Bret Bielema takes on Fat Chuck and the Irish

It would improve the quality of both your current and future schools.

 

Again, dude, not a Notre Dame fan. Just a facts fan. But I guess if you take the Notre Dame side in any dispute, that's what you are automatically.

I don't doubt that Notre Dame is the most despised team in college football, for just reason. But that doesn't mean they also can't have the most fans, as well.

 

No argument. My statement was they fan base is about as bnig as those who tune in to watch them lose. If those tune outm the ratings will drop. True statement that said nothing to dispute them having the most popular team.

 

Even Bielma said last year that the Michigan game was their championship -- they had to win if the had big postseason hopes and they didn't.

 

Look, the bottom line is that Notre Dame has qualified for the BCS five times since its inception. They've been invited three times. That's 60 percent of the time. Hardly a sign of rampant favoritism. Last year's Notre Dame team had a lot of very recognizable stars - Quinn, the baseball player, the boxer, etc., etc. Of course they were going to take them, even if Wisconsin and its big superstar, an offensive tackle, was eligible. Which they weren't. Which brings us back to the open invitation to go independent.

 

If Bielema doesn't want to lose out on a BCS spot to Notre Dame, then maybe he should try and schedule a home and home with the Irish instead of having Buffalo fill the 12th game.

We'll see how good Bielema does this year when he has to play both Michigan and Ohio State, something the Badgers seem to avoid every time they have "good" years.

 

ND's TV ratings are, to a large exctent, an urban myth. perpetuated by lazy media writers and the ND hype machine.

These numbers are directly from the Fox BCS website. They do not include the 2006 season BCS games, but do have every TV rating for the 32 previous BCS games, from from 1998-2005.

You will see that ND does not even crack the top 10. It's best is a tie for 13th; it's other was 21st. Wisconsin, however, ranks 8th and 12th for its two Rose Bowl appearances. The Badgers are a better TV drawn than the Irish, even when they're playing a POS team like the 1999 Stanford Cardinal.

You want TV ratings? Play in the Rose Bowl. Seven of the top 15.

Read 'em and weep, Irish lovers.

BOWL YEAR TEAMS RATING
1. Rose Bowl 2006 Texas-USC 21.7 *

2. Orange Bowl 2001 Florida State-Oklahoma 17.8 *

3. Sugar Bowl 2000 Florida State-Virginia Tech 17.5 *

4. (tie) Fiesta Bowl 2003 Ohio State-Miami 17.2 *

4. (tie) Fiesta Bowl 1999 Florida State-Tennessee 17.2 *

6. Sugar Bowl 2004 LSU-Oklahoma 14.5 *

7. Rose Bowl 2004 Michigan-USC 14.4

8. Rose Bowl 2000 Wisconsin-Stanford 14.1

9. Rose Bowl 2001 Washington-Purdue 14.0

10. Rose Bowl 2002 Miami-Nebraska 13.9 *

11. Orange Bowl 2005 USC-Oklahoma 13.7 *

12. Rose Bowl 1999 Wisconsin-UCLA 13.3

13. (tie) Sugar Bowl 2001 Miami-Florida 12.9

13. (tie) Fiesta Bowl 2006 Ohio State-Notre Dame 12.9

15. Rose Bowl 2005 Texas-Michigan 12.4

16. Orange Bowl 2006 Penn State-Florida State 12.3

17. Sugar Bowl 1999 Ohio State-Texas A&M 11.5

18. (tie) Fiesta Bowl 2002 Oregon-Colorado 11.3

18. (tie) Orange Bowl 2000 Michigan-Alabama 11.3

18. (tie) Rose Bowl 2003 Oklahoma-Washington State 11.3

21. Fiesta Bowl 2001 Oregon State-Notre Dame 10.7

22. (tie) Orange Bowl 2003 USC-Iowa 9.7

22. (tie) Orange Bowl 2004 Miami-Florida State 9.7

24. (tie) Fiesta Bowl 2000 Nebraska-Tennessee 9.5

24. (tie) Sugar Bowl 2005 Auburn-Virginia Tech 9.5

24. (tie) Orange Bowl 2002 Florida-Maryland 9.5

27. Sugar Bowl 2003 Florida State-Georgia 9.2

28. Sugar Bowl 2006 West Virginia-Georgia 9.0

29. Fiesta Bowl 2004 Ohio State-Kansas State 8.7

30. Sugar Bowl 2002 LSU-Illinois 8.6

31. Orange Bowl 1999 Florida-Syracuse 8.4

32. Fiesta Bowl 2005 Utah-Pittsburgh 7.4





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BCS
n extent

 

Good Lord, did someone not pay attention to the 2006 season? The only way UW would have been eligible for a BCS shot last season would have been to beat Michigan. And had that happened, UW would have been in the Rose Bowl. It never would have come down to ND or UW.

 

Good lord, did someone not pay attention to my posts on the matter?

 

I'm sure Wisconsin would LOVE to get ND on their schedule. But it just won't happen. ND already plays too many Big Ten teams (Mich, Mich St., Purdue) that they couldn't really add another BT team.

 

This may be true, but I wouldn't have a clue from looking at the data you've presented.

If you're going to make this point, you'll need a much larger sample than 32 bowl games over eight seasons, only TWO of which included Notre Dame. And of the 13 games above the highest-rated Irish BCS game, eight were for the national championship, and six were Rose Bowls, which has been the most-watched bowl game for decades.

Doesn't that sound, dare I say it, lazy?

Aren't two of the largest-watched regular-season games of the last 20 years ND-FSU in '93 and ND-USC in '05? Yeah, those Irish ratings week-in-and-out must be awful. I can't figure out why a network would want to the rights to ND home games all by itself.

 

NBC has no alternative but to show ND, as ABC, Fox, CBS and ESPN have the other leagues locked up. What are they going to show on Saturday, figure skating every weekend? The service academies?

ND football ratings hit all-time lows in 2003, went to a 2.5 rating in 2004 and have increased slightly in 2005 and 2006. It still loses its time slot to the regional games on the networks.

Everyone always crows about how well their ratings are. But the BCS ratings do show otherwise. It is a fair sample.