It's about time we do something about Notre Dame

[MatriculatingHank]

Agree? Disagree? This is worthy of debate:


http://www.faniq.com/blog/Notre-Dame...nce-Blog-60220

Last night, Notre Dame got absolutely obliterated by Alabama in the BCS title game. Just like I said they would. More than once.

This should have come as a surprise to exactly no one.

No matter how anyone tries to hype up Notre Dame's regular season schedule, there's not a chance in hell that they actually proved that they deserved their #1 ranking.

They stumbled into the #1 spot by default, because great SEC football teams beat other great SEC football teams.

Alabama's only loss was to fellow SEC powerhouse Texas A&M.
Georgia's only losses were to Alabama and South Carolina, both from the SEC.
Texas A&M lost a couple nail-biters to fellow SEC schools Florida and LSU.
South Carolina's only losses were also to Florida and LSU.
Before losing their bowl games, Florida and LSU had only lost to SEC teams.

All 6 of those teams could be considered among the top 10 teams in the country. And they all had to play several games against each other, because they're in an elite conference loaded with talent.

Other teams in top conferences have stretches of 6 to 8 games in a row in which they have to play top level teams.

Then, if they're fortunate enough to have a successful season, they have to play a conference championship game, which essentially amounts to one additional game against an elite team.

Notre Dame, thanks to their independent status, doesn't have to worry about that.

They can schedule their annual cakewalks against service academies and their "rivalry" with fellow Catholic school Boston College. They can use their other "rivalry" game against USC to pad their strength of schedule, and hope that no one notices that USC finished the season unranked and was one of the most overrated teams in the country.

They can play close games against mediocre teams like Purdue, Pitt, BYU, and Michigan, and still manage to default their way into the the National Championship game.

Let's ignore the fact that Georgia and Alabama were both far better teams, but had to play each other in the SEC Championship, essentially eliminating one of them.

If there was an 8-team playoff, Notre Dame would have gotten rolled by the #8 team, who would have been South Carolina, the 4th-best SEC team.

If you look at Notre Dame's recent bowl history, it's clear that they've benefited from their delusional (but large) fan base, and the fact that they haven't needed to actually win a conference to get into a BCS bowl.

Notre Dame has lost 11 of their last 13 bowl games.

They're 0-4 in BCS bowls (including last night's championship), and lost those 4 games by a combined score of 158-57.

That's right. Notre Dame has lost their 4 BCS bowl games by an average of 25 points per game.

Is there any doubt that they're being overrated and overhyped coming into bowl games?


The solution:

The NCAA should ban Notre Dame (and every other independent team, for fairness' sake) from bowl games until they join a conference.

It's absolutely insane that Notre Dame gets to play by a completely different set of rules than every other team, but still gets treated as if their undefeated record is just as impressive as another undefeated team.

Until the Irish have to go through a legitimate conference schedule and win a conference championship game, they'll continue to be placed in bowl games that they don't deserve. They'll continue to get blown out by teams that earned their bowl bid the hard way, and they'll steal BCS spots from far more deserving teams who had far more difficult roads to the postseason.

Until the NCAA forces Notre Dame's hand, fans will continue to suffer through these atrocities. It's simply not right, and fans deserve better.

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Right, and one could argue with hindsight that Florida should have never been there, based on what happened with Louisville.

Not a valid argument. You don't get the benefit of hindsight and while Louisville dominated Florida it's not illogical to think a different Florida team shows up for a NCG-clinching playoff game.

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Sure, Alabama vs. Oregon would have been more entertaining than ND vs. Bama was. But those 2 hypothetical first round games STINK.

Why do those stink? Again, you have to go back to the end of Week 15.

At that time Alabama's only loss was to A&M - Florida beat them.

At that time Florida's only loss was to UGA - Alabama beat them.

Notre Dame was undefeated.

Oregon's only loss was to 2-loss Stanford.

[dirk digler]

There is no reason not to setup the regular season and playoffs like Divison II.

[crossbow]

Mohamed Ali, George Foreman, and Joe Frazier should all have been heavy weight Champions for that entire decade. They beat the hell out of each other. That is the way it goes sometimes.

[Saul Good]

8 teams > 4 teams > 2 teams > 16 teams

[The Franchise]

I've been wanting the Irish to join a conference for a long time now. But look at it from their perspective.....why the **** would they?

[Rausch]

The prominent bowl games become playoff games.

The smaller bowls stay the same.

Easy. Simple.

Done...

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

I've been wanting the Irish to join a conference for a long time now. But look at it from their perspective.....why the **** would they?

TRADITION...

[The Franchise]

They should have joined the Big 10 when they had the chance. Now they should just join the ACC.....they're going to be playing an ACC schedule anyways.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by Saul Good

8 teams > 4 teams > 2 teams > 16 teams

I actually like the 24 team playoffs like Division II. Play the playoff games on the higher ranked team's field except for the semi-finals and championship game. 8 teams receive a first round bye

[ChiefGator]

Originally Posted by Rausch

The prominent bowl games become playoff games.

The smaller bowls stay the same.

Easy. Simple.

Done...

And they make MORE money, since there are now 7 (assuming eight teams) playoff games counting the championship, which is up from 5 possibly interesting bowl games right now.

[ChiefGator]

Best argument against a 16-team playoff is that is just too many games to ask student athletes to play, and you can't shorten the regular season by much.

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

I actually like the 24 team playoffs like Division II. Play the playoff games on the higher ranked team's field except for the semi-finals and championship game. 8 teams receive a first round bye

Too many teams. It's unnecessary.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by ChiefGator

And they make MORE money, since there are now 7 (assuming eight teams) playoff games counting the championship, which is up from 5 possibly interesting bowl games right now.

Exactly.

The "lower" bowl games now become MORE important and watched.

It would lead to much bigger ratings (read: money.)

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by ChiefGator

Best argument against a 16-team playoff is that is just too many games to ask student athletes to play, and you can't shorten the regular season by much.

But it is ok for Divsion II-III football players to play that many games.

[Deberg_1990]

The logistics invovled with an 8 team playoff would be too much. That means 3 weekends. 3 Potential games for 2 teams....too much travel...fans wont travel for 3 games.....plus all the students, players, bands etc.........too much travel and scheduling.