Andrew Sullivan referenced a study showing that a win by a home college football team can have a positive effect on the incumbent candidate's vote total:
http://www.pnas.org/...
At the bottom of this post is a select listing of major college football games in the tightest battleground states the last two weekends before the election. According to the study, we need to pull for the home team in these games to get the positive incumbent effect. As an Alabama fan, it will pain me to say “Go Gators” for Florida’s match up against Missouri the Saturday before the election, but if that’s what it takes to get the President re-elected, then so be it. That one should be a cake walk for Florida, though.
One interesting question for the study… What is the impact when you have one swing state team playing another swing state team? The study states there is a positive effect for the incumbent when the home team wins. However, there are some games I highlighted in bold below in which two swing states play each other. Could wins by the away swing state teams still help President Obama back in those respective states? Of course, wins by those away teams could prevent the positive effects of the home teams winning those match ups. Perhaps we should just root for the swing state team with the most electoral votes in these cases. It is quite the dilemma...
On a side note, I often have people back in Alabama ask me how on earth I can support President Obama (I currently live in VA and hope to keep it blue). My response is usually something to the effect of: “Well, first of all, he has ‘Bama’ right there in his name. How can I NOT support him? Secondly, the Tide have won two national titles under his administration and are headed toward another one this year. That is a pretty strong track record for the President.” I find most folks don’t know how to respond to that… Roll Tide!
Games two weekends before election:
No. 18 Clemson 42, Wake Forest 13 (last night, swing state Wake Forest in NC got crushed)
North Carolina State at North Carolina (what happens when two schools from the same swing state play each other???)
Duke at No. 12 Florida State
Michigan State at No. 25 Wisconsin
Hawaii at Colorado State
Syracuse at South Florida
Baylor at Iowa State
Games the weekend right before election:
Virginia Tech at Miami (FL)
Missouri at No. 2 Florida
No. 8 Oklahoma at Iowa State
Nebraska at Michigan State
Illinois at Ohio State
Syracuse at Cincinnati
Virginia at North Carolina State
No. 17 Stanford at Colorado
Boston College at Wake Forest
New Mexico at UNLV
No. 18 Clemson at Duke
Connecticut at South Florida