OT: How important is the outcome of a game to you?

I care about the outcome for Michigan.  As I've gotten older and more jaded since 2007, I'm much less emotionally invested in the outcome, but still care about the outcome.  

As for non-Michigan games, it depends on a myriad of factors.  Last night's OSU-Utah game, I was able to enjoy like you without caring much.  For ND-FSU, go Noles.  I will be rooting against the Irish and hope they lose, but the outcome won't impact my mood much, if at all.  In big games, I have rooting interests I guess.  Mostly for me though, when I do have a rooting interests, it's about "hate-watching/rooting".  I don't really like FSU much, but I fucking hate ND.  

I am a bit of statistical nerd and I have grudges and soft spots towards teams. This usually means that no matter who I am watching in college football I have a rooting interest. The nerdiness comes out when it comes to records. I like seeing lower tier teams go undefeated and winless. I also like SEC teams to not go undefeated.

If it's not related to Michigan at all, I just root for a good competitive game.  If Ohio State, Notre Dame, or Michigan St is playing, and them winning doesn't positively impact Michigan, I root for them to lose.  Not root, as in I'm the obnoxious guy at the bar cheering against them.  But I find myself fist pumping internally when they do lose. 

Michigan winning and losing directly relates to my quality of life.

I would argue that your relationships with your children should be higher than trueblueintexas' relationships.

/s(?)

Like some other posters I need to have a rooting interest to really enjoy the game.  If the outcome of a game has some obvious implication for Michigan, I pull for the team whose victory would help Michigan.  That's the first consideration.

Outside of that, though, I will pull for the team that most fits Michigan's profile.  So I'll usually pull for the better academic institution, a public school, a Midwestern school, a school with historical stature, etc., if I am looking to pick a winner.  So I tend to pull for schools that check the most of these boxes.  For example, I'd pull for Texas over Texas A&M because Texas is more like Michigan.  Similarly, I'd pull for Cal over Arizona State.  And if I'm desperate enough to watch such an affair, I'd pull for CMU over Colorado State.

And I'm a sucker for a rivalry game, even if I dislike both teams.  For example, the Iron Bowl is worth a look to me, as is Florida State v. Miami.  In those games, I'm usually pulling against whoever is currently most loathsome, rather than pulling for their opponent.

Whenever we lose I walk around for days in a state of general malaise...The stuff is really affects my quality of life...

Football has been my primary love since I was 3 years old in 1973. Though I moved out-of-state in 1994, Saturday game outcomes affected my mood all week until about 2003.

I lived in Athens, GA and then Starkville, MS.at the age of 33, Michigan football games became less important to my weeklong mood. I was still invested during game time, but had learned not to allow game outcomes to be the primary driver of my mood all season long.

In 2007, my oldest son asked to start attending Mississippi State games. Tickets were inexpensive and it was fun to attend games. By 2009 I purchased season tickets and became more invested. My youngest son has been raised on Mississippi State traditions.

Now I have 2 favorite teams and this further mitigates the negative effect of any particular game on my mood. I have to admit I am riding high with the locals and hoping UM rights the ship soon!

I watch other CFB games with more of an interest in the excitement of the game.  I watch Michigan football with a life or death intensity and should probably be medicated. 

I also get stoked about playoff baseball.  GO GIANTS GO GIANTS GO GIANTS!

Foir one's interest to decline as age increases.  I was rabid about UM in my 30's & 40',but began to lose some of the zeal as I headed into and out of my 50's.  The nonsense of the past seven years has probably contributed to the loss of interest, but I now have two grandkids in SoCal and really don't care to take the time to watch NCAA football as the kids are more of a kick.

We sold our season tickets this year for face value, but went to a few tailgate parties.  We didn't even drive over to AAGO for parties before the PSU game and may just walk from the PSL and tickets for my 70th birthday.

Would it be different if the team was not such a disappointment and Brnadon not such an asshole?  Probably so, but other things are just a lot more interesting at this point in life.

 

I went to my first gane in the Big House in 1960 and ended up going to around 100 before I moved away in 1998.  I was in the Tampa Bay area for the last ten years and now live in NOLA, but the bottom line for me is that when Michigan has a bad team, it sucks every bit of relevance out of Saturday for me.

