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People talk about the jinx associated with being on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Last week, ESPN the Magazine had Notre Dame on the cover, with some story about the Irish re-emerging among the nation's elite teams.

Result? Boston College beats Notre Dame.

Way to go, ESPN. I love seeing Notre Dame lose.

Am I the only one that was pulling for Willingham and and the Irish?

Ha! Maybe so. I really like and respect Willingham. But I grew up hating Notre Dame, and I can't change now. Once you support or hate a team, it's awfully hard to change. The Irish just act like the world owes them the national championship or something, or that they deserve to be treated different (read "better") than the rest of the teams in the country. They're kind of like Texas fans, but worse.

I'm with "Lotus" on this one. I always root against Notre Dame.

Well they stunk anyway. They were over-hyped for sure. I'm from Florida, and I'm a gator fan. I never think a win over FSU is impressive

Notre Dame deserved to lose. They were undefeated and they whipped out the green jerseys? (And how hideous are those things? They looked like Baylor High.) You go to a "lucky jersey" when you're playing for the national championship or when you're trying to reverse a losing streak. You don't mess with what's worked. Talk about tempting fate. Idiots. All those Irish fans who went from accepting the fact that they weren't ranked in the preseason to somehow deciding that they were going to win the national championship are eating some serious crow this morning.

Haha, that's harsh, but I agree!

Got to agree with Lotus about how bad UT fans are. I saw a commercial over the weekend when I was watching the Nebraska-Texas game, one of those commercials that they have for each school during games.

It said something about how "This school is home to a rare copy of the Guggenheim (I think) Bible. And a big steer named Bevo. Amen."

Could those people be any more arrogant? It's no wonder they've overtaken A&M as the most hated school in the state.

UT..blech. I haven't met too many humble people that go there, especially the athletes. Although I don't blame Chris Simms for being rude when my A&M loving suitemate kept calling his cell phone in the middle of the night before every game.

UT Fans are annoying --- but I don't think they can compete with Sooners or Aggies.

Those have got to be the worst ...

Not even close. UT fans are even worse than Notre Dame. Nobody has the arrogance they do, without having won anything in the last 30 years.

Amen Phil Fan.

My poor long-suffering wife used to work for a travel agency that handled all the travel arrangements (teams and alumni) for Notre Dame, SMU and several other colleges. That was their specialty. Anyway, that outfit was owned by a family, all of whom went to Notre Dame back for several generations. Absolutely insufferable people during football season.

But at least they have traditions and a consistently good team to back up their bravado.

Every year my UT friends act like its their God-given right to be ranked #1. What the heck for?? Those guys haven't won a big game going back to the time that I was in school...

...And that was back around the time that we adopted the Julian calendar (at least that's what Whatasteve would tell you).

You said it, not me!

I'm not a UT fan although older son is an alumni but I don't understand this UT fan bashing from a bunch of people full of sour grapes. If they haven't won a major game, why are they consistently in top 25 filling their stadium with 85K plus? Same with A&M as far as rankings and fan attendance = $$$ to school.UT has a massive fan base regardless of how they play( Could be associated with school attendance exceeding 60K ). Different demographics equals different fan reaction or lack of. I don't think a majority of the SMU student population could care less whether we are in the top or bottom ten.If we get better,notice I say if, we'll have to depend on the population of Dallas and great PR to get our attendance up.I believe that those that complain so vehmently about obnoxious UT, A&M, Notre Dame fans are jealous that they can't be the same way about the Mustangs. I don't know but I'll bet the SMU fans were pretty cocky in the good old days when we were a national power.

Actually, BennettBacker, it's a Gutenberg Bible (one of the first books ever printed, I think) - and no, it's not named after that bad actor from the "Police Academy" flicks.

Not sure I agree with you fbdad, although you do make some good points (I admit that when we start winning regularly, I'm going to be howling at the moon pretty often. Of course, I already do that, and I wear SMU gear every weekend, even outside of football season...) But while there is some jealousy that my team, the Ponies, hasn't had the success lately that UT and Notre Dame have had, the fans of those two schools are a unique breed, I think. Nebraska, until this year, was always in the top 10. Yet when they played UT and lost to the Horns in the Big 12 Championship game a few years ago (I was there - I married at Texas Ex), the Nebraska fans went out of their way to approach UT fans and congratulate them on a big win, and compliment them on how well the Horns had played. Would that have happened if the tables were reversed? I seriously doubt it.

And as for Notre Dame, that's the only school in America with an individual contract to appear on national TV every week. Should the current players be blamed for fans who live off the glory of years past? Of course not. But now that they're back among the top teams in the country, their fans act like they have some god-given right to be on top each and every year. That they deserve to have the rest of the country bow down to the Irish or salute their Leprechaun mascot (who I admit is a pretty cool mascot). They look at the BCS formula (which offers BCS bowl bids to winners of several conferences but ensures a spot for Notre Dame if the Irish win a certain number of games) and think that's a fair system. Wrong.

I, for one, like Ty Willingham and hope he does very well in anything he does. But I'm among those who cringes a little every time I hear the media sucking up to everyone in South Bend.