Notre Dame Football: Ranked No. 1, Again

Stanford is Top 4. Coaches are shmucks.

 

They've got two losses, one of which came to a 4-loss Washington team that gave up 52 to Oregon and 52 to freakin' Arizona.

 

My dream BCS scenario (based on likelihood of actually happening)

BCS - Bama v. ND
Orange - FSU v. Rutgers/Louisville
Sugar - Florida v. Oklahoma
Fiesta - K State v. Oregon
Rose - Stanford/UCLA v. Wisconsin/Nebraska

 

Saw today that there is a chance Stanford plays three games in a row at the Rose Bowl.

Next week vs. UCLA

If UCLA wins and OSU beats Oregon, UCLA host Stanford in P12 championship

If Stanford wins P12 championship, it goes to Rose Bowl game

 

This is yet another scenario why conferences with title games need to re-think the division alignment scenario.

So Stanford plays at UCLA next week. If Stanford wins, it gets a rematch with UCLA the next week in the Pac-12 title game where the stakes are even higher. And most coaches will tell you how hard it is to beat a good team back-to-back, because the other team adjusts to what you are doing. If Stanford loses, it could well lose the North division (assuming Oregon beats Ore State). So, it's a lose-lose situation for poor Stanford.

Meanwhile, it's hardly fair to Oregon, either. The Ducks lose one game in overtime, slaughter everyone else and don't even get to the conference title game? Sort of like Stanford in 2011.

 

Who also beat No. 2 USC and No. 2 Oregon and almost beat No. 1 Notre Dame. The Washington loss? Can't explain it.

But Stanford is as good as any team in the Top 4.

 

If you want a one-word answer: jealousy.

If you want a more detailed explanation......

It goes back to the 50s and 60s when the Irish were winning big, had star players and star coaches like Knute Rockne.

Notre Dame is first and foremost a Catholic school. So non-Catholics hold that against them, too.

Notre Dame has extremely high academic standards, doesn't accept what used to be called "partial qualifiers" and doesn't redshirt incoming freshmen. Fine. ND's mistake is to consistently brag about that, which comes across as "we're better than you".

Notre Dame has the largest fan base in college sports and one that is spread out as oppossed to be concentrated in one geographic area. This led to ND being the first school to secure its own national TV contract to have all of its home football games televised. Unparalled exposure as well as a ton of extra money.

Notre Dame has never been on NCAA probation for rules violations.

Other schools and their fans love to hate Notre Dame, but if they could run their programs the same way with similar results, they would do so in a heartbeat.

 

Agreed. But they won't get a BCS bid with three losses, which means they'll have to beat UCLA twice to get one.

 

They could solve that by making sure the last game of the season is a division game. With an even number of teams in each division, there's no reason it shouldn't be the following every year on the last week of the regular season:

USC vs. UCLA
Arizona vs. Arizona State
Colorado vs. Utah
Washington vs. Washington State
Cal vs. Stanford
Oregon vs. Oregon State

You don't have an odd number of teams in each division (like the SEC) and you don't have any cross-division season-ending rivalries to protect (like Michigan-Ohio State in the Big Ten). It's their own fault.

And by the way, Knute Rockne died in 1931.

 

The awkward moment when Mark2010 makes you rethink your own ND fandom.

 

That's a great point per scheduling.