Dear Notre Dame, You are not special
NOTRE DAME. YOU. ARE. NOT. SPECIAL. GET. OVER. IT.
For those of you who did not watch insane finish in the Michigan-Notre Dame game, you missed a doozy. Michigan entered the 4th quarter down 24-7 in a game marked by complete ineptitude from the Michigan defense and 18 penalties (9 each). They also entered the 4th quarter on 3rd and goal from the ND one yard line. Denard Robinson handed it off to his RB who had the ball knocked from his hands charging into the trenches. Mr. Robinson scooped up the loose ball and trotted into the end zone- I’ve never seen that happen. That touchdown sparked a 15 minute performance by Michigan that poured on 28 points (almost 35 had they maintained possession in the fumbled kickoff return in the last 2 seconds).
The Wolverines took their first lead 58 minutes and 58 seconds into the game (that means for 98.3% of the game Michigan was losing). Then the Michigan defense did what they do best and let ND go 61 yards in 42 seconds to retake the lead. Now down by 3 with 30 seconds left, not to be out done by ND’s 61 yard march, Michigan moved 80 yards in 28 seconds to score with 2 seconds remaining taking the lead for good. Wowzers. First game under the lights with an NCAA record of 114,000 people. I wish I was there and don’t even like either team!
You may have noticed that the title of this article has some grumbles in it but I seem to be summarizing the dramatic finish to the ND-Michigan game. No worries, things will now get grumpy.
After the loss, I heard a lot of reporting from the media asking some variant of the question: “Are ND’s BCS chances dashed?”…… YES! YES THEY ARE! ND HAS LOST 2 GAMES TO 2 UNRANKED OPPONENTS! Why is that even a question. The only way a team gets into a BCS game after losing to 2 unranked opponents is by getting the automatic BCS bid from one of the 6 BCS conferences and chances are great that team sucks (see most ACC and Big East BCS performances). And guess what Notre Dame, you were too arrogant to join a conference. You thought you were special enough to warrant BCS privileges simply because you’re Notre Dame. How special does the following make you:
In the past 3 seasons you are 1-5 against ranked opponents with your sole victory coming over Utah. During that same span you are 1 game over 0.500 against BCS conference opponents (15-14).
Since 1994 you have 2 bowl victories. You’ve beaten Hawaii and a 7-5 Miami team (congrats on your bowl winning streak!). In 2007 you set the NCAA record for most consecutive bowl losses at 9. You also turned down a bowl bid in 2009 because you felt you were better than the toilet bowl bid you earned using the dismissal of your coach as the excuse. I’ve never seen college football players turn down the opportunity to play football.
When you actually get to a BCS game things get even worse. In your 3 BCS appearances you have netted 0 wins. You have lost all 3 by a combined score of 116-43 or on average, each game 38-14.
In summary: against BCS-eligible competition you are at best mediocre; against ranked competition your win percentage is below Obama’s approval rating; against BCS Bowl competition you cannot even compete. Those are called facts of reality and they can be hard to swallow. Trust me. I know. I was at the Florida-OSU BCS Title game.
Now with your 0-2 start after starting the season at #16, why are people still clinging to your BCS chances? Where is the merit for your BCS talk? Don’t give me that crap that about being “in” both of your losses. That your offensive output was double that of South Florida or that you were whipping Michigan for over 58 minutes. You are also averaging 5 turnovers a game - dead last in the country in turnover margin - and 8.5 penalties (T-14th most penalized). Did I mention those numbers are coming against unranked teams? I was going to give you some room after the USF game given that it was is the first game of the season and gitters are common but add Michigan to the mix and you’re one game away from making it a habit. If you’re self-destructing against South Florida and a rebuilding Michigan program, what do you expect to happen when you head to Stanford?
I haven’t clarified whom I’m speaking to when I say “you” in reference to Notre Dame. I have no beef with the actual Notre Dame players. It’s their fans and the media that provides special privileges to them. ESPN gives them their own columnist. Until this year, each BCS conference got the same one-columnist treatment (several conferences now have 2). There’s a set of articles called “What We Learned: Week ##” for each conference. The entire SEC conference got the same article as the singular Notre Dame team. Notre Dame has a huge fan base and the media is giving the people want they want but I guarantee that base is not bigger than Alabama, Auburn and LSU combined. And that’s just one half of one division of one conference.
Here’s where I give Notre Dame credit. They play one of the most unique and challenging schedules in the country. In 2011 they will play 3 ACC schools (Wake, Maryland and Boston College), 3 Big Ten Schools (Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue), 2 Pac-12 schools (USC and Stanford), 2 Big East schools (South Florida and Pitt) and 2 Service Academies (Air Force and Navy). No other program in the country will play a schedule that takes a cross-section of football across the U.S. like Notre Dame. While most of those schools are not the creme-de-la-creme of their conferences (Pac-12 excluded), there’s a respectable amount of challenge there.
Unique schedule or not, Notre Dame has to start winning games that count before automatically joining the BCS conversation.
~Dan
