23andCounting

Revisiting this topic: Kelly seems to be laying low waiting for a good opportunity to arise. Take a year off and see what happens with Wisconsin, Florida State, South Carolina, or Nebraska? Would any of those programs be interested? What about Purdue? Would Kelly be a good fit there? Personally, I think he'd rather be at the beach then taking over the Boilermakers. Like the guy or hate him, I feel that he's too good of a coach for one the forementioned programs not to go all-in on him. The SEC doesn't seem to respect him anymore, so I'm thinking maybe Wisconsin or Nebraska if those two programs have uninspiring years. Wisconsin most likely. He seems more revered in the Midwest.

I think character had a lot to do with it. I don't think that always the case when a program goes after a head coach.........see LSU. Freeman was the perfect guy for the job from a character perspective. Speaking of LSU, there was NO WAY Notre Dame was going to allow LSU to take their head coach AND one of the most sought after young coordinators in the country. If Freeman went to LSU, that would have been a curb stomping of all curb stompings. Notre Dame was retaining this guy at all costs. Risky move, but sometimes risks are rewarded.

Certainly you're not comparing Freeman to Davie, Willingham, Weis, and Kelly. Now, Kelly was a good coach, it was widely accepted that Notre Dame under his leadership was a Top 10 program. Right now Notre Dame is Top 5. I don't think it's off the wall to think the Irish has as good of a chance as anyone this season.

I can't say I blame FWCS for doing it that way. I can also see where Carroll and Homestead wouldn't want any part of that.

Is that uncommon? Presuming most other conferences don't?

Again, do we know it was they who initiated it and not the smaller schools? Need more facts.

I need to fix my typo. I keep referencing South Side, when it was Concordia who dropped Carroll and Homestead. And as far as those to programs thinking they are "too good" for the SAC, are we even sure it was they who initiated the cancellations? How do we know it wasn't Concordia who initiated it? I think you're speculating with the "too good" comment. Personally, I thought the SAC was just fine the way it was. So what if Concordia has to play Homestead and Carroll some years. They still play their four division rivals of similar size, and they still get to schedule two out of conference games against opponents who are similar to them. Before speculating any further, it would be nice to know which schools initiated this and why. If you ask @Komets2727, he'll probably tell you that Homestead and Carroll have no business playing any program smaller than 5A. And quite frankly, I think a lot of posters on here would agree with him. I've already expressed my opinion. Carroll and Homestead give Concordia a benchmark to get better. Concordia gives those two an opportunity to rest some players and experiment. A win/win if you ask me.

But when it mattered the most, at the end of the season, the B1G showed out.............proving that the previous two years wasn't a fluke. Now that's the streak is three years, will the committee finally pop out of their state of denial and recognize that the B1G is the best conference in the league? Miami should have never been a bubble team when we all knew that Alabama was not. Anyone with a pulse could see how well the Hurricanes were playing that first week they were left out of the playoff picture. If you way their two losses mid-season with how they were playing at the end of the season against Alabama's three losses, in my opinion, it was a no-contest. This whole thing comes down to Alabama and the committee's bias toward the SEC. And what did we get? We got a 38-3 instead of a 24-20. The tide proved what most fans north and west of the bible belt knew all along........the Tide didn't belong, and as a result, they got rolled. The whole thing honestly comes down to Alabama or Notre Dame, not so much the B1G getting three in versus the the SEC's five. And you said it yourself. Notre Dame would have steamrolled Alabama. Last year's post season was telling, bottom line.

Yeah, but Cignetti appears to be a different beast. The man made IU a champion after two seasons. That's not a typo. IU is our national champion. There's something different about Cignetti. It's like there's a gap between him and everyone else. Smart and Freeman...............great coaches. But damn, I'm betting on this guy. One can only presume that the level of talent that he has to work with will only get better.

Notre Dame is on solid ground. I think last year against IU would have been 50/50. If Cignetti gets his hands on some 4 & 5 star recruits, I'm not sure how Indiana isn't the team of the next decade. We don't even know if Marcus Freeman will be around in 5 years. Cignetti is going nowhere. That being said, I think both Notre Dame and IU are Top 5 teams this year, with a slight edge to the Irish.

Because South Side dropped them. South also dropped Carroll. It's hard not to respect Carroll and Homestead for after the state's best.

I'm off the wall for thinking that? Explain.

In the meantime, Notre Dame players continue to pick the Irish for the academics and continue to impressively articulate themselves in post game interviews. And still the most hated football team in the country even though college football is suppose to represent education. Posts like the one above just make my bond with Notre Dame even stronger. I will say this about the people of Georgia though.............some of the nicest people I've ever come across. Same with Florida. Midwest hospitality is pretty good overall, but the south takes the cake.