That is why I am so passionate about wanting David Brandon fired.  I want Saturday to be relevant for me again.

I'm an "older" person also, and typically get way too wrapped around the axle when Michigan loses games. Typically, I don't sleep well when we lose. I wake up in the middle of the night and start rehashing what did and didn't go well.  So much for a good night of sleep.

At least that was the case until this year.

I had never, ever turned on another game when Michigan was losing. I did that during the second half of the ND game.

I had never left Michigan Stadium early, regardless of the score.  I have done that a couple of times this year (but I do show up early).

I always recorded games on my DVR and when I returned home, I would rewatch. Not this year.

I don't know why, but I simply cannot invest the emotional energy in our program right now.  I feel like I have taken shots to the chin for so long, that apathy has replaced passion and expectations.

I love bball, but football has always been my number one sport...this year, I just want it to end and and be replaced by Michigan basketball.

I do, however, still spend way too much time reading posts on this damn blog which I look at as a good sign.

a game, I probably won't watch.

As disheartening as this season has been, it's actually made the last two games more enjoyable (despite the outcome of Rutgers of course). Once we lost to Minnesota, any hope for a turnaround died. The record is pretty much meaningless to me now. I just want to see the team do well and win the games that they can. While that sounds like a "duh" thing to say, usually I get so wrapped up in the game, the outcome, what it means for the season, etc. that it makes it hard to truly enjoy the experience. Knowing that losing a game really has no bearing on the season, it's fun to just enjoy rooting for my team. Having said all of that, a loss still puts me in a pretty sour mood.

Being a Lions fan I have been trained to watching a loser.  I said in my teens and 20s and early 30s "man nothing can be more brutal than being a Lions and Spartan football  fan - you get crushed most Saturdays and Sundays.  Thank God for Saturdays, at least I have Michigan."

Now I have become that fan that has 2 days to get punched in the gonads each weekend.  Although ironically the Lions aren't that bad thus far this year. 

But larger picture I lost my "emotion" for the Lions about 4 years into the Millen era.  I still "care" for them but I enter the games assuming a loss and hence when they win its a bright surprise.  But I never full trust the Lions not fully attach emotionally because I know how it always ends with them.

I never had that attitude towards UM until about 13 months ago.  RR year 1 I saw it was a massive transition and I had hope. By middle of 2nd year of RR I saw it was going to be an offense that could score on bad to average teams but get skunked by good teams.  And a defense that was always bad.  Year 3 I was not that emotional because I saw it was the same as year 2, and knew what to expect.  I was not a fan of the Hoke hire but 2011 gave me hope.  2012 I explained away due to the teams we lost to.  But by Akron/UConn/PSU in 2013 I saw this was the "SOW" (Same Old Woverines).  An acronym I never had in my mindset until 2008-2014 era.

So I now approach the Wolverines as I do my Lions.  They will do a lot of dumb things, they are not well coached, they are no well managed.  They don't pass the eye test.  They will find a way ... to lose.  The same thing Spartans fans said for 4+ decades.  It is frightening how the shoes have switched - when I watch a MSU game I think when things go downhill in the middle of a game they will find a way to win - they almost always do.  That is how I felt about UM football from mid 80s to mid 00s.  

It troubles me that people in their teens don't even know what UM once was.  They see UM as the Chicago Cubs.  They only know U of M from stories their dad tells - and those now sound like tall tales when they view the actual on the field product.  That sucks.

Now I view the Lions and Wolverines as one.  I have become that fan I grew up thinking "damn, must suck to be him!"  I will get my hopes up again with the new coach but it will be more guarded short of a Jim Harbaugh hired because fool me once - shame on you, fool me twice - shame on me. 

if we were 6-1 and not 3-4! I guess I'm not missing football much! A sad state of affairs!

Losses in the 1970s and 1980s were rare, for the most part.

Remembered how crappy it felt being at the 1979 loss to ND, 1981 vs. Ohio, 1989 vs ND, etc.

