Sorry RM but some things run deep. I would tell Brian that I would hope he played a great game... but lose.

 

 

Ahhh....I see! Well, I can understand that. :lol: At least you have unshakable loyalty! :thumb:

I really don't think ND's schedule is weak. They play as many top teams as a lot of top programs. The problem is that they haven't beat any top teams. ND lore is loaded with tales of the"luck of the Irish" and upsets. Not so much anymore. It seems like now they pull amazing comebacks to defeat teams they probably should have defeated. Charlie's highlight to date is an "an almost win" against USC. So much for "waking the echoes".

Huh?:confused:

 

Last year ND lost to #3 OSU, #2 USC and MSU. MSU is the only "bad loss."

 

This year ND lost to #2/3 USC, #3/4 LSU and #6/7 Michigan. Since Weis has been at ND, where are the losses to teams that are "good to mediocre?"

 

Once again, I think people need to do a little more research before they bash ND.

Sorry CR but I have to say that its a matter of degrees. They not only lost to those teams, it was a "beat-down" in most cases (MSU maybe not). They finished last year much like this year with people questioning if they should be in the BCS. OSU torched them for 615 yards of offense. Ouch. This year after getting destroyed by their top two opponents they still warranted a top BCS bowl against a top five team. Result...even worse. Top that with the fact that they are looking more and more like a one dimensional (read offensive) team without the balance of having a championship caliber defense. It doesn't help that prior to the bowl game last year ND annointed Weis with a ten year multi-million dollar deal. I wonder what the payoff will be if Charlie can't get it done in...lets say five years? I just wonder who enjoyed last nights game more, me or Ty Willingham?:lol:

I'd have a hard time ranking ND ahead of UK in a poll. At least UK can claim good wins over Clemson and Georgia with a tough loss to Florida.

And at Tennessee.

Sorry CR but I have to say that its a matter of degrees.

Once again, the claim was made that Notre Dame

...lost to teams that are good to mediocre.

 

Hopefully, we can all agree that is not true.

 

They not only lost to those teams, it was a "beat-down" in most cases (MSU maybe not).They finished last year much like this year with people questioning if they should be in the BCS.

ND wasn't "beat-down" by MSU, USC or OSU last year. They lost to MSU and USC on a last second plays and Ohio State scored on a 60 yard run on 3rd and 5 with a 1:46 to go in the game to make it a two touchdown game.

 

This year all three losses were "beat-downs."

 

I wonder what the payoff will be if Charlie can't get it done in...lets say five years? I just wonder who enjoyed last nights game more, me or Ty Willingham?:lol:

Here's what we'll do: I'll bet you a cajun dinner for four at a local eatery that ND plays in National Title game before LSU does. If ND is in such disarray that should be a no brainer, right???

Not sure why everyone is suddenly all over Weis...it's only his second year and he's done a pretty good job if you ask me. For starters, Notre Dame has been better since he got there. They aren't exactly oozing talent currently...does Weis not get the benefit of a little time to improve the talent at ND and then see how they do?

 

He couldn't work a miracle, but give him a couple more recruiting classes to boost the talent there and Notre Dame will be deserving of BCS bowls and they will be able to compete better with the elite teams.

 

I can understand why people get irritated with Notre Dame getting the call when they probably aren't as deserving football-wise, but there is no point in letting that cloud your opinion on the job Weis has done and is doing.

Well said, 5wide. When Weis does improve the Irish with his recruits and they do compete and win, the ND bashers will be nowhere to be found.

Once again, the claim was made that Notre Dame

 

 

Hopefully, we can all agree that is not true.

 

 

ND wasn't "beat-down" by MSU, USC or OSU last year. They lost to MSU and USC on a last second plays and Ohio State scored on a 60 yard run on 3rd and 5 with a 1:46 to go in the game to make it a two touchdown game.

 

This year all three losses were "beat-downs."

 

 

Here's what we'll do: I'll bet you a cajun dinner for four at a local eatery that ND plays in National Title game before LSU does. If ND is in such disarray that should be a no brainer, right???

 

If Russell decides to come back, you may want to rethink that, the Tigers are in a better position to play for one than the Choking Irish.....

 

 

I do agree that Notre Dame does have a solid schedule, however, they need to schedule teams such as Florida, LSU, Auburn, Florida State, Miami, etc. As someone else mentioned earlier, teams with speed kill the Irish.

