Rooting Against the Unbeatens in College and NFL Football

It's at about the midpoint in the 2015 National Football League regular season...and about three fourths of the way through the NCAA college football season.  At this point, depending on how my "main" teams, the NFL's Miami Dolphins and the NCAA's University of Florida Gators, are doing, my emphasis on the various games I watch changes.  In both the professional and college leagues, I have my favorites besides the Dolphins and Gators.  But if either team is doing well in a particular year and could use a "boost" by another team losing...even one I usually support...then my loyalties can change.  This year the Miami Dolphins are suffering a mediocre season (so... what's new), destined to go nowhere except home at the end of the regular season.  But the Florida Gators, having clinched the Eastern Division of their Southeastern Conference for the first time since the Urban Meyer/Tim Tebow team of 2009, have a real shot at making the four-team national championship playoffs.  Just winning the rest of the regular season games and the SEC playoff game might accomplish this outright, but there are still some undefeated teams left out there...and I have been rooting for them to lose in order to enhance Florida's prospects for selection.  Even to the point of going against Michigan State, which I have supported over the last few years...so I was delighted to see them upset yesterday 39-38 to Nebraska and becoming a one-loss team (which I can once again support).  I wanted Florida State, a one-loss team and future Gator opponent, to defeat unbeaten and top-ranked Clemson (a school I usually like)...but to no avail.  And the game played between two undefeated teams in the Big 12, TCU and Oklahoma State, was a win for me regardless of the result...but I leaned toward the lower-ranked Cowboys (who prevailed 49-29).  I remember taking an interest in seeing teams ranked ahead of the Gators losing in late-season games back in 2006 and 2008, years that they eventually won the national championship.  It's happening again this year.  But Florida has got to keep on winning, too...that last performance against Vanderbilt had better not be repeated against South Carolina or Florida State, much less the eventual winner (probably Alabama) of the SEC Western Division...

Since Miami doesn't seem interested in making the NFL playoffs this year, regardless who they put in as their head coach, I have a different emphasis affecting the teams I root for late in the season.  Besides supporting secondary teams I like (that seem to have a shot at the playoffs) such as the New York Giants, Seattle, and Green Bay, I am also pulling against any remaining undefeated teams...until they lose at least one game, that is.  This is because I remember the perfect 1972 Miami Dolphins season, a feat that hasn't been matched since (although New England very nearly pulled it off in 2007)...and I don't want any other team to match their accomplishment.  At this writing, Carolina is the only undefeated team left in the National Conference, while three others are without a loss in the American: Denver, Cincinnati, and New England.  Ultimately, at worst we could end up with just one perfect season, but I want everybody to have stumbled at least once.  But should any of the teams manage this near-impossible feat, I'm pulling for Cam Newton's Panthers to do it.  And once again, I'm hoping against hope that the Giants might be able to pull it all together at the end of the year and advance in the playoffs: they seem to be the only ones not intimidated by the Patriots.  Let's see...2007: Giants barely make the playoffs but beat favored Patriots in Super Bowl...2011: Giants barely make the playoffs but beat favored Patriots in Super Bowl...2015: will this be a continuation of the four-year cycle?