Notre Dame = FRAUD

I hear you. People pretty much expect Notre Dame to play a top 20 team every week, and then when Army pops on to the schedule, it's deemed a "pansy" schedule.

 

EweDub played in South Bend in 2004, then Notre Dame returned the trip last year. No cancellation.

 

JoePa burned off a lot of his goodwill in '03 and '04. Trust me, the bandwagon gang once again will be calling for his head if they end up 2-3.

 

Bandwagons aren't the same as firing squads. They can complain as loud as they want, he's going nowhere.

 

Not even remotely close to my point, but neither was STLIrish. My point, again, is that Notre Dame's schedule includes what I'd consider a grand total of two tough games. Michigan at home and Southern Cal on the road.

And, for the record, Army's far from the only pansy on this slate:

at Ga. Tech -- road game against middling ACC team
vs. Penn State -- Would have been a very good game ... last year when Penn State was good
vs. Michigan -- Looks like a challenging game. We'll find out this week.
at Michigan State -- Was 5-7 last year. Beat mighty Idaho by 10 in opener.
vs. PURDUE -- Just finished waxing mighty Miami (no, not that one) in overtime.
vs. STANFORD -- 0-2, with a loss to San Jose State
vs. UCLA -- 2-0, with a 10-point win over powerful Rice.
at Navy (Baltimore) -- Riiiiight. Y'all have beaten them 90 straight times, right?
vs. NORTH CAROLINA -- A joke. Horrible, horrible ACC team.
at Air Force -- Are y'all eligible for the CIC trophy?
vs. ARMY -- Jeebus. You play dog-ass Army, too?
at Southern Cal -- Damn. You actually play a decent team on the road?

So, again. There's AT LEAST five SEC teams that run the table with that schedule.
Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Auburn and LSU.

 

That schedule's tougher than the Big East slate.

 

So should Notre Dame change the schedule when teams start slipping? Purdue is down, so they should punt them and try to get Nebraska perhaps. And since UCLA may be down this year, they should get them off the schedule ASAP and pick up maybe Georgia.

But once Purdue and UCLA get good again, Notre Dame can schedule them again.

And there's no playing Army, Navy or Air Force, even though SEC teams get Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Yet, if Notre Dame did schedule those SEC weaklings, they'd be ripped for it.

 

The average team gets three conference gimmes, at most. Those are pretty well balanced by the conference slate. For example:

UGA: vs. Tenn, at Fla, at Aub. And that's a weak SEC schedule
Fla.: at Tenn., vs. LSU, vs. Aub., vs. Georgia, at FSU
Tenn.: vs. Fla, at UGa, vs. LSU
LSU: at Aub, at UGa, at Tenn

And you're hanging your hat on Purdue and UCLA getting good again? They've got, what? Four good seasons among them in the last 20?

Just admit that you're playing two games this year and enjoy your run to 11-0. Just don't expect anyone to be impressed. And if you don't win a national title, you can always go about winning the Commander In Chief trophy.

 

Purdue: One conference title in the last 39 years.
UCLA: Last conference title in 1998. Bowl games since 2000: Sun, no bowl, Vegas, Silicon Valley, Vegas, no bowl.

And those are the two teams that might have been good?

 

If the average Big East team plays Louisville and W. Va., then I disagree.

 

This week's enormous.

And funny things frequently happen in games vs. Sparty.

But past that, Trojans are all that's left. They outphysical UCLA, and the rest are tomato cans.

 

Tennessee looked real good at home against Air Force, so consider them an enigma. I'll buy Auburn and LSU and maybe Georgia.

But Florida and Tennessee? Gotta figure Phil finds a way to screw it up and Leak hasn't really lived up to the hype.

So that's three. Florida and UT don't run the table and win at USC. Maybe you thought that meant South Carolina tho ... then you'd be right.