistently heads above the rest in this state. Our only competition on that category comes solely from the Gamecocks. I think the ACC being a conference that’s not exclusive to the southern territories weighs in on my mindset here. If an ACC team is playing an out-of-conference opponent, it’s my feelings that I want our guys to win so it makes Clemson and our conference look better. Likewise, I’d like for the rest of our OOC opponents to win the games on their schedules as well so it makes us look better.
But when it comes to South Carolina I feel that you cannot root for them, lest you betray your Clemson fandom. Now, we’re getting picky here and it’s obviously a slow day around the office but bear with me. We have a deep-seeded and intense rivalry that I can’t just put on a shelf for three hours a week when the leaves start turning colors. If you ask the same question to an Alabama or Auburn fan, you’re not going to get the response that they put their rivalry on hold. I’m not saying I want our fan base to emulate another group of fans… we do that enough as it is. I usually take a step out of character here and say that life is too short to worry about trivial things like this. However, the man with the keyboard says that life is too short and that’s exactly why you should have principles like strictly not rooting for a rival team. You should take things like this seriously because you’re only here for so long.
My dad had a saying, “If the Russians were playing the Gamecocks in a game of tiddlywinks… I’m rooting for the Rooskies.” There is a ringing of truth that follows that statement in some maniacal kind of way. I guess you could call my approach “waging total war.” It’s one culture against another. It’s how the greatest wars in history were decided… why not apply the same theory (sans horrific killing… or not… it’s your decision ultimately) to a game played by kids? Sign me up. How about you? Comments? Thoughts?
When not playing Clemson, should a Tiger fan root for South Carolina to win?
- No (88%, 176 Votes)
- Yes (12%, 24 Votes)
Total Voters: 200
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1dsmarsh
on Sep 25, 2009 at 4:09 pm:
Clemson>”Who I bet on”>ACC>Sakerlina>”The Southeast”>”The Rest”
My own personal feelings on who to pick in any game.
2TigerSACK
on Sep 25, 2009 at 4:09 pm:
When Carolina plays Georgia I root for a terrorist attack on the field of play. Why the hell should I root for them it doesn’t help them win or lose. Hell, I pull for Clemson until I’m blue in the face and then root more and we still are 8-4, 9-3. I honestly could care less about any other team. I don’t care if it’s ACC teams against other conferences. If Clemson wins the rest will take care of itself.
3edbo
on Sep 25, 2009 at 4:15 pm:
I’m going to be in the minority here, but I do want them to win. Notice the word want. I do NOT watch their games actively pulling for them(except when they played OSU twice in the Citrus Bowl). I just want them to be good when we beat their ass. I fully realize that 90% of Clemson fans want Sakerlina to get their asses handed to them on a weekly basis, and I respect that. Pretty much everyone in my family is like that, and our debates, arguments, fights run constantly. I can see their side of the argument, but I have never, ever, fucking EVER had my brother, father, mother, or daughter say anything but “Fuck that!! I hope the motherfuckers get killed”! I lied about my daughter. She’s only eight, and she doesn’t put it into those words yet. I’m pretty sure she will when she’s in high school. Her mothers been known to say it.
Anyway, IMO it’s better to beat them when they’re good, which is next to never. But I’m still hoping…
4CUvinny
on Sep 25, 2009 at 4:29 pm:
I don’t outright root against them but I’ll just say I’m not upset when they lose
5Joe
on Sep 25, 2009 at 4:31 pm:
There is no option for hell no. So I had to manage with just “no”. I want Carolina to go 0-however many games they go. I’m sorry but its the fans fault. They can not handle winning a good game. All day at work I had Carolina fans talking shit, asking “WHEN HAS CLEMPSUCK EVER BEAT A TOP 5 TEAM?” Also how they talk shit because they are in the SEC. I have a lot of hatred for that town/school/fan system.
I watch most Carolina games to root against them, the refs usually are in extreme favor for them. There was a play which Ole Miss had defensive holding AND pass interference on the same play…didnt know that was possible.
6nc clemson fan
on Sep 25, 2009 at 4:40 pm:
I could not pull for them against anyone
7Sambo
on Sep 25, 2009 at 5:12 pm:
Why is there not a “Hellz No” option to choose?
8Reed
on Sep 25, 2009 at 5:56 pm:
When I visited your fine University, an older guy with a fancy-ass RV told me “If it was World War 3 and Red China was fighting against Sakerlina, I wouldn’t have to think for a second about pullin’ for China.”
I’d say, an outsider, the one exception should be if they’re going into the Clemson game with a chance to be undefeated. When I was in school, Michigan beat an undefeated Ohio State team to end the season three out of my four years. We considered it a state-wide holiday. Ah, those were the days…
9Willy Mac
on Sep 25, 2009 at 6:01 pm:
Any day Ohio State loses is a good day.
