I'll Pass on the Schadenfreude

I’ll be honest.  I don’t take much pleasure from schadenfreude when it comes to college athletics.  Sure, seeing UGA lose last night was a nice little pick me up, but I see far too many Tech fans that almost feel it validates our season that UGA also lost.  First, they were playing in a BCS bowl.  Second, they were conference champions and a 10-win team.  Third we still lost to them for the fourth season in a row.  I don’t find much happiness in their loss.  Maybe a little bit, but in the end I’m still much more pissed about us losing to Utah than I’m happy that they lost to WVU.  It also doesn’t help that they didn’t roll over and die in their game and almost pulled it out.

My love for Tech is a much stronger emotion than my hatred for Georgia.  That’s why I didn’t feel bad rooting for them to win the SEC when it looked like it was get us the Gator Bowl (a classic example of the Prisoner’s Dilemma).  I wouldn’t have minded if they blew out WVU and it cost the Big East their auto-bid to the BCS.  All of these things would have done more to maximize my happiness as a college football and Georgia Tech fan that a UGA loss does.  

Once again we show as a fan base that we would rather define ourselves by who aren’t than by whom we are.