Who Will be the Next Coach at Notre Dame

Sorry, but Notre Dame playing football in the Big East makes no sense. Right now they recruit nationally, they play a national schedule, they maintain traditional rivalries with everyone from Michigan to USC to Navy, and they get a boatload of revenue from a good TV contract. If they win 10 games, they're in the BCS.
Put them in the Big East, and they're locked in to 8 games a year with second and third-tier programs, they become a regional school, with a regional recruiting base, and they probably lose that NBC contract, because who wants to watch ND play Syracuse, Rutgers and UConn every week?
All so they can get a shot at the Big East's BCS berth (for however much longer the current convoluted bowl structure lasts)? No thanks.
If they must join a conference, let it be the Big 10. But they can make it as an independent as long as NBC allows.

 

For what it's worth, this Domer is looking forward to the Brian Kelly era. Stoops would have been something. But he was the best realistic option. Good move.

 

The simple fact that the NCAA allows them, or any school for that matter, to be an independent while participating in other sports as a member of a conference. And further, allowing its platform that crowns the "national champion" to provide special provisions it doesn't make available to all institutions that function as independents, based on the simple fact they're Notre Dame.

 

I seem to recall A LOT of ND games against those teams in recent years.

And ND plays Pitt, UConn, South Florida and Syracuse on its future skeds. ND and Rutgers had a six-game series planned that was deep-sixed because Rutgers didn't want to play its home games in East Rutherford.

So spare the Big East is too good for ND line.

 

What "special provisions"? You know how many other independents there are? Two. Army and Navy. So you're upset that Army and Navy are getting a raw deal?

And Notre Dame's BCS deal isn't that sweet. They went 9-2 in 2002 in the big Ty Willingam "Return to Glory" season and didn't get into a BCS game.

This is the extent of your argument: "I hate Notre Dame. So Notre Dame should join the Big East because I hate them."

 

Paul Daugherty in the Cincy Enquirer today trots out that coaches who "leave before their contract is up" should have to sit out a year. Can't say I agree with that. There are fair, bargained-for liquidated damages written into the contracts. Kelly has to pay $1 million, I believe. This is the free market, and this is how it works. This is their careers, and it's a lot more acceptable for a professional grown man to job hop, like we do in every other profession, than to have 19-year-olds make a complete farce of the system by map-jumping from school to school every year.

The best way to fix the system so coaches could coach their bowl games would be an early signing period so that recruiting wouldn't be such a pressing issue in December. Plus, without a playoff system, you're not going to get guys to stay to coach in a meaningless exhibition game. You just aren't.

 

They've been playing Pitt for years. Long before the Big East existed.
And, because they are in the Big East in other sports, they have a deal with the conference wherein they play, I believe, three teams each season (BC's been a holdover the last couple of years). And aside from Pitt, these games are rarely at the Big East schools. Most have smaller stadiums than anyone else ND plays. It's typically a 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 kind of deal.
But there's a big difference between playing 3 Big East teams a year and having 8 home and homes with them. The difference is what lets ND play teams like Washington, or Utah (in 2010) or Oklahoma (in a couple of years) or North Carolina or UCLA or Tennessee. It gives them the flexibility to play a national schedule. Why give that up, again?

 

Actually, I don't believe ND accepts transfer players. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's the case.

 

Wrong on all counts, Irish.
If ND wanted to be in the Big East and drew the line at 7 conference games, the league would sign them up faster than Chris Johnson runs the 40. ND also would be allowed to keep its NBC TV contract if that were a deal-breaker.
Playing in the BE, ND would get a base schedule including Pitt, Cincy, West Virginia, Louisville, all respectable opponents, then could throw Michigan, USC, Navy on top of that. Playing in the BE would allow ND to play for an actual championship, something players do value. It would not be the least bit limiting or confining. Miami defined its national-power status as a Big East member. ND, with vision, could do the same. ND has no vision, except that of the past.

 

If ND joined the Big East, they would have their x amount of conference games. But then to preserve their traditional rivalries they would have to add on top of that USC, Michigan and Michigan State. That would be the most brutal non-conference schedule in the country and they would end up with a strength of schedule ranked in the top 3 every year. Probably not what they really want. If they joined a conference, they'd have to dumben down their non-conference schedule like every other team does.

Either they join a conference and lose their traditional rivalries or they remain independent and listen to all the "join a conference" arguments. It's a no-win.

And in regards to the "special priveleges" ND gets for winning 10 games ............ please. Are you telling me that the system of determining a "national champion" is so fair that ND's situation throws it off balance? We all know the "national championship" system is a freakin joke and no special priveleges by ND is going to make it any less fair than it already is. And yes, a 1 or 2 loss ND team should get priority over an undefeated Mountain West team because ND's schedule is FAR tougher than Boise State's or Utah's. Same goes for a 1 or 2 loss SEC team because their schedule is even tougher yet.

 

Exactly right.