As I pointed out and in the discussions that have been held on this, it is pretty much the consensus that the big 6 conferences are going to get an automatic bid in any playoff system for their conference championship.

 

The 8-team has been one of the main suggested systems to start with.

 

With 6 bids already out to the conference champions. That leaves 2 spots. One would have gone in a heartbeat to Michigan. That leaves ONE spot for either a Boise State (undefeated team) or LSU. Good chance that the undefeated Boise State team would have gotten the 8th spot.

 

My point is NOT that LSU is not deserving but the thought that a playoff is automatically solve all of the issues is laughable. We have an 8-team playoff this year, great chance either LSU or Boise State is excluded when BOTH would have a great argument to be in and a chance at the national title.

 

Why not do away with the BCS, and simply have a committee, like in the NCAA basketball tournament, pick the best 16 teams in the country at the end of the season for the playoff.

Choose various bowls for the playoff games, and still allow the other bowls to have their games. I know that it would be a little controversial as far as who is left out, but that's always the case with March Madness too.

I have few doubts that in a field of 16 you will have one team that is truly #1 in the nation. The controversial #17 couldn't win the NC anyway.

Heck, you could possibly have 6 or 7 teams from one conference in the field of 16, but what does it matter. You're getting the best teams in the country to PROVE ON THE FIELD that the are undisputably NUMBER ONE.

Weiss didn't want Army and North Carolina to get a good scouting report on them for next year, that's why he was running it up the middle down 20 in the 4th. Second half was a total joke!

:lol:

In defense of Notre Dame, I don't think there is a team in the country that would beat LSU right now, and that includes tO$U.

Who would you have put in over Notre Dame? Remember no one from the SEC or Big Ten can go, so that eliminates Arkansas, Auburn and Wisconsin. Looks like it's between WVU, Rutgers, Texas, Georgia Tech or California. Who did you think was more deserving?

I would've put WVU or Rutgers in over them.

I would've put WVU or Rutgers in over them.

 

 

:thumb:

Use the BCS system to seed the 16-team playoff. Take the champions from the Big East, ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big 12 and Pac-10 as automatic bids, maybe even the Mountain West. Take the best BCS ranking of the other conference champions (Boise State this year) and give them an automatic bid. Award at-large bids to fill out the bracket, and match them up according to seed ... maybe tweak it a bit to keep teams from the same conference from playing each other in the first round.

The BCS does a good job of embarassing itself. It's not Notre Dame's fault.

 

This was probably the only thing that needed to be written... end of thread.

 

But,

 

Centre Rocks has done an admirable job to this point. Surrounded by enemies, arrows sticking out from his chest... the whole heroic cliche thing.

 

The notion that Notre Dame's schedule is decidedly weak is absurd. It's not that bad. You try filling out a 12-game schedule with no automatics because of conference play while taking into consideration long-standing rivalries that all of your alumni want to see. CentreRocks did a good job explaining all of this.

 

In my opinion as a fan, I would've liked to see the Irish in a lesser bowl, specifically either the Gator or Cotton. In the same manner, I'd liked to have seen them play a lesser team. I'm confident that Notre Dame could've beaten Wake Forest or Oklahoma (Louisville and Boise State are somewhat in that mold, but Louisville's offense would have looked much better than it did on Tuesday given Notre Dame's lousy pass defense). The matchup with LSU was big-time... as many have said, the Tigers are easily top four... and when the offense is kicking on all cylinders... possibly the best team in the country.

 

The hatred for the Irish runs so inexplicably deep that I often can't understand it enough to even talk about it. They're doing exactly what they should be doing and taking flak for it. If you want to be mad about the Irish making the BCS, be mad at the BCS, not the guys in South Bend.

This is what a playoff would have looked like, under the system I described above:

 

1 vs. 16 ... Ohio State vs. Brigham Young

8 vs. 9 ... Boise State vs. Auburn

4 vs. 14 ... LSU vs. Wake Forest

5 vs. 13 ... USC vs. West Virginia

2 vs. 15 ... Florida vs. Virginia Tech

7 vs. 10 ... Wisconsin vs. Oklahoma

3 vs. 12 ... Michigan vs. Arkansas

6 vs. 11 ... Louisville vs. Notre Dame

 

If the Mountain West winner doesn't get a bid, Rutgers goes instead of BYU.

 

I tweaked the matchups a bit (with the 3-4-5 seeds) to keep teams from first-round rematches with each other, therefore the weird seed pairings.

 

All in all, a pretty exciting tournament.