Who Will be the Next Coach at Notre Dame

Massive erection. Wait, whut?!

After that 555-yard game, I couldn't get enough of him.

 

Yeah. I hear ya. Dude lit it up when he got the chance. I thought for sure he was coming in for Pike against Pitt. Ballsy call to stick with Pike in that spot, but it paid off for sure.

 

As I recall, ND coaxed the Big East invite/ bizarro-world arrangement at least partially on flirtatious little hints that if it "ever felt the time was right to join a football conference," the BE would be first on the list.

 

If joining the conference is the best overall for all the programs, why not join in football as well. Its the best for "student-athletes" in basketball and everything else. The Irish already play a number of BE teams, they would most likely get to keep their NBC contract, so what is being lost exactly? A "rivalry" against Purdue? Navy? Michigan State? Its not 1968 anymore. No thanks.

 

I don't get the outrage from all his players.
If any of those guys had a chance to leave school early and be the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, they would.
And before you start saying 'oh, it's different; he promised those kids he'd be there for them through his contract' any player that leaves early is essentially breaking the promise they made with their scholarship.

 

Yes, those "rivalries," which you put in quotation marks along with "student-athletes" (cynical about a school with a 96 percent graduation rate or something ungodly like that?), are important. Purdue is in-state. Michigan State is in the state seven miles up the road. Navy is Navy. The only reason Notre Dame is in the Big East in basketball is because the Big Ten won't take them without football. If Notre Dame joined a football conference, it wouldn't be the Big East. Case closed.

As enlightening as the "They should join a conference because ... because ... because it's not 1932 anymore!!! And they're arrogant!!! And ... Charlie Weis is fat!!!" arguments are, to me the biggest drawback of independence is that when Notre Dame falls out of the national title picture early on, their late-season games become very meaningless nationally. They rarely get a chance, like a Northwestern knocking off Iowa, for example, to make a second-half splash.

 

Michigan-ND is the oldest rivalry in major college football (1887). Think either school wants to break that up? USC and ND have played every years since 1926. Think either side wants to stop now?

And ND doesn't play a "number" of Big East teams. They usually play two (Pitt and BC) while Uconn was tossed in this year to make a whopping three. In comparison, ND plays three BIg Ten teams (Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue) every year and at least three Pac 10 teams (USC, Stanford and Washington) every year. So they have no more of a Big East schedule than a Big 10 or Pac 10 schedule.

 

Every college scholarship is a one-year deal, subject to renewal by the institution, not the athlete. A player who leaves early is not breaking any promise to the university, because it's not his choice whether the scholarship is renewed.

 

And every coach contract has liquidated damages clauses (aka a "buyout") preparing for just this contingency. No one's "breaking" anything. It is completely understood when contracts are signed that they might not be carried out, which is why provisions for that contingency are written for ever god blessed one of them.

 

I think it is a weak move to bolt before the biggest game in your former school's history. Very weak. If ND wanted Kelly bad enough, they could've waited three more freakin' weeks.
It's perfectly legal, just doesn't make me think he's a guy I'D like to play for.

 

No, they couldn't.

 

That's true too. ND will pay the buyout, and thus the contract has been completely and legally fulfilled. Not broken in any legal sense of the word.

Doesn't change the fact that the players feel they were misled and lied to. Welcome to the real world.