FSU football will again have played a team who is going for the national title, and again the Seminoles should be pulling for the other team to win.
No matter who won the Cotton Bowl last weekend between Clemson and Notre Dame, FSU football would have played against a team that will play for the national title for the fifth straight season – joining Oregon in the 2014 season, Clemson the two years that followed and Alabama last season as part of that “elite” group.
After the Tigers absolutely thumped the “Fighting” Irish in Arlington, it will be the third edition of Clemson and Alabama for the national title in the five years of the playoff system – which is something hat shows why the playoff is a joke after all, but that is neither here nor there.
While there are plenty of people from that other conference in the southeast region of the United States who will be rooting for Alabama just because they are in the same conference as them, FSU football should go out of their way to be rooting against Clemson when they take the field against the Crimson Tide come January 7th.
First off, the argument from that other conference that a win by one team is a win for all is an absolute joke. The Tigers being 15-0 and national champs does nothing to make the Seminoles’ 5-7 mark last season look any better the same way us going 14-0 and winning the title in 2013 did nothing to help Virginia’s 2-10 record look better that season.
Second of all, another national title for the Tigers – which would be their second in three seasons to go along with another title game appearance – would just help their case in the world of recruiting in an effort to convincing recruits they are the place to go to over FSU football and other programs they are going against for the top players.
Finally, Clemson playing for the title is good for just one thing: it brings a lot of money to the ACC and its member schools – including the Seminoles. The Tigers are going to get that paycheck regardless of their outcome in the game, so it won’t hurt the Noles or anyone else if they lose.
Thankfully, the ACC has never had a cult like mentality like that other conference so you can be willing to bet many of the fans from the other 13 member schools will be hoping the orange and purple come out on top. Hey, they didn’t do it for FSU football five years ago, so why start now.