Maybe we should be used to it by now. Maybe we were riding this weird “like” wave after Notre Dame’s run in the playoffs last season. Maybe after Notre Dame started 0-2 — most people just put them in the background.
Maybe.
Notre Dame is 7-2 and will likely be ranked #9 in by the CFP Committee tonight, and it’s making people lose their minds (again). It’s not surprising as it’s the same tired tropes we’ve heard again and again throughout the years. People are mad that Notre Dame isn’t in a conference and they believe the Irish pick an easy schedule to play every year.
Obviously this is a ridiculous belief. I’m not going to sit here and defend Notre Dame against the countless bullshit comments about their conference affiliation or schedule structure, but just the fact that so many of these fans don’t account for when these games are actually scheduled is baffling to me. While there may be a game or two missing from the public schedule for the next year’s schedule, the schedule agreements are years (sometimes a decade) in the works.
It’s making people crazy. They hear the phrase “Notre Dame Football,” and start throwing nonsense at them like the political right calling the left “loony” and the political left calling the right “radical” — because everyone is an expert now.
And while much of these tropes were thrown out of the discussion while Notre Dame won three playoff games last year to make it to the national championship game, I think it’s that fear that they will do it again is why people are just saying things to say things.
Texas Tech head coach, Joey McGuire, is now a very famous example of this. The Red Raiders are 9-1 and ranked ahead of the Irish, and instead of just promoting his own team and their accomplishments thus far — he tries to call out Notre Dame with a poor comparison with their fellow Big 12 member, BYU.
It’s this notion that somehow being in a conference somehow creates a tougher schedule than the Independent route that Notre Dame takes, is what sells quicker and easier than water in a desert. The Notre Dame schedule this year, for example, has 6 ACC teams, 2 Big 10 teams, 2 SEC teams, 1 Mountain West team, and 1 American team. That’s 10 Power 4 games if you like math.
But again… not good enough for the naysayers.
Every single argument against Notre Dame being in a conference (strength of schedule for example) is either nonsensical or proven wrong again, and again. And yet, the onslaught of Notre Dame “hate” builds up this mass hysteria that creeps out of almost every fanbase.
They don’t care about being right. They care about their place in line, and believe the Irish have the Disney Fast Pass. Rankings have ALWAYS been subjective and have ALWAYS included a wild mix of resume and eye test. There is no one formula that is the standard no matter how much people want it to be. This mix and loose guideline is the real villain here.
The ACC, for example, is in real danger of not having ANY teams in the 12 team college football playoff thanks to Miami losing two games they were favored in — and looking worse as the season progresses. The way the ACC schools have been eating themselves isn’t proof that the conference is tough, it’s proof that they are full of teams that aren’t very good to begin with. We could see a situation where the American and Sun Belt Conferences would join the Big 10, SEC, and Big 12 as part of the “highest ranked 5 conference champions” thus possibly squeezing out the ACC.
So when the ACC social media team puts out a tweet trying to argue against Miami’s ranking compared to Notre Dame’s, you can just smell the fear. That fear contrasts Pat Narduzzi’s weird mindset of I don’t care if we lose by 100 to Notre Dame because it’s not a conference game because Pitt COULD be that saving grace for the ACC should they beat ND and win the conference.
This is all making people crazy, and maybe it’s supposed to. Notre Dame’s independence is the last vestige of a college football world that is too quickly tossed to the side for the sake of the almighty dollar (the irony is astounding). College football isn’t supposed to fit neatly into one box — or 10 boxes for that matter. College football is supposed to be messy and nutso and unpredictable to the point of predictability.
Maybe fans would do well to remember the 2007 LSU Tigers going to the BCS National Championship game with 2 losses. Maybe fans could actually watch the games and not just listen to some random podcast clip. Maybe fans would be less hysterical about their team and their position if the teams were actually good.
Maybe… but I was somewhat wrong. It’s not just Notre Dame’s independence isn’t the last vestige of traditional college football — it’s how crazy it makes everyone.
