College Football '10 - Conference switching chaos!!

[Imran Siddiqui]

The BCS formula won't be changed simply because Notre Dame finishes 3rd instead of 2nd. The Coaches Poll and Harris Polls will both count equally and count as one block in a percentage of the total calculation, with the accumulation of the computer polls counting as a block for the rest of the percentage.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The BCS formula won't be changed simply because Notre Dame finishes 3rd instead of 2nd. The Coaches Poll and Harris Polls will both count equally and count as one block in a percentage of the total calculation, with the accumulation of the computer polls counting as a block for the rest of the percentage.

[DanS]

You are deliberately misunderstanding me. If ND feels like it got hosed in the coaches poll, then ND can pull out of the BCS agreement for the next round, which will then collapse. You can finish 3rd and feel like you got a reasonably fair shake. Also, as one example, Oklahoma can feel like it got hosed but has no recourse except through its conference. It's a benefit of being a strong independent.

[Drake Tungsten]

The BCS won't collapse if Notre Dame pulls out; it's still a great deal for the BCS conferences even if Notre Dame refuses to participate. ND would be left out in the cold if they did pull out of the BCS and would be giving up a shot at a massive payday every year, which is why they'll never do it.

This discussion is kind of pointless, though, as it's unlikely that Notre Dame will have to worry about playing in a BCS title game any time soon. What they really need to be worrying about is another long BCS drought that will damage the athletic program's finances. While Notre Dame has the advantage of not having to share the loot that comes from playing in a BCS game, they also don't have the advantage of sharing the BCS money earned by other schools. It's either feast or famine for the Golden Domers, which is why ya'll should be thanking Ty Willingham for recruiting the players that got you to two straight BCS games.

[Boris Godunov]

Anyway, Oregon vs. Oregon State... this has been a great game! But it looks like the Ducks are getting ready to bring it home. Still, the Beavers have played very well, they look really good.

[DanS]

The BCS won't collapse if Notre Dame pulls out; it's still a great deal for the BCS conferences even if Notre Dame refuses to participate.

Yes, but it's an agreement among the BCS conferences, the bowls, and Notre Dame. Everybody's back has to be scratched in the agreement. A few of the bowls wouldn't go forward without Notre Dame. Excluding Notre Dame would be very bad business for them.

While Notre Dame has the advantage of not having to share the loot that comes from playing in a BCS game, they also don't have the advantage of sharing the BCS money earned by other schools.

No longer true. That arrangement ended 4 years ago. Really, you don't have a clue about ND's perspective on things, so why pretend that you do? Educating you on the basics is becoming tedious.

[Boris Godunov]

Ducks to the Rose Bowl! W00t!

[Drake Tungsten]

A few of the bowls wouldn't go forward without Notre Dame.

Whatever, dude...

[Drake Tungsten]

The more I think about it, the more I feel that Turner Gill would be a perfect fit for Notre Dame. Consider the following points...

1. The man can coach. Gill took Buffalo (one of the worst teams in FBS football) to a conference championship in just his third year as coach.

2. Gill comes from a winning tradition, having been a part of three national championship teams over the past 20 years (compared to zero for Notre Dame).

3. The national press loves him. Hiring Gill would go a long way toward improving the image of Notre Dame as a racist institution that followed their shameful treatment of Ty Willingham.

4. Gill's race might also help Notre Dame keep up in recruiting battles with better schools. Notre Dame had its best recruiting classes under a black head coach and there's no reason to think that another black head coach couldn't have the same success.

5. Gill is also familiar with the MAC recruiting grounds that Notre Dame will need to work to improve their talent level on defense.

If I were Jack Swarbrick, I'd be going hard after Turner Gill. While it's likely that he would take a job offer at Kansas over an offer at Notre Dame, ND needs to get in there just in case the Jayhawks do something stupid.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Oregon

Great game as well (the best Civil War in recent memory). Oregon State played very well.

[Imran Siddiqui]

If ND feels like it got hosed in the coaches poll, then ND can pull out of the BCS agreement for the next round, which will then collapse.