10Lawtonfunk
on Sep 25, 2009 at 6:02 pm:
I wanted SC and UGA to both lose that game. I guess I hate UGA more – not due any rivalry. I just lived in Georgia and hate the state as a whole.
Come to think of it, while living there I was surrounded by SC fans. Maybe Georgia’s not so bad. . . no fuck, Georgia.
11Matt
on Sep 25, 2009 at 6:08 pm:
If we go 12-0 and they go 0-12 we winthe recruiting battle, therefore I root against them always
12Love Truncheon
on Sep 25, 2009 at 6:33 pm:
I can’t make myself root for or against anybody…it’s an instinctive thing. And instinctively, I screamed “Snead you cocksucker, Nutt you dick-faced no-play calling bastard. Fuck you Garcia!” I can’t help it.
13Clem
on Sep 25, 2009 at 7:19 pm:
I pulled for them so that our strength of schedule got a huge boost. Or at least that was my logic. Anything to make the Tigers look better in November when we take em to the shed.
14Chili
on Sep 25, 2009 at 7:32 pm:
yawn
15A770Tiger
on Sep 25, 2009 at 8:18 pm:
FUCK THEM!!!!!! I will never, fuckin’ never, pull for those pieces of shit. The majority of them are trash, have no respect for anyone, and hate us to the core simply for being who we are. I don’t respect them and could give dog shit about their helping us to look good in any way because anything that gives them hope or happiness takes away from them wallowing in the shit that is their lives—and I want them to suffer every time they take a breath as the fan of a school that was so snooty and overconfident that they were idiotic enough to choose a chicken as their mascot. A FUCKIN’ CHICKEN!!!!! Wow, I feel so much better now. Thanks for the opportunity to take another step in my therapy by venting. GO TIGERS!!!!!
16JasonL
on Sep 25, 2009 at 8:50 pm:
Agree with @2. and agree with @15
people who say “aww, you should root for them because they make your team look better when you beat them.” i saw fuck that shit!
i don’t root for any other team than Clemson. Don’t care who’s playing who. They ain’t my team. Only Clemson is.
And I DEFINATELY won’t pull for the ‘Cocks.
Hope swine flu goes through that team twice in the coming weeks. Just because I hate them.
17CUVince
on Sep 25, 2009 at 9:38 pm:
I will never root for South Carolina or any other ACC team. Bump conference pride and bump state pride. Go Tigers. 0-12 seasons for all.
18CUVince
on Sep 25, 2009 at 9:42 pm:
I would also like to add that I care so little about their pissant team that I won’t watch a single game of theirs. I didn’t watch last night, not even to see them lose. That’s some loserish shit right there, watching a game and pulling for a team to beat your rival. I see a lot of fuck head South Carolina fans at Clemson games throughout the year. I can only assume they are there to watch us lose. That’s gay. I wouldn’t watch South Carolina play if they went out and played in my driveway. I’d probably turn a hose on them.
19dwight_clark87
on Sep 25, 2009 at 10:41 pm:
Nah, I don’t care about Gamecock sports teams, especially football. Even if they were playing Notre Dame, Penn State or somebody in the Tostitos Fiesta FBS national championship I wouldn’t want them to win, because it would be one less thing that Clemson fans could hold over their heads.
I do pull for other ACC teams and would like to see the conference get back to a standard of excellence in football. I’d also like to see Boston College leave the ACC and go back to the Big East, Grand Mollie Maguire Conference or whatever and just fucking disappear.
20RichmanA2
on Sep 26, 2009 at 2:04 am:
Was anyone besides me not impressed with a win over OLE MISS? They are pretty bad year in and year out. Plus they lost to SC, Vandy and Wake last year. What team did they beat? Oh they got lucky against FLA and beat a Texas Tech team with no defense? Why the hell are they even ranked again? I’m thinking some SEC homering is going on here. I bet you Sakerlina ranks higher on Monday then Washington, even though Washington beat one of ( if not the ) best teams in the nation. Its SEC homering man. I’m telling you. And I will never root for Sakerlina. I hate that school, I hate how their campus is littered with pawn shops and gun stores, and I think they are the red headed step child of the SEC.
21joe
on Sep 26, 2009 at 8:08 am:
I chose to not believe there campus is littered with pawn shops and gun stores, that would be pretty ‘murican
22TolleyJenkins
on Sep 26, 2009 at 1:06 pm:
needs to be a third option. I don’t actively root for them but I’m OK when they win, for the reasons stated in this post.
23thedabokoolaid
on Sep 26, 2009 at 2:27 pm:
if a tiger ever got caught pulling for the sakerlina lamecocks, they should lose their job, have their house taken, their car repoed, their family should abandon them, and they should be homeless on the street while we real tigers ride by and throw rocks at them. the dabokoolaid has spoken.
24tigerpaw1014
on Sep 28, 2009 at 7:31 pm:
Are you kidding me? I don’t care if they are 0 and 99, I say feed ‘em a thrashing worse than has ever been seen in college football and laugh about it all winter. F*&# ‘em.