My wife still remembers how pissed I was when I took her to one of only two UM games she's gone to - and we lost homecoming to Iowa 1990 (Moeller tried for 2 pts on an extra point for no good reason off the Swinging Gate formation up 20-10 - we lost 24-23).

Family is way more important and the 39 losses since 2008 have really mellowed me.

I do get to most home games and always remember the great games I've watched from Section 12. 

Unfortunately, the best memories of Michigan football are now on YOUTUBE thanks to Wolverine Historian who's posted many great games for us to browse after guys like Gary Super Nova torch us for 400+ yds.

I watched the end of the Ole Miss and Alabama game and was totally jacked up to see Ole Miss pull it off and then stop Bama on the last drive. Seeing maligned Bo Wallace getting mugged on the field and the fans fill the entire field - that's the kind of setting I would have loved to been at that day. 

I was at the Iowa - PSU game in 2008 when Iowa kicked the game winner at the end and was on the field with a friend who's an Iowa fan. That was really cool as well.

It's the ATMOSPHERE of college games, even when not a Michigan game, that is so cool. Will be at the Nebraska-Iowa game the Friday before Brady's last game (at Ohio the next day). Hoping for an Iowa win and going on the field.

The recent mediocracy has made me more apathetic if anything, but I still tune in every week and root my ass off. Doesn't seem to stung as much anymore. Not sure if that's due to being used to it or growing up and getting priorities in order.

Really don't see why you would have a rooting interest in OSU v. Utah. I have never really cared that much about the outcome of any college game in any sport if Michigan is not playing.

I hate to see Sparty, Ohio State or Notre Dame win any game.  I always want them to lose, even in bowl games vs. the $EC.  Sorry that is just how it is...

I hate win Michigan loses and it kills my weekend...even when I want a coaching change which would be perpetuated by another loss...., they cant lose or a part of me dies.

I often have a pet program that I like to see win...this changes every year.  It was Stanford a couple years ago, its Arizona this season.

The rest of the games, Im just like the OP and love to see good football regardless of the outcome.  My dad used to say "root for the underdog" in those games, and I tend to go with that.  Upsets are fun.

I suspect a lot of people feel same as I do.

I have always cared, and as long as I'm breathing, always will care whether we win or lose, but like many people here, learned various coping skills to get by when we don't.  This is my university, my home town and where I ended up raising my kids.  If we don't win, it tears me apart but I don't stop being a fan.  I know one person who grew up a Michigan fan and changed over to Sparty cause he didn't like losing - I don't judge him he's a nice guy but I couldn't understand it.  Where I used to work, and be a manager at that, the guys knew how I felt about working Saturdays and missing home games... come to think of it I probably wasn't easy to be around then...well sometimes they were cool and sometimes they would throw losses in my face and I had to just not react.  One time I remember saying I would rather be a Michigan fan and lose 12 games than be a fan of any other team.  I meant it.  Other times they would poke fun at me... Ramona you're not going to cry if your team loses are you... and I'd say you don't get it!  I don't cry if my team loses.  I cry if we WIN!  Yes this was during the RR years.  And I'm among those who thought he should have gotten the 4th and 5th years. And i'm also pulling for Brady Hoke cause I want him to suceed.  Basically I love this University and simply don't get this invested in the outcome of other games.  They can be fun to watch, of course but there's only one home team for me.  Then, now, and always.

the outcomes still matter just as much as they did when I was younger. The difference now is that I'm usually completely over the loss by the time I walk back to the car. This is probably due to age. I just feel that you have to move on as quick as possible. Their's really no benefit to letting it ruin your evening (or weekend). When I watch other teams, I just root for a great finish.

I have tried to invest less time caring about sports in general, I don't have time for it anymore, there are other things to do.  Work, school and everything else.

Still watch and follow Michigan / B1G football, but really only during the season.  Once the season is over it's back to reality.

I still want UM to win and this season's been rough.  The losses still bother me.  This season more than last couple for some reason.

 

 

I just love watching football to watch football. The only games I really care about the outcome are ones with the Wolverines playing. It's hard to have a good Saturday after a loss.