This Is the One Weekend We Should All Be Notre Dame Fans

So wrap your arms around this for the next few days: Notre Dame as the vanquisher. Notre Dame as the redeemer. Notre Dame as the deliverer over Florida State.

I know, you would rather kiss a hot iron than root for the Irish. It's like rooting for the Yankees or Wal-Mart.

I am old enough to recall the Cold War bromide: "If the Russians were playing Notre Dame, I'd root for the Russians."

Notre Dame became too mighty back in the day, and the scorn was born. They played for a tie almost 50 years ago against Michigan State, which really got people in Alabama aggravated. The Irish have been an Independent for the longest time, thus too good for the rest of us. Then they got their own TV deal and raked in cash (which everybody else wishes they would have thought of first).

They are Catholic and had the pope on their side and just seemed so sanctimonious. I'm sure religious bigotry figures in this. I am also sure the phrase "holier than thou" started with Knute Rockne.

Associated Press

It is a great school academically, a special place that turns out CEOs, Nobel laureates, generals, astronauts and Regis Philbin.

But this is football.

We usually treat the Irish with disdain when it comes to football.

Not this week.

Notre Dame is playing Florida State this Saturday night, and the national mood is that we have had enough of the Seminoles because of this Jameis Winston affair. FSU's handling of Winston has been abominable. The Tallahassee Police Department did a lot of harm to the FSU players and the school's reputation with its handling of the case. The school did a lot of harm itself.

The Seminoles are more unlikeable than Notre Dame.

Fox Sports reported, with substantial evidence, that Tallahassee police contacted the school, and the police report made its way into the hands of Winston's lawyer, before they notified the prosecutor of the sexual assault allegation.

The school made the whole affair worse last week by releasing a statement defending itself in the Winston saga. It was not believable.

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

It is not just the Winston situation driving the public to the Notre Dame side of the field; it is the College Football Playoff. We are suspicious of the Seminoles because they play in the ACC. How do they get to skate like this? They trampled the ACC in 2013 and got into a tough game with the SEC's Auburn in the national championship game and nearly lost. If not for two defenders colliding with one another on the last FSU drive, Auburn would have won.

The ACC is better this season, much better. Boston College took down Southern Cal. Virginia went toe-to-toe with BYU on the road when the Cougars were full strength. Louisville isn’t bad. There is an impressive list of ACC players who go on to the NFL. But the ACC is still seen as inferior to the Big 12, Pac-12 and certainly the SEC.

Why should everyone else have a gauntlet and the 'Noles stroll easy street?

So we cheer, even for Notre Dame. If we must.

Notre Dame vs. Florida State is not "Catholics vs. Convicts," the 1988 epic between Notre Dame and Miami, which the Irish won 31-30. But we want it to be. A Notre Dame student coined the phrase and soon a T-shirt followed. There was real bitterness between the two teams, who scuffled in the tunnel before the game.

We're talking about 18-to-22-year-old kids, and you don't want to make it too personal, but the Florida State administration has made the Seminoles unlovable. It should not have taken public pressure raising a stink about their star quarterback's alleged behavior for the school to work on a Title IX complaint. It's too bad the FSU players, who are students, have to be part of the school's humiliation.

You don't think there is backlash already?

I watched Mississippi State play an uneven, sloppy game against Auburn on Saturday, when quarterback Dak Prescott tried to take himself out of the mix for the Heisman Trophy. He threw two interceptions and the Bulldogs had four turnovers.

State still jumped the Seminoles in The Associated Press and Amway polls. Maybe some of that has to do with the fact FSU is still playing in the ACC, which is regarded as vastly inferior to the SEC. Mississippi State, which plays in the SEC, did defeat three Top 10 teams in a row (though LSU never belonged there).

Many want FSU to just go away. All it will take is one loss. If the FSU administration won't punish Winston (for something he was never charged with doing), maybe the College Football Playoff committee will.

So, this is where we are. Many fans will root for Notre Dame from all corners of the football landscape Saturday night. The SEC, the Pac-12, the Big 12, the Big Ten. One loss and FSU will tumble down the rankings in free fall behind Michigan State, behind Alabama, behind Oregon, behind Oklahoma.

Notre Dame has had its own scandal. There was the academic fraud of quarterback Everett Golson (he has redeemed himself). There is the ongoing issue involving alleged rule-breaking by five players. Then you look on the sidelines and see the snarling coach Brian Kelly and his behavior and you go, "Really, we have to root for these guys?"

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

Meanwhile, the Florida State administration is still in denial over the Winston episode. This is part of a statement the school released last week defending its handling of the matter: 

"

The first time anyone at FSU outside the campus police and Victim Advocate Program learned about the alleged sexual assault was in January 2013, when a Tallahassee PD detective called the athlete on his cellphone. The athlete immediately notified the Athletics Department, where officials referred him and his family to a Tallahassee attorney.

"

Who else has a hard time believing that?

A source close to the team said news of the Winston incident spread through the locker room in the days after the December 2012 alleged assault. That is a lot of football players talking among themselves, including the team's senior leadership. Coaches didn't know?

Here is something else. FSU is not going to gain sympathy in the media when, according to the Fox Sports report, the school looked into the background of a reporter who was trying to get the police report. Why provide the FSU "fixer" a copy of the reporter's resume? To find out if the reporter would back down with spin or intimidation?

The alleged sexual assault, the BB guns, the crab legs, yelling a vulgarity in the middle of campus—Winston has brought a lot scorn on FSU. He has made many who scorned Notre Dame suddenly become fans of the Irish.

Be careful what you wish for, though. If Notre Dame wins it will be among the Top Four for the College Football Playoff with the Mississippis and Baylor. Then what are you going to say about our new heroes in the gold helmets?

Ray Glier covers college football for Bleacher Report. He has covered college football and various other sports for 20 years. His work has appeared in USA Today, The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post and Al Jazeera America. He is the author of How the SEC Became Goliath (Howard/Simon & Schuster, 2013).