PDB26

Totally understand your position, I'm just not sure ND didn't have a fair path this season because they were not in a conference. Vandy finished 10-2 in the SEC but lost to the two teams they needed to get one win against, just like Notre Dame lost to the two teams they needed to get one win against. I agree that the administration must re-examine the value of independence. SC's membership in the Big Ten makes joining that conference a better proposition than ever. ND likely keeps its annual game with SC, and can schedule Navy out of conference.

Bash, gotta do a better job consuming information on the internet. Pete NAKOS is a real person, Pete NOKOS is not.

First, Miami is in the ACC and made the playoff. Second, it makes more sense to take the 12 best teams in football. If we want to have a subjective committee or design a computer ranking, that's a stylistic choice, but guaranteeing a G5 team a spot doesn't make a ton of sense, especially in many years when it is likely there will be a well-rested Big Ten or SEC team sitting at number 5. Third, ND has nobody to blame but themselves for losing to Miami and A&M. They also have nobody to blame but themselves for their arrangement with the ACC. I think there are plenty of walkover teams in the middle and bottoms of all conferences, but ND's ACC arrangement has aged poorly, especially with Clemson and Florida State backsliding and no guarantee for the league to give ND teams at the top of the league. The NBC deal is worth to Notre Dame about what each Big Ten team takes from the league's media rights.

Not only do the SEC and Big Ten want four guarantees, but, I’m fairly certain, they want to be able to allocate those births as they see fit.

I’m a ND fan who has cared little for independence, particularly when it was clearly costing them a ton of money and opportunities to pour money into football as the media rights skyrocketed over the past 15 years, but I’m not sure what is exactly arrogant about being independent. For a long time conference affiliation mattered for little more than bowl opportunities, and it’s likely the only reason independent programs like Penn State, Florida State, and Miami joined conferences was for money after the NCAA lost control of television. As for greed, that’s spread fairly equally around the sport—looking especially at the league offices in Rosemont and Birmingham. I don’t know if it’s a message to join a league or not, but it’s at least a message that the arrangement with the ACC is going to be more problematic without assurances that Miami and, I guess, Clemson appear on the schedule with greater frequency. Maybe ND can join the Big Ten with one other program so the league can split into two ten team divisions where they play nine conference games.

Makes more sense to me and explains why Norvell was retained.

Big eh so long as there aren’t safety concerns. I suppose it’s possible coaches, generally, like the rules so they don’t have to be the bad guy policing how their players look.

Coach is just being modest, he was Penn State’s first call.

Ya just hate to see it.

That's why I was saying they shouldn't have moved off after they interviewed him. Should have taken the Dan Lanning, Marcus Freeman approach. It would be interesting to know what their plan was from the start, I assume they thought they could get to Cignetti, maybe Urban. At any rate, they overvalued their position.

I'll preface this by saying Alabama should be ahead of Notre Dame despite the losses to a horrific Florida State and an offenseless Oklahoma, no 10-2 teams will have been done an injustice if excluded this year––someone has to be the first one out and all did their best to play themselves into their predicaments, and I think ND is probably the toughest out of the teams on the bubble. Sure, the committee felt pressure to move Alabama up because they can't leave a participant in the SEC title game exposed to the chaos scenario where an upset by BYU makes the final three spots in the field auto bids. They could, but don't want to have to move Alabama up after a loss in the title game just because other teams behind them won. They can keep 10-3 Alabama at 9 with a straight face should chaos ensue among the teams behind them.

Way too many podcasts. They needed to go all in for Hartline. Penn State is in disarray.

They’re in a bad spot, and I get what you’re saying. It’s hard to see the AD surviving this one, and, to me, even harder to see him surviving replacing James Franklin with a guy who wins and loses about the same, gets along with basically nobody, and isn’t interested in recruiting.

He’s radioactive and on the wrong side of 60. Part of what he did that was great at Notre Dame was to drag the administration and the program into the 21st century. He left because he was tired of fighting that battle and didn’t want to have to recruit as hard as you have to at ND. Penn State doesn’t need to change, they just need a guy like James Franklin who recruits and develops relationships with his players.

Might even get two G5 auto bids this year. Miami’s situation is just the latest example of the lunacy of these bloated conferences. 10-2 and the highest ranked ACC team, yet they’re sitting at home with two league losses having played neither of the teams in the league championship game. I don’t think Alabama has to get blown out for ND to get in. The committee is engineering outcomes when part of the rationale for Alabama moving past Notre Dame is: first, they won a rivalry game 27-20 and second, they led that game 17-0. They think Alabama should be in regardless of outcome this weekend—which is fine by me—but they can’t leave them exposed to the chaos of other upsets at 10. If they lose they can move back one spot, so long as BYU and Duke don’t win, and if one of those other games ends up an upset they stay where they are.

I think there are at least a few ways to look at it. Yours is one, and not unlikely. I think it is equally likely that ND and Alabama invert positions if Alabama loses and BYU loses. Alabama isn’t going to be left out at this point, so BYU provides cover to move 10-3 Alabama down one and keep ND in—which it has seemed they have wanted to do this whole time. It’s possible they don’t change any team’s ranking after the weekend, though that seems less unlikely.

Talk about stepping on a rake.

It seems like everything going chalk in the ACC, Big 12, and SEC games would be the best case for ND. If so, the ACC is likely a one-team league, the Big 12 is almost surely a one-team league, and 10-3 Bama either stays between ND and any other at-large teams (Miami) or drops out entirely. ND might be able to survive an upset in any one of those three games, but two or more upsets would probably sink the Irish.

Couldn’t agree more!

Nothing actually changed. Kelly drops his action against LSU, LSU officially fires Kelly without cause, and their contract that awards Kelly damages which he is obligated to mitigate is still effective.

All I can relate to is that Carroll made a bunch of plays in the fourth quarter to win that game and Penn didn’t.

Probably. I’m not ready to conclude that the byes are a disadvantage yet since the format was nonsensical, but this year could be conclusive.

They should resurrect the BCS computer and take the top 12 or 11 if they must insist on a G5 sacrificial lamb.

I think you’re almost always coming out early if you’re the number one QB, but it’s easy to come up with a set of facts that would suggest staying one more year. It’s hard to see the incentive for either party to the NFL CBA to negotiate the draft eligibility age down to 18.

Interesting question. I think not.