High Praise for ND from an Aggie Podcaster

[4-4-3]

Tough thing to do -- GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE -- when you LOSE.

Here's a guy who's EVOLVED ENOUGH to do that.

Hats off to him.

Plus, his understanding of ND's team is pretty enlightened for an opposing fan.

Aggie Fan Tells It

 

[theskibro]

Tough thing to do -- GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE -- when you LOSE.

Here's a guy who's EVOLVED ENOUGH to do that.

Hats off to him.

Plus, his understanding of ND's team is pretty enlightened for an opposing fan.

Aggie Fan Tells It

This guy does a nice job. I saw him n u r right.

 

[Quix0te]

Hey 4-4-3, on Saturday Purdue QB Hudson Card tied the NCAA single game completion % record at 96%. This record has been held by Greyson Lambert from Georgia since 2016 where he went 24/25 to beat South Carolina. He had 330 yards and 3 TDs. On Saturday Hudson Card went 24/25 in a win against Indiana State with 273 yards and 4 TDs before exiting in the third quarter with a 35-0 lead. (Record is minimum 20 attempts)

I hope Purdue can give you domers a good game on Sept 14th, just like we did back in the 1960s.

 

[4-4-3]

Hey 4-4-3, on Saturday Purdue QB Hudson Card tied the NCAA single game completion % record at 96%. This record has been held by Greyson Lambert from Georgia since 2016 where he went 24/25 to beat South Carolina. He had 330 yards and 3 TDs. On Saturday Hudson Card went 24/25 in a win against Indiana State with 273 yards and 4 TDs before exiting in the third quarter with a 35-0 lead. (Record is minimum 20 attempts)

I hope Purdue can give you domers a good game on Sept 14th, just like we did back in the 1960s.

It could very well happen. I don't take ANYTHING for granted. You can never tell when RANDOMNESS will strike. Probabilities, no matter how probable, AREN'T CERTANTIES. The space-time continuum sometimes CASTS A VOTE.

Beating A&M didn't give ND the keys to the kingdom. All it did was confirm the likelihood of ND's having a very good team. How it plays each week will further reinforce that likelihood or not.

For Purdue to play competitively against ND would not surprise me at all. It's at their place, and they'll have nothing to lose. Meanwhile, ND has little margin for error and the already growing expectation that it should go 12-0. That's a tough challenge for ANY TEAM.

 

[Quix0te]

Meanwhile, ND has little margin for error and the already growing expectation that it should go 12-0.

Yep, that's pretty well where ND is right now. GT and USC look tough and FSU has a chip on its shoulder, so getting to 12-0 will be a challenge. Too bad that Miami (FL) game got scrubbed. The Canes look the best in the ACC this year and very impressive against U of FL.

Nerdy factoid: There is only one University of Miami. The one in Ohio is Miami University.

 

[Quix0te]

It could very well happen. I don't take ANYTHING for granted. You can never tell when RANDOMNESS will strike. Probabilities, no matter how probable, AREN'T CERTANTIES. The space-time continuum sometimes CASTS A VOTE.

Beating A&M didn't give ND the keys to the kingdom. All it did was confirm the likelihood of ND's having a very good team. How it plays each week will further reinforce that likelihood or not.

For Purdue to play competitively against ND would not surprise me at all. It's at their place, and they'll have nothing to lose. Meanwhile, ND has little margin for error and the already growing expectation that it should go 12-0. That's a tough challenge for ANY TEAM.

4-4-3, as you know football independence is a double-edged sword. At this juncture with ND 1-1 (good win nasty loss), do you think the domers would have a better chance of making the playoffs as an independent or as a conference member? It's a quandry.

In the Big Ten, ND could easily finish in the top three and be virtually assured of a playoff berth. The NIU loss would be pretty much meaningless. But as an independent, that NIU loss will be an anchor on your schedule even if you guys win out. The dilemma is that the pecking order in conference finish will probably dominate over a conference-blind ranking for a playoff berth.

 

[savvyandsassier]

Hey 4-4-3, on Saturday Purdue QB Hudson Card tied the NCAA single game completion % record at 96%. This record has been held by Greyson Lambert from Georgia since 2016 where he went 24/25 to beat South Carolina. He had 330 yards and 3 TDs. On Saturday Hudson Card went 24/25 in a win against Indiana State with 273 yards and 4 TDs before exiting in the third quarter with a 35-0 lead. (Record is minimum 20 attempts)

I hope Purdue can give you domers a good game on Sept 14th, just like we did back in the 1960s.

So Purdue sounds like they have a pretty good precision passing game. Unlike ND. I know one QB that isn't going to be tying that record any time soon, and he starts for ND. One thing about this loss is it gives the annual Purdue showdown a much greater sense of urgency and excitement. So I'm looking forward to this Saturday.