"which will then collapse"

Soooo full of yourselves.

[Drake Tungsten]

Next ND coach in no-win situation

One of these days, someone will accept the head football job at Notre Dame. He will be the 15th post-Rockne mentor, and he will be attempting to satisfy a generally unrealistic constituency, far too many of whom are so captivated by the Notre Dame mystique they fail to realize it is the early 21st century and there are new collegiate sports dynamics.

Whoever this gentleman is, he will more than likely not win a national championship and he will not become an emperor.

The Notre Dame saga was a completely amazing one, but it was a 20th century tale. Notre Dame was quite the regional power, having gone 38-2-5 in the years 1907-12, and was 3-0 in the 1913 season when the story really began with the Irish traveling to play mighty Army at West Point on Nov. 1. It was the first time Notre Dame had ventured east of Pittsburgh, and it did so, according to legend (always a Notre Dame staple) with 18 players and 14 sets of cleats.

On that day, modern football commenced. Fully utilizing a legal but almost completely ignored tactic known as the forward pass, ND quarterback Gus Dorais threw 17 times, completing 14 for 242 yards and three touchdowns, with his favorite target being end Knute Rockne. Notre Dame blew out the Cadets, 35-13.

Notre Dame was now known to all sports fans, and the school would become a national phenomenon in the 1920s with Rockne as coach. The school was adopted by Catholics in every large American city, as well as by many so-called subway alumni, who, not having a preferred school of their own, chose to back the one heard on national radio and seen in the newsreels.

The school was prominent enough by 1940 to warrant the Hollywood treatment in “Knute Rockne All American,’’ and that was before Frank Leahy jumped from Chestnut Hill to South Bend, elevating Notre Dame to even greater heights with an 87-11-9 record in his 11 seasons.

If there was an occasional bump in the coaching road (e.g. Joe Kuharich, 17-23), along would come an Ara Parseghian (95-17-4). Gerry Faust (30-26-1) begat Lou Holtz (100-30-2). It was an idyllic world in which Golden Domers believed they had some sort of divine right to championships.

But it’s now 2009, and it’s over. O-V-E-R. For very good reasons, the three Holtz successors have gone a combined 91-67, and Notre Dame no longer scares anybody.

It would be nice if Notre Dame partisans could accept the fact that Notre Dame is no longer the destination it once was for all those big-city Catholic school linemen, quarterbacks, and running backs, that when Notre Dame was atop the collegiate world in the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, and even the ’60s, it was a time when African-Americans were systematically excluded from many big programs, and not just those in the South.

The recruiting landscape is completely different to begin with, and the fact that Notre Dame is an academically challenging school makes life even harder for any Notre Dame coach. No one is asking Notre Dame to abandon its principles. Notre Dame has a right to run itself as it sees fit. But the Golden Domers need to realize that under its self-imposed restrictions, Notre Dame is no longer a school that has a right to expect a national championship.

As long as Notre Dame cares as deeply about football as it does, another championship is always a possibility. But it is not a probability. The new coach will undoubtedly come in saluting Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian, and Holtz, and he may very well have some charming little tale of growing up a Notre Dame fan and knowing all the words to that great fight song. He’ll do that because he’ll be expected to do that. It’s what the Golden Domers want to hear.

What he should be saying, of course, is that, sure, I’m proud to be here, and this school has a great football legacy and all, but we’re in the 21st century now and our realistic goal is to be a top 20, maybe even a top 10 team. He should be saying that, you know, if all the tumblers fall into place some year and we have the right blend and the right schedule and the requisite amount of luck, we are one of the 15 or 20 programs that could come away with a championship. But we’ll need more luck than you could imagine, because many of the advantages we once had do not exist anymore.

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/football/articles/2009/12/04/next_nd_coach_in_no_win_situation/

[Imran Siddiqui]

And in another bad move for ND, it looks like they won't accept a bowl invite:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4713316

[DanS]

Drake: Typical Boston College grad FUD.

[Drake Tungsten]

That's a very convincing rebuttal.