Rivalry Week: Your Daily Reason To Hate Notre Dame

The Boiling Point: Every day this week TheBoilingPoints.com will be bringing you another reason to hate Notre Dame.

As if you needed more reasons to hate Notre Dame, this week TheBoilingPoints.com will be giving you a new reason every day. Click here for yesterday’s reason, here for Wednesday’s, here for Tuesday’s and here for Monday’s.

Today’s reason is probably the one that is nearest and dearest to men, and is also the one that is most likely to offend people. Oh well I guess. Without further adieu…

Today you should hate Notre Dame because of its fans. No, not its almni, not it’s students, not even its players. I’m talking about Joe Schmo from Bumrush-Nowhere, IN or Ohio or New York or wherever that has no connection to the university at all, other than maybe they are catholic or grew up nearby. I’m from the South Bend area, and nothing gets my blood boiling more than kids that go to IUSB or IUPUI or wherever and talk about how “we’re” going to do this and that this weekend. I know it’s pretentious of me, but who are these people to say “we”? This is almost the exact opposite of Purdue. Purdue fans are almost entirely alumni or family of alumni. We simply don’t have these “subway alumni,” and, frankly, I don’t want them.

Notre Dame wants nothing to do with these people, outside of possibly their revenue dollars. These are people that couldn’t get admitted to Notre Dame if they were the last people on earth. They treat the campus — the grotto, the stadium, the lake, whatever — like some kind of holy ground…yet maybe they should because just like most Muslims and Mecca, the only memories they have on the ground are one or two special trips to visit in their lifetime.

Thursday I went to Subway for lunch. When I walked in, Matt Painter was sitting in a booth alone reading the Exponent. As I went to leave, Travis Dorsch opened the door for me as he was coming in. I’m a Purdue student, so this was no big deal to me. I see coaches, athletes, etc. around campus and in the grocery store on a weekly basis. Notre Dame “fans” can’t say this. They have no connection to these people. To them, it’s no different than Peyton Manning. These people are figures out of their reach, almost celebrities instead of PEOPLE. Almost all Notre Dame fans have never shared a dorm or a dining court with the athletes they support, never had a class with them and never shared a beer with them at the campus bars. Despite always proclaiming “We Are ND,” they are anything BUT ND.

I could go on and on with this topic, but I’ll stop. I know I sound pretentious, but in this instance I don’t care. At the end of the day I’ll be able to look at a Purdue diploma on my wall and associate more than athletics with it. Notre Dame fans will look at their framed Rudy poster and dream of what they could have been IF Notre Dame would’ve given them “their shot,” then get ready for IU basketball season.

Regardless of Saturday’s outcome, I’m a Boilermaker and damn proud of it.