Your analysis of Michigan and SC is debatable. The SEC was overrated last year, plain and simple. Have to have at least 16 though. Having only 12 proves that one of the best teams in the country could be left out. Hell, Miami was a bubble team for crying out loud. It has to be 16, the committee really struggled last year. You think the ACC's tiebreaker system was a bigger issue than five SEC teams getting the nod compared to the B1G's three? Five SEC teams an no Notre Dame? C'mon. The committee is either biased or stupid, no in between.

I really don't have any inside information on this, just speculation. I certainly don't have a problem with things they way they are in it's current form. Maybe it's the smaller schools wanting to push them out rather than vise versa? I like the South Side/Carroll game. It pushes South to be their best and it gives Carroll an opportunity to give second stringers valuable playing time. It's a win/win if you ask me. And if South Side continues their upward trajectory under the guidance of Andre Goodwell, then the game against Carroll becomes even more important as South prepares for deep 4A runs.

I think Purdue has an insider for football and IU has an insider for basketball. IU would have been in the last two tournaments if the field was 76 then :).

Correct.

Homestead replaced South Side with Warren Central. I would think the memory of beating Warren Central would supersede the memory of defeating South Side on the way to an SAC title. What good is it to say "we're conference champions" if you get waxed by the best teams on your schedule? I think the goal is to get better and make deep playoff runs.

And why not play a soft non-conference schedule? None of the past three national champions played a Power 4 program in the non-conference. Good point with "The bigger the playoff field, the more marquee non-conference games we will see." I guess that's one reason to root for a 24 team field. I still think it makes the field watered down. But I might lean that way now that you brought up that point. With a sixteen team field, you're likely never to see another Notre Dame vs USC game. And I don't blame USC, they did what was best for them. They don't need the Irish. They can impress "the committee" based on their B1G schedule alone. But.........if it comes down to a 2-loss USC team or a 3-loss SEC team, they're in big trouble. The committee needs to go. Let the computers handle it. Or the AP and Coaches Poll. Sorry, the committee is just an embarrassment to the system.

Well, 27 years ago they waxed Carmel in the regionals before bowing out to Penn in a hard fought semi-state game..........if that counts. At the end of the day, a bunch of 6A schools from the north are more likely to include Northrop in their conference than a bunch of smaller schools. Due to their enrollment and resources, they are a much better fit to rumble with the big boys. I get they at they play more on the level of a Columbia City or a Dekalb, but their ceiling is MUCH higher. Northrop's boys just took home the SAC track title, and that's nothing new. They've always been good at track. The talent is there.

Film experts and Vegas Odds are just simply two good examples of what the public perception (those who know what they are talking about) was about Notre Dame. At the end of the day, five teams from the SEC (2nd best conference) compared to the B1G's three is a total sham. I could put together a committee from this forum who could have done a better job than the current one we have. Notre Dame vs IU would have been a classic. Instead the country was left with an embarrassing 38-3. Still wondering what posters think of 16 or 24. I think 24 is kind of a joke. I'm siding with the SEC on this one. Based on what transpired last season, 12 apparently isn't enough. Sixteen is the number in my opinion.

South Side? Really? They weren't a bad team with Jason Doerffler running the show. He recorded wins over North Side & Luers (multiple wins) and wins over Homestead and Carroll. Yeah, Bowen's teams were pretty bad, but last season is a good example of what a subpar coach can do with a massive amount of talent. They just need a coach who's willing to stick around long term to build the program. Again, it really comes down to travel. If the big boys of the SAC are looking to create a stronger conference, they'd be foolish not to include 6A Northrop. So what if the Bruins are having a bad year.........makes for a good tune-up game for their opponents.

Why should anyone schedule a Top 10 opponent outside of conference? All you have to do is look at what happened to Notre Dame last year. It's no wonder the best teams are gravitating toward cupcakes for their non-conference opponents. That tells me that the better programs in the country, USC being one of them, really have no desire to schedule the Irish. Probably doesn't matter though. An undefeated ND squad blowing through mid-tier opponents will still make the 12-team field. One loss still gets them into a 16-team field. The B1G is off their rocker with this 24 team nonsense.

Congrats to Homestead for picking up Warren Central in Week 9. That gives the Spartans three Indy 6A teams. Go big or go home.....love it!

What's weird about looking at the entire body of work over an entire season? Computers cut through all the crap, the kind of crap the the committee is full of. Anyone with a football pulse could sense that Notre Dame was a Top 5 team last year, but the committee couldn't? If the committee had any brains at all, they would have paid closer attention to how Miami played after the first playoff ranking was announced. Damn, those clowns almost eliminated the second best team in the country in favor of Alabama. They did eliminate a team that film experts called the third best team in the country. ESPN had Notre Dame as a 5 point favorite in Norman just days before the snub. Anyone in their right mind think that IU would have beaten ND 38-3? C'mon. Long story short, the committee needs to go. Replace them with computers.........or at least the AP and Coaches Poll. Too much bias behind closed doors. I'm pretty sure an IU insider had something to do with this decision.