You saw what our defense did of course to the great Connor Weigman at A&M So this will be a test for both sides. Steel versus steel....

 

[4-4-3]

4-4-3, as you know football independence is a double-edged sword. At this juncture with ND 1-1 (good win nasty loss), do you think the domers would have a better chance of making the playoffs as an independent or as a conference member? It's a quandry.

In the Big Ten, ND could easily finish in the top three and be virtually assured of a playoff berth. The NIU loss would be pretty much meaningless. But as an independent, that NIU loss will be an anchor on your schedule even if you guys win out. The dilemma is that the pecking order in conference finish will probably dominate over a conference-blind ranking for a playoff berth.

It depends to a large degree on scheduling, right? If ND waters down its schedule going forward, assuming it can handle the NIU's of the world so that the strategy actually works -- BY NO MEANS, A SURE THING -- then that might be its best option. If it takes on a tougher schedule, its odds of reaching naturally drop.

As for Big Ten membership, I'm not at all convinced that as you put it, "ND could easily finish in the top three and be virtually assured of a playoff berth." I mean, OSU, UM, USC, PSU, Oregon and Washington could plausibly all have equal or better teams than ND in a given year, not to mention Iowa, Wisconsin and UCLA in other years. Plus, Maryland and Nebraska can be tough and Purdue can't stay down forever.

Even though I'd like to see ND join the Big Ten, I believe it could cobble together a schedule friendly enough to give it a better chance of making the playoffs as an INDEPENDENT. More control. But then we're back to that OTHER PROBLEM of Big Ten and/or SEC teams potentially FREEZING ND OUT by not scheduling it.

What I'm ACTUALLY for most is the MOST AUTHENTIC REALITY TEST AVAILABLE. And for me, that would involve ND joining the Big Ten, come what may. Because ND would then be forced to compete with the toughest likely PEER GROUP possible and by doing that, SEE WHERE IT REALLY STANDS. In other words, could it take the heat in the Big Ten on a WEEK TO WEEK basis?

Once it saw where it stood, ND would either have to put up -- GO ALL IN FOR FOOTBALL which is highly unlikely -- or shut up and potentially live with a lot of 9-3 and 8-4 seasons, those being its average in GOOD YEARS.

Bottom line: KEEP THE SHAMROCK, LOSE THE ASTERISK.

 

[Quix0te]

It depends to a large degree on scheduling, right? If ND waters down its schedule going forward, assuming it can handle the NIU's of the world so that the strategy actually works -- BY NO MEANS, A SURE THING -- then that might be its best option. If it takes on a tougher schedule, its odds of reaching naturally drop.

As for Big Ten membership, I'm not at all convinced that as you put it, "ND could easily finish in the top three and be virtually assured of a playoff berth." I mean, OSU, UM, USC, PSU, Oregon and Washington could plausibly all have equal or better teams than ND in a given year, not to mention Iowa, Wisconsin and UCLA in other years. Plus, Maryland and Nebraska can be tough and Purdue can't stay down forever.

Even though I'd like to see ND join the Big Ten, I believe it could cobble together a schedule friendly enough to give it a better chance of making the playoffs as an INDEPENDENT. More control. But then we're back to that OTHER PROBLEM of Big Ten and/or SEC teams potentially FREEZING ND OUT by not scheduling it.

What I'm ACTUALLY for most is the MOST AUTHENTIC REALITY TEST AVAILABLE. And for me, that would involve ND joining the Big Ten, come what may. Because ND would then be forced to compete with the toughest likely PEER GROUP possible and by doing that, SEE WHERE IT REALLY STANDS. In other words, could it take the heat in the Big Ten on a WEEK TO WEEK basis?

Once it saw where it stood, ND would either have to put up -- GO ALL IN FOR FOOTBALL which is highly unlikely -- or shut up and potentially live with a lot of 9-3 and 8-4 seasons, those being its average in GOOD YEARS.

Bottom line: KEEP THE SHAMROCK, LOSE THE ASTERISK.

Interesting info in this link . . .

College football walks a fine line between growth and alienating its fan base

No American sport can match college football’s tradition, rivalries, game-day experience or the value of each game during the regular season. The sport is positioned to become even bigger, but it’s also at risk of abandoning the elements that made it so great in the first place.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

 

[sjb75]

Interesting info in this link . . .

College football walks a fine line between growth and alienating its fan base

No American sport can match college football’s tradition, rivalries, game-day experience or the value of each game during the regular season. The sport is positioned to become even bigger, but it’s also at risk of abandoning the elements that made it so great in the first place.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

Interesting to whom?

