Weak scheduling is a poor mentality
by Winfield Featherston on Aug 24, 2009 10:00 AM EDT
10 comments
Why is Notre Dame being lauded this year? Because they are returning a high number of starters (from last year's great season) and their schedule is weak. Members of the mainstream media acknowledge the weak schedule but they don't chastise it. Instead, I hear: "I ranked Notre Dame because I project them to win at least 9 games this year due to its weak schedule." As frustrating as that statement is to the non-Irish fan, that statement is true. The same frustration can be applied to the Florida Gators. The Gators have not exactly been criticized about their schedule, only laughed at because of it. For 2009, the Gators will play the powerhouses of Charleston Southern, Troy, and Florida International. That schedule reeks of National Championship contender because it's so easy.
Why is the SEC so great? Because it plays cupcakes at home, dominates them and then they beat each other in conference. Is that what makes a good team? Not testing yourself? Georgia Tech is not immune to this either. The Jacksonville State game is boring, dull and has no redeeming qualities about it whatsoever. But why do we do it? Because we can. Because everyone else does. Because we want that win which puts us one step closer to the ultimate goal.
Teams are not rewarded for playing a tough team to the wire and losing at the end. Teams are rewarded for winning no matter the opponent. There is something seriously wrong with that mentality and I don't know how to fix it or even if it can be fixed. If Notre Dame succeeds this year because it purposefully lowered its schedule difficulty, it will be celebrated as a great Notre Dame team and Charlie Weiss will get the praise that he so desperately needs. But yet will they really be that good?
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If ND makes...
a BCS game (they will) I want them to play an SEC team. The beat down they took vs LSU a few years back is nothing compared to what would happen this year.
if they actually make it to the MNC game, the outrage will be LOUD.
SOS mattered in 2004
Auburn lost its shot at a title for canceling the GT game in favor of Citadel…woops…
Fight, win, drink, get naked
Leave it to Catholics...
To game the system like this. Confession, purgatory, indulgences – these Mary worshippers have been finding shortcuts for the past 2000 years. We should have known that those sneaky bastards would eventually contaminate football as well.
BC OOC scheduling tied to ND?
BC seems to schedule fairly difficult OOC opponents or do they?
2005: Army, BYU, Ball State
2006: CMU, BYU, Maine, Buffalo
2007: Army, UMass, BGSU, Notre Dame
2008: Kent State, UCF, URI, Notre Dame
2009: Northeastern, Kent State, Notre Dame, CMU
So that’s 4 I-AA in 5 years. Only “BCS” OOC game is Notre Dame since BC joined ACC. The MAC is gettin’ some action from BC though.
Fight, win, drink, get naked
Hmmm We should cross- check to see how Gonzaga decides to schedule. Then see how aggressive BYU sets their schedule to confirm the conspiracy.
The college football season is so fragile. It's like a glass ball being pushed around from stadium to stadium by a rhinoceros.
by Winfield Featherston on Aug 24, 2009 11:49 AM EDT up reply actions
non-BCS teams are not relevant, imo
Non-BCS teams schedule whoever they can. Any BCS opponent is a win for them because of the money. So BYU scheduling Duke or USC is a win, to me.
Fight, win, drink, get naked
Just one more reason the BCS is BS
I love how they justify their free ride to a BCS bowl based off of their “history and prestige”. ND has been playing these weak teams for years, constantly being overrated by the media, only to be sent to a bowl game against real competition and getting stomped. If any other major program played their schedule, they would be laughed at and no one would let them play in a major bowl.
You are right though, how in the heck can you fix it? They aren’t going to change and there’s no way the BCS cuts them loose. The BCS is corrupt from top to bottom and that’s difficult to overcome.
"This is America, if we can’t self-righteously look down on others and blame them for our faults, the commies win."-----Cormican on Bleeding Green Nation w/r/t fans overreacting to the Eagles signing of Michael Vick
ND and the BSC
I am having a little bit of a hard time with all the schedule bashing for the Irish… when this schedule was put together 5 to 10 years ago how was Michigan, Washington, USC, Mich St,
considered anything but suicidal? Nevada, Purdue, Boston College, Pitt and Stanford are all reasonable games in most seasons. Washington State and Navy, OK, but Navy has has to be on the schedule and has been for a how long, anything really wrong with that tradition??
So, while your out there bashing Lou, maybe you should listen to what he actually said! He never claimed the Irish are the 2nd best team, Just the best team in the stadium most weekends! and that they should have a 10 or 11 win season.
If you question his logic perhaps you should go to any of the recruiting sites and see where ND has been ranked the last 4 years in the recruiting wars.
Alright, the Irish have not played well the last couple of years, but the talent is on campus and has lots of experience. it really should be do or die for Charlie Wies!!
I think it’s going a bit too far to put UF and ND in the same category; UF still has to play @ LSU and play F$U plus whoever comes out of the west in the SECCG. The SEC is currently the best conference out there (though not by the large margin that all the talking heads claim it to be) Their elite teams are better than everyone else’s elite teams. The SEC has won 3 of the last 4 title games and looks like UF will repeat. The SEC has never had a team play in the national title game and lose. No other conference can say that.
The SEC isn’t as deep as everyone claims it is. The ACC is far deeper, but as of yet, we haven’t had an elite team in a number of years. But the SEC elite teams do have a number of good in conferance games unlike the Big 10 or Pac 10 schools seem to have.
Hopefully something crazy will happen and force the issue of a playoff … one can only hope.
ND SOS
But they won the Hawaii Bowl last year!! That brings them into the top 25 in my book any day of the week. Not to mention the fact that the name Clausen pretty much guarantees success no matter what program one of them plays in.
In all seriousness though, I also don’t really fault Notre Dame on their schedule. They play 10 big-six teams and 2 decent non-big-six teams. As bbdaines pointed out, that would be a legit schedule if most of those teams, whom they play every year, weren’t in the middle of a down cycle.
That being said, they’re schedule does happen to be weak this year, I don’t believe they will win 10 games, and I also think that there are at least 25 teams that could knock them off this year. They’ve been overrated as long as I’ve followed college football, though, so I see no use in trying to fight it. It’s best to just let it ride out on the field and leave it in the hands of the infallible BCS poll.
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