 

[savvyandsassier]

Interesting info in this link . . .

College football walks a fine line between growth and alienating its fan base

No American sport can match college football’s tradition, rivalries, game-day experience or the value of each game during the regular season. The sport is positioned to become even bigger, but it’s also at risk of abandoning the elements that made it so great in the first place.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

European soccer couldn't be any more popular and they have the same model and always have and the best, richest clubs have always dominated. They implemented some sort of spending limit regime in some leagues not that it's made any difference. And it's been ever thus in CFB with dominant powers always being dominant, always hoarding the best players and always monopolizing the MNC, and it's seemingly gotten even more popular in the last ten, twenty years when it's become even more one-sided. So I think that this article is stupid. What they say made CFB popular is not what makes it popular. It's just high level tackle football, it's a popular spectator sport. There's nothing like it in the world. If anything supercoferences might make it even more popular, with more substantial matchups and less throwaway games. I do wish they could find a way to keep the conferences regional and still find a way to make everyone happy financially.

 

[chaseball]

It depends to a large degree on scheduling, right? If ND waters down its schedule going forward, assuming it can handle the NIU's of the world so that the strategy actually works -- BY NO MEANS, A SURE THING -- then that might be its best option. If it takes on a tougher schedule, its odds of reaching naturally drop.

As for Big Ten membership, I'm not at all convinced that as you put it, "ND could easily finish in the top three and be virtually assured of a playoff berth." I mean, OSU, UM, USC, PSU, Oregon and Washington could plausibly all have equal or better teams than ND in a given year, not to mention Iowa, Wisconsin and UCLA in other years. Plus, Maryland and Nebraska can be tough and Purdue can't stay down forever.

Even though I'd like to see ND join the Big Ten, I believe it could cobble together a schedule friendly enough to give it a better chance of making the playoffs as an INDEPENDENT. More control. But then we're back to that OTHER PROBLEM of Big Ten and/or SEC teams potentially FREEZING ND OUT by not scheduling it.

What I'm ACTUALLY for most is the MOST AUTHENTIC REALITY TEST AVAILABLE. And for me, that would involve ND joining the Big Ten, come what may. Because ND would then be forced to compete with the toughest likely PEER GROUP possible and by doing that, SEE WHERE IT REALLY STANDS. In other words, could it take the heat in the Big Ten on a WEEK TO WEEK basis?

Once it saw where it stood, ND would either have to put up -- GO ALL IN FOR FOOTBALL which is highly unlikely -- or shut up and potentially live with a lot of 9-3 and 8-4 seasons, those being its average in GOOD YEARS.

Bottom line: KEEP THE SHAMROCK, LOSE THE ASTERISK.

Good posts throughout and I always enjoy reading your thoughts and analysis on ND football.

I do however disagree with the Texas A&M win being a "confirmation that ND is a very good team"

Texas A&M is ranked 21st according to latest F+ ranking (through week 2).

Texas A&M recruited really well under Jimbo Fisher and there are still some really highly rated players on their roster, but that whole program has been in disarray for years now, and they are under an entirely new regime with tons of roster attrition, learning a new scheme, new culture, etc.

They are more of a program we should beat in year 3 under MF to confirm that ND isn't a bad team .. but that's probably as far i would go with it.

 

[4-4-3]

Interesting info in this link . . .

College football walks a fine line between growth and alienating its fan base

No American sport can match college football’s tradition, rivalries, game-day experience or the value of each game during the regular season. The sport is positioned to become even bigger, but it’s also at risk of abandoning the elements that made it so great in the first place.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

Unfortunately, THINGS CHANGE. And as more time elapses, no no knows -- OR EVEN CARES -- if it was for the better or not.

The CFB world you're born into is the one you know and measure the game by. That and to a lesser extent perhaps, the worlds of your father and grandfather.

If you were born in the pre-BCS era, the game has already changed dramatically, even as it continues to do so. For those born after that point, change, though it's been material, hasn't covered nearly as much ground nor has it veered away at all from its MUCH MORE SLICKLY MONETIZED post-BCS paradigm.

I can remember listening to Noam Chomsky once -- no, I'm a CENTRIST, not a RADICAL LEFT PROGRESSIVE -- who kept going on about how there had been a THRIVING WORKING CLASS PRESS in the 1930's. Who expects to see THAT again, or maybe even a THRIVING PRESS OF ANY KIND?

Football, along with everything else that SURVIVES in this country, follows the ALMOST IMMUTABLE LAWS of capitalism.

And what's rule number one?

FOLLOW THE MONEY.

 

[4-4-3]

European soccer couldn't be any more popular and they have the same model and always have and the best, richest clubs have always dominated. They implemented some sort of spending limit regime in some leagues not that it's made any difference. And it's been ever thus in CFB with dominant powers always being dominant, always hoarding the best players and always monopolizing the MNC, and it's seemingly gotten even more popular in the last ten, twenty years when it's become even more one-sided. So I think that this article is stupid. What they say made CFB popular is not what makes it popular. It's just high level tackle football, it's a popular spectator sport. There's nothing like it in the world. If anything supercoferences might make it even more popular, with more substantial matchups and less throwaway games. I do wish they could find a way to keep the conferences regional and still find a way to make everyone happy financially.

As the game changes, enough older fans will ADAPT while younger ones WON'T KNOW FROM ANYTHING DIFFERENT.

And I agree that as long as the PRODUCT ON THE FIELD suits peoples' appetites, there will remain a MARKET.

 

[chaseball]

Good posts throughout and I always enjoy reading your thoughts and analysis on ND football.

I do however disagree with the Texas A&M win being a "confirmation that ND is a very good team"

Texas A&M is ranked 21st according to latest F+ ranking (through week 2).

Texas A&M recruited really well under Jimbo Fisher and there are still some really highly rated players on their roster, but that whole program has been in disarray for years now, and they are under an entirely new regime with tons of roster attrition, learning a new scheme, new culture, etc.

They are more of a program we should beat in year 3 under MF to confirm that ND isn't a bad team .. but that's probably as far i would go with it.

To add to this post: here's the measuring stick I like to use when I'm trying to determine how good a win is, a recruiting class is, a talent ranking, a position group, etc.

I call it " how would a current tier 1 team (we'll go with OSU, Alabama, Georgia, and Texas in 2024) fans' feel if "

• ....They lost to NIU by 2 points at home
• ....they brought in a former 3 star ACC transfer QB
• ....beat this present A&M team by 10 points on the road
• ....qb, rb, wr, etc. room looked like the current one at Notre Dame
• ....if they finished with a #12 ranked recruiting class
• ....ceased all of the best prospects in a class to their competitors
• ....brought in XYZ coordinator from XYZ program, or lost XYZ coordinator to XYZ program
• etc. etc. etc.

You get the idea...

This is the measuring stick I like to use when seizing up the program.

 

[4-4-3]

Good posts throughout and I always enjoy reading your thoughts and analysis on ND football.

I do however disagree with the Texas A&M win being a "confirmation that ND is a very good team"

Texas A&M is ranked 21st according to latest F+ ranking (through week 2).

Texas A&M recruited really well under Jimbo Fisher and there are still some really highly rated players on their roster, but that whole program has been in disarray for years now, and they are under an entirely new regime with tons of roster attrition, learning a new scheme, new culture, etc.

They are more of a program we should beat in year 3 under MF to confirm that ND isn't a bad team .. but that's probably as far i would go with it.

Thanks and I HEAR YOU.

But I don't think that's my quote. If so, I haven't been able to locate it.

Here, though, is something I DID WRITE:

"Beating A&M didn't give ND the keys to the kingdom. All it did was confirm the likelihood of ND's having a very good team. How it plays each week will further reinforce that likelihood or not."

There was NO CATEGORICAL CLAIM that ND IS in fact a good football team. Instead, I was careful to HEDGE MY COMMENT so as not to be definitive. Because HOW COULD I KNOW?

So, where does that leave us at this moment?

It's TOO EARLY TO TELL.

We don't know if ND has a good team or not, nor do we know how good NIU or A&M is, and it will take AT LEAST several more weeks to find out as per all three.

ONE SWALLOW DOESN'T MAKE A SUMMER. And hardly a football season.

As for power ratings, I'm a fan of the data they provide, and I know they're a tool for oddsmakers, but in the final analysis -- as per the end of the season -- DO THEY EVEN COUNT? Especially in those instances when the team with the highest power rating turns out NOT to be the NC winner?

Heres' an analogy:

The French army had the Wehrmacht beaten in EVERY POWER METRIC during the Battle of France in 1940. More men, munitions, artillery -- EVEN TANKS. But they lacked one thing that the Wehrmacht had in spades which probably wasn't even listed in the FRENCH POWER RANKING MANUAL -- MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS. There were NO RADIOS not only in French tanks but also at their various command headquarters. They used guys on MOTORCYCLES.

The Wehrmacht won in a matter of weeks and took about 600,000 French prisoners.

There are ALWAYS variables that have YET to be quantified. AND/OR the other team just WANTS IT MORE. NIU lost the power ranking game to ND and is certainly STILL TRAILING today.

BUT IT WON THE GAME ON THE FIELD.